Dr. Richard C. Cabot, who conducted them in their two performances, certainly with energy, and doubtless with inspired skill. Kings and princelings might well envy him and them the loyal fervor of the applause they won.

Of the general addresses and the various section meetings there is little to be said, other than that they were fully up to the high average of former gatherings. A feature of these meetings, of growing perplexity, and more patent at this than any previous one, is the overloading of so many of the sections. The number of registrations is so great, and the papers on the programmes so numerous, that it is a physical impossibility to more than skim over the subjects introduced, and anything like general discussion of them is a disappointing

failure. The effect of this is sure to be a gradual deterioration in quality and a corresponding decay in interest. Something

will have to be done to reform the situation, and whoever shall succeed in devising the successful way to do it will deserve well the plaudits he is sure to receive.

The work of the House of Delegates this year was mostly of a routine nature. Organization, higher educational standards, pure foods and drugs and public health legislation were among the principal subjects considered, and gratifying progress toward the attainment of the objects sought was apparent. Of interest to us as a state is the change made in the apportionment of membership in the House of Delegates for the years 1907, 1908, 1909. Hitherto a state was assigned one delegate to each 500 of its membership. The ratio for the next three years has been fixed at one for each 600, based upon the present year's membership. This reduces West Virginia's allotment for the next three years to one delegate.

The growth of the Association in the last few years has been very great, and is destined to be very much greater in the next few. The total membership on May 1st, 1906, was 23,636. Of this number, West Virginia furnishes 234. It should be and will be more like five times that number. The total registration at the meeting exceeded 4,800; almost 2,000 greater than the highest previous record. Of this number our state furnished 16, a larger representation than ever before. The total income of the Association for the past year was, leaving out the odd hundreds, $275,000. Its ex

penses, among which is included the cost of publishing its Journal, $215,000. The Journal which it established and conducts is powerful and invaluable. As we have embarked in a similar enterprise in West Virginia, it will be of interest to note a few items from the report of the Journal managers. The weekly circulation during the past year ranged from 35,000 to 42,000 (in round numbers), the average for the whole year being 38,000. The total income of the Journal for the past year was but a few dollars less than $257,000. This is made up, from membership dues, $84,000, subscriptions from non-members, $64,000, and advertisements, $95,000.

It is gratifying to be able to state that Virginia who receive the Journal compares the percentage of all the physicians of West very favorably with that of the other states of the union. The total number of copies sent to West Virginia is 418; 234 to members and 184 to other subscribers. This is a gain of 68 over last year, and is 29.6 per cent. of the estimated total number of phy.. sicians in the state. In some of the states, notably those most sparsely settled, the per centage is much higher. North Dakota has 73 per cent., Washington 58 per cent., Idaho 55 per cent., while among the older

states we have North Carolina with only 15.9 per cent., Georgia 16.8 per cent., Tennessee 17.1 per cent., New York 21.1 per cent., Massachusetts 32 per cent, Pennsylvania 32.5 per cent., and Illinois with 44 per cent. These figures show how we stand in comparison with our sister states, and point out our immediate duty to the great and powerful organization to which we belong, which is devoted solely to our highest interests, and which is only just now becoming able to wield the tremendous power, so long dormant, of a great and unified profession.

There is much more that might be said about Boston and her great meeting, but I must put a limit to this communication or the editor will chop my head off. To historic Boston; philanthropic Boston; civic Boston; educational Boston; artistic, commercial, social, literary and religious Boston, a separate communication might well be devoted. But the sum of all our impressions gathered there during those delightful days (of course, it rained some,) irresistably crystallize into the phrase, Honest Boston. L. D. WILSON.

The Need of Rest.

Scientific experiments have proved that metals are subject to fatigue and need regular rest. A steel rail, or the link of a chain, or the girder in a bridge, will last longer and do more work if it is given periodical rest than if it is kept on a constant strain. A persistent jar on a bar of metal shakes the molecules into crystals, forming lines of easy cleavage, and it breaks. But if the bar gets periods of rest the molecules regain their normal position and the bar regains its strength. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Every locomotive, every engine, every iron or steel tool gets tired and is the better for regular rest.

The rest that is needful for iron and steel, is just as needful, if not more so, for muscle and nerve, for heart and brain. If rest is necessary for the best work of a powerful and complicated engine, it is more necessary for the best efforts of the human body, the most wonderful and most complicated of all machines. Continual activity causes chronic fatigue that shortens life and weakens one's efforts. Rest renews and refreshes and sends one back to more vital and vigorous work, and to higher accomplishments. A vacation is not a selfish whim, nor an unfaithful escape from duty, but it is a universal need, a necessary part of every good life-work. The human body absolutely requires change and rest and recreation to best accomplish its appointed. duty.

If a vacation is necessary for the clerk, the bookkeeper, the housewife, the lawyer and the minister, it is still more needful for the physician. No profession is so full of responsibility, of worry, of anxiety, of constant tire and strain, as that of medicine. The severe drain on one's sympathy alone, at times, brings on a feeling of utter fatigue. The uncertainty of a medical diagnosis, the anxiety and loss of sleep of an obstetrical case, the worry and responsibility of a surgical operation, and the thousand and one irritations arising in practice, all go to make up the day's' work in the most exacting of all professions. The doctor, then, of all others, requires rest, and a regular vacation is a necessity to him, if he do his full duty to himself and his profession.

Not much matter what he does or where he goes on his vacation, he will get genuine

away from work and relaxed from strain. There is no such enthusiastic sightseer, nor so good tempered traveler, nor so observing and appreciative tourist, or "tripper" as the English say, as the doctor off on his vacation. The tighter the bow is bent the more it will relax. Whether hunting, or fishing, or traveling hard and fast and far, and seeing strange countries and new cities, or lounging at the sea-shore, forced by the soporific influence of old ocean to dolce far niente, or lulled to long hours of sleep by that most soothing of all lullabies, the dull booming of the surf, no matter what, or how, or where, the doctor enjoys his vacation to the fullest, and it is one of the absolute needs of his life.

Reasoning thus, I have left patients and professional cares far behind, and this hot. July day finds me reposing restfully on a steam yacht on the coast of Maine. But my thoughts revert to the mountain state of my birth, and to the Medical Society whose recent session I attended. And this suggests the thought that every physician should regard it as a matter of duty and necessity to attend at least one medical meeting away from home in each year. He owes that much to himself and to his profession. It was inspiring and impressive, at the fiftieth meeting of the American Medical Association, to hear the late Dr. N. S. Davis, that patriarch of the profession, eighty-four years of age and still working at the time, exhort the young men to do as he had done, attend every meeting of the Association. The last meeting of our State Society, at Webster Springs, was the best and one of the largest ever held. Let the next one be better and larger still, and let each successive meeting be still larger, and thus will result more good to the individual and more power to our association and more glory to our profession, and more benefit to the people whom we serve.

JOHN L. DICKEY. BAR HARBOR, MAINE, July 23, 1906.

"Dr. Kraft had so little medical skill I wonder why Miss Passay always calls him in."

"Oh! he's got her cinched."

"Understands her thoroughly, eh?"

"Yes; whenever she gets a cold he calls

First Authentic Story of the Leper.

Editor of West Virginia Medical Journal.

Sir: In view of the notoriety of the case of leprosy which has caused so much newspaper comment and such embarrassment to the several railroads, we deem it of sufficient interest to the profession to give a true history of the case of Marron John Rashid, age twenty-one, a native of the town of Surba, Sidon county, State of Beirath, Syria, who came to America about four years ago. He first engaged in peddling in the State of Maine, after which he was employed in a cotton factory in Waterville, Maine, where he remained about one year. He was married a few years before leaving his native country and left his wife in Syria, she following to America about eighteen months later, joining him at Waterville. A few months after she came, and about two years after Rashid's arrival, he developed some sores about his face which became so serious that he was compelled to quit his work in the factory. Soon after this he went to Uniontown, Pa., where he remained a few months, living among his Syrian friends while his wife peddled from place to place. They then came to Enterprise, W. Va., and remained a short time. Then they came to Clarksburg, W. Va., and Rashid was in one of the hospitals there about three weeks. From there they went to Richwood, W. Va., and spent some time there. Thence they came to Philippi and after remaining there for a time they reached Elkins on June 5th. About the 15th Dr. W. W. Golden saw Rashid, he having expressed a desire to enter Davis Memorial Hospital, but upon examination Dr. Golden, surgeon in charge of hospital, diagnosed the case as leprosy and declined to receive him. I saw him about the twenty-fifth of June and was puzzled to diagnose the case, never having seen a leper, but after consulting with Dr. Golden and reading up the history of leprosy, I was convinced that this man had a true case of tubercular leprosy.

As the meeting of our local medical society, (Barbour-Randolph-Tucker,) was to meet just at this time, we decided to say nothing of the case publicly and to present it before the society, which was done on July 28th. At the meeting the fifteen physicians present concurred in the diagnosis and the patient was turned over to the Board

of Health, which at once took charge of him, preparing a tent for him, where he remained till the eighteenth when he took "French leave."

During the discussion of this case at the society the fact that the disease was only very mildly contagious was emphasized, and as a consequence when the news that a leper was in town became known, but little excitement was manifested, thereby demonstrating the practical utility of a county medical society in moulding public opinion. It may be interesting to know that our Board of Health and the city authorities did all they could to make the patient comfortable. After furnishing him with tent and cot with sufficient clothing, they allowed the Syrian friends one dollar per day to supply him with provisions, etc. Besides, many friends visited him from time to time and gave him many delicacies to make his isolation as agreeable as possible.

During this period efforts were in progress by the local Board of Health, through the state and national authorities, to make a permanent disposition of the patient. Since his leaving Elkins the public has been informed of his every movement.

As a helpful factor in the diagnosis of this case the leper admitted that there were two similar cases in his native village at the time of his departure from it. Thus far neither his wife nor his friends, so far as we can learn, have leprosy, and the fact that he had been in this country two years before its appearance, demonstrates the long incubation period of leprosy. Though his wife was with him constantly through the two years of the disease she shows no sign of infection. The rarity of this disease in this country no doubt accounts for the failure of an earlier diagnosis, notwithstanding the fact that this man was under the care of several physicians in different states. In addition to the leprosy, Rashid is also suffering from an advanced valvular lesion of the heart. Yours truly,

J. C. IRONS, M. D., Elkins, W. Va., July 30th, 1906.

In this connection we reproduce below an extract from a letter in the New York Times, written by the distinguished dermatologist, Dr. W. S. Gottheil, of New York City. It is well worth reading and remembering, and physicians can do much good by informing the public on this subject. It

is not at all unlikely that this disease will increase in the country, which is receiving annually untold thousands of immigrants from southeastern Europe.-Ed.

To the Editor of the New York Times:

Leprosy is not contagious in any ordinary sense of the term. It is not contagious in the course of ordinary social intercourse; so that there is absolutely no danger in treating these sufferers humanely and ministering to their wants. All the evidence goes to show that in our climate, at all events, lepers do not communicate the disease to others. To my personal knowledge, we have always for twenty-five years past, had lepers among us; yet fresh cases have not arisen. We see them in our clinics and societies every year; but they all come from regions where the disease is endemic-from China, the Sandwich Islands, and Southeastern and Southern Europe, &c. Even Father Damien's case, supposed to be an undoubted instance of self-sacrifice and infection, has latterly been doubted. It is claimed that he came from a leprous family and was already infected when he went to Molokai.

In 1883, when I was interne in the City (Charity) Hospital, we had three lepers in the skin ward; one of them worked daily on one of the department steamboats. At the present time I have a leper in my ward at the same institution; he has been there two years, at least. These patients, and others like them, have lived in the ward, have associated with the others, and have been dressed by the nurses. I believe that there has always been a case or two there; yet there has never been any danger of infection. Two years ago I accidentally saw a case far advanced in the disease that had never been detected. She was a Sicilian woman who had been here twelve years. During most of this time she had kept a grocery store in a crowded section of the city; she lived in a two-room tenement with her husband and six children; she had the disease before she came to this country, and no one had been infected.

Of course, I am not prepared to say that a person married to a leper might not in the course of years contract the disease; but I am so convinced of its practical non-contagiousness that I should not hesitate for a moment to live in the same house with one. It is cruel and benighted to fly from such patients as if they were plague-stricken, to

imprison them in box-cars and hand them food at the end of a stick, and to deny them the ordinary attention and care due to the sick and indigent.

It must not be forgotten, also, that leprosy, while practically incurable, so far as our present knowledge goes, begins insidiously and lasts for many years, during which time the patient may be in no way incapacitated from work. It is, in fact, so slow that the great majority of the patients here do not die of the disease, but of other affections, just as other people do. A man of means who did not apply for public relief could undoubtedly conceal his disease, and there is no reason to doubt that this occurs. The cases among the poor only come to our hospitals and clinics, for they are deprived of the power of earning their living by comparatively slight disabilities.

From every point of view the danger of a leper to his surroundings are infinitesimal, compared with that from a consumptive or one affected with blood poisoning. I believe in leper colonies, to which, however, only patients willing to go or unable to support and care for themselves should be sent.

*

Let us, then, treat the lepers sensibly and humanely; their lot is hard enough without our ignorance rendering it unbearable.

RESPONSE TO ADDRESS OF WELCOME AT WEBSTER SPRINGS.

(This address by Dr. F. Howell, of Clarksburg, was received too late for insertion in its place.)

Honorable Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen, Citizens of Webster Springs:

I have been asked and it is my pleasant privilege to acknowledge, upon the part of the members of the West Virginia State Medical Association, your hearty, cordial welcome of our Association to your town, which, nestled here as it is in this beautiful valley, surrounded by God's everlasting and magnificent mountains, upon this river of pellucid beauty and heaven-descended purity, by this healing spring, is a spot worthy of the Oracle of Delphi or of the Epidauraean Temple of Aesculapius.

From the remotest times, through the legendary period of the world, and on down to the present, the people of the world have associated with springs and with rivers

with mountains and woods, some oracular, or divine, or inspiring, or healing influence. It is fitting, therefore, and appropriate that the physicians of the little Mountain State of West Virginia should come here; come and drink of this healing spring, receive inspiration from the sylvan beauty of the spot, and listen to words of wisdom from the fathers in medicine here assembled, men who have borne worthily the mantles fallen upon them from honorable and distinguished predecessors.

It is gratifying to know that this spring is not presided over and sedulously guarded against intrusion by an agency of forbidding aspect, a python; on the other hand, the priestesses here are of pleasing aspect, comely looks and assuring manner.

Of the more than 2,000 physicians of the State, a fair representation have, for the present, laid aside the cares of busy professional life, consigned their patients to some less fortunate brother, and made the pilgrimage over mountain, hill and valley, from every point and corner of the State, to meet here, to confer with each other, and to learn from each other the latest in medicine and surgery, in their several departments and specialties, and they will go hence with new inspiration and with new energy, the better able and the more determined to perform their necessary and sacred duties to the unfortunate sick and distressed.

To you, citiznes of this beautiful town, who may attend the meetings of this Association, it will be, I trust, an object lesson of the unselfishness and of the devotion of the profession of medicine to the best interests and the greatest welfare of all humanity It will be a great step forward in the interests of public and private health and morals, and the general welfare of the race, if the people ever realize the high conceptions and disinterested motives of that part of the profession which is worthy of, and which conforms to the high ideals and traditions of our glorious past.

The laity, perhaps, rarely recall, and are as rarely reminded of, the great antiquity and of the glorious history of our noble profession.. We read in Holy Writ that when Jacob died, Joseph commanded his servants, the physicians, to embalm him. Thus at the death of the patriarch Jacob, about 1700 years before Christ, Egypt possessed men who practiced the art of medicine. You will all recall that the cultivated and gentle

apostle Luke was a physician. Until a few years ago this Mosaic reference was the most ancient authentic account that we possessed of the healing art. During the winter of 1872-73, however, Professor George Ebers and his friend, Ludwig Stern, of the University of Leipsic, spent several months in Egypt in quest of rare documents, and fortunately saw and came into possessioin of a well preserved papyrus, which had been found in one of the tombs of the necropolis of Thebes. Upon close examination, Ebers soon discovered the character of the work, and recognized it as a priceless and most comprehensive contribution to ancient Egyptian medicine. He, in connection with other German scholars and Egyptologists, worked for thirty years upon a translation, but he unfortunately died when it was almost completed, and, strange to say, made provision in his will that the manuscript be destroyed, in case of his death, and this was done. A translation, however, which will comprise about 500 pages, has lately been completetd by Dr. Karl H. Von Klein, of Chicago, and will be published shortly. In this ancient work a large proportion of the diseases known to medical science are carefully classified and their symptoms minutely described. Over 700 different remedies are mentioned and nearly all the forms in which medicines are given and applied now are described.

The work shows, says Dr. Von Klein, that for 4,000 or 5,000 years before Christ, there were learned men in Egypt who could make intelligent observations of disease, and combine complicated prescriptions and use them with judgment. This papyrus proves that medicine was a practiced art back in the earliest times to which even legendary history carries us.

But we will come down to the time of Hippocrates, the Father of Modern Medicine. I say of Modern Medicine, because of the great antiquity of the reference and of the work just spoken of.

Hippocrates died sometime between the years 361 to 399 before Christ. Of the leading points in his life and teachings, and of the history of medicine since his day, we have reliable and continuous account. He practiced his profession and established a school and taught in Athens over 400 years before the Christian era. From his students and disciples he exacted an oath or pledge which is worthy the greatness, fidelity and purity of the man, and this same