Leonadas C. Dyer of Missouri. This recent bill, which is now in the hands of the Committee on Military Affairs, is shorter than the previous bill and simply states that the commissioned officers of the Medical Corps and of the Medical Reserve Corps of the United States Army on active duty shall be distributed in the several grades in the same ratios heretofore established by law in the Medical Corps of the United States Navy. This would give one Major General and one Brigadier General in every 400 medical officers; four Colonels in every hundred; eight Lieutenant Colonels in every hundred; twenty-three and one-half Majors in every hundred; thirty-two percentum each of Captains and Lieutenants.

The same method was used as with the first bill to bring to the attention of our representatives that the provisions of the bill met the approval of responsible elements who were interested in the protection of the health of the Army. I am glad to say that there were some positive assurances that the bill would be given support.

Other matters that came up related to the protection of hospitals from depletion of their interns by the draft and also the importance of retaining medical students for their professional studies. The first provision protected only the third and fourth year men. The next took the first year men and now the effort is to insure an adequate number of medical students by reserving the premedical-year men.

There is demonstrated again during the present conditions that a Department of Medicine in the Government, with a cabinet officer, or to concentrate the various bureaus under one head in a proper department, would be of inestimable value. Whether it will be proved of an absolute necessity at this time or not is problematical but it is a point that every thinking medical man should bear in mind and, at the right opportunity and place, use the influence that will gradually acquaint the public with the need of the nation of full utilization of the advances in health, medicine and sanitation.

Respectfully submitted,

D. CHESTER BROWN,

Chairman

(15) Report of the Delegates to the American Medical Association, by Dr. Edward T. Bradstreet (Meriden):

REPORT OF DELEGATES TO THE AMERICAN
MEDICAL ASSOCIATION.

Mr. President and Gentlemen of the House of Delegates:

That I am to make this report is due to the fact that the promotion of Dr. E. J. McKnight to the position of a trustee of the American Medical Association caused a vacancy. We thought we appreciated the manifold and whole-souled activities of Dr. McKnight while he was with us, but the vacancies caused by his death continually remind us of the value of his work, and emphasize his worth.

The annual convention of 1917, held in New York City in June, was illustrative of the enormous power held by the American Medical Association. War had been declared by this country only two months before this convention, and the registration to provide for a great army was made while this convention was in session. War conditions with its rapidly developing demands upon our profession gave a new coloring and an added seriousness. At the mass meeting at the Waldorf on Tuesday evening, and at the immense and notable one at the Hippodrome on Thursday evening, the air was charged with patriotism and purpose. The A. M. A. placed itself on record as offering itself to the Government to aid to its fullest in organizing and developing the medical service in the war.

This House of Delegates has too much business to transact to listen to a detailed account of any other convention, even were it important enough to be historic.

Everything was done by the committees to make the convention run smoothly from the initial report of the Chairman of the Committee on Credentials, Dr. D. Chester Brown, to the vote to adjourn and the saying of good-bye.

Your delegates and Dr. E. J. McKnight, Trustee, attended every session of the House of Delegates, thereby being pre

vented from much attendance upon the scientific sessions. As you have seen by the papers published in the Journal, the scientific work was quite up to the usual, and various sections have grown so that there was demand that more time be allotted to them by the Programme Committee.

The most notable reports in the House were the ones on Medical Education and the one on Health Insurance. The fitting of young men for the practice of medicine as now developed, without using too many years of the strongest period of a man's life, requires deep study, and the profession owes much to Dr. Arthur D. Bevan for his laborious work and comprehensive report.

Health insurance is bound to come, and we should all be interested in the complete reports that have been published from time to time. One could hardly be found better than the report made to the House of Delegates by Dr. Alexander Lambert, Chairman of the Committee on Social Insurance. Health insurance is unquestionably desirable from a sociological standpoint, and I am sure our Committee on Public Policies will steer the Connecticut Legislature along the path of wisdom when it passes laws establishing such insurance. If wisely managed it will be an aid and benefit to the medical profession as well as to society in general.

I was impressed by the earnestness and ability and readiness of all taking active part in this convention, and was convinced that our State Society should be represented by our fittest men, and that after one has proven his fitness he should be returned year after year that he may gain power and influence. For illustration I point to the satisfactory representation we have had for many years by Dr. D. Chester Brown and our lamented Dr. E. J. McKnight. Therefore, I hope the Nominating Committee will hereafter consult a table of expectancy of life before recommending a delegate, a point overlooked last year.

Respectfully submitted,

EDWARD T. BRADSTREET.

(16) Report of the Committee on Hospitals, by Dr. Philip W. Bill (Bridgeport):

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON HOSPITALS. Mr. President and Gentlemen of the House of Delegates:

Your Committee on Hospitals is very glad to report that as yet there has been no occasion to test the preparations for emergency work described in the last report.

All hospitals have felt the heavy hand of the war. The increased cost of food, fuel, help and especially surgical and medical supplies has made serious inroads into the income and

reserve accounts.

The professional staffs have given a large proportion of their younger members to the service, making more and harder work for those left behind, but which has been and will be done with a feeling of glad duty and willingness.

The interne question, a serious one for the past few years, is now very much more so.

Two hospitals have been taken over by the Federal Govern

ment:

the Memorial at New London and the William Wirt

Winchester Hospital at West Haven. Greenwich has opened, during the year, a fireproof hospital of eighty beds, which can easily be made to accommodate one hundred. Norwalk has a fireproof building nearing completion which will be ready for sixty beds, and can easily take care of ninety. Also the New Haven Hospital has recently occupied its new administration building and the Brady laboratory.

This Committee has the honor to announce that one of its members, Dr. Fritz Hazen Hyde, has been called to active service

with the Army.

Respectfully submitted,

PHILIP W. BILL,

Chairman.

(17) Report of the Committee on the "Maryland Plan," by Dr. D. Chester Brown (Danbury).

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE "MARYLAND PLAN."

Mr. President and Gentlemen of the House of Delegates:

It is worthy of note that at the last annual meeting of the State Medical Society the Maryland Plan was adopted by the House of Delegates; that it was not voted upon in an open meeting of the Society, and that of a membership of 1,021 only 451 have signed the agreement to turn over one-third of the income derived from attendance upon patients of physicians who have been called into active service, either to the physicians or to the family.

This emphasizes again the need of action upon recommendations that have been made by presidents of this Society that there be some method whereby matters that concern the whole membership of the Society may be brought to them as a whole.

Of the 243 physicians who have been commissioned, only thirteen have made out the lists of patients as suggested. This does not mean that they do not wish to partake of the benefits of the Maryland Plan but that they feel that it is better to allow the profession remaining at home and their clientele to adjust it themselves and puts it up to the honor of those left in civil practice.

In the manner in which the Maryland Plan is working out, three features are presented for your consideration:

First That the obligation of the profession remaining at home does not depend upon the making out of lists by those who are called into service. The obligation lies upon the man remaining at home to determine from all those cases that come to him new if they considered a man who has gone into service as their regular physician.

Second: That it may be wise to attempt to obtain a more complete signing of the agreement and possibly a publication of the list of those signing.