or two, and the next day increase the quantity; alternate with a delicately prepared chicken broth cooked with a little rice or barley, strained out. Then go on and nourish as you would a mild or desperate case of typhoid fever. I allow no preparation of beef. No fresh meat the balance of the season. The secondary fever on the third or fourth day means obstructed elimination, usually intestinal; and calls for a very gentle but thorough purgative, aided by mild enemata. Depression of pulse below fifty calls for strychnia, one thirtieth to sixtieth of a grain, hypodermically, but not always so, and repeated according to your judgment. Be cautious with alcoholic stimulation, knowing the fatty changes in the liver, the acute and sub-acute inflammation of the gastro-intestinal tract. Alcoholic subjects generally die; big meat eaters close behind. Concerning the kidneys pathologically, you know that they, too, are in a state of profound degeneration, and with such epithelial disintegration and the crowding of tubules with toxin and combustion products, you are not surprised at the interference and often complete annihilation of function, the uremic convulsions and death. This condition plainly tells you to refrain from drugs, in the hope of forcing function. They simply will not functionate under your rude command. Be persuasive; keep the bowels freely opened, and remember that water is your kindest friend. A light, cold whey with seltzer or Vichy does double work in nourishing and elimination. The number of things given and done more than this are, in the face of this pathology, irrational, fussy, and often harmful. In using them you must confessedly say you do not really and sincerely know what you are about. I am not talking about your notions and a case you once saw recover; our case has reached a climax, for better of for worse, and drugs are not going to solve it. If you Now, dear fellow, this is all I have to say. Professional tact and experience will fill in the finer touches of detail. will do just a few things with masterful precision and self restraint, and patiently watch with hopeful expectation and a fair confidence in the regenerating power of nature, you will have done all that you ought to have done; and will have left undone the things you ought not to have done, and wisdom is justified in her son. Now go to bed, my boy, and think about all this to-morrow, which, by the way, is Sunday. Good-night. Becords, Becollections and Beminiscences. ASSOCIATION OF MEDICAL OFFICERS OF THE ARMY AND NAVY OF THE CONFEDERACY. The Eighth Annual Meeting, Continued from the September Number. SECOND DAY AFTERNOON SESSION. The Association was called to order by the President at 3 o'clock P. M. Dr. Keller: I presume the first order of business is to report the result of the meeting of the Executive Committee. The Executive Committee in its meeting at noon determined to offer the following list of names as officers of the Association for the coming year: For President, Dr. C. H. Todd, of Owensboro, Ky.; for First Vice-President, Dr. J. D. Elliott, of New Orleans, La.; for Second Vice-President, Dr. C. A. Brock, Va.; for Third Vice-President, Dr. J. M. Fry, of Texas; for Fourth Vice-President, Dr. J. W. Steger, of Alabama; for Secretary-Treasurer the incumbent, Dr. Deering J. Roberts. Is it the pleasure of the President that we shall take up these singly, or shall we let them go collectively? The President: What is the sense of the Association? A member: I move that the report of the Committee on Nominations be concurred in unanimously. This motion was duly seconded and carried. Dr. Keller: Having finished that part of our business, I dislike to call up some business that was transacted here, I understand, yesterday morning, in my absence, but I do so. A year ago at Nashville I offered a resolution, which passed without dissent, adopting as the badge of the Confederate Surgeons' Association a single star- a plain gold star of small dimension, with the letters "C. S. A." Confederate Surgeons' Association. That was adopted. After the adjournment of the meeting it was left to Dr. Plunket to see what they could be procured for, with no other power given to that committee other than to arrange the price and purchase them. After the adjournment of that meeting that committee saw fit to entirely change this badge, and to put this button in the place of it, and I understand that the change was confirmed or approved here yesterday. I appeal to you and to the members of the Association to know if it was correct for any committee, not vested with that power, to make any change in that badge. A Voice: No, it was not. Dr. Keller: Then I move that this button be repudiated. The President: You would have to rescind the former action adopting it. It seems to me the whole thing would hinge upon the records of last year's meeting of the Association. Dr. Rowan : If this action was taken by the Executive Committee without authority, I take it there is no need of reconsideration, because a reconsideration of a thing would be acknowledging the fact that it had been passed. If it was out of order, it could be so declared and the button ignored. Dr. Keller: Mr. President, you were present at the adjournment of the last year's meeting, and I appeal to you to know if that star was not adopted as the badge to be used? The President: I tried to recollect that, but my recollection is not definite. I know there was a good deal said about it, and the star idea seemed to be favored. Dr. Keller: So far did it go that I took the button from my collar and handed it around, and it was adopted with a unanim ity of vote, and by what right Dr. Plunket changed it, I don't know. Dr. Steger: It seems to me that this question ought to be settled now, whether the button or the star shall be used. If I understand it, the proceeds from the sale of this badge, whatever it may be, a star or a button, will be used to defray our expenses. If it comes to a standstill, the button will not be sold, and neither will the star be sold, and we will lose that revenue. to me it ought to be settled now. It seems Dr. Lyon: I don't want to be unparliamentary, but the matter was very thoroughly discussed, and it was the unanimous consent at the meeting at Nashville that that button should be a star, with "C. S. A." on it, and that was unanimous, and there has been no authority for any man on the earth to make a change in it. This thing that we have here is not what we ordered at all. It does not mean anything at all. You could not tell it from one of these Federal buttons at a distance of ten feet. We want it distinctive. Dr. Rowan: I think it would be in order to have a committee to investigate this. I make a motion, for the sake of discussion, that a committee of three be appointed to investigate the facts relative to this button. Dr. Keller: To report when? Dr. Rowan At once, if possible. The President: Secretary Roberts is here. What is the record with regard to this button? Secretary Roberts: A committee was appointed at Nashville last year with authority to act and adopt a button. Of that committee James D. Plunket was Chairman, and he made a design of a button, which was accepted yesterday morning by the Association. Dr. Keller: Dr. James D. Plunket was the only one on the committee, and he was instructed to take the pattern that I gave him. Secretary Roberts: I will get the record and show you. The record shows simply this: Dr. Keller moved that a badge be adopted, a small plain gold star, with the letters "C. S. A." on it, which every member and associate member shall be entitled to wear. Seconded and carried. Dr. Keller made a motion that Dr. Plunket be made a committee of one to investigate and purchase this badge. Seconded, carried. Dr. Tichenor made a motion that the button be copyrighted. Seconded and carried. Adjourned to meet at 1: 30 P. M. next day. Let me turn over to the next day. The Association appointed Dr. Plunket a committee to select, with the Secretary, a badge or button which shall be adopted and referred to the Association of the meeting next year, which shall be accepted as the button of this Association. Dr. Fitch: To get at this question, I want to offer this resolution: Be it Resolved, That this Society of medical officers of the army and navy adopted a star as the button at the City of Nashville, and that the committee has reported the adoption of a button not in accordance with the meeting in Nashville, we therefore rescind the action of yesterday, and adopt the star as the badge and button as it was at first designed. The President: I doubt the propriety of rescinding the action when you can accomplish the same thing by reconsidering. Dr. Keller: There is no one here that voted for it yesterday as it came up. Do you recollect that there were any other votes than that of the mover of it and the man who seconded it? The President: There were several votes for it. Nobody raised any objections to it. Secretary Roberts: Your committee has entered into a contract with a jewelry company in Nashville to furnish these buttons. Dr. Keller: How many did you contract for? Secretary Roberts: I gave them the names of six hundred members. About one hundred and fifty or two hundred are at this meeting. star. Dr. Keller: At what price? Secretary Roberts: Fifty cents is what they furnish them for. |