Dr. T. J. Bennett, Austin, Seventh, Austin District. Dr. B. F. Calhoun, Beaumont, Tenth, Southeastern District. Dr. S. R. Burroughs, Buffalo, Eleventh, Brazos Valley District. Dr. J. J. Robert, Hillsboro, Twelfth, Central District. Dr. J. H. McCracken, Mineral Wells, Thirteenth, Northwestern District. Dr. C. E. Cantrell, Greenville, Fourteenth, Northern District. Dr. Holman Taylor, Marshall, Fifteenth, N. E. District. Said councillors organized, and elected Dr. John T. Moore, Galveston, Chairman; Dr. W. B. Russ, of San Antonio, Secretary. By resolution of the State Association, the Secretary of the State Association, Dr. H. A. West, was authorized to order five thousand copies of the constitution and by-laws of the State Medical Association of Texas, and constitutions and by-laws suitable for the county societies, together with application blanks. These he has furnished to each councillor above named for use in reorganization of the county societies in his district. These councillors have a very large amount of work to do in order to cover their territory during the year, and we suggest that the physicians in their respective counties lend all assistance possible to their councillors in the performance of these arduous and highly important duties. Dr. M. M. Smith, Secretary of the Board of Medical Examiners, has furnished a circular-letter, and dean's and clerk's certificates to each one of the above councillors for distribution to any physician in his district who has not complied with the new medical law in accordance with the provision governing those who recorded their diplomas in the State of Texas under the old law, between the dates of January 1, 1891, and July 9, 1901. Each county is entitled to elect a president, vice-president and secretary-treasurer, and one or more delegates to the State Association, according to the membership, and a board of censors. Under this plan, every county society reorganized in the State, is entitled to representation in the State Association by a delegate, and will have as much voice in the proceedings of the Association as the largest society in the State, except in the number of delegates, which is regulated according to membership. By this plan of reorganization, the business of the State Association is conducted entirely outside of the regular meetings of the State Association, and politics will thereby be eliminated, as they should be, from said body. A large number of county societies have already been organized, and we honestly believe that the membership of the 458 THE TEXAS MEDICAL NEWS. State Medical Association will be increased to between fifteen hundred and two thousand before the next meeting. We request the officers of newly organized county societies, to furnish us full accounts of their organization and membership, and in addition we shall be glad to have them furnish the NEWS a full report of each mecting of their society for publication. DEATH OF DR. HADRA. Dr. B. E. Hadra died in Dallas on July 12, 1903. Dr. Hadra was one of the leading surgeons of the State and some of his original work in surgical lines had made him known throughout the United States and Europe. He was at all times an energetic and enthusiastic worker in his profession and he will be missed in his profession. He was buried in Austin, Texas. The physicians and others assembled at his home in Dallas, where Dr. H. K. Leake made some beautiful and touching remarks upon the life of Dr. Hadra, and the funeral services were held from the residence of the Hon. Walter Tips in Austin. Judge Julius Schutze, a noted German orator, delivered some very touching remarks in German at the grave and Dr. F. E. Daniel made an eloquent address on behalf of the medical profession. The funeral was largely attended, and thus passed away one of the more renowned members of the profession. Berthold Ernest Hadra, born in 1842 in Germany, received his medical education in the universities of Breslau and Berlin, from which latter he graduated and where he passed his State examination. He served as volunteer surgeon in the war against Austria (1866), and afterwards entered the Prussian army service. In 1870 he emigrated to Texas, where he has since resided. He practiced his profession in Austin, Galveston, San Antonio and Dallas. He was a member of the Board of Regents of the University of Texas; held the chair of surgery in the old Texas Medical College, and was health officer of San Antonio. His contributions to medical literature are numerous. Aside from a monograph on "Injuries of the Pelvic Floor," he was the first one to devise conservative surgical treatment in place of oophorectomy, the so-called liberation of the pelvic organs. He was also the first one to propose total eventration of the contents and thorough washing and draining of the abdominal cavity in diffuse peritonitis. Repair of cystocele, perineum, etc., were frequent subjects of papers. To the surgery of the spine he contributed by adding wiring of the verte bræ. To these many other original contributions, frequently quoted in international literature, may be added, such, for instance, as his paper on the open treatment of torticollis, on non-maligant tumors of the omentum, on relapsing appendicitis, on intestinal and gastric operation, etc. He published, but a short time ago, a small work intended to educate the laity about the physician himself. This work was 460 THE TEXAS MEDICAL NEWS. favorably commented upon by the medical press of the United States. PYORRHOEA ALVEOLARIS (FAUCHARD'S DISEASE, RIGG'S DISEASE). This disease, affecting the teeth, which is so prevalent, demands not only the attention of the best men of the dental profession; but likewise the serious thought of the medical profession of the world. Pyorrhoea alveolaris means literally a flow of pus from the alveoli. The chain of symptoms are familiar to the medical and dental professions of the country, but I regret to say that the number of people affected with this trouble is largely increasing from year to year. What occurs in this disease, briefly speaking, is that there is a wasting away of the alveolar bone and peridental membrane, accompanied with inflammation of the soft parts and the formation of pus with the advancement of the case; this condition continues until the teeth become loosened and finally drop out. As to the etiology of the disease there does not seem to be any definite information. Much has been written upon the subject by both the dental and the medical professions. Many claiming the disease entirely a local one, while others claim it to be entirely constitutional, and we belong to that large class who believe in both causes in the majority of cases. This disease is much more prevalent in people over thirty years of age, but is found in those much younger. Its progress in some is very rapid, while in others the process is slow and requires years to reach a condition found in other cases of a few months duration. To show how many dentists look upon the disease we quote from Dr. Junius Cravens, who said: "In all the history of dentistry, the best efforts of the best operators and the best thoughts of the best thinkers have been persistently baffled by pyorrhoea alveolaris. The many methods and remedies suggested have served to only lead to hopeless confusion-one might almost say despair. In their emergency dentists appealed to the medical profession for guidance, only to meet with disappointment, while the destroyer has marched on, triumphant over all theories, all appliances, all drugs, a despair to conscientious practitioners and a humiliation to science." Much of this editorial was obtained from the the splendid paper upon this subject read before the Memphis and Shelby County Medi cal Society by Howard F. Stewart, M. D. We quote from his paper as follows: "Dr. Edwin F. Darby, of Philadelphia, spent several years among the Egyptians, and during this time examined the teeth of several thousand natives, both living and dead, giving very careful attention to the mummies of three thousand years ago. These people lived chiefly on raw wheat, grinding up the whole grain with their teeth. Dr. Darby reports that neither among the skeletons nor among the living people did he find a single case of caries or of Rigg's disease. He also states that the maxillary bones are larger and better shaped and the teeth more evenly arranged than in the more civilized races. All this would seem to indicate that on account of our soft foods, the muscles of mastication being less and less used, less force being exerted on the teeth and supporting bone, that nature is simply following that inevitable law which allows the members of the body whose functions are not properly exercised to become subject to disease. "It will be well, perhaps, at this point to fix in our minds a general outline of the historical structure of the parts with which we have to deal. The tooth is held in position in the alveolar socket by a thin fibrous membrane, which sends out numerous fibres into the bone and the cementum. This membrane (called the peridental membrane) lines the entire alveolar socket and completely envelops the root of the tooth, thus performing a double duty, acting as periosteum to the bone and furnishing nutriment to the cementum. 'It is made up largely of inelastic fibres of connective tissues, and is richly supplied with blood vessels, nerves, cells and glands.' Black says the membrane has three functions, physical, sensory and vital-physical, in that it binds the tooth by means of its fibres firmly in the socket; sensory, in that it is the organ of the sense of touch, the slightest force being detected by it; vital, in that it contains osteoblasts for the formation of the cementum. It also contains osteoblasts for the disintegration of calcified tissues, fibroblasts for the formation of fibres of the membrane and. glands, whose function is not yet understood. The real office of this membrane is in a nut-shell to afford a vital union between the tooth and the organism at large. In all cases of pyorrhoea alveolaris we find necrosis of the alveolar walls and peridental membrane. It is the breaking down of these parts that constitutes the disease. Now the question is, what brings about this process?" "The most valuable researches of late years, to my mind, are those of Dr. George B. Clement, of Macon, Miss. He exhibited. |