report of credential committee, reporting favorably upon the name of Dr. Cummings Harris, who was unanimously elected. Dr. Burns made report of special committee appointed at last meeting to revise constitution and by-laws.

Dr. Jelks moved that the Memphis and Shelby County Medical Society invite the Mississippi Valley Medical Association to hold its next annual meeting here in October, 1902. Discussed by Drs. Frank Jones, McKinney, Ellett and Burns. Carried.

Regular meeting, Tuesday evening, October 2, 1902.

The President, Dr. Alfred Moore, in the chair. Present were Drs. Barton, Battle Malone, Burns, Bell, A. B. Williams, Morrow, Black, Hall, Harris, Van Horn, Smythe, Frank Jones, Michie, Ellett, Rudisill, Turner, Ham, and McCown.

Visitors-Dr. J. L. McGehee and Dr. W. P. Yerger. The minutes of the last meeting were read and approved. Dr. Burns presented an interesting case of lichen planus, and it was discussed by Drs. Battle Malone and Smythe.

Dr. Barton read the names of J. L. McGehee and W. II. Baldwin as applicants for membership.

Dr. Burns, chairman of the committee appointed to revise the constition and by-laws so as to conform to the new coustitution and by-laws suggested by the American Medical Association, presented the report, which was adopted after some discussion.

BOOK REVIEWS.

THE DISEASES OF INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD, By L. Emmett Holt, A.M., M.D., Professor of Diseases of Children in the College of Physicians and Surgeons (Columbia University); Consulting Physician to the New York Infant Asylum, and to the Hospital for Ruptured and Crippled. Second edition, revised and enlarged, with 225 illustrations, including nine colored plates. Sold only by subscription. Prices, cloth, $6.00; half leather, $6.50. D. Appleton & Co., 436 Fifth Avenue, New York.

It is with genuine pleasure that we welcome the second edition of Holt's monumental work on the diseases of infancy and childhood. There is no contribution to the literature of this subject, be it foreign or domestic, which has done more toward placing this study on the plane of scientific accuracy.

It is the outcome of twenty odd years of experience in private and hospital practice to which this book may be ascribed, and the inherent capability of the

author is emphasized on every page of the book. In a clear and simple style, Dr. Holt has consecutively considered the various diseased conditions to which the child may fall a victim, and presents a thorough exposition of every feature of the diagnosis and care of these cases that the practitioner may desire enlightenment upon. Special attention is paid to the diseases of the newly born child, nutrition, its derangements and diseases, the acute diseases of the lungs and intestinal tract, and the specific infectious diseases. To this last section more than two hundred pages have been devoted, fifty of these being accorded the subject of diphtheria. Splendid illustrations, beautiful printing, and otherwise complete to the extreme of thoroughness, this work will continue to add to its host of friends in the profession.

A TEXT-BOOK ON DISEASES OF INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD. For the use of Students and Practitioners. By Henry Koplik, M.D., Attending Pediatrist to Mt. Sinai Hospital, New York; ex-President of American Pediatric Society, etc. Octavo, 675 pages, 169 engravings and 30 plates in colors and monochrome. Cloth, $5.00, net; leather, $6.00, net.

Since the name of Koplik is already more than well known for his contributions to the development of the study of the diseases of infancy and childhood, a textbook devoted to this subject from his pen will meet with a cordial welcome from the medical profession, and this welcome will be deserved, for in this book he has added to the supply of text-books on this subject a work that will not find oblivion on account of its lack of originality.

The author has availed himself of the luxuriant production of pediatric literature existing on both sides of the Atlantic in various languages, and has gathered and unified the world's best practice in a systematic and condensed volume. But in doing this, he does not lose his individuality, but inspires the reader with his own valuable experience and careful judgment in a comparison of the value of the work of other pediatrists.

Koplik has given exhaustive consideration to the methods of examination and physical diagnosis, the subject of infant feeding, the chapters on diseases of the lungs, stomach, intestines and heart. Every other detail connected with this field has similarly received full and attractive treatment, and the volume through. out maintains a clinical and practical tone. Illustrations abound.

We shall look to see Koplik's work attain importance among text-books on pediatrics.

A TEXT-BOOK OF HISTOLOGY, By Dr. Ladislaus Szymonowicz, Professor of Histology and Embryology in the University of Lemberg. Translated by John B. MacCallum, M.D., Johns Hopkins Medical School, Baltimore. Octavo, 437 pages, 277 illustrations, including 57 full-page plates in colors and monochrome. Cloth, $4.75, net. Lea Brothers & Co., Philadelphia and New York. 1902.

The development of the science of histology is due largely to the efforts of the Germans, for with their painstaking persistence they have succeeded in bringing out the minutiae of the microscopic construction of tissues that could hardly have been attained by a less laborious nation of investigators.

Among histologists in Germany, Szymonowicz is preeminent, and his work on histology is a monument to his efforts. It is beautifully illustrated, and very clear in its descriptions of technique. In preparing the book for the needs of American students, Dr. MacCallum has added many desirable points, and has also further enriched its series of engravings and colored plates.

I WOULD be remiss in my duty and callous to an innate sense of gratitude if I did not embrace this opportunity to express my appreciation of the distinguished honor which you have conferred upon me. Under the guidance of your efficient secretary, the Tri-State Medical Association of Mississippi, Arkansas and Tennessee shines as a star of the first magnitude in the galaxy of medical societies. You have acquired a reputation far and near for the high character and thoroughness of your work, which you well merit. In expressing the hope that this meeting shall be no exception to your past record, I bespeak your hearty coöperation in my endeavor to discharge, in an impartial manner, the executive duties incumbent upon me.

The time allotted to these remarks would not permit me to even sketch an outline of the history of medicine. I think we can get no clearer and more beautiful view of it than to behold the picture which Baas presents. He says: "Medical science on the whole as regards its various phases and epochs of development, may be likened to a large picture, whose

* President's Address, delivered before the Tri-State Medical Association of Mississippi, Arkansas and Tennessee, Nineteenth Annual Meeting, Memphis, November 11-13, 1902.

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atmosphere, tinted by unmeasured distance, displays only a few clearer cloud forms in somewhat definite outlines and masses, while the limited background exhibits in perspective lofty temples, about whose portals wander priests in ample mantles to guard them from the entrance of the uncalled. On either side appear mighty crags and groups of lofty trees, whose foliage is penetrated by the powerful rays of the noonday sun, while the foreground greets us in undimmed brillianey and instinct with life. To the distant sky, with its cloudy forms, we may compare the mythical era of medicine with its storied gods and demigods of punishment and healing. To the background, the cognate priestly era, with its sacerdotal physicians and theurgic medicine, and its works hallowed by faith. The middle ground may be likened to the union of the terrestrial and celestial philosophy with medicine, the philosophic period; and finally, the clear foreground, to the scientific period with its practical principles and ideas."

At the risk of marring this picture, I would erect in the foreground a temple of science, and incidentally note the influence of the thought of the time upon its construction. It is true, as Dr. Holmes says: "Medicine is as sensitive to outside influences, political, religious, philosophical, imaginative, as is the barometer to the changes of atmospheric density." So it was while Columbus and other adventurers were exploring unknown seas and opening new continents; while Copernicus was exploring the heavens and discovering the true system of the universe; while Martin Luther was breaking through old traditions leading men out into the freedom of truth; Andreas Vesalus, refusing to believe that the narrow trousers of his contemporaries could overcome the strong curvature of the thigh bones which Galen described, was securing and promulgating facts which are the pillars upon which our temple rests.

Harvey, catching the spirit of the Elizabethan period, gave to the world the first fruits of the reformation. The field of inductive-experimental physiology lay fallow for almost a century after Harvey. Not until after Newton had discovered the law of gravitation and had given to the world his Principia, did Haller, in Germany, lay the foundation of modern experimen

tal-physiology, and Morgagni, in Italy, that of pathological anatomy. The deductive-experimental spirit of this age also manifested itself in other lines, and Lavoiser, overthrowing the antiphlogistic theory of Stahl, with Black and others of the period founded chemistry.

Upon these pillars, our temple may be said to rest. To even mention the illustrious names who have culled from nature the material for its completion would be more than a task for the evening. Suffice it to say, under the influence of Laennec and Louis, of Skoda and Virchow, it stands today an imposing structure of scientific medicine.

In this age of materialistic tendencies,of improved technique, when the natural sciences have reached a degree of perfection until now undreamed of; when the experiments of Emil Fischer on fermentation and of Ehrlich on the toxins, antitoxins and lysins have all but unveiled the cell; when by the introduction of the methods of Vant. Hoff and Arrhenius, the researches of Loeb on artificial parthenogenesis and the effects of ions of various sorts on muscular and neural activity have all but revealed the secrets of cell life, we are apt to forget or at least minimize the truth that medicine is first of all an art whose object is the relief and cure of the ills of suffering humanity. The thoughtful mind cannot fail to be reminded of Emil Kratzman's observation on the French school of pathological anatomy. Speaking of which he said: "In France everyone experiments with the sick, less to attain the best method of cure than to enrich science with an interesting discovery and to advance the accuracy of diagnosis by some new physical sign." In the same connection, we recall the response of the illustrious Skoda when in consultation upon one occasion, he was asked about the medicine to be prescribed, he replied, "Ach, das ist ja alles eins."

The next tendency which I would call your attention to is specialism in medicine. With the vast acquisitions of medical knowledge today,it is not surprising that we encounter such statements as the following: "It is necessary that there should be some election in schools of medicine." It is no doubt true that "special knowledge on special subjects, founded on broad general knowledge," is demanded. But especial emphasis