REPORT OF THE SECTION ON MEDICAL TOPOGRAPHY, METEOROLOGY, AND EPIDEMICS. THE Section on Medical Topography, Meteorology, and Epidemics, respectfully report, that members of the Committee in several States have submitted records and reports relating to the subjects designated in the title of this Section of the Association. All of these papers have been carefully examined, and the Section refers to the Committee of Publication the following: A Report on the Sanitary Topography, Climatology, and Epidemics of West Virginia (being a Second Report), by E. A. HILDRETH, M.D., of Wheeling. A Report on the Climatology and Epidemics of South Carolina (including a Report upon the Yellow Fever and the Dengue in Charleston in 1871), by MANNING SIMONS, M.D., of Charleston. A Report upon the Climatology and Epidemics of California, by F. W. HATCH, M.D., of Sacramento. A Report upon the Climatology and Epidemics of Delaware, by L. P. BUSH, M.D. The Committee on Epidemics appreciates the responsibility which devolves upon it, under the rules of the Association, in regard to the preparation and publishing of papers pertaining to the work in this Section; and, as it has been customary, in the past twenty-five years, for the contributors of reports in this Section to present very extended and voluminous details relating to the physical geography of the various States, and the course and characteristics of the diseases observed, it has at length appeared desirable to devise some method that shall, if possible, secure in a compact and comparable form a large amount of freshly observed facts concerning the epidemic phenomena and etiological history of prevalent diseases in every portion of the United States. With the design to promote such observations, and to secure the recorded results of them in a compact and acceptable form, for the benefit of the Association and the advancement of medical knowledge and the practical applications of hygiene, this Section is now preparing a concise schedule of points to be observed and recorded in the history and characteristics of epidemics and of epidemic phenomena in general. Such schedule, when perfected and sent forth by the Section, it is hoped will serve to bring into a compact form a much more comprehensive and acceptable record of epidemics and epidemic phenomena than has hitherto been practicable in this Association. This duty is to be performed without cost to the treasury of the Association. Though the natural laws that determine the rise and prevalence of epidemics and epidemic phenomena may, in the present state of knowledge, be incapable of perfect definition, there is much reason to believe that the chief facts can be as well observed, and so comprehensively studied, that by this labor the foundations of more exact knowledge concerning the causation and the epidemic phenomena of diseases shall be extended by contributions of this Association. GEO. L. SUTTON, Chairman. E. HARRIS, Secretary. Report in behalf of the Section on Climatology and Epidemic Diseases of the American Medical Association. At the recent meeting of the American Medical Association, the Section on Medical Topography, Climatology, and Epidemic Diseases, having more papers and reports referred to it than could be read and fairly disposed of during the Session of the Association, referred two reports to the undersigned, as a sub-committee of the Section, with instructions to examine and report on the same to the Committee of Publication. One of these reports was presented by Dr. W. F. THOMS, of New York, and the other, by Dr. GEO. W. LAWRENCE, of Arkansas. Both these papers have been carefully examined. The report of Dr. THOMS is made up mostly of tabular state |