New York Pathological Society
1894 seal displaying the society's name in Latin, "Societatis Pathologicae Novi Eboraci," its motto "Mors Gaudet Succubrere Vitae," and a portrait of Giovanni Battista Morgagni
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| Motto | Mors Gaudet Succubrere Vita |
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| Formation | 1844 (Inc. 1886) |
| Website | nypathsociety.org |
The New York Pathological Society is a professional organization for pathologists in New York State. It was organized in 1844 and incorporated in 1886. In 1908 its membership was approximately 215. It published the journal Proceedings of the New York Pathological Society at various times from 1875 until 1955.
According to the late Dr. Wm. C. Roberts, the first honorary secretary (see The Annalist for October 1, 1840), "It was commenced in June, 1844, by the exertion of two or three of the junior members of the profession [viz., Drs. Goldsmith, J. C. Peters, and L. A. Sayre], fond of pathological pursuits, who speedily associated with them a few others, the whole number of those present at the first meeting [of which no record was kept by the secretary] being seven."
Dr. Middleton Goldsmith, in a letter dated Rutland, Vermont, April 2, 1870, says: "The New York Pathological Society originate.) in the following way: Some time in 1842 or '43, I happened to spend a week in Boston, and Dr. John Mason Warren, amongst other kindnesses, took me to the Boston Society for Medical Improvement, with which Dr. J. B. S. Jackson was so long and so thoroughly identified. I was so much impressed with what I saw and heard that I inquired carefully into the objects and organization of that association, with the view of founding one like it in New York. On my return I related what I had seen and heard to Drs. John C. Peters and Lewis A. Sayre [the latter had already been thinking of establishing a purely pathological society], and we three brought the project to the notice of our personal friends. Preliminary meetings were held, and the plan for the organization of the society was soon blocked out. The first meeting was called at Dr. Sayre's office, corner of Broadway and Spring street, as his rooms were by far the largest and most commodious [and he had seconded our views, so nearly corresponding with his own, in his usual earnest and enthusiastic manner]. There were, I think, but seven or eight physicians present at this the first meeting. Among those earliest identified with the young society, I remember Drs. Robert Watts, Willard Parker, Alonzo Clark, Gustavus A. Sabine, John A. Swett, and Israel Moses.
"The New York Pathological Society was modelled, in most all of its essential particulars, upon the plan of the Boston Society, which had already existed some little time; but we three never dreamed that our cosy, chatty little gatherings would grow into a great historic association. I strove to model it on the Boston pattern, in its social as well as its scientific bearings [and simple refreshments were generally furnished]. There was only one medical college in New York in those times, and thus it happened that the majority of the original members were students or graduates of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Medical Department of Columbia College, then located in Crosby street, near Prince; and one principal hospital, the New York; and thus it turned out unwittingly, but almost necessarily and perhaps happily for us, that the professors and others affiliated with the College of Physicians and Surgeons, and the medical and surgical staff of the New York Hospital, were those who, in the early history of the Society, constituted the majority of its members. Dr. John C. Peters and I were engaged more particularly in the study of pathology, and we had worked together for many mouths, especially in the examination of coroners' cases, under Dr. E. G. Rawson. Hence, I think it very probable that I consulted him before any one else in the matter of commencing a pathological society, as he then stood among the foremost of the young medical men as a student of pathology. I was very intimate also with Dr. Sayre, and had faith in his enthusiasm and indomitable energy. They both belonged among a set of young doctors consisting of the Lecomtes, myself and others, whom Dr. Francis used to call the 'medical orphans,' because they had no 'uncles in the New York Hospital' [and that bound us all more closely together].
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