Reports of Committees.

REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC HEALTH.

The Committee continued from 1866, " on matters relating to sanitary, hygienic and charitable provision for the citizens of this State, and to present the same to Executive and Legislative consideration," would respectfully report, that early in the session of the last Legislature they met at the city of Trenton, and after conferring with each other, and with some other members of the profession present, they agreed unanimously es to the kind of ef fort to be made, and a bill embodying their views was prepared to be presented to the Legislature.

It was thought best to commit the desired act to the hands of Dr. Thomas J. Corson, a resident of Trenton, and a member of the Assembly, who fully accorded with the views of the Society and of the Committee. Notwithstanding his efforts were timely and judicious, the bill failed to become a law. The Legislature, having no dread of cholera before their eyes, did not seem to realize the importance of any general legislation, and its friends were not able, in the press of other business, to secure a full consideration of its merits.

Yet this Society has reason to feel that the effort made through their Committee, and the co-operation of others, has not been fruitless.

The action of the first year resulted in the appointment of a Sanitary Commission, which was able to aid in instruction and ef fort for preventing the spread of cholera, and to direct the attention of the Legislature to other existing sources of disease.

The statements as to the condition of insane persons outside of any asylum, and as to the condition of those returned to the poor houses of our State, have aided the movement initiated by our last Legislature for the establishment of another asylum.

Such facts also were elicited as to our pauper system as cannot fail to direct the more careful attention of philanthropists to its defects.

The subjects of vaccination and vital statistics have been brought before the people, and attention drawn to the expense and undeniable incompleteness of the Registry report, and although no legislative action is yet had, the need of it is more generally confessed and appreciated.

While in the opinion of your Committee there is no present prospect of securing any general health law, we believe the Society should have a special Committee on Public Health, whose duty it shall be, by fact and argument, to draw attention to sani. tary and hygienic requisites, and to foster an intelligent interest both among physicians and citizens generally in all that relates to the physical welfare of our people.

He who remedies a disease is a benefactor, but he who remedies the cause of a disease takes a grander step upward in the pathway of science, and the physician who is infused with the true spirit of his profession, and who studies its most material progress, will not forget to view it in this twofold aspect.

Each physician in his own community can do much in educating public opinion as to sanitary matters, and in elevating the standard of sanitary reform.

Co-operative action aids these endeavors, and thus, even without law, although less rapidly, a more healthful public sentiment and a more appreciative recognition of the importance of the subject can be secured.

Nor are we hopeless as to positive and permanent results. Line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little, tells in medicine as well as in morals, and atoms of truth are as

indestructible as atoms of matter. They may not be always visible, and may seem lost, but nevertheless they remain, and results, which sometimes appear to spring up de novo, are but the accretion and consolidation of efforts which have been put forth for a long period.

As the natural conservators of the public health, it is our duty as a Society to be well informed as to any depressing causes affecting the physical validity of our citizens; to apprise the public thereof in such ways and methods as seem to us most feasible, and if need be to draw the attention of our rulers thereto. If they heed it, well; if not we have done our duty, and what is required of us in this regard is not so much success as faithfulness. A plea, a petition, a statement of facts has influence, even if not at once organizing itself into a law, and is one among our methods of cultivating a correct public sentiment.

With the expression of these views, we suggest :

1st. That a Committee of three be appointed by the Society to examine the registry and returns of vital statistics, and to suggest to the Secretary of State such changes and such modifica tions of tabular arrangement as are possible and desirable.

2d. That a Committee of five on Public Health shall be appointed, and when so appointed the present Committee shall be discharged.

All of which is respectfully submitted.

E. M. HUNT,

JOHN BLANE,

B. H. STRATTON,

JAMES B. COLEMAN.

ON ANNUAL PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETY.

At the last annual meeting a resolution was adopted requesting the Standing Committee "to consider and report at the next annual meeting some measures for imparting greater interest to its proceedings, and making them more practically useful."

In accordance with the direction of the Society, and with an earnest desire to promote increased interest and usefulness in the Society's proceedings, the Committee have carefully considered the matter referred to them, and would respectfully report that, in their opinion, the Society is doing right well now. Its meetings are certainly becoming more and more interesting every year, and we think more "practically useful" also, although not, perhaps, exactly in the sense which the mover of the resolution intended.

If judged by a strictly scientific standard, there is certainly room for improvement in the Society's transactions. But it is questionable whether improvement in that direction would either add to the interest of the proceedings, or render them more practically useful.

In the opinion of the Committee, the usefulness of the Society does not depend so much upon the influence which it exerts upon the science or the practice of medicine as upon the ethics of the profession. The Committee do not think that the Society ought to be regarded as representing the scientific attainments and qualifications of its members, nor ought it to assume the position of leadership in purely scientific medical progress. For the cultivation and development of the different departments of medical science, we must depend upon individual effort, and the labors of smaller bodies, such as Surgical, Pathological, Obstetrical, and other Societies, made up of smaller numbers of earnest, active, energetic men, who are prompted by similarity of tastes and talents. and ambition, to associate and work together for the advancement of the branch to which they are especially devoted. The State Society is too large, too bulky, and is composed of too many widely separated and promiscuous materials to act together successfully as a scientific body. To unite and harmonize the profession, to develop a high-toned professional feeling, to elevate the standard of professional morality, and at the same time, by a judicious distribution of its honors and rewards, to stimulate its members to a generous rivalry to excel in professional attainments

-such, it seems to the Committee, is the special mission of the Society, and this mission it is certainly filling with marked suc

cess.

But if the Society be ambitious of building up a reputation as a scientific body, then, in the opinion of the Committee, important changes must be made in its organization and its mode of transacting business, as well as in the character of its transactions. If papers and essays on intricate matters of science, that may be read before the Society, are to be thoroughly discussed and acted upon by the Society as a body, the annual sessions must necessarily be so prolonged as to compel many active, interested and useful members to remain at home. If, on the other hand, papers are read by their titles only, and then referred to appropriate Committees, to be discussed and acted upon; or if the Society be divided into sections, each meeting and acting separately, then the Society at once loses its individuality as a united body, representing the whole profession; and in either case it will lose much of the happy influence which it now exerts, by losing its hold upon the reverence and affection of the profession of the State.

With this frank expression of their views, and with the assurance that they have given much reflection to this subject, the Com. mittee respectfully recommend that no change be made at present in the mode of conducting our annual meetings.

In behalf of the Committee,

CHAS. HASBROUCK.