REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON MEDICAL LITERATURE. THE Chairman of the Committee for the purpose of reporting on the Medical Literature of the year 1867 would respectfully state that, with the objects of getting the requisite knowledge upon which to base a report, the following circular was issued and sent to all of the publishers of medical books and journals in the United States. CIRCULAR. CINCINNATI, June 5th, 1867. The undersigned were appointed at the last Annual Meeting of the American Medical Association, held in Cincinnati, a Committee on Medical Literature for the current year. The duties of this Committee are defined in the following regulations of the Association : "The Committee on Medical Literature shall prepare an Annual Report on the general character of the periodical Medical Publications of the United States in reference to the more important articles, therein presented to the profession, on Original Medical Publications, on Medical Compilations and Compends by American writers, on Medical Reprints of Foreign Medical Works; and on all such measures as may be deemed advisable for encouraging a national literature of our own." Being desirous of making as full a report as possible, the Committee desire that you shall forward to the Chairman a copy of all Medical Books, Pamphlets, Essays, Monographs, Periodicals, Reports, Lectures, Proceedings of Societies, etc., that may be issued by you, as early as convenient after publication, that they may be brought to the notice of the profession. These favors will be advantageous to publishers, and will facilitate the objects had in view by the appointment of the Committee, and greatly oblige, Yours, respectfully, GEO. MENDENHALL, Chairman. R. R. McILVAIN, GEO. C. BLACKMAN, E. WILLIAMS, P. S. CONNOR. This course was deemed proper, as it could not be supposed that the Committee would be able to purchase all the books published during the year, for the purpose of giving an abstract, review, or bibliographical notice of them. This circular was also published promptly by all of our medical journals, so far as known, and notice called to it by the editors in their usual obliging and courteous style. Not a single response has been made by any one of our VOL. XIX.-9 numerous publishing houses, although one small volume was sent by its author. The following journals were placed at the disposal of the Committee: The Southern Journal of the Medical Sciences. The Chicago Medical Examiner. The Buffalo Medical and Surgical Journal. The St. Louis Medical and Surgical Journal. A few numbers of the Leavenworth Medical Herald. A portion of the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal. A number of the Dental Register of Cincinnati. Volume 8th of the Dental Cosmos of Philadelphia. Report of the Metropolitan Board of Health of New York for 1867. These constitute the sum total of medical literature furnished the Committee. It is difficult to conceive that publishers, whose interest consists in disseminating widely a knowledge of medical publications, could so far exhibit the illiberality indicated. For several years past they have been liberally patronized. Many of them have amassed fortunes from the profession, and yet, when called upon by a Committee of this Association, representing the medical men of the United States, we have this beggarly response to the request for assistance in making up the Annual Report on the Medical Literature of 1867. The Committee has, therefore, been under the necessity of procuring the requisite information from such sources as came within its power. Under these circumstances, therefore, it can hardly be expected that a full report can be made. The catalogue of publications appended it is hoped may be found tolerably correct and complete, although unassisted by the publishers. Sufficient information has, however, been collected to show that the current year, covered by this report, has furnished an unusually large amount of medical publications, numbering, as nearly as can be ascertained, about two hundred, exclusive of medical journals, but including transactions of societies, reports, and miscellaneous matter, of domestic and foreign authorship. Much of it is evidently of an excellent quality, and well calculated to elevate the character and reputation of American medical literature. During the late war, authorship and publications were largely in the line of military medicine and surgery and sanitary science. But since this unhappy |