March 23, 1910, Etna Life Insurance Co., in payment of policy on life of Dr. G. W. Russell,

Total on deposit in Union Trust Co., New
Haven,

Respectfully submitted,

$2,000.00

$6,853.17

JOSEPH H. TOWNSEND.

This is to certify that we have examined the accounts of the Treasurer, compared the expenditures with the vouchers and find the cash on hand as stated.

New Haven, Conn., May 25, 1910.

C. S. RODMAN,

GOULD A. SHELTON.

(6) Report of the Committee on Public Policy and Legislation, by Dr. Everett J. McKnight (Hartford):

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC POLICY AND LEGISLATION.

Mr. President and Gentlemen of the House of Delegates:

At the date of the last annual meeting the State Legislature was in session and up to that time only one measure of interest to the medical profession had received final action. It gave us great pleasure to report at that time that the Committee on Public Health and Safety returned an unanimous adverse report upon the anti-vaccination bill and that upon the motion to accept report of committee and reject the bill not a dissenting vote was cast either in the House or Senate.

The optometry bill was adversely reported upon by the Committee on Public Health and Safety and rejected in the House, reconsidered and laid upon the table. Upon being taken from the table two weeks later the bill was unanimously rejected both in the House and Senate.

The bill "On the Practice of Medicine and Surgery," changing the date from 1912 to 1914 at which certain requirements of the amendment of 1907 shall take effect, was passed.

A bill concerning the revocation of licenses of physicians, giving the State Board of Health power to revoke the registration or license of any physician practicing within the State upon proof satisfactory to said board that such certificate of registration or license was procured by fraud or false representation, was passed.

The bill to establish a colony for epileptics in the State has been before several successive legislatures. At the annual meeting two years ago the Chairman of the Committee on Public Policy and Legislation stated that if the matter was put in the hands of that committee he could promise that it would go through all right. At the last session an act entirely satisfactory to the Committee on a Colony for Epileptics of this Society was passed, with an appropriation of twenty-five thousand dollars for the purchase of the land and for the erection and equipment of the buildings authorized by this act.

Other measures of great importance but not referred by the Society to this committee were passed, including an act appointing a Board of Directors to establish county homes for the care and treatment of persons suffering from tuberculosis, for securing the enactment of which great praise is due to the late Dr. J. P. C. Foster, whose untimely death is lamented by every one of us; an act concerning the reporting and care of tuberculosis; an act concerning spitting in public places; an act concerning operations for the prevention of procreation; an act amending an act concerning the sale of certain narcotic drugs, and an act amending an act concerning the sale of poisons.

To sum up the work of this committee during the last session of our State Legislature, we can say that there was secured the passage of every act which was desired exactly as we wished it and the prevention of every objectionable measure introduced. Too great praise cannot be given the Chairmen of the Committees on Public Health and Safety, Dr. Albert W. Phillips, our homeopathic brother, the Senate Chairman and our own Dr. Gould A. Shelton, the House Chairman. It was quite apparent that many legislators voted upon these measures not in accordance at all times with their own inclina

tions, but because they had perfect confidence in the gentlemen who were advocating them, and our successes were largely due to that fact.

At the last annual meeting of this Society this committee was requested to make a draft of such a resolution as they would like to have passed to secure the establishment of a single examining board for the State of Connecticut. As the Committees on Medical Education and Medical Legislation of the American Medical Association are now engaged in preparing a model Medical Practice Act for use in the different states, a report upon which will soon be made, your committee recommends that this matter be referred to a committee consisting of the Committee on Medical Examinations and the Committee on Public Policy and Legislation, with instructions to secure such changes in our present Medical Practice Act as shall secure one examining board for this State and shall conform as nearly as is advisable to the model act promulgated by the American Medical Association.

There was also referred to this committee a resolution of Dr. Michael H. Gill of Hartford, that all births, irrespective of any gonorrheal ophthalmia, should be reported within twenty-four hours. While your committee is entirely in sympathy with the intent of this resolution, it does not seem to the committee that the plan proposed would secure the desired results and recommends that no action be taken at the present time.

The passage of an act concerning expert medical testimony was also referred to this committee. As it is probable that the House of Delegates of the American Medical Association will take some definite action upon this subject at the coming meeting in St. Louis, we recommend that the matter be again referred to the Committee on Public Policy and Legislation, with power to act in accordance with the decision of said House of Delegates of the American Medical Association.

In regard to the motion, which was passed, of Dr. Augustus A. Crane of Waterbury, that the Committee on Public Policy and Legislation be asked to see that a bill is presented to have

physicians paid for reporting contagious diseases in the same way as they are now paid for the reporting of births and deaths, your committee reports that as the matter was referred too late for introduction into the last session of the General Assembly, unless otherwise instructed, it will be given careful attention at the next session.

Your committee wishes at this time to call attention to a proposition to establish a Department of Health with a Secretary in the Cabinet of the President which is now pending in Congress (Owen Bill, S. 6049). This is a matter of great importance and your committee requests that it may be allowed to present at the meeting of the House of Delegates to-morrow morning a resolution to be forwarded to each one of our representatives in Congress.

It has been the policy of this committee to confine its labors to matters referred to it by the House of Delegates and to the prevention of objectionable legislation that may from time to time arise. It wishes to call attention to the fact that if any legislation is desired at the next session of the General Assembly, instructions in regard to such legislation must emanate from this body at this time.

Respectfully submitted,

EVERETT J. MCKNIGHT,
CHARLES J. FOOTE,

F. M. WILSON,

ELIAS PRATT,

CHARLES E. STANLEY.

Meeting adjourned at 12.30 P. M. to a luncheon given them at the Heublein by their President, Dr. Samuel D. Gilbert, to convene again in the afternoon, at the conclusion of the Scientific Session.

AFTERNOON SESSION, WEDNESDAY, MAY 25, 1910.

The meeting was called to order at 5.10 P. M. by the President, Dr. Samuel D. Gilbert. There were present Dr. Oliver

C. Smith, Dr. John B. Kent, Dr. Elias Pratt, Dr. James M. Keniston, Dr. Thomas F. Rockwell (councilors), and Dr. Frederick B. Willard, Dr. Thomas G. Sloan, Dr. Charles J. Bartlett, Dr. James D. Gold, Dr. William J. Tracey, Dr. William B. Cogswell, Dr. Jesse M. Coburn, Dr. Robert C. White, Dr Seldom B. Overlock and Dr. George N. Lawson (delegates), the President and the Secretary.

The following reports were then read and accepted:

(7) Report of the Committee on Medical Examinations and Medical Education, by Dr. C. A. Tuttle (New Haven). Read by the Secretary in the absence of Dr. Tuttle:

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON MEDICAL EXAMINATIONS AND MEDICAL EDUCATION.

Mr. President and Gentlemen of the House of Delegates:

Your Committee on Medical Examinations and Medical Education presents for your consideration its seventeenth annual report.

The committee has had six meetings during the year and held three examinations, each extending throughout two days, at all of which all the members have been present. The work for the past year has been carried on much on the same lines as in previous years, but with special attention to certain details and the introduction of certain new methods of examination. There have been examined this year sixty-one candidates in general practice, which is twenty-two less than last year and seven less than in 1908. Of these sixty-one, forty-six only were found qualified and certificates granted, fifteen, or 24.6 per cent., being rejected. There have also been examined fifteen in midwifery, of whom six, 40 per cent., only fulfilled requirements.

During the present year there has been expressed throughout the country a desire for some form of examination, in addition to the customary written form, which would be a test of the candidate's practical ability to practice medicine.