HOSPITAL BULLETIN.

MAJOR WALTER REED MEMORIAL.-The projected Army General Hospital for the District of Columbia will be called the Walter Reed United States Army General Hospital. This will be in honor of the late Major Reed, whose studies concerning the transmission of yellow fever have proven so valuable when applied in our southern states and new island possessions.

ON account of changes made after the January GAZETTE was in print the medical service at the Massachusetts Homœopathic Hospital comes, under the direction of Dr. C. H. Thomas, instead of Dr. Walter Wesselhoeft, as then announced. Drs. S. H. Blodgett and F. P. Emerson are assistants.

MOST optimistic reports come from the homoeopathic ranks in Pittsburg, Pa. Here, within a few weeks, ground will be broken for a new hospital, that will eventually cost from one-half to one million dollars. The present hospital, under the very skilful guidance of Dr. J. H. McClelland, has made an enviable reputation for itself and its cause. We therefore believe that the projected institution will be an even greater honor to our cause and a model for others in all parts of the country.

THE Boston Record reports that by the will of the late Dr. G. S. Hyde. Harvard Medical School receives a bequest of $50,000 upon the death of a brother and a sister of the testator.

AN unique event among our hospital news for the past month has been the formal opening and New Year's reception at the home of the Douglas Sanatorium at 321 Centre Street, Dorchester, on Jan. 1.

The house was crowded with guests, the majority of whom belonged to the medical profession. A demonstration of the newly installed high frequency apparatus by Dr. Strong, combined with music and light refreshments to make a very pleasant occasion.

The building is the great Whitten mansion, one of the largest of its kind in Dorchester. It has large, airy rooms, commodious corridors, a billiard room, bowling alley, ard over 250 feet of verandas. All the surroundings are pleasing and readily explain why all the available rooms are now fully occupied. Particular attention is given to alcoholism, morphinism, and the kindred ailments.

DRS. ORDWAY and WARREN, Tufts Medical School, '05, have been appointed to the position of internes at the Massachusetts Homœopathic Hospital, for the term beginning Jan. 1, 1906.

AN interesting case recently at the maternity department of the M. H. H. resulted in the appearance of triplets, all boys, and all living. The presentations were two breech and one cephalic. The three umbilical cords were united to a single, not greatly enlarged placenta. Two of the children weighed three pounds, five ounces, and the other three pounds, eight ounces. The mother was a primipara, aged twenty-two years. The following day at the same place twins were born, a boy and a girl. Here one presentation was breech and the other cephalic. The placenta in this case was divided, the segments being connected only by membranes.

THE Homeopathic Review, our English visitor, begins its fiftieth or Jubilee year with the January number. In addition to a very interesting historical article it gives a most encouraging report of the London Homœopathic Hospital. The hospital is, as well stated, the center of Homoeopathy in the British empire, and by its work the followers of Hahnemann are represented in many parts of the kingdom.

During several years past the hospital has been doing more work than its income could completely cover. As a result several annual deficits had accumulated until the invested funds had been drawn on to the amount of $60,000. Responses to an appeal to reduce this burden came to the Board of Management in such numbers that it was not only reduced but entirely removed. Now efforts are being made to materially increase the endowment. The grant from the King's Hospital fund has this year been increased from $1,000 to $2,000, chiefly through the efforts of the Earl of Cawdor, the energetic treasurer of the hospital.

We also find that it is the custom to charge a "registration fee" of about twenty-five cents a month to all out patients. Regular house patients are not charged, but to each is given a letter suggesting that they give to the hospital for the benefit of others whatever they can afford or think right.

I HAVE been satisfied with the employment of calc. carb. and silica.' phosph. and sulphur to correct the disorders of ossification The two first meet, better than any other remedies I know of, the general state of malnutrition and the progressive osseous changes attending it. Sulphur, I think is the best auxiliary for the process of softening, and so I consider phosphorus the remedy to attenuate the thickening of the long bones. I have not found symphytum officinalis the remedy others claim, to hasten the reparative process. As inter-current remedies, I have used asafoetida, lycopodium, staphysagria, and mezereum, but I have not seen any marked effects follow their administration.-Fornias, Hahnemannian Monthly, Jan., 1906.

Ar the recent celebration in Ann Arbor, Michigan, of Hahnemann's birthday, Prof. W. A. Dewey gave an address on the place of therapeutics in the domain of medicine, from which the following is an extract:

The whole field of possible therapeutic activity may be summed up under three heads: Preventive medicine, palliative medicine, curative medicine. Preventive medicine is the application of any therapeutic measures to prevent the development of disease. Palliative medicine consists of the use of drugs for their direct effects, the common resources of that part of the medical profession which has no law to guide in the selection of curative means. Curative medicine is the field especially occupied by homœopathy. It is the branch of therapeutics that the non-homoeopathic part of the medical profession lacks. The homoeopathic physician knows all about preventive medicine, he knows bacteriology, antiseptic, sanitary science and hygiene. The homoeopathic physician knows all about palliative medicines. He knows what opium will do, what quinine will do, what all drugs will do when given in any dose. In the curative field of medicine the homoeopathic physician exercises his speciality. Here he stands alone. He recognizes that cures are made by nature, by attention to diet, by surgery, by electro-therapeutics. He makes use of all these, and, in addition, he has a law of drug selection to guide him in the most speedy, complete, pleasant cure of disease by medicines. The specialists of the homoeopathic schools, our surgeons, our opthalmologists, our neurologists, are doubly so, because to the knowledge of their particular branches they add a knowledge of homoeopathy, in itself a specialty.

All schools make use of palliative and preventive therapeutics, but the homœopathic school adds to this common knowledge that from homoeopathic sources unknown to all other schools. Therapeutics is, therefore, the practice of the art of medicine, and homoeopathy is a specialty in therapeutics.

SOCIETY REPORTS.

BOSTON HOMEOPATHIC MEDCIAL SOCIETY.

ANNUAL REPORT.

The annual meeting of the Boston Homoeopathic Medical Society, which was observed as Ladies' Night, was held in the hall of the Boston Society of Natural History Thursday evening, Jan. 4, 1906, at eight o'clock, the president, J. Herbert Moore, M.D., in the chair.

The records of the last meeing were read and approved.
Barbara Taylor-Ring, M.D., was proposed for membership.
Samuel P. Eaton, M.D., was elected to membership.

Voted: That By-Law VIII be suspended for the year 1906, leaving the arrangement of the programs for the ensuing year to the judgment of the Executive committee.

Voted: That the Year-book for 1905 be published as in 1904, with the addition, if the state of the treasury will permit, of the "Code of Ethics" as adopted by the American Institute of Homœopathy.

The Election Committee reported the election of the following officers for the ensuing year:

President, David W. Wells, M.D.

First Vice-President, S. H. Calderwood, M.D.

Second Vice-President, J. Arnold Rockwell, M.D.

Secretary, Benjamin T. Loring, M.D.

Associate Secretary, Lena H. Diemer, M.D.

Treasurer, Alonzo G. Howard, M.D.

Auditor, G. H. Wilkins, M.D.

Censors, J. P. Sutherland, M.D.; H. C. Clapp, M.D.; Edward E. Allen, M.D.

The Secretary reported as follows:

During the past year the Society has held its usual nine meetings, all except the January and June meetings being held in the hall of the Museum of Natural History. The June meeting was held at the home of the president, and consisted of an informal reception followed by an address entitled "Hahnemann's Conception of the Nature of Disease and Drug Action" by Walter Wesselhoeft, M.D., after which light refreshments were served. In spite of a heavy rain about one hundred were present, and spent a pleasant and profitable evening. The January, or annual meeting, was held at Bostion University Medical School.

Of

Exclusive of the June meeting the attendance has averaged 544 per meeting, the largest, 83, being in February, and the smallest, 26, in May. this attendance, 33.4 per cent has been women and 66.6 per cent men. While this is an improvement over the attendance of the last few years, it is not as good as that of ten years ago, when it averaged over 100 for the years 1894 and 1895.

During the year the Society has had as guests: Joel E. Goldthwaite, M.D.; Douglas Graham, M.D.; Mr. Alexander M. Wilson, of the Boston Association for the Relief and Control of Tuberculosis; Mr. Robert C. M. Bowles, inventor of the Bowles stenoscope, and W. H. Prescott, M.D. Treasurer of the Suffolk District Medical Society.

There has been a total of twenty-five papers presented, six of which were by guests, and nineteen by members of the Society.

From time to time, as necessary, meetings of the Executive Committee have been held at the home of the President, without expense to the Society.

During the first of the year there was much dissatisfaction with the stenographic reports of the proceedings. A change was made which has resulted

in much improvement, and no more trouble need be expected from this source unless another change becomes necessary.

The transactions of each meeting, except the papers, have been published, with occasional abridgment, in the NEW ENGLAND MEDICAL GAZETTE, issued on the first of the next month. In one month only have all the corrected copies of the discussions been received by the Secretary from the members in time for them to appear as corrected. It would be a saving of considerable of the Secretary's time if the members were all as prompt as most of them are. During the coming year, if the Society continues the present method, it is hoped the transactions may be published without abridgment. The papers read have been of a high order of merit, and a large proportion of them have been published in some of the various medical journals.

At the beginning of the year the membership was 254, of which 226 were active, and 28 corresponding members. Three have died. They were: Dr. Charles C. Ellis of Somerville, Dr. William L. Jackson of Roxbury, and Dr. Joseph W. Hayward of Taunton.

Four have resigned. They were: Hubert T. Dean, M.D., of Holyoke; Bertha L. Hoskins, M.D., removed to Georgia; James Utley, M.D., of Newton; Alice M. Patterson, M.D., of Peabody, the latter having joined the Massachusetts Medical Society.

One, H. H. Amsden, M.D., has been changed from active to corresponding membership on account of removal from the state to Concord, N.H.

Seven have been admitted during the year. They are: Daniel A. Babcock, M.D., of Fall River; Dana F. Downing, M.D., of West Newton; Arathena B. Drake, M.D., of South Boston; Henry M. Emmons, M.D., of Jamaica Plain; Deborah Fawcett, M.D., of Newton; Wilson F. Phillips, M.D., of Dorchester, and Anna M. Skinner, M.D., of Watertown, making the membership Jan. 1, 1906, 254, of whom 223 are active, and 29 corresponding. Of the active members, 66, or 29.6 per cent are women, and 159, or 70.4 per cent are men. This does not show any appreciable change, but no members have been retired for non-payment. Had those members in arrears been placed on the published list as being retired for non-payment of dues, the Society would have shown a loss in membership.

During the fall a canvass for new members was made by mail, invitations being sent to one hundred and fifty homoeopathic physicians in and near Boston, as a result of which only two new members were secured. The members of the Executive Committee have recently been making a more personal effort which will add a few more members to the Society very

soon.

The Secretary has at his office extra copies of all the year books since 1895. They contain much valuable and interesting information. A set of these may be secured by any member who desires them sufficiently to call for them.

While the committees have assisted in the planning of the several meetings and the arrangement of the program, the most of the work has been done by the President, and to him is due the credit for a successful and encouraging year.

Voted: That the report of the Secretary be accepted.

The Treasurer reported as follows:

Alonzo G. Howard in account with Boston Homœopathic Medical Society, Dr.

Cash on hand Jan. 1, 1905

Received for Dues.

$127.87

340.00

$467.87

Unpaid bills, $24.00, leaving a balance of $114.90 when all bills are paid. The Auditor, Dr. Wilkins, reported that he had examined the accounts and found them to be correct, with vouchers for all expenditures.

Voted: That the reports of the Auditor and Treasurer be accepted. The President-elect, Dr. David W. Wells, was called on for a few remarks, after which he took the chair, while the retiring President, Dr. J. Herbert Moore, delivered the annual address, taking as a subject, "The Present Opportunity and Future Possibilities of Homœopathy.'

The business program was interspersed with some very enjoyable monologue selections by Mr. Walter B. Tripp.

The meeting adjourned at 10 P.M. to the hall below, were a social time was enjoyed and refreshments were served.

BENJAMIN T. LORING, M.D., General Secretary.

OBITUARY.

The tragic death of Dr. Judson Lee Beck, Class of 1879, Boston University School of Medicine, will bring sorrow to the heart of many colleagues and patients. Dr. Beck was driving in his closed cab with the driver, when, at the Landis Avenue crossing, near Vineland, New Jersey, they collided with a train. Dr. Beck was thrown some distance and the back of his head badly crushed, from which injury he very shortly died. The driver was also fatally injured, and the wagon reduced to kindling wood.

To Mrs. Beck, a daughter and a sister of the doctor, the news came with a most serious shock, and immediately turned the happy household into one of profound sorrow.

To his family and friends the GAZETTE desires to extend its most sincere sympathy.

DEATH FROM ELECTRICITY.-According to newspaper reports of his paper, Dr. Von Kratter has made researches leading him to the conclusion that death from electricity is due to paralysis of the central organs of respiration, and is therefore a form of strangulation or suffocation. Accordingly the treatment in cases of severe electric shocks is the employment of artificial respiration. So good results have been obtained that the method is becoming quite generally adopted in the Austrian hospitals.