Itis my privilege and pleasure, as President of the Hartford CountyMedical Association, to welcome you to Hartford, the capitol city ofConnecticut, uniquely and ideally situated in the heart of our state.Fifty miles from our beautiful Connecticut shore line, and fiftymiles from the colorful Berkshire mountains, one hundred miles fromNew York and Boston both centers of medical education and research.But it is not for geographic reasons alone that we are proud ofHartford. It is also because it offers more than adequate facilitiesfor a convention of this kind. We hope you will make your visit toHartford an annual affair.

Arecent speaker at Trinity College stated that the most pressingproblem of our day are: 1. a population bulge, 2. the automationblitz, 3. the traffic squeeze, and 4. the education crush. Includedin the latter is the tremendous explosion of knowledge. In the U.S.alone last year over 67,000 books were published, a great many ofwhich related directly or indirectly to medicine. In our effort toaid in the dispersion of this knowledge medical conventions arehelpful and necessary. W hope this convention with its finescientific programs will be fruitful and productive for all ofyou.