ton B. Scott, I much regret to say, died shortly after the adjournment of that brilliant Reunion, in which he acted a most conspicuous part, and is greatly lamented by us all. The Vice President, J. M. Keller, a distinguished surgeon and medical director in our cause, has most worthily succeeded to the presidency of our Association by reason of the death of the lamented surgeon and medical director, Preston B. Scott.

At last mentioned Reunion, THE SOUTHERN PRACTITIONER, edited and owned by Comrade and Secretary of our Association Surgeon Deering J. Roberts, of Nashville, Tenn., was elected our official organ. This excellent medical monthly devotes every month a certain number of pages for "Records, Recollections and Reminiscences" in possession of Confederate surgeons and assistant surgeons, etc. Every member of our medical staff, and every medical man who was the son of a Confederate surgeon, should subscribe to this patriotic journal.

Surgeon S. H. Stout, now in his 80th year-the distinguished Medical Director of the Hospitals of the Confederate Armies and Department of Tennessee-is now contributing, through the columns of our official organ, most valuable data from the preserved entire records in his possession, which, if his valuable life be yet longer spared to perfect his now undertaken work, will prove both interesting and instructive, even at this distant day. The management of his most important department could not have been excelled.

I would suggest to those who shall attend, and to those also who cannot be present at Memphis, that they prepare papers on some particular subject associated with their Confederate army experience. To enumerate a few subjects for the occasion in question, I would, among others, propose: 1st. Gunshot or other wounds of the chest. 2d. Similar injuries of the abdomen. 3d. Wounds of the joints. 4th. Amputations. 5th. Erysipelas and hospital gangrene. 6th. The remedies. employed by Confederate surgeons and assistant surgeons connected with their treatment, and the sanitary measures used in all the foregoing cases. 7th. Diseases encountered on the march, in camp and at hospital posts, and how treated, not forgetting typhoid fever in the proposed list of diseases.

But for our present Association we would be only poorly informed with respect to each other. On September 19, follow

ing the last Reunion, our distinguished comrade, Surgeon Hunter McGuire, of Richmond, Va., medical director on the staff of the immortal Stonewall Jackson, passed from our midst to his final reward beyond the skies; and on the 24th of the same month our President of the Association, having contracted typhoid fever in the mountains where he had gone to recuperate, fell a victim to this remorseless enemy. Official letters were sent by me to the families of these two greatly distinguished comrade-surgeons-both having been medical di rectors. These letters were also published in the papers of this city, possibly in other cities, as well as in THE SOUTHERN PRACTITIONER and the Confederate Veteran of corresponding dates. So far as we know, at this moment, but three of our medical directors are still living. I quote from one of them, whose pen is actively engaged in valuable contributions to our official organ:

"Doubtless my grief at the death of my friend, Dr. Preston B. Scott, and the feeling of lonesomeness on account of that bereavement, caused my lapse of memory at the time I stated that I was the only survivor of the medical directors of the C. S. A. Dr. Tebault, Surgeon General of the U. C. V. organization, has committed the same error. Dr. Keller's silence probably contributed to our lapses of memory touching his military service, of which I was thoroughly cognizant during the war. None of us at that time (as he is now) was in higher repute than Dr. Keller. For he was active, judicious and just in his administration as a medical director. His skill as a surgeon was universally acknowledged by the medical staff.

"When Gen. Bragg took command of the Army of Tennessee, the medical director on his staff was Surgeon A. J. Foard, whose assistant medical director was Surgeon E. A. Flewellen. It was during the period when Dr. Foard left Gen. Bragg's staff, and was on the staff of Gen. A. S. Johnston, that Dr. Flewellen became the medical director of the Army of Tennessee, and he occupied that position at the battle of Chickamauga. Upon the return of Dr. Foard to the Army of Tennesseee, he again became medical director of that army and continued in that position until the end of the war. Dr. Flewellen resumed his position as assistant medical director." Surgeon Flewellen is still living at Atlanta, Ga.

I hope to meet as large an attendance as possible at Memphis. Fraternally and sincerely your comrade,

C. H. TEBAULT, M.D.,

Surgeon General United Confederate Veterans,

Staff Gen. J. B. Gordon.

The General Commanding asks that all comrades render hearty assistance to the Surgeon General and the Medical Association in their noble endeavors.

By order of

J. B. GORDON, General Commanding. GEORGE MOORMAN, Adjutant General and Chief of Staff.

REGRETS.-We are informed by a brief personal note that our distinguished and able contributor, Dr. S. H. Stout, of Dallas, Tex., has been suffering from a severe attack of La Grippe, and has not been able to favor us with a continuation of his most excellent papers for this number. We know that we will be joined heartily by our many readers in the sincere hope of his complete recovery, and that we may be so fortunate as to have the usual space filled by him in our June and subsequent issues.

DEAR DOCTOR-Your circular letter, together with "membership blank," directed to me, was duly received and the membership blank was filled out to my perfect satisfaction, when along came John Pogue with a sore leg (his daddy, old Jim, who is so religious that he calls his wife "Sister Pogue," has had a sore leg, too, "for so long a time that the memory of man runneth not to the contrary"); but John-to return to my mutton-along came John Pogue with a sore leg, for

which he wanted some "intment," and, while I was preparing a lot of ointment, i. e., a mixture of petroline, sulphate of zinc, sugar of lead, tincture of iodine, carbolic acid and one thing and another that would knock the socks off of John's leg (if it should not knock the sore off), John busied himself reading my private correspondence and scribbling over my papers, and on the face of my membership blank there stands out in bold relief such stuff as this:

"Mr. foister mi swet hart is moved of too a post orfice named Ebb do you no whar Eb air jon POgUe."

Such across the face of my membership blank necessitates a change of programme-that is to say, I must adopt other means to let you know my record as a Confederate soldier and my record as a medical man; for, to appear at the 1901 Reunion as a full-fledged C. S. surgeon would, to say the least of it, be playing the role of the jackdaw dressed in the feathers of the peacock.

But here is the part of my record your "membership blank" calls for-made out according to the best of my knowledge, recollection and belief:

"Name"-John Bird Foster. If I were to part my name in the middle, as it seems to be the desire of so many doctors to do, I would call myself J. Bird Foster, and thus be eternally reminding my friends and other correspondents of that ornithological freak that is said to make a journey to the infernal regions (hell, as it were,) every Friday, but I fail to do so. So put me down, if I am put down, "J. B."

"Time of enlistment "-There I am stumped, so to speak. If by "enlistment" is meant joining a company with the intention of going to the war, I would fill the blank with: "January, 1861-I believe."

I think it was in May, 1861, or about the 1st of June, that I was mustered into the Confederate States army, at Corinth, Miss., along with the Fifteenth Regiment Mississippi Infantry Volunteers. To be explicit, I went the whole hog. As paradoxical as it may seem, I went into the war before it began and came out of it after it was all over-and corn in roasting

ear.

"Rank at time of enlistment"-Judge of the Kangaroo Court of Company E, Fifteenth Mississippi Infantry,

"Rank at close of the war"-Judge of the Kangaroo Court for the WHOLE REGIMENT, Fifteenth Mississippi Infantry Volunteers!!!

"When and where surrendered "-I was turned out of Rock Island Barracks, a Federal prison in Illinois, on the 18th of June, 1865-after having tarried with the blue-bellies one year six months and three days.

You will see from the foregoing that I was no doctor "for and endurin' of the war," and nothing but the custodian of a British-rifled musket and a cartridge box-and a non-commissioned Judge of the Kangaroo Court (simply of Company E at the beginning, but I went higher, as you will observe; for long before the war closed-in fact, at the organization of our regiment—I was unanimously elected [but not commissioned] Judge of the Kangaroo Court for the whole Fifteenth Regiment Mississippi Infantry, as Col. Jim Binford, of Duck Hill., Miss., or Chancery Clerk John S. King, of Grenada, Miss., or Calvin T. Witty, Chancery Clerk, Winona, Miss., would be glad to state-or, to put it a little stronger, keen to swear. Witty could also state that he and I, afoot, carried a ham of bacon from Lodi, near Winona, to Tupelo, and thence to Abbeville, on the Mississippi Central, now Illinois Central Railroad, and failed to cut a slice from it! We held it, shouldered it and "toted" it in trust for some comrades. I will mention this matter again before finishing this letter.) But I digress.

May be this is a good place to tell you that I held another position, for half a day, during the war. I was Chaplain of the Fifteenth Mississippi Infantry, for a few hours, at Jackson, Miss., and delivered a very powerful, quite a feeling, and, were it not for innate modesty, I would say, an extremely eloquent funeral oration at the burial of a superannuated cow that had been issued to the Fifteenth Mississippi as beef. Embalmed beef would have been a luxury, highly palatable and easily masticated, alongside the aged beast whose funeral I preached at Jackson. The whole regiment turned out. Putting a ragged blanket over a camp-kettle, we had a muffled drum. The place of interment was just in front of the brigade commissary and all were in tears, yet they didn't seem to be crying. But, how does it go? Yes, I have it