18. The Principal Meteorological Conditions in Michigan during the Year 1878: Compiled in the office of the Board, in great part, from observations by Meteorological Observers of the Board. 19. Weekly Reports of Diseases in Michigan during the year 1878, including a Compilation of the Weekly Reports from Health Officers of Cities and from Regular Correspondents of the Board: Compiled in the office of the Board. 20. Outline or Plan for Examinations in Sanitary Science: H. F. Lyster, M. D., Committee. Besides this work, preparation was made for the Sanitary Conventions which were held under the auspices of the Board; the first at Detroit in January last, over which, in the absence of Hon. H. P. Baldwin, its President, Dr. Wm. Brodie as first Vice President presided; the second was held at Grand Rapids in February, and was presided over by Rt. Rev. George D. Gillespie. It is believed that both of these conventions were successful in the accomplishment of the purposes for which they were projected, viz. to extend and increase the interest felt in the work of the Board and sanitary problems now pressing for a solution. At these conventions the following papers were presented, which will appear in the Secretary's Report for 1880: TITLES OF PAPERS PRESENTED AT THE SANITARY CONVENTION AT DETROIT, JANUARY 7 AND 8, 1880. Opening Address: By Wm. Brodie, M. D., President. Contamination of Drinking Water by Infiltration of Organic Matter through the Soil: By Victor C. Vaughan, M. D. Supply of Milk in Cities: By G. A. Watkins. Contagious Diseases among Cattle: By Alexander J. Murray, V. S. Methods of Study in Sanitary Science: By John S. Caulkins, M. D. Light in the Public Schools, and School Life in relation to Vision: By Dr. C. J. Lundy. Limitation of Pulmonary Consumption: By H. F. Lyster, M. D. Ventilation of Dwelling Houses: By Duncan McLeod, M. D. Principles of Ventilation: By Thomas A. Parker. Remarks by John S. Billings, M. D., U. S. A. Use of Household Filters for Potable Water: By Prof. Albert B. Prescott. City of Destruction: By R. C. Kedzie. Training Schools of Cookery: Mrs. W. Jenison. Adulteration of Food: By Dr. Carl Jungk. School Hygiene: By Prof. J. M. B. Sill. Cosmetics: By C. C. Yemans, M. D. AT GRAND RAPIDS, FEBRUARY 17 AND 18, 1880. Opening Address by Rt. Rev. Geo. D. Gillespie, President. General Sanitation,-its importance to the Public Welfare, and a plea for better methods: By Henry B. Baker, M. D. Duties of the Christian in respect to the Laws of Health: By Rev. J. Morgan Smith. The Sewerage of the City: By A. C. Sekell. Prevention Better than Cure: By M. Veenboer, M. D. Air Moistening. Relations of the Clergy to Sanitary Reform: By Rev. J. F. Con over. Cooking: By Mrs. S. A. Ballard. System of Sewerage at the State Public School: By Hon. C. D. Randall. The Health of the Young as Affected by School and School Architecture: By Prof. E. A. Strong. Some Conditions of Combustibility: By R. C. Kedzie, M. D. Kalamazoo, May 12, 1880. REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON EX-PRESIDENT COX'S ADDRESS. MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:-One year ago Dr. Cox, then President of this Association, took occasion in his address to speak of the great prevalence of criminal abortion, portraying in fitting terms its moral depravity, its physiological evils, its direct tendency to encourage licentiousness, and to some extent discussed the means by which it might be checked. The address was referred to your committee for report at this session. In making this report, your committee beg leave to say that until the moral sense of the people, now greatly debased on this subject, can be quickened to make a higher and truer estimate of the enormity of this crime against all moral and physical laws, but little can be done to arrest the evil. The medical profession condemn it, nature herself pleads against it, and human laws forbid it; but fashion, laziness, and sordid selfishness unite to plead for it, and with far too much success. Against these latter influences the medical profession make impotent war; the terrors of law furnish no check, until the moral nature of the people has been educated to understand that, in its moral aspects, deliberate abortion is deliberate murder. The difficulty in the way of abating this monstrous crime by law lies in the fact that, before murder or manslaughter can be established before a jury, a living human being must have been shown to have existed, and shown also to have been destroyed. By the common law, the period of quickening has been recognized as the beginning of life, because the motion of the child in the womb is the first proof of life cognizable by the senses. But by whose senses? Manifestly the mother's own senses. Hence, to establish the offense, it is necessary to prove by the mother, if living, that she felt foetal motion before the abortion was committed; or, if she be dead or if she refuse to testify, it is competent to prove that she admitted to some person or persons that she had felt the child's motion. By common law, this is deemed sufficient to establish the first and fundamental fact, that there was a life to take away-a living human being to kill. If this first fact be thus established, and it be possible, then, to prove that this life was deliberately taken away,-that this living human being was killed, -the crime, as a matter of proof, is established. But will a jury convict? Even when proof is fullest and clearest, will a jury inflict the penalty of the law? Common observation and experience give us the answer in the negative. Here, even here, where the ground is solid, where it has been made plain that human life has been deliberately taken, we find that the moral sense of our people needs to be educated and quickened to a higher and truer standard before the law can be efficient to eradicate this great and growing evil. If this be a true picture of the insufficiency of law in recognizing and punishing this crime after quickening, how much more do we need to cultivate a truer and higher moral sense to prevent the commission of this crime before quickening. If, now, the question be asked, how can this moral sense be developed, we are naturally led to think that the church and the pulpit (the commonly recognized chief moral agencies of society) must assume the duty of moral teacher on this topic. Besides the Catholic Church, we know of none that holds correct doctrines on this subject, and that inculcates and enforces right practice as well. The remedies for this evil under discussion seem now to be susceptible of a brief statement: 1st, fearless and correct teaching by the church and all moral agencies; 2d, sound physiological instructions by the medical profession; and 3d, wise laws efficiently executed. Laws will be efficient when the general intelligence comprehends the physical mischief done, and the general moral sense comprehends the crime committed by every abortionist. FOSTER PRATT, THE ACTUAL CAUTERY. BY WM. H. DE CAMP, M. D., GRAND RAPIDS. It is well known by all members of this Society, that the actual cautery has been recorded among the early remedial agents in surgery. In looking up its early history, we find it first mentioned at a period about 500 years B. C. It dates before the time of Hippocrates, who lived about 400 years before Christ, and after Pythagoras, whose time was about 200 years previous. It was then used to arrest hæmorrhage, and for little else. Henophon of Cos, is said to have been the first to use the ligature for arresting hæmorrhage. This gives it a date so early as 2100 years since. We find no mention of any other means but the actual cautery and styptics prior to this date for this purpose. Like many other remedies of ancient date, it has at different times been partially crowded out of use for something more new and less understood. The fashion with the medical profession is to be constantly on the lookout for every new thing that is brought before it by some aspirant for notoriety for being the first to sound the alarm, that something has been born to the medical world that shall honor their name by being called their remedy, or their operation, or their disease, has caused the members to always keep their eyes to the front. This has been the custom to such an extent, that nearly all members have scarcely thought of looking back upon what ancestral medicine consisted in, any more than a private soldier would think of looking behind him when on dress parade if ordered to "front face." Professor S. D. Gross,-who now stands so high in the estimation of the profession that I heard it stated at the meeting of the American Medical Congress in 1876 by a member from Europe, and assented to by many others from abroad, that he stood before the world as the greatest surgeon of the age, has seen fit to bring to the notice of the profession, by a paper to the American Medical Association in 1875, the use of |