of a scientific bureau being established for sanitary purposes, will do much good in showing how the National Board of Health, after having been deprived of its functions by the deliberate judgment of Congress on charges of extravagance and uselessness, is striving to rehabilitate itself by surreptitious means. Should they succeed in this effort, we will be carried back to the old time of its active existence, when, through the recommendation of its Havana investigating committee, our Southern ports were sealed for six months of the year against alleged yellow fever latitudes. Then the exploded quarantine of detention was coaxed upon us at the South, in utter disregard of all the discoveries in the science of sanitation which had succceded in rendering infected ships from infected ports perfectly harmless, provided they went north! Very respectfully yours, J. C. LEHARDY, M. D. OFFICE BOARD OF HEALTH, STATE OF LOUISIANA, Dr. J. C. LeHardy, Savannah, Ga.: DEAR SIR-Your considerate letter of the 23rd instant has just been received. I endeavored to reply to your former note, but was interrupted by a pressure of work. The whole question of the great injustice attempted by the National Board of Health was presented in a concise letter, written ostensibly to the resident member of the National Board, but really to the United States Senate. I felt assured that if Congress could have a true exhibition of the case, it would at once perceive how grossly unfair it would be to take the special business of a State Board of Health, endorsed and presented as a petition by the Boards of Health of the United States and the American Public Health Association, out of their hands, ignoring them utterly, and putting it into the keeping of an arrogant, self-assertive, close corporation, whose history is one of failure to achieve any good, but an unlimited ability to make enemies by compelling others to assume the defensive in order to resist the unwarrantable encroachments of an unbridled ambition. In this particular instance, the National Board was free to have opened the question of sending into the tropics an investigating yellow fever commission. Had it done so, the Louisiana State Board of Health would never have thrown in its way an obstruction of any kind, still less would it, or the American Public Health Association, have made an effort to displace the originators and ourselves coolly take pos session. The rule of justice works both ways. When this high-handed measure was tried on us, I resisted it as an outrageous piece of effrontery that should not be tolerated. As the Senate Committee on Infectious Diseases had already expressed its willingness to commit the matter to the National Board of Health, it became necessary for me to address the members of the Senate Committee and of Congress generally, in order to prevent the doing unwittingly of an act of injustice. The resident member of the National Board of Health fur nished me the way by insisting upon an explanation of my remarks in a newspaper interview, after having been advised of my intention to send him in reply an open letter-for publication-if he still demanded an answer. Thus it is our shrewdest enemies are sometimes of infinite service in working out retributive justice for our good. After making himself so useful to our cause by helping us to a hearing, the lengthy reply of the resident member was delightful entertainment. One of the conspicuous points in his address, " To the Public," published in the N. O. Picayune, 21st instant, is as follows: "The duties of the National Board of Health shall be to obtain information upon all mattern affecting the public health, and the members of this board shall make, or cause to be made, such special examinations and investigations at any place or places within the United States or foreign ports as they may deem best." I immediately quoted this in telegrams to the chairmen of the two committees in the Senate and in the House, adding, "When Congress prescribed the functions of the National Board of Health it did not debar itself the right to confer the same privileges and to demand like service of any other agent it might choose." The entire conduct of the National Board of Health in neglecting to move in the important matter of the proposed investigation, but leaving it for others to suggest and plan, and finally to urge upon Congress, condemns it as a useless piece of national furniture unworthy of existence. Its subsequent action in recognition of the importance of the investigation, as manifested by its eagerness to get possession of the commission, confirms the justness of this conclusion. The confliet is one of resistance to usurpation. So far as we are concerned, the question is one of even-handed justice and of propriety, or rather of expediency. Would it be proper to commit the work of the proposed commission to a body whose representative has repeatedly expressed an opinion of its uselessness? Good results can only be expected from those who are enthusiastically in earnest and full of hope. From every consideration of right, and desire to accomplish a great public good, the commission should be kept in the hands of its natural parents, and not be farmed out to find nourishment at the withered breasts of a poverty-stricken wet-nurse. Yours very truly, (Signed) JOSEPH HOLT, M. D., President Board of Health, State of Louisiana. LETTER FROM AUGUSTA. THE MEDICAL ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA-THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS A PRESIDENTS' PRIZE ESSAY FUND-PAPERS, NOTES, ETC. Editors Atlanta Medical and Surgical Journal: The thirty-seventh annual session of the Medical Association of Georgia was held in this city April 21, 22 and 23. There was a large attendance of physicians from all sections of the State. Dr. Eugene Foster, the retiring President, in introducing the President-elect, Dr. R. J. Nunn, of Savannah, thanked the Association for the honor conferred on him during the past term, and said that it was with great pleasure he announced the Association free from debt with a balance in the treasury. He attributed this desirable result to the efficiency of the Treasurer and Secretary, Drs. E. C. Goodrich, of this city, and James A. Gray, of Atlanta. The inaugural address, by Dr. Nunn, was an excellent paper, full of thought and well delivered. It was listened to attentively throughout. This address will, in the opinion of your correspondent, prove of more real value to the Association than any delivered before that body in a long time. It was eminently a practical address, suggesting many changes to the Association, which, if adopted, can but redound to the good of the Association. One evidence of this fact is the raising of a prize essay fund, at this meeting, of $600, which was the direct result of a recommendation, by President Nunn, that whenever a President is elected the trustees of the prize essay fund will expect to receive from him $100, to be placed to the credit of this fund. The President-elect this year, Dr. T. O. Powell, of Milledgeville, cheerfully contributed this amount. So far, the only exPresidents who have contributed to this fund are Drs. R. J. Nunn, Eugene Foster, DeSaussure Ford, Henry F. Campbell and A. W. Calhoun. It is expected that every ex-President will contribute to this fund by the time of the next meeting. If so, then there will be to the credit of the Presidents' Prize Essay Fund about $1,500. Each year will add an extra hundred to the fund. It is safe to say that in ten years the Presidents' Prize Essay Fund, as suggested and put into practice by President Nunn, will reach very nearly the sum of $4,000. This is only one of the valuable suggestions made by Dr. Nunn. There are many others, but space will not allow their mention now. The different sections-Practice, Surgery and Gynecologywere well represented, most of them presenting valuable reports, which were read and referred to the Committee on Publication, and which will no doubt appear in the Transactions. There was a larger number of voluntary papers submitted than is usual, and it is fair to say that the most of them possessed a higher order of merit than is common for such papers. Two of these papers which were read are entitled to special mention. The paper of Dr. J. P. Logan, of Atlanta, on the "Relation of the medical profession to alcoholic uses and abuses." No paper was probably ever read before the Association which was listened to with closer attention or elicited more favorable comment. The paper read by Dr. H. McHatton, of Macon, on "Malarial Hæmoglobinuria," is a valuable contribution to the literature of the subject. The Doctor takes strong grounds against calomel in the treatment of this disease, and urges the free administration of quinine hypodermically. Besides these papers there were quite a number of other voluntary papers. We mention those of Dr. R. O. Cotter, of Macon, "Certain syphilitic affections of the eye and ear." Dr. George C. Hummel, of Savannah, "Pathology and treatment of gonorrhoea." Dr. Eugene Foster, of Augusta, "A review of Antiseptic midwifery." 1 Dr. Thomas R. Wright reported and read a paper on "Surgical cases." Dr. G. W. Mulligan, of Washington, Ga., "Stricture of the œsophagus in a child two years old." Dr. W. H. Doughty, Jr., "Use of cocaine in certain operations." Dr. Theodore Lamb, "Importance of the early recognition and treatment of plueritic effusions-the dangers of delay and routine methods." Dr. Henry Gaither, Oxford, Ga., "Synopsis of country practice a half century ago." Dr. A. G. Whitehead, of Waynesboro, "Is it only a coincidence?" Dr. L. E. Borcheim, of Atlanta, "Causes and treatments of infants' diarrhoea." Dr. Robert Battey, of Rome, Ga., "Antisepsis in ovariotomy and Battey's operation. Seventy consecutive cases with sixty-eight recoveries and two deaths." Dr. R. J. Nunn, of Savannah, "Ramie-its use in gynecology." |