THOMAS H. HAWKINS, M.D., LL.D., EDITOR AND PUBLISHER. Henry O. Marcy, M.D., Boston. COLLABORATORS: Thaddeus A. Reamy, M.D., Cincinnati. G. Law, M.D., Greeley, Colo. S. H. Pinkerton, M.D., Salt Lake City. Graeme M. Hammond, M.D., New York. Carey K. Fleming, M.D., Denver, Colo. Subscriptions, $1.00 per Year in Advance; Single Copies, 10 Cents. Address all Communications to Denver Medical Times, 1740 Welton Street, Denver Colo. We will at all times be glad to give space to well written articles or items of interest to the profession. [Entered at the Postoffice of Denver, Colorado, as mail matter of the Second Class.] EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT. Colorado State Medical Society. The thirty-second annual convention, held at Pueblo, June 24-26, 1902, in the ordinary of the Grand Hotel, was called to order by the president, Dr. R. W. Corwin. After prayer by Rev. Patchell, Mayor Rizer was introduced and in a few felicitious phrases welcomed the association to the city and presented its membership with a brand-new municipal key. In place of reading the minutes, the proceedings as published were accepted. OFFICIAL REPORTS. Secretary Blaine, for the publication committee, reported the publication of 450 volumes of transactions and papers for 1901, at a cost of 80 cents per page, each volume comprising about 550 pages, which was 202 more pages than for the year 1900. Dr. William P. Munn, speaking for the special committee appointed last year, advised the adoption of a few alterations in the form of constitution and by-laws recommended for every state by the American Medical Association, as recently printed in the Journal American Medical Association. The said constitution provides for a solidarity of interest and organization by basing membership in state societies on the fact of membership in county or district organizations, the members of the state associations being likewise eligible to the national body, in the legislature of which said associations are entitled to one or more delegates. According to this uniform constitution, the state so ciety would elect a president for one year, secretary and a treasurer for three years and ten councillors or censors for two years, one-half annually. About the only changes suggested by the committee for this standard document were the following: To provide for the election to honorary membership, by two-thirds of the members present, of worthy and distinguished medical gentlemen; to continue members in the State Medical Society whether they held membership or not in local associations; to hold the annual sessions at the time fixed at preceding annual sessions; that papers be limited to fifteen minutes and discussions to five minutes; that each county medical society be granted one delegate for every twenty-five members or fraction thereof; that the nominating committee consist of five members; that standing committees be appointed by the president, instead of being elected. The annual dues for members of the State Society shall be $3 hereafter for those who are also members of a county society-otherwise $5, as heretofore. Owing to the comparative sparseness of population in Colorado, certain social by-laws in the general form have been stricken out. After discussion, final action on the recommendations of the committee was postponed until the last day of the session. The report of the Committee on Necrology, prepared by Dr. H. G. Wetherill, showed an unusual number of deaths, including the names of ex-Presidents Eskridge, Thombs and Hawes, and also Clayton Parkhill, Russell B. Freeman, John S. Miller and Samuel Bonesteel. In connection with the continued special Committee on Tuberculosis, and on request of the society, Dr. Munn presented a rough draft of prophylactic recommendations, formulated by Chairman Sewall, though not yet acted upon officially by the committee. The writer prefaced his other remarks by proving that quarantine against tuberculosis in Colorado was neither necessary, practical nor desirable. He regarded as the most effective measures in limiting the spread of consumption the hygienic education of patients through the personal teaching of their physicians, the action of local health boards, and the study of the disease and publication of facts by special local societies. He believed that an effort for registration should be made, that sanitary supervision in a friendly spirit of hotels and boarding houses should be enforced, that promiscuous expectoration should be prohibited, and that the segregation of consumptives in suitable sanatoria should be encouraged as much as possible. Dr. Baker's comprehensive report on medical societies in Colorado showed a total of 14 associations of this kind, with an enrolled membership of 548 physicians, an average attendance of 222 at each meeting during the past year and the reading of 138 papers. In point of numbers the Denver and Arapahoe Medical Society took the lead with 188 members and an average attendance of 67. For similar statistics, the Las Animas County Medical Society had 38 members and an average of 10 at each meeting; the Cripple Creek District Medical Association, 44 and 15; the Colorado Ophthalmologic Society, II and 9; the Boulder County Medical Society, 17 and 6; El Paso County Medical Society, 45 and 12; the Weld County Medical Society, 11 and 6; the Denver Clinical and Pathological Society, 45 (limited membership), and 75 per cent. attendance; the Lake County Medical Society, 20 and 10; Otero County Medical Society, 25 and 10; Pueblo County Medical Society, 33 and 10; and the Denver Clinical Society, 13 active members, with an average attendance of 6. The Southern Colorado Medical Society, meeting annually, with membership of 60, had 20 members present at the last meeting. The Rocky Mountain Inter-State Medical Association has enrolled 180 members, of whom 75 were in attendance at the last meeting, in Denver. Treasurer Rothwell's report recorded a balance of $357 from last year; total annual receipts, $1,427: expenses, $903: balance on hand, $881. I The corresponding secretary reported a net gain of 11 members for the State Society, despite the losses by death, resignation and non-payment of dues. The present total active membership is 326, or about one-fourth of all the physicians in the state. The resolutions and petition to the American Medical Association and the United States postoffice department, prepared by Dr. J. W. Kyger and endorsed by the Kansas City Academy of Medicine, was unanimously accepted by the Colorado State Medical Society. The paper is entitled "The Decadence of the American Race," and it demonstrates the dangers to the public of the vile advertisements carried by the public press, and the wisdom and justice of excluding such printed matter from the mails. THE PAPERS. The first paper on the program was by Dr. T. J. Forhan, of Trinidad, and referred largely to the diagnosis of small-pox. Among the Mexicans of southern Colorado the opinion prevails that this malady is a gift from on high, but their prejudices against vaccination are relaxing somewhat. Mal-nomenclature, such as "Cuban itch" for variola, should be tabooed. In difficult cases, from the diagnostic stanpoint, the eruption itself requires the closest scrutiny, constitutional symptoms being in this regard of secondary importance. The eruption on the back is not obscured by scratching. The absence of the lesions from the palms and soles is almost pathognomonic, and fever disappearing at the onset of the rash is very characteristic. Umbilication of the vesicles is sometimes observed in chicken-pox, when the lesions are irritated. Varicella is rare over ten years and appears first on the back, instead of on the face and back of wrists and hands. Measles is most contagious in the early stage, hence its marked contagiousness. Scarlet fever is probably the most eccentric of all the specific eruptions. The writer suggested that mild epidemics of small-pox might be due to loss of virulence in the germ through its evolution, as well as to reactive changes in the soil for its growth. According to Dr. L. A. Robinson, of Glenwood Springs, "The Great Needs of the General Practitioner' include the following: The careful, complete and methodical examination of patients. Prompt decision, rather than that procrastination, misnamed conservatism. Conscientious study of each case. Greater care and skill in urinalysis. Before testing cloudy urine for albumin, it should always be filtered. The trichloracetic acid test is a delicate one. The microscope is a necessity in the examination of urine, sputum, vaginal discharges and throat exudates. "Fall in love with your work." "As a rule the patient who receives the most study receives the best treatment." Dr. S. D. Van Meter, secretary of the State Board of Medical Examiners, read a paper on "Medical Legislation and Registration." He thought there was no hope of a national law on this subject, and if enacted it would be impracticable in operation. As at present construed, the state law keeps the bars high for reputable practitioners, but quacks with stolen or bogus certificates are difficult to keep out. More elasticity of the state laws and reciprocity of licensure between the states is needed. The board that first passes upon a diploma should keep a record of the number and marks thereon and also a physical description of the applicant. Great care should be exercised in granting certificates to parties who claim to have lost their diplomas. Diplomas from reputable medical schools are proof of the neces sary qualifications, and further examination should be optional and at the discretion of the board, the fairness of which is guaranteed in some states by recourse of appeal to a court of record. The unfortunate division of state examining boards, according to sects and pathies, is to be deplored, since the ability of an applicant can be sufficiently judged without questioning him upon disputed points in therapeutics. The essayist would have no medical college charter granted unless the institution was really needed, and would place the preliminary examination of matriculants in the hands of some disinterested person like the state superintendent of public instruction. Moral qualities in would-be doctors should be taken into consideration. The medical law of Colorado is deficient in defining the practice of medicine, generally construed as the internal use of drugs, although the framers of the bill undoubtedly referred to any and all applicants of the healing art. Jurists are inclined erroneously to interpret the law as penal in nature, not remedial. In convicting irregular practitioners, the state board has great difficulty in securing competent witnesses, partly from a feeling of shame on the part of the victims, and partly from a semi-reticence to testify on the part of regular practitioners. The false cry of a "medical trust" by the Denver dailies is based upon their desire for revenue from quacks, the said papers having received $72,000 last year for the publication of indecent advertisements. The ten-year clause of the medical law is no longer needed for any purpose and should be repealed. The enforcement and proper interpretation of the present law are what is needed, together with continued efforts to raise the standard of the profession at large. Dr. Maurice Kahn, of Leadville, reported personal observations on the pulse and respiration at an elevation of 10,200 feet. The data were based upon the examination of 100 healthy sitting subjects (83 men, 17 women) with an average age of about 31 years. The composite result was a pulse of 76, and respiration a fraction over 20. The results indicate that high altitudes do not exert so great an effect on breathing and pulse-beat as has been supposed. Dr. S. D. Hopkins, of Denver, read an entertaining account of a striking case of amnesia, lasting forty-five days and due to the excessive use of alcohol. During the amnesic period the patient came to Denver from New York. The writer emphasized the important neurologic facts that memory is regained in the inverse order of its loss, and that recent events are forgotten before those of the far past. |