Secretary, Lecturer and Organizer-Rev. Wm. Moore, D.D., Ottawa, Ont.

Executive Council-Appointed by His Excellency, the Governor-General: Hon. Sydney A. Fisher, B.A., P.C., Minister of Agriculture, Ottawa, Ont.; R. L. Borden, Esq., K.C., M.P., Halifax, N.S; F. Montizambert, I.S.O., M.D., F.R.C.S., Direc tor-General of Public Health, Ottawa, Ont.; H. Beaumont Small, Esq., M.D., Ottawa, Ont.; J. W. Robertson, Esq., Ottawa, Ont.; G. II. Perley, Esq., M.P., Ottawa, Ont.; Sir James A. Grant, M.D., K.C.M.G., Ottawa, Ont.; Hon. G. W. Burbidge, Judge of the Exchequer Court, Ottawa, Ont.; James Manuel, Esq., Ottawa, Ont.; E. J. Barrick, Esq., M.D., Toronto, Ont. Elected by the Association: Rt. Rev. Dr. Hamilton, Bishop of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ont.; Chas. A. Hodgetts, Esq., M.D., Sec. Provincial Board of Health, Toronto, Ont.; J. G. Adami, Esq., M.D., Montreal, Que.; E. P. Lachapelle, Esq., M.D., President, Provincial Board of Health of Quebec; R. L. Botsford, Esq., M.D., Moncton, N.B.; Hon. F. A. Laurence, M.P., Truro, N.S.; J. G. Toombs, Esq., M.D., Mount Stewart, P.E.I.; Gordon Bell, Esq., M.D., Winnipeg, Man.; J. D. Lafferty, Esq., M.D., Calgary, N.W.T.; C. J. Fagan, Esq., M.D., Provincial Board of Health, Victoria, B.C.

The meeting then adjourned.

In the evening a large audience gathered in the Assembly Hall of the Normal School to hear the instructive and interesting address of Dr. J. G. Adami, Professor of Pathology, etc., McGill University, Montreal, Que., on "Adaptation and Tuberculosis. His Excellency, the Governor-General, presided, and in a brief address introduced the lecturer, who, upon taking the floor was listened to with close attention while he proceeded to unfold the mutual relation and interaction between the invading bacillus and the defensive forces of the human body. It is impossible for a layman to attempt to condense a discourse which, though it occupied nearly an hour in delivery, was a model of compactness and brevity. The common judgment was that it was valuable contribution to the literature of the subject. It is to be published as an appendix to the annual report.

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After the usual votes of thanks to all whose services it seeme◄ fitly to acknowledge in this way, the meeting adjourned, to meet on the call of the Executive Council early in 1906.

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TORONTO, MAY, 1905.

Editorials.

FRESH AIR, WITH BEEF, EGGS AND MILK, OF THE
FIRST IMPORTANCE IN THE TREATMENT
OF CONSUMPTION.

FRESH air, with beef, eggs and milk, continue to head the list in the therapy of pulmonary consumption; but all these agencies should work together, if the best results are to be obtained. Some

two years ago an American, named Hubbard, while exploring in Labrador, perished miserably of starvation, though surrounded by the purest air in the world. Per contra, if a consumptive were to be shut up in a close room and fed on prime beef, the limit of repletion would soon be reached and he would reject his food. Pure, cold air acts as a stimulant to nutrition. It enables one to eat with a good appetite. The introduction into the lungs of air containing 20 per cent. of oxygen and the circulation of that gas through the capillaries cause nutritive changes to progress steadily throughout the body. Worn-out or exhausted cells are displaced and carried away, to be thrown out as effete material. If work be done, or if exercise be taken in pure air, waste of tissue is increased. Increased waste of tissue excites a craving for food. When a sufficient quantity of food is taken, fresh pabulum is introduced through the blood, and its utilization by the cells of the tissues of the body accomplishes the work of repair.

The consumptive patient has an organism in which there is a marked tendency to rapid metabolism, and he is made so by heredity. But this natural tendency may be intensified by over-work at a laborious occupation, or by dissipation. His lungs are small, weak, and are predisposed to congestion. The consumptive is inclined to leanness, and he does not fatten easily. His assimilative organs do not extract the largest amount of nutriment out of the food he eats, and he requires a larger quantity of food to produce fatness than an individual who has a sound organism.

Ulcers of the lungs resulting from the break-down of tubercular lymphatics are benefited if the sufferer inhales pure air night and day. However, it would be useless to expect the purest air in the world to heal such tuberculous ulcers if a sufficiency of nutritive food were not supplied so as to furnish the raw material necessary for the repair of the ulcerated tissues. An anecdote told of a distinguished veterinarian of the French army illustrates the necessity of prescribing nutritive food, if a physician would assist in the repair of ulcerated tissues. On being asked what treatment he used for galled shoulders in horses, he replied, "Oats."

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The importance of nutritious food in the treatment of tuber culous disorders is well understood by the medical directors sanatoria for consumptives, who strive by fresh air, exercise suitable cases, and bitter tonics to increase the quantity of nutriti ve material introduced into the organisms of their patients. A French medical authority says: "Consumptive patients must be made to

eat, with or without appetite, with or without the consent of their stomachs; hence the necessity of gavage."

Of course, these remarks, or others of a similar nature, are made by a great many writers of the medical press; but they will bear repetition, because in them is found the pith of the successful treatment of pulmonary consumption, and also because tubercular disease is very common.

A sanatorium is the best place for a consumptive, because while he is an inmate of such an hospital he is made to breathe pure air, and also because he requires the watchful eye and the directing voice of a physician to overrule his whims, to keep his appetite up to the top notch, and to see that a sufficiency of the best nutritive material is introduced into his frail organism every day in the week.

A practitioner who uses his stethoscope freely soon learns that tubercular diseases of the lungs are pretty common-more common than the public believe. There are many individuals in the community who, without being consumptives in the common acceptation of the word, are "delicate," or "have weak lungs," yet they do pretty good work, lead useful lives, and support their families. It is impossible to place all such persons in sanatoria; in fact, it would not be feasible to build enough sanatoria to hold them, even if they were willing to enter such institutions. In some cases of this kind reluctance to enter a sanatorium is, of course, likely to be overcome by the obstinacy of a pulmonary complaint and the persistence of grave symptoms; and, if recourse to it be not delayed too long, sanatorium life is most useful, often helping to turn the scale in favor of the prolongation of a useful life. It is also true that, even when the resistance to tubercular invasion is high, a regulated sanatorium life gives the best and quickest restoration to health and usefulness.

Ambition, or the struggle for existence, often interfere to prevent a man from stepping down and out of a lucrative situation to take a holiday, or the open-air treatment with the regulated diet, and all the advantages that these agencies imply. Should this be so, rest of body and mind, fresh air in the dwelling, beef, eggs and milk, together with the medicinal use of cod liver oil, arsenic and the glycero-phosphates, will help to stave off the evil day.

J. J. C.

EPIDEMIC CEREBRO-SPINAL MENINGITIS FROM THE PUBLIC HEALTH STANDPOINT.

FROM the report of the Registrar-General of Ontario for 1903, we learn that for that year 114 deaths from cerebro-spinal meningitis occurred in this province. As the report of the Registrar-General is always a year behind, no information can be gleaned as to the incidence of the disease in question in Ontario during the year 1904. During the current year occasional items of news, culled from the papers, show that cerebro-spinal meningitis has claimed a few victims in different parts of the province. For instance, during last March a single death caused by it occurred in a village situated in the western part of this province. During the same month four deaths from it occurred in Russell County, Ontario.

In reply to our inquiry as to the history and cause of this last outbreak, Dr. Hodgetts, Secretary of the Ontario Board of Health' says: "Three deaths occurred in one family, the son and daughter dying at home. The father was the last of the three to develop the disease, and was taken suddenly ill at his brother's a day or two after the burial of his daughter. The fourth death occurred in a house immediately opposite the house of the first case, being a nephew of the patient just referred to. This young man (married) had assisted to nurse his cousin.

"As evidence of communicability the facts are as follows: The first case, a young shantyman, returned home ill and died two or three days after his arrival. The father went away immediately after the funeral to be married, and shortly after his return home a daughter was brought from school in Ottawa, and in less than three days from her return home was taken ill and died. The father and the nephew were taken ill about the same time; both died. The houses were, in my opinion, unsanitary places to live in, being built on the ground with little or no ventilation, as is the custom with log houses, and altogether the general surroundings were unsanitary and bad."

Again, as an evidence of its communicability, Dr. A. B. Craig died at Philadelphia on March 13th of cerebro-spinal meningitis, which he contracted from a patient on whom he had been in attendance.

In the city of New York it has prevailed epidemically during the past winter and spring, and 830 persons, the majority of them children, have fallen victims to it up to April 10th, 1905. A com