To have served as your president during the past year has been a privileged honor. It was with much trepidation that i agreed to try to follow my illustrious predecessors. I have tried to serve our Society to the best of my ability under the watchful eyes of the Council, and have made no decisions without its approval. During this time I have taken only one liberty and that is to express my thoughts here today about the training and certification of a proctologist. This training, even today, is largely postgraduate; the undergraduate medical student receives little specific proctologic instruction. It is my opinion that more should be available.

When the American Proctologic Society was founded in 1899, there were no opportunities for training proctologists in this country. The English were a half century ahead of us in this regard. With the founding of this Society, however, postgraduate training in proctology began, and it has been fostered by this organization since that time. Annual meetings at which scientific papers, basic science lectures, and symposiums on diseases of the colon and rectum have been presented, have contributed much to the knowledge of the entire medical profession.