The third day was devoted to medical legislation, with reports on the progress of legislation in the different states, reports of committees on Carroll Memorial, Medical Expert Testimony, Optometry and a Model Medical Practice Act.

While it is impossible to give a detailed report of this meeting, your delegate wishes to call attention to a few matters which were of particular interest to him. Dr. Thomas B. Herrick of Chicago, in a paper upon "The Educational Function of Hospitals and the Hospital Year," contended that the mere holding of the degree of M.D. as at present granted ought not to entitle a man to do surgical operations, at least major operations. He advocated the requiring of special hospital training before allowing a man to attempt the graver operations. Dr. E. P. Lyon of St. Louis, in discussing the paper, said: "I feel strongly about the necessity for a special degree in surgery or special training. No young man should be allowed to do major surgical operations simply because he has a state license."

"What should be the attitude of the State toward the Practice of Medicine?" by Dr. M. L. Harris of Chicago, was a very interesting paper. He claimed that the "restrictive or licensing plan of regulating the practice of medicine is fundamentally wrong in principle, in that it makes the state dictatorial in a matter of personal rights which is best left to the thinking individual." This paper has not yet been published in full, but my understanding of Dr. Harris's proposition is that the State should leave every individual free to call upon any person he chooses to treat himself or family. The State, however, should designate those who are found competent to practice medicine and having done this should give them all possible protection. None but such should hold positions in institutions under the control of the State. No death certificate should be accepted unless signed by a qualified physician. None but qualified physicians should be allowed to treat contagious diseases, and any individual fraudulently claiming to be a qualified physician should be subjected to a very severe penalty. In other words, the State should designate those who are competent, so that the public may be able to distinguish between competent and incompetent.

Dr. Harris has devoted a great deal of time to the study of this subject and his conclusions are entitled to serious consideration.

The Committee on Expert Medical Testimony had been unable to hold a meeting but each member sent in his individual opinion. The Council passed a resolution thanking the committee for their individual efforts and requesting the Council on Health and Public Instruction to establish a standing committee to give this matter thorough consideration, and if possible to confer with a committee of the American Bar Association.

The report on "Optometry" was read by Dr. John C. Bossidy of Boston, who has done excellent work in this direction. Your delegate was fortunate in securing from him a promise that he would appear at the hearing on optometry bills before our State Legislature, and those who were present realized the value of his assistance. Your delegate took occasion to get the opinion of as many men as possible in relation to the matter of contract practice, and this subject was fully discussed by the Committee on Resolutions, of which your delegate was chairman. It was the unanimous opinion of the Committee that the suggestion made by Dr. Frederick R. Green, Secretary of the Council on Health and Public Instruction, that the Judicial Council of the American Medical Association be officially requested by some state society to formulate a definition of contract practice which could be used by all state societies, would be an important step toward the solving of this problem.

It is impossible in this short report to convey to you any idea of the amount of valuable information contained in the papers read at this meeting and the discussions which followed. While your delegate had some doubt about his ability to return in benefits to the Society an amount equivalent to his traveling expenses, he realized that it was only by coming in contact, through its delegates to the American Medical Association and its various Councils, with men from other states working along the same lines, that this Society can continue to maintain its present high standard as regards organization, and effectiveness in medical and public health legislation.

E. J. MCKNIGHT.

(16) Miscellaneous Business:

DR. WILLIAM H. DONALDSON (Fairfield): I do not know whether this is the time to bring up the matter; but the Fairfield County Medical Society wishes to ask the State Medical Society to abate the taxes of one of our members. By instructions from the County Medical Society, I am asked to present the name of Dr. Seth Hill of Stepney, one of the Past Presidents of the State Society. He sent in a letter of resignation, and the County Society voted unanimously not to accept it, in view of his long membership and his past office in the State Society. His reasons for resigning, we do not knew; but the action of the County Society is unanimous in asking the State Society to remit his dues. I make a motion that this be done.

The motion was seconded and carried.

Dr. Augustin Averill Crane (Waterbury): I want to ask what time the long-discussed question of the printing and publication of the Proceedings will be thrashed out. Was the committee appointed this morning to report to-morrow or two years hence? or are remarks on that subject in order now?

DR. SELDOM B. OVERLOCK (Pomfret): I may say that the committee has decided that the matter should be referred to the House of Delegates for discussion and decision. It was too much for us to reach a conclusion upon. We were to report to-morrow morning; but we could, perhaps, report now. The report is in a very crude state at present. It is written in pencil, but I might be able to read it.

THE PRESIDENT: Will it be in proper condition to-morrow? DR. SELDOM B. OVERLOCK (Pomfret): Yes.

THE PRESIDENT: We must meet to-morrow morning at 8.15. The regular scientific session starts at 9.30, and we have a lot of important business to transact before then, including the election of officers.

DR. AUGUSTIN A. CRANE (Waterbury): Why can we not do something now? Those who are going to stay in town can remain a little longer, and those who are not, cannot go right away. If the number thins out hereafter in the same proportion

I

that it has already, there will be very few here to-morrow. shall not be here, for one. This is a matter that I have been interested in for a number of years, but I have never happened to be present when it was in order to discuss it.

THE SECRETARY: It seems to me that Dr. Crane should make an extra effort to come to-morrow, when it will be in order.

DR. AUGUSTIN A. CRANE (Waterbury): I have made an appointment to do an important operation to-morrow, and cannot forego it.

DR. ELIAS PRATT (Torrington): Would it not be in order for us to receive Dr. Crane's remarks now? I should like to hear them.

DR. AUGUSTIN A. CRANE (Waterbury): It will not take me more than ten or fifteen minutes to say what I wish to say, and perhaps not half that time. If what I say can be put on record, so that the members of the committee and others may refer to it, this may have some influence with the committee in presenting their report.

I understand that one of the propositions suggested informally by the Secretary or some other of the numerous men who spoke regarding the matter this morning, was that the literary papers should be published in the Yale Medical Journal, and that the other material should be published in book form. If that is so, this brings up my reversion to the original question regarding the feasibility with which that book can be published before the year is over. During the time of the old administration, a lot of satirical remarks were made, particularly by Dr. Carmalt, to the effect that it took seven months to get up the Proceedings. Now that he is on the committee, it takes eleven months. The amount of money that we pay for these Proceedings had better be spent, I think, for a Home for the Nervous Poor, or the Nervous Rich Doctors. According to our rules, the papers read must be put in the hands of the Secretary at once; and I do not know why the document cannot be in the hands of the members within thirty days. I am sure that I could get the Proceedings printed and distributed in that time. If their publication is held back so that the Yale Medical Journal may publish the papers

piece-meal during the year, I have nothing to say. If, however, all that remained to be published in the volume were the reports of the business meetings, that could easily be published within thirty days after the close of the meeting; and it would be much more valuable, if it were received early.

I thank you for the courtesy of letting me relieve myself at this time, instead of to-morrow.

DR. WILLIAM N. DONALDSON (Fairfield): I was glad to get Dr. Crane's views, and I am willing to enter into a wager with him that he could not get the Proceedings out in thirty days. The fault is not with the Publication Committee, but with the doctors who will not return the proofs sent to them for correction. The delay has always been with them.

THE SECRETARY: The main reason for waiting is that we have to get the papers in the Yale Medical Journal before we publish them in the bound volume of the Proceedings; because they must be in type and appear in the Journal first. I think that Dr. Crane's criticism is a just one; and at the time that we adopted the proposition to publish the papers in the Journal, I said that I did not see how it would hurry matters at all. The best that I have ever been able to do in getting out the Transactions was to have the volume published by October. Maybe Dr. Crane could do better than that, but that is the best that I could do; and then I had to make pretty strenuous efforts. We now keep the volume back until all the papers have appeared in the Yale Medical Journal. We had some trouble with the obituaries, also, the dead members being dead a long while, and the living members being very slow in writing these obituaries.

DR. WILLIAM H. CARMALT (New Haven): Would it not be possible to make two volumes, one containing the business proceedings and the other the addresses?

THE SECRETARY: That would increase the cost materially. DR. WILLIAM H. CARMALT (New Haven): Well, the cost of the binding would be the only extra expense.

THE SECRETARY: It would increase the cost from three to five hundred dollars.