By a Resolution passed at the Session of 1851, the Committee of Publication were instructed to print conspicuously, at the beginning of the volume of the Transactions, the following disclaimer: "The American Medical Association, although formally accepting and publishing the Reports of the various Standing Committees, holds itself wholly irresponsible for the opinions, theories, or criticisms therein contained, except when otherwise decided by special resolution." CONTENTS. PAGK 9 117 Report of the Committee on Medical Literature. By CHARLES A. LEE, M. D. Diatheses: their Surgical Relations and Effects. By E. ANDREWS, A.M., M.D., Prof. of Surgery in the Medical Department of Lind University The American Method of Treating Joint Diseases and Deformities. By HENRY 183 Report on American Necrology. By CHRISTOPHER C. Cox, Surgeon United An Inquiry into the Physiological and Medicinal Properties of the Veratrum Viride together with some Physiological and Chemical Observations upon the Alkaloid Veratria obtained from this and other Species. Being the Prize Essay to which the American Medical Association awarded the Gold Medal for MDCCCLXIII. By SAMUEL R. PERCY, M.D., Professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics in the New York Medical College Laryngoscopal Therapy, or the Medication of the Larynx under Sight. By LOUIS ELSBERG, A.M., M.D., Lecturer on Diseases of the Throat in the Uni- versity of New York, Fellow of the N. Y. Academy of Medicine, Delegate from N. Y. Med.-Chir. College . Plan of Organization of the American Medical Association MINUTES OF THE FOURTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION, HELD AT CHICAGO, JUNE 2, 1863. THE Association convened in Bryan Hall, and was called to order, at 11 o'clock A. M., by the Acting President, Dr. WILSON JEWELL, of Pennsylvania, supported by Vice-President Dr. A. B. PALMER, of Michigan. Secretaries Drs. S. G. HUBBARD, of Connecticut, and H. A. JOHNSON, of Illinois, were also present. Prayer was offered by the Rev. R. L. COLLIER, of Chicago, after which Dr. N. S. DAVIS, Chairman of the Committee of Arrangements, welcomed the delegates in an appropriate address, and made the following report: Report of the Committee of Arrangements to the American Medical Association, June 2, 1863. The unusual duties and responsibilities which have devolved upon the Committee since the meeting at New Haven, in 1860, seem to require a brief explanation, in addition to the usual report, on this occasion. Early in the year 1861, the usual notices for the regular meeting on the first Tuesday in June, of that year, were issued, and the Committee had made all the preliminary arrangements for its accommodation, when the sectional animosity and wickedness. which had been threatening the peace of our country for several years, culminated in an open, unjustifiable, and monstrous rebellion. VOL. XIV.-2 In the midst of the universal excitement which followed, the Committee received numerous letters from active members of the Association, some of them embodying the action of local medical societies, all asking earnestly for a postponement of the annual meeting for one year. These letters were from every section of the Union, including the cities of Boston, New Haven, New York, Troy, Albany, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Louisville, Nashville, St. Louis, and Detroit. A special meeting of the Committee was held, and all these letters, together with similar sentiments expressed in the medical periodicals, were submitted for examination. Although there is nothing in the Constitution or By-Laws of the Association, authorizing either the officers or the Committee of Arrangements to postpone a regular meeting, yet the extraordinary condition of the country, and the apparent unanimity of sentiment in favor of such action, constrained the Committee reluctantly to issue a notice that the annual meeting would be postponed until the first Tuesday in June, 1862. About the time for issuing the notice for the meeting in 1862, the severe battles of Belmont, Fort Donelson, and Shiloh, followed each other with such results as to require the attention and active assistance of large numbers of the profession in the Northwest; and at a meeting of the Committee, the chairman was instructed to correspond with members of the Association in the several cities heretofore named, and obtain further advice before issuing any notices. The instruction was complied with, and of a large number of letters received in reply, all but two earnestly recommended another postponement. At a subsequent meeting, the Committee being satisfied that these letters afforded a fair index of the sentiments of the profession generally, unanimously instructed the chairman to issue notices announcing a further postponement of the meeting until the first Tuesday in June, 1863. These successive postponements were fully indorsed by almost every medical journal published in the country. No further action was taken by the Committee until February, 1863. On the 13th of that month, the chairman of the Committee received official notice from the Secretary of the Medical Society of the State of New York, that at the regular annual meeting of the Society, held in Albany during the first week in that month, a resolution had been adopted unanimously, in favor of holding a meeting of the American Medical Association at the regular time and place specified in the last notice of postponement, namely, in Chicago, on the first Tuesday in June, 1863, and requesting the Committee of |