While our activities and emphasis change, our mission does not. We were formed in 1882 to, as our bylaws say, "secure enactment and enforcement of just medical laws, to promote friendly relations among our members, to uphold the principles of medical ethics of the American Medical Association, to extend medical knowledge and the standard of medical education, to uphold the obligations each member assumed under the Hippocratic Oath, all the while being cognizant of our unique influence on society."