St. Louis Medical Society

Medical society in St. Louis, Mo. Seven doctors met to organize a medical society in St. Louis on Christmas night 1835. It was incorporated by the act of the Missouri legislature, January 25, 1837, under the name of the Medical Society of the State of Missouri. Its purpose as stated in the original constitution (1836) was " the advancement of the medical and collateral sciences in general and the improvement of the medical profession of the city of St. Louis in particular."

Specific breaches of ethics were enumerated in the by-laws and the society adopted the code of ethics of the American Medical Association in 1847. In 1840, three delegate represented the society at the convention of the AMA. From 1848 to 1850 the organization was suspended. It was reorganized in 1850 as the St. Louis Medical Society when a state medical society with a conflicting name was organized. The city society's library was begun in 1865, the year that a committee was appointed and each member was assessed $2.00 to provide medical journals. In Jan. 1979, St. Louis Medical Society and St. Louis County Medical Society merged to become St. Louis Metropolitan Medical Society. The Society from its founding as taken a lively interest in civic affairs but not politics. Sources: Hyde's History of St. Louis, v. 4, p. 1968-1969; O'Reilly, Archer, M.D. "The St. Louis Medical Society, 1836-1936, " The Weekly Bulletin of the St. Louis Medical Society, 1937, p. 413-415 (SLMMS vertical file 1, Box 10, folder 29); St. Louis Metropolitan Medicine, Jan. 17, 1979, p. 9 .

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