the Hospital Saint-Jacques instead of at the tomb. Measures were also taken looking to the publication of some of the posthumous productions of Hahnemann. Reports were made by Dr. Claude and others, on the condition of homœopathy in different parts of the world. On the whole, the session must have been a very interesting one, and the volume of transactions, which has been very carefully prepared by the Committee of Publication, of which Drs. Claude and Jousset were members, is a very valuable and fitting memorial.

CORRESPONDENCE.

LETTER FROM ROME, ITALY.

Dear Editor, -Thinking that some of the many readers of the GAZETTE would be interested to hear from this ancient city, I send you some of my observations on the hospitals here in Rome. They are low (one or two stories), and are built in sections or wings, with lawns or flower-gardens between, and have doors opening out upon these from both sides of the wards. The rooms are very high, and are ventilated from the top, as well as below, thus avoiding that smell which is so common to hospitals. In this warm climate, where the doors can be open most of the time, the patients enjoy not only the fragrance of flowers, but almost the freshness of the country, although in the heart of the city. The wards are pleasant and cheerful, and are models of neatness, as is every other part of the hospital. The kitchens are much cleaner than those in most of our hotels. This, I think, is due in a measure to the fact that almost the entire internal management of the hospital, with the exception of the strictly medical and surgical part, is in the hands of ladies, — a plan which I think would work well in America.

The Casalaziane Hospital, which is devoted to surgery and surgical diseases, has the finest anatomical museum I have ever seen, affording an excellent opportunity for study in that direction.

Their surgical appliances, of which they have a large assortment, and their mode of using them, differ so little from ours that I will not mention them, and their treatment of diseases in general differs but little from that of our allopathic brethren in America.

For the Roman fever, which is malarial in its origin, their chief remedy is quinine in about ten-grain doses.

They have also planted in their lawns and gardens surrounding the hospitals a great many eucalyptus-trees for the sake of their medicinal

influence transmitted through the air. Rome to-day is as clean and well kept as any American city, and the malaria comes not from filth within but from marshes outside the city.

The physicians I have found very kind and courteous, and shall ever remember with pleasure my stay in Rome.

SOCIETIES AND INSTITUTIONS.

AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF HOMEOPATHY,- SESSION

OF 1879.

THE Scenery and historic interest of Lake George proved sufficiently attractive, notwithstanding the inaccessibility of the place, to bring together at the thirty-second session (thirty-sixth aniversary) of the American Institute of Homœopathy a much larger number than usual. The session began on Tuesday, June 24, and continued until Friday, June 27. There were four hundred and seventy persons present, of whom about one half were members. The growth of the Institute and the importance attached to it are strikingly illustrated by the fact that at the meeting of this body in Brooklyn in 1860, in immediate proximity to a large number of resident homœopathic physicians, scarcely sixty were in attendance.

FIRST DAY.

The Institute was promptly opened on Tuesday morning at 9.30 by prayer from Rev. W. S. Huntington, and the president, C. Wesselhoeft, M. D., of Boston, delivered the opening address.

THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS.

After alluding to the origin and progress of the Yellow Fever Commission, Dr. Wesselhoeft enlarged on the subject of organization of our medical societies, the Constitutions and By-Laws of which he cited. It appears that most of these By-Laws demand that applicants for membership shall believe in, or practise according to a certain formula, i. e., "Similia similibus curantur." As this demand has been often construed to mean absolute adherence and unconditional compliance with the formula of a creed, it has frequently given rise, not only to angry dissensions, but also to questions as to who should and who should not be eligible. Dangers of such dissension suggest the

possibility of excluding many well-wishers of our school. We cannot afford to lose a friend, though he may not yet have learned to rely fully on homœopathy, although according to the present state of most of our By-Laws, such persons should not be admitted to homœopathic societies. In order to obviate this danger, slight as it may seem, Dr. Wesselhoeft suggested that societies should lay down a plan of work, such as the proving of medicines, the application and verification of provings, collection of proofs of the efficacy of our law of cure, improvement in the methods of preparing and administering our proven medicines, etc.

Members who propose to join our societies will simply have to decide if they can assist in such work or not; but they should not in future be asked to avow their belief or faith in a creed or dogma. This should not be done, chiefly because the principles of our school do not admit of being crowded into a formula or expression of faith. The very attempt cramps and distorts them. If enforced, our societies are reduced to mere churches. If our laws are absolutely true and without exceptions, we need no societies, and formulas of faith would be only a parole or watchword whose office ceases when friend has recognized friend. If, on the other hand, our principles still require development, then a plan of work, as the basis for the organization of a society, is far preferable.

A copy of the address was asked for, and will appear in the Transactions of the Institute.

The general secretary, R. J. McClatchey, M. D., of Philadelphia, made a special report from the Committee of Publication, detailing the many causes which had prevented the issuing of the two volumes of transactions of the World's Convention in 1876. They are now in an advanced state of preparation, and will be ready for distribution before the close of the present year. He also presented copies of the completed volume of the transactions for 1878, which were distributed to the members present during the session.

It was a gratifying fact that the necrological report by H. D. Paine, M. D., of New York, was briefer than usual, there having been but few deaths in the large number of members, and of these not one was from New England.

The Bureau of Surgery, G. A. Hall, M. D., of Chicago, chairman, presented ten valuable papers, covering the whole subject of surgical diseases of the genito-urinary system. For the last three years, the bureau has adopted the plan of selecting as subjects for each year a single class of diseases or such as affect any set of organs. Thus, in 1877, diseases of the osseous system were considered, in 1878 tumors; and for the ensuing year, under the chairmanship of W. Schneider,

M. D., of Cleveland, surgical diseases of the alimentary system will be the subject. If this plan is faithfully carried out, the surgical publications will be both comprehensive and valuable. Some discussion followed the presentation of these papers, but so much time had already been consumed in reading them that the discussion was meagre and limited. It was evening before the Bureau of Anatomy and Physiology, H. B. Van Norman, M. D., of Cleveland, chairman, presented its brief report. The Bureau of Psychological Medicine, T. L. Brown, M. D., of Binghamton, N. Y., reported also in the evening. This bureau has too frequently been the centre for fanciful vagaries, sometimes mingled with good ideas. In what proportion the mixture was made the present year members can best judge when the printer has done his work upon them.

SECOND DAY.

The Bureau of General Sanitary Science, Climatology, and Hygiene, B. W. James, M. D., of Philadelphia, chairman, presented one of the most thorough, careful, and scientific reports ever made to the Institute. The papers of E. U. Jones, M. D., of Taunton, Mass., on Ventilation of our Houses, and of D. W. Beckwith, M. D., of Cleveland, on Drainage, illustrated with drawings, and treated in a masterly manner, were two subjects of the greatest importance to the community, which should go not only to the members of the Institute, but to the public generally. The discussion of these subjects was the best of the session.

In accordance with the vote of last year, the various homoeopathic colleges presented a report with the names of those who have graduated during the year, which in the eleven colleges number about four hundred.

The Bureau of Microscopy and Histology, C. P. Alling, M. D., of Bradford, Pa., chairman, presented several papers, the most remarkable of which was that by J. Edwards Smith, M. D., of Cleveland. His investigations during the past year have been very thorough and with the most elaborate instruments, in revision or continuation of the researches made by C. Wesselhoeft, M. D., on the divisibility of gold, a summary of which Dr. Wesselhoeft gave to the Institute at Put-in-Bay last year. Although undertaken for the purpose of disproving certain of Dr. Wesselhoeft's observations, the result was a complete confirmation of them. From the conclusions of these two able observers it appears that whatever may be the pathogenetic or therapeutic effect of gold in the so-called high attenuations, the microscope proves that its divisibility is comparatively limited, not extending above the lower attenuations.

The Bureau of Materia Medica, J. P. Dake, M. D., of Nashville, chairman, gave some vigorous papers, among which were those of the chairman, C. Wesselhoeft, M. D., Lewis Sherman, M. D., and W. L. Breyfogle, M. D. The latter attacked in a forcible manner the fantasies of those who carry their potencies into the millionths, the methods by which they obtain these so-called potencies, and the dogmatic and irritable manner in which they claim solely for themselves the valuable results of homoeopathic medicine.

THIRD DAY.

The Bureau of Clinical Medicine, C. Pearson, M. D., of Washington, chairman, presented several valuable papers, among which was one on Clinical Thermometry by N. F. Cooke, M. D., of Chicago. He claims for the thermometer great diagnostic power in certain diseases, and so described a case by his thermometric observations alone, that several accustomed to the use of the thermometer were able to tell the precise nature of the disease.

The Bureau of Obstetrics, J. C. Sanders, M. D., of Cleveland, chairman, and the Bureau of Gynecology, of which the chairman, S. S. Lungren, M. D., was absent, both had important papers. They did not, however, occupy so much of the time of the Institute as they have on previous occasions.

FOURTH DAY.

On Friday the Bureaus of Pædology, L. E. Ober, M. D., of Lacrosse, chairman, Ophthalmology and Otology, W. A. Phillips, M. D., of Cleveland, chairman, and Organization, Registration, and Statistics, I. T. Talbot, M. D., of Boston, chairman, presented their several reports, and after transacting the necessary miscellaneous business, the Institute adjourned at 1.30 P. M. to meet at Milwaukee on the second Tuesday of June, 1880.

THE ACCOMMODATIONS.

There are certain advantages in gathering all the members and holding all the meetings of the session under a single roof, as has been done for the past five years, with the exception of the World's Convention held in Philadelphia in 1876. Members are brought into such close and continuous relationship through the whole time that the object of the meeting, the acquaintance of members, and the discussion of all matters pertaining to the welfare of our school, are attained in a manner impossible when the meeting is held in a large city where those in attendance are often widely scattered, and during a great part of the time practically inaccessible to each other. The