This will certify that we have this day audited the accounts of the Treasurer and find them correct and the securities listed above to be in his possession. T. F. ROCKWELL, Voted, to accept the report and place it on file. Auditors. REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON SCIENTIFIC WORK. DR. ERNEST A. WELLS, Hartford, Chairman. Mr. President and Gentlemen of the House of Delegates: The Committee on Scientific Work has met but once. The program for the semi-annual meeting last fall was arranged by correspondence with the local society. The program for the present meeting is published elsewhere in the proceedings. Respectfully, ERNEST A. WELLS, Voted, to accept the report and place it on file. Chairman. REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON MEDICAL DR. ROBERT L. ROWLEY, Hartford, Secretary. Mr. President and Gentlemen of the House of Delegates: Your Committee on Medical Examination and Medical Education has held six meetings during the past year and has examined a total of one hundred and thirty-seven applicants. Some of these took the examinations more than once during the year so that the one hundred and thirty-seven applicants represent a total of one hundred and twenty-three persons. One hundred and nine persons passed the examinations satisfactorily and were recommended to the State Department of Health for licensure. Of the fourteen who failed to meet the requirements, seven were graduated from medical colleges rated "A," five from medical colleges rated "B" and two from foreign medical colleges. For some time the Board has fully appreciated that a few applicants whose qualifications were especially well known were subjected to unnecessary inconvenience and hardship by being required to undergo the formal written examinations, and so within the past year there has been inaugurated the practice of permitting such applicants to appear before the Board for oral examination with consideration of their credentials. The Board feels satisfied that such a practice may be safely followed provided there is exercise of due care, caution, and conservatism. Whenever such an applicant fails to receive the approval of the Board he is permitted to take the written examinations at any subsequent regular period. During the past year there were considered in accordance with this plan, fourteen applicants, of whom two failed to receive the approval of the Board. Seven applicants were considered without written examination under the provision of the law as relates to those who were graduated prior to 1893. All but one of these received the approval of the Board. The Board regretfully records the fact that at our written examinations in March one applicant was dismissed on account of cribbing. Respectfully submitted, ROBERT L. ROWLEY, Secretary. Voted, to accept the report and place it on file. REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC POLICY AND LEGISLATION. DR. EDWARD K. Rooт, Hartford, Chairman. Mr. President and Gentlemen of the House of Delegates: The Committee on Public Policy and Legislation has obtained copies of all bills introduced in the Connecticut Legislature in any way relating to public health or of direct interest to the medical profession. After the time had expired for the introduction of new business the committee were called together and in addition there were present at the meeting Dr. Edward Hooker, chairman of the legislative committee of the Homeopathic Society, Dr. Paul Waterman, representing the committee on Health Insurance, and Dr. Walter Steiner, delegate to the American Medical Association. In all, twenty-nine bills were submitted for discussion and after careful consideration it was decided that the most important from the professional point of view were the bill modifying the present statute concerning vaccination, House Bill No. 272 regarding vivisection and the Medical Practice Act, in preparation by the committee appointed for that purpose. A large number of bills could be properly referred to the Commissioner of Health as they covered rules or regulations directly under the supervision of the Department of Health and no further consideration was necessary on the part of your committee. It was not considered advisable to directly oppose the vaccination exemption bills in their present form, but a compromise was effected which practically results in the registration of all cases who conscientiously object to vaccination, thus rendering it easily possible to identify, isolate or vaccinate such individuals in case. of an outbreak of smallpox. House Bill No. 272 prohibited vivisection and through some misunderstanding of the date of the hearing no one appeared representing the Yale Medical School regarding this bill. Your chairman appeared in opposition and the bill was killed in committee. The remaining bills of interest to the Society are the bill concerning the practice of chiropody and the substitute for House Bill No. 860, the joint work of the Committee on the Requirements for the Practice of Medicine, the Civil Code Commission and the Commissioner of Health. As a result of the meeting of March 16, 1921, held in New Haven, it was decided that there should be no concerted effort made for a large attendance for the committee hearing on the 23d of March. It probably would have made no difference if the profession had been largely represented, for the bill was defeated by a very large vote. It seems fairly obvious to your chairman that there is no demand outside of thoughtful members of the medical profession, certainly not among the public at large, for regulation or further legislation of medical practice. There is nothing in the attitude of the public to suggest that they desire any restriction or limitation of their individual liberty to employ at their will charlatans, quacks, natureopaths, mental healers, or in fact any variety of healer that can gain their confidence. It does not seem probable that any united effort on the part of the medical profession is likely to alter this condition of affairs. Reform in this respect must come from the general public and not from the medical profession, for it is obvious that propaganda on the part of our profession is only misunderstood and attributed to selfish motives. Public opinion is, as a rule, warmly in favor of scientific sanitary improvements, of any regulations concerning purity of food, for the enforcement of municipal cleanliness and measures of similar broad scope for the improvement of public health. Any restriction of individual liberty in the choice of methods of healing will require a long course of education of public sentiment before it can be achieved. All of which is respectfully submitted. E. K. ROOT, Voted, to accept the report and place it on file. Chairman. REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON HONORARY MEMBERS AND DEGREES. DR. CHARLES J. BARTLETT, New Haven, Chairman. Mr. President and Gentlemen of the House of Delegates: At the last annual meeting, Dr. Edward R. Baldwin was proposed for honorary membership. His name is accordingly before you for action at this meeting. As an honorary member, your committee nominates Dr. Herbert E. Smith. Dr. Smith was formerly Dean of the Yale Medical School and a member of this Society. His present residence is Los Gatos, California. C. J. BARTLETT, Chairman. Voted, to accept the report and place it on file. |