We are not acquainted with Editor Allen of Loup City, but from the general tone of the first issue, we believe he will make a successful journalist. The State Dental society is to be congratulated and commended for the advanced step it has taken, and we bespeak for it the hearty support and cooperation of the membership.

The Advancement of the Anthropoid Ape

A committee headed by Professor Waldeyer (The Medical Press, Dec. 18, 1912) has been formed to establish an institute for the psychological study of the anthropoid. It is estimated that another century will see the extinction of the gorilla, gibbon, chimpanzee, and the other higher apes. Science owes a great debt to these higher monkeys, and she is now determined to squeeze every drop from the simian soul before the last of the great apes walks through the valley of the shadow of death. Somewhere in the Canaries gorillas and chimpanzees are to be collected and studied. It will be an island like that of Dr. Moreau, except that plastic surgery will give way to experimental psychology. Phonation, gesture, comprehension of the spoken word, enumeration, color perception and educational possibilities are to be studied. Savages who dwell amongest anthropoids have a universal belief that the latter are not mere brutes, but men like themselves, and the investigators hope to discover mental traits hitherto unknown. The subject is a great and interesting one, but we hope that the education of the ape will not proceed too far. A speaking, sensible and Samsonian gorilla would be a terror in the land, unless indeed he developed like Peacocke's famous Sir Oran. If we are prepared to look upon the anthropoids as men and brothers, we must above all things bear in mind that we are our brothers' keepers.

Collapse

Camphor is a quick and reliable cardiac and respiratory stimulant. Inject hypodermically in the form of camphorated oil.

The Minneapolis Meeting of the American Medical

Association

By H. WINNETT ORR, M. D., Lincoln.

An interesting thing about the annual meeting of the American Medical association is that it begins many months before the real meeting and its effects continue for a long time afterwards. For the writer of this communication the anticipation of attendance and preparations for the meeting constitute much of the real pleasure and profit.

In Omaha on the way to Minneapolis, the Sunday before the meeting, I met one of my old friends from out in the state who showed the spirit that animates almost every physician who attends the annual meeting. He said, "I am on the way to Minneapolis to learn. I began practice in 1877 (the year, by the way, in which the writer of this letter was born); before that time I attended the University of Michigan and was given as good medical instruction as was to be had at that time. Among others of my teachers was Donald McLane, whom I saw do the first laparotomies in that part of the country. He worked in an operating room in which surgical cleanliness was attempted by means of the old Lister steam vapor method and of the first seven patients upon whom he operated, seven died. Now a few weeks ago I cleaned up my patient, put on rubber gloves and operated on a compound fracture of the tibia, secured the fragments with wire, and my patient is getting well without infection and will have a good result. At Minneapolis I hope to learn more of just such things for the development of my work and the benefit of my patients."

A few of us especially interested in orthopedics gathered in Chicago on Monday in honor of Dr. Abbott, whose new method for the correction of spinal curvature is attracting so much attention. Dr. Abbott very kindly appeared before the Chicago Orthopedic society Monday afternoon and demonstrated his method in detail for the benefit of the members. A dinner in compliment to Dr. Abbott was given by the society in the evening.

We arrived in Minneapolis on Tuesday. The great general session held in the Minneapolis Auditorium on Tuesday morning was a splendid demonstration of the real interest of a large number of members of the association as an institution. Per

haps no retiring president was ever held in more regard and esteem than Dr. Jacobi, whose words and specially whose manner, as well as his work for the profession, will forever entitle him to a high place in the history of the profession.

I heard a New York visitor say of Dr. Jacobi that no meeting was ever too long or too tedious but that Dr. Jacobi was the first to come and the last to leave and that his unfailing interest and enthusiasm for all things medical had served as an inspiration to medical men everywhere and to young men especially.

The Minneapolis committee, in co-operation with the officers of the association, had arranged and organized for the meeting as well as or better than for any previous meeting. The university buildings proved to be highly satisfactory as meeting places for the official gatheirngs and the sections. The grounds were comparatively free from noise and the meeting rooms generally well lighted and well ventilated. Moreover, the meeting rooms and the rooms for the display of scientific and commercial exhibits were unusually well equipped as regards cases, stereopticons, etc. Many of these things which have been noticeably lacking in hotel rooms and elsewhere where meetings have been held previously, added much to the comfort and profit of the section meetings in Minneapolis. One feature not generally appreciated which was evidently much enjoyed by a few was the swimming tank under the armory, where the registration headquarters and commercial exhibits were housed. I heard one of the older members tell Dr. Simmons that if the session should ever be held in Minneapolis again he would come for the privilege of taking a swim in the armory bathing pool every day as he had been during this meeting.

The

The association has usually been well treated by the newspapers, but the Minneapolis papers were unusually courteous and generous in the matter of reporting the sessions and furnishing information regarding the visitors. The Minneapolis Journal earned a resolution from the house of delegates by reason of its attitude on the patent medicine question and its interest in the welfare and the affairs of the association. Minneapolis Tribune inaugurated the custom of having each section reported by one of the Minneapolis physicians whose specialty was along that line. The writer of this article was much impressed by this method and believes that both the members and the public were able to gather more reliable information regarding the conduct of the sections than was possible at any

previous meeting. I should respectfully suggest that this field is one which might well be covered by the Daily Bulletin published by the association. The newspapers are voluminous and difficult to consult in the brief time at the disposal of those who are active in the affairs of the association. A brief outline in the Bulletin in the morning of the proposed activities of the sections and of the house of delegates during the day would be of very great assistance, while an abstract the next morning of all the activities of the day before would, I am sure, be very greatly appreciated. I think that volunteer reporters could be obtained during the session for getting all such matters in shape for publication.

There was general satisfaction with the hotel and boarding house accommodations, in fact, I hardly heard a complaint during the meeting.

Those committees which had charge of the social side of the meeting certainly deserve the greatest praise and thanks of those who were being entertained. The women who were in attendance at the meeting were delightfully provided for and the various entertainments were conducted with unusual smoothness and success. The big social event of the session, the President's reception Wednesday evening, was beautifully managed and the guests and their vehicles were more comfortably taken care of than at any previous session which the writer of this letter has been privileged to attend.

The St. Paul physicians on Thursday evening gave an entertainment, (a vaudeville-smoker-lunch), which will not be surpassed in a long time. The St. Paul auditorium, which is one of the best in the country, lent itself admirably to just this sort of function and the large number of guests was met by a lunch, an army of waitresses and an elaborate vaudeville program which was certainly a compliment to them and a great credit to the St. Paul physicians who were providing the entertainment.

General satisfaction was expressed over the election of Dr. Victor C. Vaughan to to the presidency of the association. Dr. Vaughan's services to the profession in an educational way alone should have entitled him to this recognition on the part of the profession, but his many other activities in public and professional life make his occupancy of this important office especially appropriate. His election was a source of gratification of course, to the thousands of Michigan's loyal alumni, who have at various times sat under his teaching.

In the house of delegates the committee on legislation and

political action of which Dr. A. R. Mitchell of Lincoln, was a member, declared in favor of a National department of health but against the sort of political activity which has been used heretofore in its behalf. The debate on the subject was somewhat spirited but the house of delegates finally concurred in all of the recommendations of the committee.

Nebraska was represented in several of the sections, papers being read by Nebraska physicians as follows:

Section on Surgery—

A. F. JONAS, Omaha.

Chairman's Address: The Surgeon and the Research Laboratory. Surgical Aspects of Intestinal Stasis, from an Anatomic Point of View. JOHN E. SUMMERS, Omaha.

Abst. Intestinal stasis, except when due to neglect of function, or of disease of the nervous system or injury to it is always mechanical. Anomalies or unfinished developments of the intestinal tract in later life may result in disarrangements of function, because of faulty metabolism. All of the peritoneal bands recently described by Lane and Jackson were long since described by anatomists-Jonnesco and Juvara, Treves, Reid and others. This embryologic knowledge has recently been emphasized by J. Rilus Eastman. These bands are not pathologic in the sense that they have a bacterial origin, that is, from infections of the peritoneum. For their clinical importance we must particularly thank Lane and Jackson.

S. C.

Discussion to be opened by LE GRAND GUERRY, Columbia,

Section on Pediatrics— Clinical Report and Post-Mortem Fingings in the Case of a Child with a Congenital Heart Disease Dying from Acute Nephritis. H. M. MCCLANAHAN, Omaha. Abst.-Death problably due to the heart lesion aggravated by the nephritis. Polycythemia the result of heart disease. Gross and microscopic condition of all vital organs except the brain.

Section on DermatologyCutaneous Affections of Childhood.

ALFRED SCHALEK, Omaha.

Abst. Frequency of skin diseases in children due to the peculiarities of their skin. A plea for a more rational classifica