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the floor about the bed covered with newspapers, saturated with sputum which he had projected in a parabolic curve. The condition of the bed may be surmised. In this same room, not infrequently the wife or mother was washing clothes, some of which were hung up to dry, so that the air was saturated with steam, and in this same steam-heated, polluted atmosphere, little children with half-naked bodies were picking their way about the room with bare feet. When in the due course of time, these little children, thus inoculated, showed some of the localizations of tuberculosis, they would not have to go far to find a physician who would dub the disease hereditary, and resign himself to the hopelessness of the situation. Once I found a' patient in somewhat higher life lying back in a wheeled-chair, which had been rolled close to a red hot anthracite stove. Surrounding the patient and the stove was a clothes-horse upon which were suspended a number of handkerchiefs and cloths. I asked the patient what they were. They said they were the cloths used for the reception of sputum. They did not need to be washed out, because the sputum was watery and clear. The man who would enter and stay in that room with a full knowledge of its dangers is braver than the heroes at Balaklava.

The ancient views regarding the nature of phthisis die hard. The London Lancet of the present day opposes the classification of tuberculosis as an infectious disease. This I read in a recent number: "If phthisis is to be definitely scheduled as an infectious disease in our Statute-book, and to become amenable to all the provisions regarding infectious diseases in the Public Health Acts, it is hardly possible to contemplate the result without some misgivings. Let us take, for instance, the case of a conscientious young man just about to enter life, and who is considered by his medical adviser to be manifesting the signs and symptoms of phthisis. The case is in due course notified, and the patient becomes in his own eyes a leper destined to an early death, and in the eyes of the community a danger to the public

health. More than this, he would, if our supposition be correct, be in constant dread of the Public Health Act of 1875, and the Infectious Disease (Prevention) Act of 1890; his chances of marriage would have vanished forever, and the insurance societies would refuse to consider his proposal. If, too, his removal to some isolated hospital was insisted upon and he was allowed with a constant accompaniment of a spittoon, provided with a disinfectant, to travel for the benefit of his health, he would nevertheless feel bound to notify his leprous condition to all hotel-keepers, so that disinfection of his room might be properly carried out. Add to this the by no means impossible circumstance, that the diagnosis was erroneous, or that the patient recovered, at any rate for a time, and we have some faint indication of the result of dealing with phthisis as an infectious disease."

Suppose we now substitute gonorrhoea or syphilis or small pox or diphtheria in this reading and for the spittoons, towels; would the statement excite sympathy or aversion?

But it is impossible to imagine a grosser misrepresentation of facts. To begin with, this view overlooks the simple fact that knowledge is power; that the recognition of the disease is in nearly all cases more absolute than that of scarlet fever, small-pox, or syphilis; that phthisis is acquired chiefly by exposure to dried sputum in which, on cloth the bacillus lives six months, and which diluted four hundred thousand times will still propagate the disease; that the disease in its earlier stages is usually perfectly curable; that nothing about the individual is infectious except his sputum and that the destruction of the sputum is simplicity itself. The opposition to registration of patients affected with phthisis like the opposition to the registration of syphilis, is based upon pecuniary, that is property, reasons, and ethical reasons, and not upon the knowledge which would lead to the extinction or destruction of tuberculosis, that is, not upon the truth as we now know it. For everybody is liable. to phthisis. There is no immunity. We know no predisposition peculiar to phthisis. Predisposition to phthisis is proximity to the sputum of phthisis.

Rules for the Government of the Library.

Adopted May 9th and 12th, 1892.

I. The Librarian or Assistant Librarian shall attend at the Library Rooms daily except Sunday and legal holidays, from 12 o'clock until 6 o'clock P. M., during which hours only, books and journals may be taken from the Library.

II. Each member of the Faculty, paying the annual dues, shall be entitled to take out at one time, four volumes duodecimo, two volumes octavo, one volume quarto, or one volume folio. This rule may be suspended by the written order of three members of the Library Committee.

III. City members retaining books longer than two weeks and county members longer than four weeks, shall be subject to the following fines per week, viz.: 10 cents for the first week, 20 cents for the second week, 30 cents for the third week, and 10 cents per week for every week thereafter. Such fines shall be appropriated exclusively for the benefit of the Library.

IV. No book shall be delivered to a member unless in person or to his written order. A member receiving a book shall be held responsible for it from the time of its delivery until its return to the Library.

V. A member not returning a book or books, belonging to the Library, within four weeks after the date of receiving them, shall be notified by the Librarian that he is incurring a fine; and if they be not returned within three months, in the absence of satisfactory reasons therefor, the Librarian shall recover them, or if they be lost, their value, in behalf of the Faculty; otherwise, the defaulting member shall forfeit the privileges of the Library, and shall be reported at the next annual convention of the Faculty, by the Library Committee. Should any book be injured or defaced while in the possession of a member, he shall be fined, at the discretion of the Library Committee, or, at his option, may furnish such a copy of the same work as shall be acceptable to the Com

mittee.

VI. If any member, upon returning a book, shall find that there has been no application for it while in his possession, he may take it again for the time allowed in Rule III, but

RULES FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF THE LIBRARY.

89

may not take it out a third time until after the expiration of one week succeeding its return to the Library. New books may not be taken by members for more than one term of two weeks, until after the expiration of one additional week after their return.

VII. Members are not entitled to receive books from the Library until all arrearages for fines are paid. Fines may be remitted or reduced, for just and sufficient reasons, by the Library Committee.

VIII. The Librarian shall appropriately number and stamp the books, pamphlets and periodicals, and place them in proper order on the shelves. He shall obtain and keep a correct list of the members paying the annual dues. He shall record, in a book kept for the purpose, the names of members who receive books from the Library, the titles and sizes of the books, the time of their delivery and of their return. He shall continue the catalogue of the books, pamphlets, periodicals, etc.; keep an account of all moneys received by him for fines, contributions, sales, etc., which moneys he shall pay into the hands of the Chairman of the Library Committee on the last week day of each month. He shall report during the last week in March of each year to the Library Committee, a statement of such donations of money or of books as may have been made to the Library, with the names of the donors, as well as of such books, pamphlets, periodicals, or other valuable matter as may have come into the possession of the Library by purchase, exchange, or otherwise. He shall keep a record of all books, periodicals, etc., upon the subscription list of the Library Committee, shall keep due record of their receipt at the proper time, and shall report to the Library Committee the non-receipt of any when over-due. He shall keep on file applications for such books as may have been let out of the Library; and may make any suggestions to the Committee deem necessary.

he may

IX. Under no circumstances will members be permitted to remove new books, new journals, or other recently received matter, before such time as the Library Committee shall determine.

X. Scarce and valuable books, the loss of which it would be difficult to replace, shall not be removed from the Library rooms without the approbation of two members of the Library Committee.

XI. The Librarian is empowered to sell or exchange duplicate books, journals, etc., upon such terms as may appear advantageous, upon the approval of the Library Committee.

Resolutions, Amendments, &c., affecting the Constitu

tion, from 1885 to 1894, inclusive.

May 16th, 1885, By Dr. J. Edwin Michael. Changing the word gentlemen to the word person in Article IV, Sec. 1, of the Constitution, and changing phraseology throughout to correspond.

May 16th, 1885, By Dr. E. Cordell. Changing Article IX of the Constitution to read "The Annual Meetings of the Faculty shall be held in the City of Baltimore on the fourth Tuesday in April, or at such date as the Executive Committee, with the concurrence of the President, shall appoint. A Semi-Annual Meeting may be held at such time and place as the Executive Committee may designate."

May 1st, 1886, By Dr. G. Lane Taneyhill. Article VIII, of the Constitution, to read, "All resignations must be sent to the Corresponding Secretary, and can be accepted only by the Faculty, at any meeting except a memorial meeting."

May 1st, 1886, By Dr. G. Lane Taneyhill. "That the Corresponding Secretary, in giving notice of an Annual Meeting, shall do so at least two weeks before the date of such meeting."

April 29th, 1887, By Dr. John R. Quinan. Article III, Section 5 of the Constitution to read as follows between the words "referred to them" and "shall present:" He shall notify all members, by circular or otherwise, of the time and place of each meeting, and, if it be an annual one, he shall issue such notice at least two weeks before said Annual Meeting.

April 27th, 1888, By the Secretary. Resolved, That the Treasurer is hereby instructed, annually, until otherwise ordered, to mail on April 1st, a printed statement of indebtedness to all members who are delinquent, stating the year of delinquency, and informing such members that by the

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