Protective

Association

THE

ORGANIZED AT WINNIPEG, 1901

Under the Auspices of the Canadian Medical Association

HE objects of this Association are to unite the profession of the Dominion for mutual help and protection against unjust, improper or harassing cases of malpractice brought against a member who is not guilty of wrong-doing, and who frequently suffers owing to want of assistance at the right time; and rather than submit to exposure in the courts, and thus gain unenviable notoriety, he is forced to endure blackmailing.

The Association affords a ready channel where even those who feel that they are perfectly safe (which no one is) can for a small fee enrol themselves and so assist a professional brother in distress.

Experience has abundantly shown how useful the Association has been since its organization.

The Association has not lost a single case that it has agreed to defend. The annual fee is only $2.50 at present, payable in January of each year.

The Association expects and hopes for the united support of the profession.

We have a bright and useful future if the profession will unite and join our ranks.

EXECUTIVE.

President-R. W. POWELL, M.D., Ottawa.

Vice-President J. O. CAMARIND, M.D., Sherbrooke.
Secretary-Treasurer-J. A. GRANT, Jr., M.D., Ottawa.

SOLICITOR

F. H. CHRYSLER, K.C., Ottawa.

Send fees to the Secretary-Treasurer by Express Order, Money Order, Postal Note or Registered letter. If cheques are sent please add commission.

PROVINCIAL EXECUTIVES.

ONTARIO E. E. King, Toronto; I. Olmsted, Hamilton; D. H. Arnott, London; J. C. Connell, Kingston; J. D. Courtenay, Ottawa.

QUEBEC-F. Buller, Montreal; E. P. Lachapelle, Montreal; J. E. Dube, Montreal; H. R. Ross, Quebec; Russell Thomas, Lennoxville.

NEW BRUNSWICK-T. D. Walker, St. John: A. B. Atherton, Fredericton; Murray MacLaren, St. John.

NOVA SCOTIA-John Stewart, Halifax; J. W. T. Patton, Truro; H. Kendall, Sydney. PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND-S. R. Jenkins, Charlottetown.

MANITOBA - Harvey Smith, Winnipeg; J. A. MacArthur, Winnipeg; J. Hardy, Morden. NORTH-WEST TERRITORIES-J. D. Lafferty, Calgary; M. Seymour, Regina.

BRITISH COLUMBIA-S. J. Tunstall, Vancouver; O. M. Jones, Victoria; A. P. McLennan, Nelson.

Published on the 15th of each month. Address all Communications and make all Cheques, Post Office Orders and Postal Notes payable to the Publisher, GEORGE ELLIOTT, 203 Beverley St., Toronto, Canada.

VOL. XXV.

TORONTO, JULY, 1905.

No. 1.

COMMENT FROM MONTH TO MONTH.

The Twenty-Fifth Annual Meeting of the Ontario Medical Association, held in Toronto on the 6th, 7th and 8th of June, was one of the best in the history of that strong, provincial organization, now one quarter of a century old. It was, perhaps, the best meeting in the last decade, both from numbers and quality, to say nothing of quantity, of papers. The discussions were also especially animated, interesting, often keen. This was a marked and noticeable feature of the meeting, and is an especially valuable one, as it brings out individual opinions and experiences. There were certain papers along political rather that scientific lines, that is as affects medical matters, in a general sense, and the appointment of committees to prosecute these matters, such as caring for certain acute forms of insanity in special wards or pavilions, of general hospitals, in the interim, shows a progressive spirit and a charitable and unselfish desire, to do all possible on behalf of this class of sick, all too perfunctorily cared for. A particular feature of these annual gatherings is the social side. Medical men, probably more than others, especially those in country practices, tied down all winter with brain-wracking and body-tiring work, when they come

out to these meetings look for and expect a little recreation of a wholesome and relaxing character. They are not all eager to sit for hours at a time, morning, noon and night, listening to the reading of papers and discussions thereon, and now that the Association has attained to the dignity of a quarter of a century of age, and has seen fit to add on another day to compass its annual work, plenty of the social side should be thrown in. Indeed, it would seem that three solid sessions in any one day is too much for the digestive faculties of even a medical man. Then we would respectfully remind chairmen of future committees that there are a whole lot of younger men under forty, who might profitably be put on committees, and not year after year see about the same composition. It is pleasing to know that the Association meeting this year brought out such large numbers from the country, and that the attendance was second best in its history. May it steadily prosper and still further develop.

There is every prospect of a continuance of the large meetings in recent years of the Canadian Medical Association, which this year convenes at Halifax from the 22nd to the 25th of August. A splendid programme has been arranged. The trip down Lake Ontario and through the Thousand Islands, shooting the numerous rapids before reaching Montreal to any who has never taken it, will alone repay for the entire journey. Then there is a boat trip to Pictou, from Montreal-five days. The scenery along the railway lines is exceedingly fine and picturesque; and the meeting is attracting many, owing to the fact that it is over twenty years since the C. M. A. last convened in Halifax. Information is to hand that a large party is going from Winnipeg and Manitoba. Montreal and Toronto will be well represented, and Ontario also promises well. One particular section of the profession in Canada should make a strong effort to be there in a body, namely, the members of the Canadian Medical Protective Association, as the occasion is the annual meeting of that ornanization, now thriving lustily. It is always safe to promise at these meetings that the entertainment will be of a high order, and this year will be no exception to the rule. Can you afford to miss it?

The Board of Trustees of the Toronto General Hospital has advertised for a General Superintendent, lay or medical, in succession to Dr. O'Reilly, and in doing so, has offered a position which, for the next decade, will be an unusually important one to fill. At this time, the hospital requires a very capable officer, and the choice. of any other than a man of force and fine administrative ability, may result disastrously. It was told in professional circles before

the 1st of July that the management had had up to that date no less than eighty applicants. This may all be talk from the street, but if true, evinces an unusual eagerness, if not unusual confidence on the part of the applicants that they have taken the measure of themselves, and the office, and find that the fit is perfect. It will as well take the keenest judgment on the part of the hospital management to discriminate. There are very few men in the medical profession who have the necessary business, hospital and professional training to undertake this work, and those who are too eager for the position would very probably make ignominious failures. Let us hope that the hospital management will put its foot down good and hard on the first appearance of any wire-pulling; and that any medical man who endeavors to "work" the Board, who may think he has a pull, will get "good and left." If a medical man is to be selected, the advisory committee should, of their knowledge of the men who are applicants, be able to advise, wisely and strongly. The question of the appointment of a business man seems to us unwise. We are not educated up to that here in Canada yet. Probably the management may after all think it wise and go hunt their man.

The attempt of the opticians of Nova Scotia to obtain incorporation as an examining body from the Legislature of that province, emphasizes the need of general practitioners taking up the work of fitting glasses. It emphasizes, moreover, the need of teaching medical faculties preparing their student and their graduates for and also examining them in this work. When doctors rail at these so-called opticians and object to them prosecuting this work, when they are not prepared to do it themselves, they are rather pursuing a dog-in-the-manger style; for it now must be apparent that people are not going to go to oculi-ts simply because doctors and eye specialists would like them to do so; and it will be a question whether legislators will continue to refuse recognition to these people, when general practitioners fail to qualify and equip themselves for the work. To many druggists the fitting of glasses has proven a profitable side line; and if people cannot be fitted for them in the offices of their family physician, they are going to go to either their druggist, their jeweller, or as in one case, in a western town their veterinary.

Bacteriology has determined that most cases of infectious summer diarrhoea are due to the bacillus dysenteria. Practically all the cases of summer diarrhoea may be included (according to Dunn in the Archives of Pediatrics for June) under the five following heads. (1) Acute nervous diarrhoea, characterized by loose

stools of normal color and odor, without abnormal constituents; (2) Irritative diarrhoea, acute intestinal indigestion of the irritative type, characterized by the absence of persistent fever, and by the presence of curds and undigested masses in the discharges. (3) Fermental diarrhoea. Acute fermental indigestion of the fermental type, characterized by the absence of fever, and by green stools of a foul or sour odor; (4) Infectious diarrhoea, characterized by the existence and persistence of fever and by the tendency towards early signs of ileo colitis, as shown by the presence of blood, and excess of mucous in the discharges. When a specific organism, the bacillus dysentriæ, is proved to be the cause, the case may be further particularized by the term infantile dysentery; (5) Rare cases occur, corresponding to the known description of heat exhaustion and cholera infantum. Of all these classes, the indigestion type, including the irritative and fermental cases, is the most common.

But the diagnosis is not nearly so difficult as the successful treatment of the patient with one of these forms of summer diarrhoea.

In a subsequent paper Dr. Dunn will deal with treatment in detail, but in all cases it is well to give an initial dose of calomel or castor oil, followed up with twenty-four to forty-eight hours of starvation, and then a very mild, bland weak food. In most cases bismuth may be employed and in some colon irrigation.