MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS OF THE MEDICAL ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF ALABAMA. TWENTY-EIGHTH ANNUAL SESSION, FIRST DAY-Tuesday, April 13th. The Association assembled in the Hall of the Medical and Surgical Society of Montgomery. The following Counsellors and Delegates appeared and registered: COUNSELLORS. JEROME COCHRAN, CALEB TOXEY, EDMUND P. GAINES, GEO. A. KETCHUM, and FRANK A. Ross, of Mobile; J. S. BANKSON, of Stevenson; JOHN J. DEMENT, of Huntsville; JNO. LITTLE, JR., and JAS. GUILD, of Tuscaloosa; R. F. MICHEL, EDWARD A. SEMPLE, W. C. JACKSON, and J. S. WEATHERLY, of Montgomery; L. E. STARR, of Bibb; F. M. PETERSON, of Greensboro; SAMUEL P. SMITH, of Prattville; BENJ. H. RIGGS, of Selma; JAS. GILLESPIE, of Abbeville; and GEO. E. KUMPE, of Leighton-18 Counsellors. DELEGATES. Selma Medical Society (Dallas County)-Clifford D. Parke, Wm. H. Johnston, and Jno. P. Furniss. Medical and Surgical Society of Montgomery-T. A. Means, N. D. Phillips, J. H. Blue, James Douglass, S. D. Seelye, B. R. Jones, and J. B. Gaston. Madison County Medical Society-J. W. Barclay, and George R. Sullivan. Limestone County Medical Society-Ruffin Coleman. Perry County Medical Society-W. A. Bradfield, and W. W. Wilkerson. Elmore County Medical Society-M. H. Crawford. North Alabama Medical Society-R. B. Porter. Hale County Medical Society-Richard Inge, and Albert T. Henly. Marengo County Medical Society-S. D. Smith. Butler County Medical Society-C. B. Lampley, and Joseph Harrison. Wilcox County Medical Society-W. H. Abernethy. Autauga County Medical Society-A. S. McKeithen, and T. G. Howard. Bullock County Medical Society-J. M. Hogan.-13 Societies, and 26 Delegates. There being found a constitutional quorum present, the Association was called to order at 12 M., by the President, J. S. Weatherly, M. D., of Montgomery. There were present Ex-Presidents R. F. Michel, M. D., of Montgomery, George E. Kumpe, M. D., of Lighton, and Geo. A. Ketchum, of Mobile. Of the Board of Censors, there were present Jerome Cochran, Senior Censor, R. F. Michel, M. D., Jas. Guild, M. D., and Geo. E. Kumpe, M. D. N. D. Richardson, M. D., was absent from the State. Exercises were begun with prayer by the Rev. Horace Stringfellow, D. D., Rector of St. John's Church (Episcopal.) W. C. Jackson, M. D., Chairman of the Committee of Arrangements of the Medical and Surgical Society of Montgomery, then delivered the following address of welcome: Mr. President, and Gentlemen of the Medical Association of the State of Alubama: To my lot as the official head of the Committee of Arrangements of this city, has fallen the pleasure and honor of welcoming you to our midst. We may justly congratulate ourselves and you upon the growing interest manifested by all of our people in your deliberations, and the desire everywhere expressed to co-operate in every measure for the advancement and efficiency of our noble profession. The spirit which gave you a glad welcome on your first assembling here five years ago, has increased with a steady growth. You will discover no abatement of it, and the only difference, if difference there be, between your welcome then and now, will show itself in greater efforts to make your stay among us as pleasurable to you as it is honoring to us. Each year the Profession has grown nearer the people; each year the people have instinctively drawn closer to the Profession. To-day our calling has more hearty co-operation and good will from the entire body of our people than any other profession save only the Christian Ministry. The time was, and not far distant in the past, when the people looked upon physicians with an awe and dread somewhat akin to the feeling of the despairing patient, who gazed on the knife to which he was forced to submit as a last resort to avoid the hardly less dreaded alternative of death. His efforts were clogged by the superstition of the multitude, and his kindly healing retarded by vague and mysterious doubts as to the efficacy of his remedies, and skepticism as to the power of the human mind to grasp and grapple with the diseases of the human body. Happily that day is past; the physician is no longer the attendant only of the sick, but the friend, companion and adviser of the well-counselling with him against disease, and forming plans for improving and strengthening the well man against the chance diseases of climate, constitution, habits and surrounding circumstances. There is no more significant sign of the healthy progress of civilization among us, than the intelligent trust which not only individuals but communities place in the Medical Profession, not only in the course of disease but in the direction of the means for the preservation of the health of States and communities. With the great increase of commerce, the multiplied and easy means of communication between distant countries, the concentration and increase of population, new diseases and epidemics wholly foreign to our people have been wafted to our shores. Each year these scourges make great ravages upon our borders, sometimes lingering on our sea-coast, and at other times attacking the very heart of territory and population. Against these invaders, more terrible than "an army with banners," our State and community look to you for protection. Surely none could be leaders in a nobler cause, nor wish for grander fields in which to win lasting laurels. In this warfare in which every creed, sect and nationality may join hands, you may not win the highest renown which gilds the name of the conqueror or slaughterer of his fellow men, but may win and wear the better crown which here and hereafter belongs to those who unselfishly strive to save their fellow man from suffering, and to soothe the ills to which he is heir. The people of this city look upon you as the allies and counsellors of those who are entrusted with their defence against the ravages of disease and epidemics. Your brethren greet you as their comrades and peers in a noble calling, from whom they can gather instruction and wisdom. The State itself has posted you as sentinels to watch for her welfare, with full trust and confidence that in your keeping it will not suffer. With these things in view, with the honor won in the past, still in fresh memory; the possibilities and glories of the future in full view, and the auspicious events which brighten the present, why need I detain you longer with words of greeting, when the eyes and hearts of all bespeak in it signs so unmistakable. On behalf of the Medical and Surgical Society of Montgomery, I bid you a hearty and cordial welcome, and wish for each and every one a pleasant sojourn in our midst, and for the Medical Association of the State of Alabama a wise, harmonious, and successful session. The next in order was the annual address of the President. The Chairman of the Committee of Arrangements offered the following resolution : Resolved, That, owing to the absence in Europe of the Orator of this Session, Dr. Thos. O. Summers, Jr., and the inability of the Alternate Orator, Dr. William A. Johnson, of Uniontown, to be present, the order of business be suspended so as to allow the President's annual address to be delivered in public to-night at eight o'clock, in the U. S. Court Room. Dr. Cochran favored the resolution under the peculiar circumstances, and as the address was on a subject of public importance—the new Board of Health feature-but did not wish it made a precedent. The motion was adopted. The Committee of Arrangements then announced that the hours of session would be from 10 A. M. to 11⁄2 P. M., and from 2 P. M. to 5 P. M. daily. Dr. Weatherly, President of the Association, then supplemented the remarks of welcome of the Committee of Arrangements in the following neat address: GENTLEMEN-I also take great pleasure in extending a cordial welcome to you here to-day. I am sure that it augurs great good when so many of the leading men of the Profession have thought it a duty to leave home and business for a little while, that they might contribute their quota of information for the common good. As for myself, I believe I can say with truth, that no event of my life is regarded by me with more pride and pleasure, than my selection to preside over such a body of men as I see assembled in this hall. I am sure that our deliberations will be productive of much benefit, both to the Profession and to the citizens of this State. Allow me to crave your kind indulgence in advance for all of my short comings as your presiding officer. If I fail to do my full duty, I beg that you will attribute it to an error of head rather than of heart. Our Orator not being present, you have just voted that my inaugural address shall be delivered to-night. I will therefore not detain you longer, except to again offer my most profound thanks that so many of you have thought proper to be here to-day. Dr. R. F. Michel now announced the arrival of Drs. A. W. Griggs and W. S. Kendrick, as Delegates from the Medical Association of Georgia to this Association, they having presented their credentials as such. Drs. Michel and Ketchum were appointed a Committee to introduce the gentlemen to the President, who welcomed |