them in appropriate remarks and introduced them to the Association. The regular order of business was then resumed. The minutes of the last session were then approved. The Secretary then read his annual report, which was received and filed. REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. To the President of the Medical Association of the State of Alabama: It is my duty again to submit my annual report as your Secretary. During the year many valuable books and papers have come into my possession through my official position, to hold in trust for the Association, being principally reports of other State Associations, for our interchange of Transactions have been general-Reports of Boards of Health, notably those of Massachusetts, Philadelphia, Louisiana, and Michigan, and some valuable papers from Jno. M. Woodworth, Supervising Surgeon of the United States Marine Hospital Service, Washington, D. C. In a few years, at the present rate of increase of these valuable contributions to the Medical and Surgical knowledge of the day, we will accumulate a useful and extensive library. The minutes of the proceedings of the session of 1874, were carefully kept by me and printed without essential alteration, being confirmed by my associates of the Publishing Committee; there was more reported than is prescribed by parliamentary usage as the duty of a Secretary, but your Secretary was actuated in so doing by a desire merely of culling truths and perpetuating useful facts. There is a typographical error on page 52, the only one that I have been able to detect, for Dr. A. D. Richardson, of Athens, Limestone county, it should be Dr. N. D. Richardson. During the year I have written a great many letters in the interest and on the business of the Association; I have made it a duty to reply promptly to all letters received by me, and give such information in regard to the machinery and objects of the Association as I could. I have endeavored to correspond with the Secretaries of the Associations of Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and Mississippi, with success except as to Tennessee and Georgia; I have not yet heard from these latter, my object in doing so was not only to beget friendly relations between neighboring Associations, one in interests and memories, but to induce an interchange of delegates. As a result the Virginia Medical Society appointed Dr. W. F. Barr, of Abingdon, to meet us as her Representa tive at this session; and South Carolina hopes to be represented by Dr. Middleton Michel, of Charleston; Dr. R. A. New, of Raymond, Secretary of the Mississippi Society, expressed a desire to meet us on this occasion. I would suggest the regular appointment by this Association of delegates, each year, to these neighboring sister Organizations, in connection with the appointment of delegates to the American Medical Association. The Board of Censors, at the last session of the Association, were intrusted "with the duty of obtaining a suitable seal for this Association," which I presume will be reported on in due course; it is important to have one. The Secretary issued one hundred copies of a printed circular of information to the members of the Association and County Societies. He sent one to each officer of the Association, one to every Counsellor, and one to each President and Secretary of County Societies. It contained an announcement of our present session; the privileges and duties of County Societies under the Constitution; a resolution with regard to the election of new Counsellors adopted by the House of Counsellors at the last session; and the rates of fare of ten principal lines of railway in the State. Most of the railroad superintendents deserve the thanks of the Association for their courteous compliance with my request for excursion rates for our delegates; some felt called upon to decline to issue such tickets for conventions held off of their lines of road, and did so. Immediately after the adjournment of this session it will be my duty to notify, in my official capacity, the permanent Secretary of the American Medical Association of those subordinate Societies recognized by this Association, as by the law of that body delegates thereto "shall receive their appointment from permanently organized State Medical Societies, and such County and District Medical Societies as are recognized by representation in their respective State Societies, and from the Medical Department of the Army and Navy of the United States," and no others. I have prepared a correct roll of Counsellors for the current session of that branch of the Association, which is herewith submitted. There were some omissions from the published list of the members of the House of Counsellors in the volume of Transactions for 1874. The House elected to membership at the Selma session, Drs. Starr, Richardson, Toole, Gillespie, Franklin, and Ruffin, and instructed me to formally notify them of their selection, and "that all of them who give their consent to accept the position, with its duties and obligations, and make payment of the fee, shall be placed upon the roll of Counsellors." I discharged this duty, and directed them to send their fees to the Treasurer. Owing to the delay incident to this course, I determined mere ly to publish as the House of Counsellors the "revised roll" of the last session. There are really now 50 Counsellors instead of 45. Dr. B. W. Toole, of Talladega, did not feel that he was able to assume the duties and obligations of a Counsellor of this Association, among other reasons, on account of infirm health, and therefore declined the honor. I herewith submit his letter. As ex-officio Chairman of your Publishing Committee, it is my duty to report upon the publication of the volume of Transactions for 1874; and I cannot do better than repeat here the preface to that volume, written by another: "It is with no little pleasure, mingled with pride, that the Publishing Committee hand to the members of the Medical Association of the State of Alabama its printed Transactions for the year 1874. Believing that the work could be creditably performed in the capital of the State, they cheerfully committed its execution to the care of Messrs. Barrett & Brown, one of the largest and most competent publishing houses in Alabama. The manner in which they have performed their part we hope will meet with your approbation. Your committee deemed it necessary to leave out a list of members of the County Societies, in consequence of the fact that so large a space might be occupied more profitably by other matter. It would have added very much to the value and appearance of the volume to have procured all the maps, lithographs, and wood-cuts of the various papers and reports, but going to press on the 10th of July, no time was afforded for the proper execution of this portion of the book. Your Committee regret that Dr. Osborn's paper was not forwarded for publication. With the earnest hope that the volume will fully realize your expectations, We are, very respectfully, Your obedient servants, B. H. RIGGS, J. B. GASTON, R. F. MICHEL, Publishing Committee. Right here it is proper for me to say that I recall remarks made last year, so far as my present associates are concerned, on the resolution appointing two members on the committee with myself. I must say that no chairman was ever more efficiently and agreeably aided than I was by my two confreres of the Publishing Committee. In fact the Association largely owes the exceedingly creditable appearance of the volume of Transactions of 1874, to the zeal and fidelity of her sons, Drs. J. B. Gaston, and R. F. Michel, aided by our President, Dr. J. S. Weatherly, (for these gentlemen attended to correcting the proof, superintended the printing as it went through the press, and afterwards attended the mailing. The Association owes them a debt of thanks; they certainly have mine. We printed 300 copies of 428 pages each, at the moderate cost of $572 70. They were sent to their destinations by express on account of their size and value. Two copies were sent to every Counsellor, one to every member of County Societies, who had paid the annual fee of one dollar; one copy to the Secretary of every State Association whose address I had; one to every important Board of Health; one to every reputable Medical Journal; and one each to the Secretary of the American Medical Association, the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institute, the Surgeon General of the United States, and the Supervising Surgeon of the United States Marine Hospital Service. With this liberal distribution, and the demand thus created, the unusually large number of copies was soon exhausted. I may be permitted to say if the printed volume of proceedings of a Medical Association be, as it certainly is, an index of professional zeal, scholastic attainments and professional acquirements, your last volume will give you, individually and collectively, a high position abroad. It has certainly received at the hands of critics of ability and discrimination, both in our ablest medical periodicals and in private letters to your Secretary, most handsome commendation and unstinted praise. May we, in the future, sustain the reputation thus attained. Respectfully submitted. BENJ. HOGAN RIGGS, M. D., The Treasurer's annual report was then read, received and filed. TREASURER'S REPORT. W. C. JACKSON, M. D., Treasurer, In account with the Medical Association of the State of Alabama. |