nized by all that the selection of a faculty was, under the circumstances, a most delicate procedure. There was no dearth of material; on the contrary, the situation that confronted the appointing power was l'embarras de richesses. It was impossible to find positions for all the members of the two original organizations.

The point about which the keenest interest centered was whether the Council would be guided in each selection by the uncompromising spirit of the best man for the place, or whether its judgment would be swayed by such considerations as family and finance. The terms under which the consolidation was affected guaranteed fair and considerate treatment of both organized parties to the contract, and yet the necessities of the case demanded compromise. In such transactions the danger is that in the effort to satisfy all no one is pleased.

The plan adopted by the Council was a somewhat novel one, and displayed a master stroke of diplomacy in shifting the responsibility to the shoulders of the former professors and making each one of them actually elect, not only himself, but his fellows. This was accomplished by inviting each professor to send in a confidential ballot nominating members of a complete faculty, it being understood that he himself was already in nomination for his own chair. The selection was not to be limited to the faculties of the two colleges, or to New York city. Nominations were thus made for the forty-one professorships in the nineteen departments of the consolidated institution. In the two faculties there had been fifty professors. The result of the balloting was that nine-tenths of the faculty chosen by the university corporation received the support of a majority of both the old faculties. Six members were made professors emeritus, five of whom were active professors last year.

In a delicate negotiation of this nature it is inevitable that there will be some disappointments, but, on the whole, it must be acknowledged that the Council has met the ordeal in a manner that commands the approval of every candid critic.

This new institution may now be considered organized; it only remains to adjust the details of its domestic economy, adapt its present buildings to the new exigencies, and erect such additional structures as the new conditions require.

Extensive plans for new buildings are under consideration. Since the consolidation of the two colleges, the University has acquired a large additional plot of ground on Twenty-fifth street, just south of the buildings already owned by it. This plot measures 100 feet in depth by 175 feet in length. The plan for its improvement contemplates two courts with an east building, a center building, and a south building. The center and east buildings will be erected soon.

Henceforth New York city will possess two of the largest and best-equipped medical schools in this country, if not in the world: the College of Physicians and Surgeons on the west side of the city and the newly organized institution on the east side. Each is provided in its immediate vicinity with ample hospital facilities and abundant clinical material; each one has allied itself with a strong and wealthy university; the requirements for admission and graduation are equally exacting, and on the parallel lines along which they must inevitably develop, a healthy, generous rivalry will stimulate to the loftiest ambitions and the noblest aims.

ECHOES AND NEWS.

A New Remedy for Gout.-An English physician claims that regular daily traveling in railway cars has a hygienic value, and is especially beneficial in cases of gout.

The International Congress at Moscow. It is announced that the Russian railways have generously decided to grant free passes to members of the Congress, thus greatly reducing the expenses of the journey.

A "Kneipp Cure"' Sanitarium in Vermont.-The American Kneipp Cure Company of New Jersey, proposes to Middletown open its first Kneipp-cure sanitarium at Springs, Vt. The company is capitalized at $1,000,000. Middletown Springs is now a popular summer resort known for pure air and water, and the Kneipp-cure people propose to change the name to Kneippville.

The New York Morgue-Keeper Found Guilty,-The Board of Charities has reached a decision in the case of MorgueKeeper Albert M. White, who was tried by the board three weeks ago on a charge preferred on December 5, 1896, that he had illegally disposed of bodies committed to his care. The members of the board are unanimous in the decision that White is guilty as charged, and they have dismissed him from his position.

Extraordinary Death of a Physician.-Dr. Carrier of Varennes, France, has recently died under painful circum

stances.

The daughter of a patient to whom he had given a hypodermic injection of morphin, seeing her mother very quiet, thought she was dead, and cried out that the doctor had poisoned her. Dr. Carrier was seized with a fainting fit, and, as he fell, struck his head against the mantelpiece, receiving injuries which resulted in his death a few hours later, just as the patient awoke, much relieved by her peaceful sleep.

The Roentgen Ray in Surgery.—At the Instituto Fisico of the university at Pavia, Italy, the entire tibia of the left leg of a boy patient having been removed, a series of object lessons on the reproduction of the lost bone were initiated, with the help of the Röntgen ray. The organic functions of the osseous tissues, as illustrated in the reproductive process, were watched and registered at stated intervals, and the value of the Röntgen ray in surgical diagnosis and treatment, and equally in surgical teaching, was vindicated in the most striking manner.

Report of New York Prison Commission.—In the recent report of the State Commission on Prisons regarding the condition of the penal institutions of New York city are some statements of unusual interest. The investigation revealed the fact that only five per cent. of the youths between the ages of sixteen and nineteen awaiting trial before the courts of New York are sent to the Tombs. Ninety-five per cent. of these youthful offenders are cared for by Mr. Gerry's society. In the Kings County Penitentiary, the commission reports, the bath-rooms are new and excellent, being so arranged that, while forty may bathe at the same time, each person is in a separate booth, or stall, with a separate dressing closet for each; yet all are subject to the surveillance of the keepers. The plan could well be copied in other prisons.

Parrots as Sources of Tubercular Infection.-Bronchopneumonia has assumed almost an epidemic form in Genoa, Italy, caused, it is believed, by infected parrots brought from Brazil. Fourteen persons have been attacked by it, and eight have died. The susceptibility of the parrot to all lung diseases, above all to tuberculosis, is being widely discussed by the medical journals. In Berlin the profession has long been alive to the danger of harboring and petting the parrot, as the malady is often hereditary in the bird, and is aggravated by the close confinement of the voyage to Europe-even after arrival it is, for the most part, exposed to unsanitary conditions, under which it contracts tuberculosis and bronchopneumonia from human sufferers from these ailments. The Veterinary School has had 154 parrots under observation, and fifty-four of them have been found, by bacteriologic tests, to be suffering from advanced tuberculosis.

Mr. Lawson Tait and Hospital Abuse.-The Birmingham Daily Post gives Mr. Lawson Tait's views on hospital reform: "We (the profession) are entirely responsible for hospitals, and for all their faults as well as their merits." He maintains that the medical officers of the Birmingham Hospital could make an end of the trouble in a month. As a temporary expedient, he suggests that they should

assign thirty per cent. of their income accruing from hospital positions for the assistance of their "struggling extramural brethren." The Lancet, commenting on this says: 'We are sure the struggling brethren' would decline any such remedy. All they ask from their hospital colleagues is to use their influence to restrict the benefits of hospital treatment to those who need it and cannot afford to pay for it. Neither is it of any use to lay the whole blame on hospital honorary officers. The committees and governors of hospitals are equal, or greater culprits."

Obituary. Dr. George W. Burdett died in Clinton, Mass., May 10th. He was seventy-six years of age, and was a graduate of Dartmouth Medical School and of Harvard Medical School. He was for many years a member of the Board of Directors for the Bigelow Free Public Library, and had been Master of the Trinity Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons.-Dr. Elisha Munger of New London, Conn., died May 14th, after ten weeks of suffering, following an operation for appendicitis. He was forty-nine years old, and for a quarter of a century practised medicine in New London county, commencing at East Lynn, and afterward removing to the city, where he had lived for nine years.-Dr. Magitot, who was the founder in France of modern dentistry, and wrote many important works upon the development of the teeth, died recently very suddenly during an attack of angina pectoris. He was a member of the Academy of Medicine, and had been president of the Society of Anthropology.-Mr. Louis Pascal Casella died at Highgate, England, April 23d, aged eighty-six years. Mr. Casella was the first to construct a registering clinical thermometer.

A Controversy in the Medical Society of New Haven, Conn.On the Faculty of the Yale Medical School is Dr. B. A. Cheney, whose father is a homeopathic physician. The younger physician has made repeated attempts to become a member of the regular local society, and, it is asserted by his friends, has been unjustly kept out on the alleged ground of homeopathic affiliations. One of the prominent physicians opposing Dr. Cheney's admission has been Dr. F. E. Beckwith of New Haven, one of the leading obstetrical specialists in the State, and formerly connected with the Yale Medical School. At a recent meeting of the Medical Society Drs. Osborne and L. W. Bacon of the Yale School, as a counter-thrust, and with the evident intent of carrying the war into Africa, preferred charges against Dr. Beckwith of consultation with local homeopathic physicians. The charges were referred to a committee of three, which found that Dr. Beckwith had consulted with homeopaths only in emergency cases, and reported by a majority vote in his favor, one of the committee, however, favoring expulsion. The vote of the society stood 33 to 17 in Dr. Beckwith's favor. A striking feature of the case was the appearance of Dr. Francis Bacon as leading defender of Dr. Beckwith, while Dr. L. W. Bacon, his nephew, in the Yale Medical School, led Dr. Beckwith's foes. To a disinterested observer the affair has the flavor of a tempest in a teapot, and carries the earmarks of personal retaliation.

5. South Broad Street Theater.

6. Hotel Stenton.

7. College of Physicians.

8. Jefferson Medical College and Hospital.

The University of Pennsylvania is situated in West Philadelphia, direct communication with which is had by Chester avenue car going west on Walnut street. 9. U. S. Mint.

10. Lafayette Hotel.

11. Union League Club.

12. Hotel Bellevue.

13. The Stratford Hotel.

14. The Art Club.

15. University Club.

16. Wills Eye Hospital.

17. Medico-Chirurgical College.

18. Aldine Hotel.

19. Girard House.

20. Continental Hotel.

21. Pennsylvania Hospital.

22. Post-office Building.

23. Colonnade Hotel.

24. Public Buildings.

25. Pennsylvania Railroad Depot.

27. Publication office The American Journal of the Medical Sciences, Lea Bros. & Co.

MEETING PLACES.

General Meetings, Academy of Music; hours, 10 A. M. to 1 P. M. daily.

Registration Office, Horticultural Hall (lower corridor). Post-office, Horticultural Hall (outer vestibule).

SECTIONS.

Practice of Medicine, Broad Street Theater. Surgery and Anatomy, Horticultural Hall (lower hall). Obstetrics and Gynecology, Beth-Eden Church. Neurology and Medical Jurisprudence, Beth-Eden Church (upper room).

Ophthalmology, Hotel Walton (tenth floor).

Laryngology and Otology, Hotel Walton (tenth floor). Materia Medica and Pharmacy, Academy of Music (Blue Room).

Diseases of Children, Academy of Music (Foyer). State Medicine, Academy of Music (Red Room). Dermatology and Syphilography, Horticultural Hall (Foyer).

Physiology and Dietetics, Hotel Stenton.

Dental and Oral Surgery, Hotel Walton (Parlor D). All Sections meet at 9 A. M. and 3 P. M.

The exhibition of books, pharmaceutical preparations, and surgical instruments will be given in the main hall, Horticultural Hall, immediately adjoining the Academy of Music.

EAST

Notes of Interest Regarding the Coming Meeting of the American Medical Association at Philadelphia.-The semicentennial meeting of the American Medical Association will take place at Philadelphia on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, June 1st to 4th. The general meeting will be opened on Tuesday by the introduction of the venerable Dr. Nathan S. Davis, of Chicago, attended by the presidents of the State medical societies, and he will deliver an address, entitled A Brief History of the Origin of the American Medical Association, the Principles on which it Was Organized, the Objects it Was Designed to Accomplish, and How far they Have Been Attained during the Half-Century of its Existence." The President of the Association is Dr. Nicholas Senn of Chicago, and the First Vice-President Surgeon-General George M. Sternberg.

64

It is expected that nearly 3000 delegates will attend this memorable meeting, and the profession of Philadelphia has made great preparations for their reception, not only from a social, but even more particularly, from a scientific standpoint. Arrangements have been made for special courses at the various colleges so that delegates may, however briefly, become acquainted with recent medical processes. The committee in charge has found it possible to arrange for the general and sectional meetings to take place in the buildings situated within a single block on Broad street, ¿. e., that block extending from Locust street to Spruce street. The position of these various buildings, and of the different hotels which offer special rates to the members of the Association, is shown on the accompanying map, which may prove of much use to those readers of THE MEDICAL NEWS who intend to be present at the meeting. At the southeast corner of Broad and Locust streets is situated the Hotel Walton which will be the headquarters of the Association and in which three of the sections will meet.

Immediately adjoining it to the south is the Broad Street Theater with a large seating capacity which will be devoted to the Section of Practice of Medicine. Adjoining it to the south is the Hotel Stenton in which the meetings of the Section of Physiology and Dietetics will be held. Immediately opposite, at the northwest corner of Broad and Spruce streets, is the Beth-Eden Church, which, in addition to its ordinary accommodations, contains a large meeting-room. This building will be used by the sections of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and of Neurology and Medical Jurisprudence. Immediately across from the Broad Street Theatre is Horticultural Hall, a newly erected building, exceedingly handsome in its inside and outside decoration, the main hall of which will be devoted to exhibition purposes. This hall also contains two large meeting-rooms which will be devoted to the sections of Surgery and Anatomy and of Dermatology and Syphilography. Finally, the Academy of Music, immediately adjoining Horticultural Hall, and which is capable of seating nearly 3000 persons, has been engaged for the general meeting. Smaller rooms in the same building will be used for the sections of Diseases of Children, of Materia Medica and Pharmacy and of State Medicine. These places of meeting are also situated close to the Col

lege of Physicians at the corner of Locust and Thirteenth streets, an institution which has the largest medical library in the United States next to that of the Surgeon-General's Office at Washington, Most of the important clubs are also within a few hundred yards of the hotel headquarters. It will also be noticed that the meeting places are but three blocks away from the Broad Street Station of the Pennsylvania Railroad and but four blocks from the Terminal Station of the Reading Railroad.

Several luncheons will be given each day under various auspices. The dinners of the various sections will take place on Tuesday evening at 7 o'clock, and on Wednesday evening the University of Pennsylvania, the Union League Club, Jefferson Medical College, the Academy of Fine Arts and other institutions will hold receptions. On Thursday afternoon the Provost of the University of Pennsylvania, Mr. C. C. Harrison, will receive the delegates on the campus of the University, and several private lunches will also be given on the same day. The publishers of the MEDICAL NEWS, Messrs. Lea Brothers & Co., have invited the visiting delegates and their wives to a theater-party on Thursday evening, at the Broad Street Theatre, at which refreshments will be served. On Friday the Philadelphia Medical Club will give a luncheon at the Hotel Aldine, and on that afternoon the meeting will come to a close.

Vital Statistics in England and Wales.-The RegistrarGeneral of Births, Deaths, and Marriages in England and Wales has just issued his report for 1895. The following are some of the more generally interesting facts contained in it. The population was 30,383,047-14,721,820 males and 15,661,227 females. The number of marriages registered was 228, 204, corresponding to a rate of 15 persons married per 1000 living, against 15.1 per 1000 in the previous year, and an average of 14.9 in the ten years 1885-'94. The slight fall in the marriage-rate, as compared with that of 1894, was accompanied by a rise of 4 per cent. in the value of British exports, a rise of I per cent. in the value of imports, and a rise of 1 per cent. in the average price of wheat per quarter. Of the 228, 204 marriages, 156,469, or 686 per 1000, were celebrated according to the rites of the Church of England, and 71,735, or 314 per 1000, otherwise. These proportions are exactly the same as those of 1894. Of each 1000 men married during the year 1895, 891 were bachelors and 109 widowers; of each 1000 women married, 924 were spinsters and 76 widows. The births registered during the year numbered 922,291, and were equal to a rate of 30.4 per 1000 persons living, or .8 below the average rate in the preceding ten years. The births of males numbered 468,886, and the births of females 453,405, the former bearing to the latter the proportion of 1034 to 1000, against an average proportion of 1037 to 1000 in the preceding decennium. The excess of male over female births has shown a general tendency to decline ever since the year 1841. The deaths registered during the year numbered 568,997, and were in the proportion of 18.7 per 1000 of the population. Although the rate showed an increase of 2.1 per 1000 upon the unprecedented low

rate of 1894, it was slightly below the mean rate (18.9) of the ten preceding years 1885-'94. The 568,997 deaths included 290,704 males and 278,293 females. The death-rate among males was therefore equal to 19.7, and that among females to 18.7 per 1000 living of the corresponding sex. Out of equal numbers living there were 11 deaths of males to 1000 deaths of females, against a mean proportion of 1121 in the ten years 1885-'94.

CORRESPONDENCE.

OUR PHILADELPHIA LETTER. [From our Special Correspondent.] JEFFERSON MEDICAL COLLEGE COMMENCEMENT CLASS-DAY EXERCISES AT THE MEDICO-CHIRURGICAL COLLEGE-DR. W. S. HALSTED A PAY-HOSPITAL FOR CONTAGIOUS DISEASES-A SUMMER LABORATORY COURSE.

PHILADELPHIA, May 15, 1897.

THE seventy-second annual commencement of the Jefferson Medical College was held in the Academy of Music on May 14th, and the degree of Doctor of Medicine conferred upon 161 members of the graduating class by the Hon. William Potter, President of the Board of Trustees. The opening prayer was made by the Rev. Allen B. Philputt, D.D., and an address was delivered by the Rev. Francis L. Patton, President of Princeton University, whose remarks contained much that may be remembered with profit by the newly graduated physicians. Prof. E. E. Montgomery gave the valedictory to the class. spoke of the value of the graded curriculum which they had followed, contrasting its advantages with the training. received by medical students in years past, and referred to the long list of men famous in medicine and in surgery, who have helped to give to their alma mater her enviable position among medical schools.

He

The annual banquet of the Alumni Association of the Jefferson Medical College was given on the evening of May 13th, at the Hotel Bellevue. Dr. H. A. Hare, the toastmaster of the evening, introduced Mr. James P. Townsend, who spoke for the Board of Trustees. Dr. A. H. Hulshizer made a report on the fund for the equipment of the new pathological laboratories of the college, which showed that a total of $7000 had been subscribed for this purpose. Other speeches were made by Dr. George McClellan, who responded to the toast, "The Alumni Association"; by Mr. Hampton L. Carson, giving a sketch of the famous medical men of Philadelphia from Penn's time to the present day; by Prof. W. W. Keen, for the faculty; by Prof. H. A. Wilson, for the clinical faculty, and by Dr. E. Q. Thornton, on behalf of the demonstrators of the college. Several hundred alumni were present, and the banquet was considered one of the most successful ever held.

As a prelude to the commencement exercises of the Medico-Chirurgical College, to be held next week, the Class-Day exercises of the graduating class of this institution were observed on May 13th. Speeches were made by Prof. Isaac Ott, Dean of the Faculty, and by Messrs. A. C. Morgan, the Class President; J. A. McKenna, the

Class Historian, and A. C. Buckley, the Valedictorian. A dinner and reception were given to Dr. William S. Halsted of Baltimore, on May 13th, by Dr. W. W. Keen, at the University Club.

At a meeting of the Philadelphia County Medical Society, held on May 12th, Dr. J. Madison Taylor, Chairman of the Joint Committee of the County Medical Society, and the Woman's Health Protective Association of Philadelphia, on the proposed pay-hospital for contagious diseases, made a report of the work accomplished by this body toward securing this much-needed institution. The site recommended for the hospital is that at present occupied by the Municipal Hospital for Contagious Diseases, in a section of the city where, by reason of the proximity of two railroads, a residence neighborhood is unlikely to be built up. The need of a pay-hospital of this kind, where patients may be attended by their own physicians, was shown to exist, and encouraging progress in the movement was reported.

Dr. Edward Rosenthal read a paper 44 on The Municipal Hospital of Philadelphia," in which he described the new diphtheria pavilion, which has recently been added, and suggested other improvements, notably a building for suspected cases, and also the purchasing of more ground adjacent to the institution, to be used temporarily as a park for the patients. In the discussion of Dr. Rosenthal's paper, a communication from Dr. Benjamin Lee was read, highly praising the diphtheria pavilion, and suggesting that, as the State Board of Health had decided to place measles among the diseases to be quarantined, a building for this class of patients should be provided, in order to prevent their coming in contact with other contagious diseases. Dr. William Welch spoke of the need of money for necessary improvements at the Municipal Hospital, and urged that smallpox cases be cared for in a building in some remote locality. On motion by Dr. John Ashhurst, Jr., a committee was appointed to draft a resolution of the Society's approval of the present site of the Municipal Hospital, and requesting the city councils to make more liberal appropriations to carry on the work of treating the city's cases of infectious disease.

A summer laboratory course, lasting from May 1st until July 1st, has been inaugurated at the MedicoChirurgical College, under the direction of Prof. Joseph McFarland. The work, which is open to both undergraduate and post-graduate students, includes bacteriology, morbid anatomy and histology, autopsies, toxicology, medical chemistry, and clinical microscopy.

OUR VIENNA LETTER.

[From our Special Correspondent.] KOCH'S RECENT PUBLICATION ON TUBERCULIN AND AUSTRIAN OPINIONS OF IT-THE THYROID AND CONGENITAL ANOMALIES-THE BOTANIC SPECIFIC PATHOGENEITY OF MICROBES TO BE DISCUSSED AT THE INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL CONGRESS AT MOSCOW-VASELIN FOR ERYSIPELAS-DOCTORS' FEES IN VIENNA.

VIENNA, April 15, 1897. THE interest displayed in Vienna in Koch's latest publication on tuberculin and its diagnostic and therapeutic