your representative, Dr. Lane, made his influence felt at the very first session and became known immediately as a Connecticut product.

The same principle in representation is illustrated in the state. organization. This House of Delegates and the State Secretary can keep in much closer touch with the component County Societies if the County Society Secretary is a Delegate to the House.

Closer contact with the Board of Councilors, the Committee on Public Policy and Legislation, and the State Licensing Boards, would better qualify the Delegate to the A. M. A. to impress upon the national organization the needs in local conditions and would tend to bring about a more uniform condition in the various localities.

Carrying out the same thought in continuity it would be of benefit to local and national legislation to have the Committee on National Legislation, ex-officio, a member of the Committee on Public Policy and Legislation.

Finally, I am convinced that we are beginning to feel the effect of too wide a separation of the legislative activities of the organizations from the individual practitioner. Everything not actually connected with the scientific programme is referred to as medical politics and many men sneeringly state that they do not mix up in medical politics. The present plan of the reports of the Delegates to the A. M. A., and of the Committee on National Legislation, being made to the House of Delegates of the State Society and of accomplished fact of a year ago leave the individual feeling uninterested and irresponsible. If these reports could be kept current to the minute, taking up questions that are still pending and made to a joint meeting of the House of Delegates and the General Assembly of the State Society held at the close of the scientific programme, it would be of benefit to the state and national organizations mutually.

Respectfully submitted,

D. CHESTER BROWN,
Senior Delegate.

(16) REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON HOSPITALS.

DR. PHILIP W. BILL, Chairman.

Mr. President and Gentlemen of the House of Delegates:

The Committee on Hospitals has held no meetings during the year. The war and lack of funds are still the reasons for making "as few changes as possible at this time." There is much that the Committee on Hospitals could do under other conditions.

The epidemic of influenza showed an unfortunate lack of coöperation and system in the different hospitals. Some hospitals took in all cases of influenza by whatever label they made application for admission; others admitted certain cases under certain conditions; others closed their doors to any case that had a hint of the epidemic about it. This lack of uniformity of front in meeting the situation had a demoralizing effect on the laity, and also on the profession in general. Would things be any better if another scourge should make its appearance?

The problem of the closed or open hospital is one that will probably be worked out with time, but not without more or less unpleasantness. It is largely a matter of educating the public. So long as the great majority of people have the idea that they wish to be treated as "a patient rather than a disease," and hospitals depend on these people for money, either in the form of fees or gifts, for their existence, it would seem that some mean could be found, between the restricted teaching-hospital where, theoretically, patients receive the best treatment, and the unrestricted, commercialized institution where probably they would receive inferior treatment.

The standardization of hospitals in relation to what they should furnish patients and internes is being seriously considered. It is still a question just how this is to be brought about and by whom.

Respectively submitted,

PHILIP W. BILL,

Chairman.

(17) REPORT OF THE MILITARY COMMITTEE OF THE CONNECTICUT STATE MEDICAL SOCIETY AND OF THE SUB-COMMITTEE ON THE

MARYLAND PLAN.

D. CHESTER BROWN, Chairman.

Mr. President and Gentlemen of the House of Delegates: During the early part of the war after this country was involved, the mobilization of the medical profession was done in part by Council of National Defense through its State Committee, in part by the circularization from the office of the American Medical Association, and finally by circulars sent out from the Surgeon General's office.

When the State Society appointed for its War Committee those men who had been active for the state, it simply continued the activity on the same lines. Any report that involved only the activities after the appointment of the War Committee would be altogether incomplete and would not represent at all the activities of the medical profession of the state.

Because your Committee felt that there were many questions that would come up immediately that would make complete lists of the men who had gone into service and who had been identified with the selective service necessary for the Society, it was attempted to obtain an accurate list of both of these classes of men.

It was attempted to obtain a list from the Surgeon General's office and we were informed that there was not a list so kept by states. The list of the Journal had been kept up by Dr. Wheeler but a second checked-up list was obtained from that office. The Secretary of the State Society sent out to each County Secretary for detailed reports. All these lists have been checked up on the list of the committee of the profession of the state, which is the most accurate list of the medical profession of the state that has ever been made, as it has been checked up by the military census and the new lists of the Health Department and then by personal information. With this effort and all these checking lists it became apparent that it would

be impossible to obtain an accurate list that would be suitable. for incorporation in the Proceedings of this Society.

What has been said of the records of the men who went into the service may also be said of the men who did noble service on the draft boards. In the Provost Marshal General's office there is only the record of those who were officially appointed while some of the best work done was by men whose names were never on any list.

These two lists can only be made complete and accurate by correspondence involving some expense. It will mean a historical record of the accomplishment of the medical profession of the state. Such signal incidents as the medals of honor conferred on Dr. Burlingame and Dr. Comfort, as well as other noteworthy events, should be recorded.

While it has a considerable material to report and the activities of the Maryland Plan is also under consideration, your Committee recommends that it be discharged and that the completion of the data of its work be left to an historical report of the part that the medical profession of Connecticut took in the world war. Respectfully submitted for the Committee,

D. CHESTER BROWN, Chairman,

CHARLES C. GODFREY,

EDWARD K. ROOT,
WALTER R. STEINER,

FRANK H. WHEELER,

GEORGE BLUMER,

M. M. SCARBROUGH,

Ex-officio, THE PRESIDENT,

THE SECRETARY.

(18) REPORT OF THE DELEGATE TO THE MEDICAL SOCIETY OF THE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA.

DR. J. W. FELTY.

To the Delegates and Members of the Connecticut State Medical Society:

Having served as your Delegate to represent the state at the Pennsylvania State Medical Society, September 23, 24, 25, and

26, 1918, at the Belleview Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia, it gives me great pleasure to present the following brief report:

Many of you know that the state of Pennsylvania has sixtysix County Medical Societies, and many counties in the state have more physicians than the whole state of Connecticut. The attendance was large-approximately twelve hundred to thirteen hundred, and conducted, in a general way, similar to the American Medical Association-viz., after the general meeting the Society meetings were held in different parts of the hotel, in their various sections, as in A. M. A. The programme was interesting from beginning to end. A few of the most interesting subjects are here noted. Dr. Fred L. Van Sickle, the president, gave a very scholarly address on State Medicine. Dr. John B. Roberts read an able paper on the "Treatment of Surgical Shock in Military Surgery"-discussed by Dr. Samuel J. Meltzer of Rockefeller Institute, New York. Dr. Schamberg's paper, "The Present Status of the Treatment of Syphilis," was discussed by Drs. Dercum and Robinson, of Philadelphia, and others.

In a symposium on Internal Secretions, "The Ductless Glands in Military Practice" was ably discussed in a paper by Dr. Chas. E. Sajous, of Philadelphia, followed by Dr. David L. Edsall of Boston, on "Hyperthyroidism and Related Conditions." A most interesting and valuable series of papers on "Essential Hypertension" were read and discussed by Dr. Mosenthal of Johns Hopkins Medical School, Dr. Hare of Jefferson Medical School, and Drs. Litchfield of Pittsburgh, Patterson, Goepp, Willits, and Faugh, of Philadelphia.

In the Surgical Section, Dr. John B. Deaver read a paper in his usual dramatic style on "Some of the Postoperative Sequelæ of Acute Appendicitis." He made a profound impression by his style, his sincerity, and his extensive experience. He gave the internists, who still freeze the process of abscess formation, no rest, and calls it a penal offense.

On Wednesday evening, Mr. Chas. M. Schwab entertained a large audience in the Gold Room on ship building. Much of this has now passed into history, but Mr. Schwab proved himself a