A JOURNAL OF MEDICINE AND SURGERY

Published Monthly by WESTERN MEDICAL REVIEW COMPANY, Omaha, Nebr. Per Annum, $2.00. The WESTERN MEDICAL REVIEW is the journal of the Nebraska State Medical Association and is sent by order of the Association to each of its members.

Dr. P. H. Salter of Norfolk, Neb., was born September 8, 1862, in Ottawa, the capital of Canada. His early education was received in the public schools of Ottawa and later of Port Hope Ontario. He took one year in the department of Arts in Toronto University and entered Trinity Medical College in 1880, graduating from that school in 1884. He then went to Edinburgh, Scotland, and took a course in the Extra Mural school for the session of 1884-1885. In April, 1885, he took L. R. C. P. & S. Edinburgh and L. F. P. & S. Glasgow and L. M. Edinburgh and Glasgow. For the next six months he was interne in the service of Dr. Joseph Bell in Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.

His first practice was as surgeon on the Clan Line of steamships between England and India for seven months. Afterwards he attended clinics in London for nine months and returned home to Canada in the summer of 1886.. He first located in his home town of Port Hope where he practiced for three years, coming to Nebraska in June, 1889, and locating in Norfolk, where he has remained continuously ever since.

In addition to a large general practice Dr. Salter has done considerable surgical work of a high order and has been District Surgeon for the Chicago and Northwestern Railway since 1891. He also enjoys quite an extensive consultation practice in NorthEast Nebraska.

One of Dr. Salter's most commendable achievements was the organization and development of the Elkhorn Valley Medical Society, which was organized at Norfolk in 1895 through his efforts aided by Dr. F. A. Long of Madison. This society has since become the largest and most active district society in the state. Dr. Salter was its president in 1899.

As a citizen he stands high in the estimation of his fellow townsmen and takes an active part in public affairs. He is a physician of sterling moral rectitude and will fill with credit the position with which he has been honored by the medical profession of Nebraska.

A Physician's Business Journal.

We have just received from the publishers the first number of the first volume of the Philadelpiha Physician's Business Journal. It is an unpretentious little publication, but we hope it may grow and develop into a powerful educational influence.

The business side of the practice of medicine has received little attention at the hands of medical educators and the business problems which confront most medical men, especially the young and inexperienced, are many and perplexing.

The physicians of Philadelphia have united into a number of district associations for mutual help, protection and co-operation in business matters and are organizing a vigorous campaign against dead-beatism and other vicious practices. We sincerely hope this spirit of mutual dependence and co-operation may spread and permeate the profession everywhere and we heartily wish abundant success to this new departure in medical jour

nalism.

*By L. M. SHAW, M. D., Osceola, Neb.

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Nebraska State Medical Association:

The honor of having been elected President of the State Medical Association is one that comes to but few men and is one of which any man may be justly proud. Permit me, therefore, to thank you most cordially for this distinguished honor. In assuming the duties of your presiding officer, the extent of my obligations became more and more apparent, as I called to mind the eminent gentlemen who have preceded me, and in preparing for this occasion, my mind has not been free from anxiety touching matters most suitable for your consideration. In my discourse this evening, I have not thought it best to discuss any scientific subject, but to give briefly a resume of the various movements which are today creating so much interest both in the minds of the profession and the public. Movements which, through education, will bring about not only prevention, relief and cure of disease, but will serve to bring the public to recognize the attitude of the medical profession in its recommendations of sanitary legislation and medical practice acts.

A NATIONAL HEALTH BUREAU.

That the government and people of the United States are at last awakening to the necessity of definite and comprehensive health legislation, is quite apparent as witnessed by the adoption of a plank in the platforms of the two great national political parties, endorsing the organization of all existing national public health agencies into a national bureau of health. With those of these political parties committed by their platform declarations to advance sanitation, there should be no difficulty in securing a bill in Congress in the near future to that effect.

During the meeting of the International Congress on Tuberculosis, a conference was held in Washington, of those especially interested in the question of a National Department of Health.

At this conference were represented most if not all of the various health organizations of the United States, and it was here that the anonuncement was made that President Roosevelt proposed as one of his administrative policies, "which he afterwards recommended to Congress," the concentration into one. department of the principal bureaus relating to public health,

*Delivered before the Nebraska State Medical Association, Omaha, May 4-6, 1909.