MEETING.

According to its wont, the Medical Society of the County of Kings held its annual memorial meeting at the Society's building, in Brooklyn, December 1, 1901. Dr. Browning, the president, opened the meeting with brief explanatory remarks and introduced Dr. H. N. Hoople, chairman of the historical committee, who gave a brief biography and eulogy of the following members who had died during the year:

GUTHRIE RIDER WARNER, M.D.; JAMES BYERS WARDEN, M.D.; JOHN BARNARD BUSTEED, M.D.; JOHN HENRY HOBART BURGE, M.D., an ex-president; JAMES WILLIAM EDWARD ROBY, M.D.; AUDLEY HASLETT, A.M., M.D.; ADOLPHUS WILLIAM DUNBAR, M.D.; THOMAS ENNIS MCCARTY, M.D.; CHARLES EDWARD DORITY, M.D.; JARVIS SHERMAN WHITE, A.M., M.D., LL.D.; FREDERICK CORNELL DEMUND, A.B., M.D., and STEPHEN CHANDLER GRIGGS, M.D., together with Drs. JOHN CHARLES HARTT, RICHARD CARSON BAKER, GEORGE WILLIAM WELLS, EDWARD F. MORGAN and ORSON HOPKINS SMITH.

Dr. Browning then introduced the Rev. E. W. McCarty, rector of St. Augustine's Roman Catholic Church, as the brother of one physician and the uncle of another, both deceased.

Father McCarty delivered an address which was listened to with close attention and earnestly applauded at its close. He spoke in part as follows:

"Members of the Kings County Medical Society-You have gathered here to-night to recall and to honor the memories of your associates who during the last year have passed away. This annual custom dignifies your large and venerable organization. It reveals your fealty to friendship, your fine sense of justice and your loyalty to your profession. Usually physicians are not credited with a surplus of sentiment; but when you busy men leave your duties that are pressing and important to listen to the roll-call of your recent dead, to write in your records an outline of their lives, and to eulogize their achievements in medical science, you not only give evidence of the sincerity and manliness of your sorrow for the dead, but you hold out to the living a splendid incentive for noble effort in their difficult work. If the lips now turned to clay could give voice to the hearts that beat no longer, I am sure. they would tell you that, after the tears of those who are nearest and dearest, they prize most of all on earth your commendation

and the writing of their names in honor here in this temple of medical fame.

"Twelve of your men have fallen since your last memorial meeting. Twelve doctors' signs have come down, and on twelve silver plates their names have been graven and then fastened to coffin lids. On their new signs no office hours are stated. Their office chairs are empty. They have made their last call. Here, in imagination, to-night, we have twelve full-sized caskets, ranged becomingly side by side. From one to the other we reverently go and unscrew the tops and uncover the faces. As we look from one white face to another we find that some of them were old, some were in middle life, and some were young. On every face is stamped the evidence of intellectuality and thought-faces that brought hope to many a sick room and health to many a home. There they lie, fine types of noble manhood. Shower upon them generously your fragrant flowers of remembrance, and join in a fervent song of earnest praise because of the efforts they made and the work they did on behalf of suffering humanity.

"The world does not discriminate well in crowning its heroes. Read the story of the human race and it will tell you that here and there, in every age and in every land, geniuses shed their light on their time and on their country. Some led victorious armies whose iron tread shook the earth; some with master hand guided the destinies of nations to magnificent success; some revolutionized geography by their discoveries; some rose on the wings of literature until they seemed almost inspired; some scanned the heavens with the cagle eye of science, and told the astonished nations the secrets of the stars. These names were forged in iron, cast in bronze, carved in stone, and written in ink that seemed indelible on the glorious pages of history. This is as it should be. Raise them on their pedestals of polished granite and let them, placed in graceful posture, receive the homage of their fellow-men. But why not give equal reward to greater merit? Why has not your great profession been fittingly recognized? Is it not strange that the heroism of an hour is often recorded and rewarded, while the heroism of a life is passed by unnoticed? You do not sweep the heavens with the telescope and speak to the listening thousands of the music of the spheres, but you search the earth with the microscope and warn mankind of its discords and dangers. You do not soar into eagle flights of literature that fascinate the imagination, but you tell with pen that is learned and graphic the mysteries of the

human frame, the intricacies of the organs of life, the marvels that the Creator has crowded into the body and brain of man, and how to develop and protect them. Your profession does not cross unknown seas, nor penetrate into primeval regions, in search of new countries, but it works with sleepless energy and splendid science to make the old countries more healthful and happy. It searches the vegetable, mineral and animal kingdoms, and discovers new facts and new agencies that relieve pain and prolong life.

"You are not leaders of great armies that march in serried ranks to the field of glory, with martial music and colors flying, to fling themselves upon their country's foes, and to wrest from them in carnage its rights and liberty. But your profession is waging a more difficult warfare against enemies harder to conquer. Your foes are microscopic, elusive and deadly; they are in the water, in the earth and in the air, and they threaten all the people. Armies are organized and drilled to wound and to kill; you are organized and drilled to heal and to save. Their battlefields become bloodstained cemeteries, and the graves they dig are filled with the youth and chivalry of the land. Your battles are against disease and death, and the grave never claims either young or old, except against your protest. Their warfare is as a passing thunderstorm, with flashes of lightning that strike and destroy. Your warfare goes on forever, with frequent flashes of brilliant genius that illumine and preserve. Their shouts of victory are mingled with the wail of the widow and the cry of the orphan; your victories are hailed by tears of joy and the benedictions of the people. God forbid that I should steal one leaf from the laurel that crowns our brave men of arms. I am only pleading for other laurels just as fresh and green for other brave men. We applaud the heroes of war-why not hail the heroes of peace? And since they crape the flag and muffle the drum and march to music that is solemn and slow when a military commander dies, should we not uncover here and walk with silent step, and reverently, in the presence of these leaders who have fallen in their great struggle for the people? "The world should write its gratitude for your services in letters that will not rust as does the iron, nor crumble as does the stone. *

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"Plato defined wisdom to be a meditation on death. How it changes values, honors, pleasures, titles, everything that the world can give! How it shrivels them and shows their emptiness!

Members of the Medical Society, we have to thank you for this lesson. You have added one more to your many benefactions. May your numbers increase; may the field of your influence widen; may your benefits multiply; may your success be even more brilliant; may your rewards be priceless. May your society continue to be what it has been and is, the pride of Kings County-standing here, a majestic figure, robed richly and gracefully, with the royalty of knowledge; shod with the golden sandals of progress; belted with the brilliant girdle of charity; her mantle of public spirit held by the jeweled clasp of unselfishness; holding in her skilled right hand the Damascus blade of surgery; on her strong left arm the enameled shield of medicine; on her brow the large, clear, brilliant diamond of science; her eye keen and watchful; her handsome face benevolence itself; her large heart throbbing strongly with sympathy for the afflicted-wishing for and striving for the betterment of mankind."

The meeting, which had been arranged under the direction of President Dr. William Browning and the historical committee, of which Dr. H. N. Hoople is chairman, Dr. William Schroeder is secretary, and Dr. E. E. Cornwall is member, was then closed without further ceremony. It was well attended.

NOBEL PRIZE FOR THE FOUNDER OF THE RED CROSS.

The committee appointed by the Legislature of Sweden and Norway to confer the Nobel prize of $50,000 to be awarded to the person who has done the most to promote peace, passed over the apostles of arbitration and the writers and artists who have portrayed the horrors of war. The choice, we are told, wavered between Frederick Passu, the aged pioneer of the idea of universal peace, and Henri Dunant, the founder of the Red Cross, finally deciding upon the latter. Dunant was born at Geneva, Switzerland. He served as a volunteer assistant in the field hospitals during Napoleon's campaign in Italy, in 1859. Amid the desolate scenes of the battle of Solferino he conceived the idea of an international organization to relieve the sufferings on the battlefield. He published a book, "Memories of Solferino," which was translated into many languages and prepared the soil for the germination of the idea of the Red Cross Society. He devoted all his energies and means to the realization of this ideal, and is now living in poverty in his old age. The prize endowed by the City of Moscow, to be awarded at the international medical congresses, was also bestowed on Dunant.

MEDICAL EXCERPT.

By T. P. CORBALLY, A. M., M. D.

UTILIZING RADIOGRAPHY.-At a session of the Congrès de l'Association Française pour l'Avancement des Sciences, M. Bilhaut, of Paris, presented a communication ("Le Progrès médical") on the utilization of "radiographie comme contrôle à la suite des accidents du travail." He said:

The physician or the surgeon, when consulted as an expert, to determine the extent and the condition of an accident received by a person during his work or otherwise, should not limit himself to making a clinical and formal examination of the case, as has been the custom heretofore. He must not strive to establish the applicability of theories that may have been advanced regarding the nature and condition of the injury: he should have recourse to the positive information that may be afforded by the accessory sciences, especially the physical and chemical. There are cases in which he should never omit to consult the X-rays as a means of clearing doubt and of furnishing positive evidence. In those doubtful cases in which the clinical signs resulting from a careful examination by such means as palpation, auscultation and percussion are wanting or uncertain, he will find in the judicious use of the X-rays evidence that leaves no doubt. The doctor consulted should, in the interest of his client, be careful to examine the obscure, the real, conditions of the case submitted for his examination. By a careful and continued study he will educate the eye, which is absolutely indispensable, to enable him to understand what is shown on the screen during the active or passive movements of the patient.

Thus fortified he will avoid formal statements that are often vague or indefinite, and will be able to form accurate conclusions regarding the nature of the injury.

LUXATION OF THE ASTRAGALUS.-M. Walther presented to the Société de Chirurgie the report of a case in the practice of M. Brossard, of Cairo, describing a traumatic luxation of the astragalus which that surgeon treated by the removal of the bone ("Progrès médical," November 16). The result was very satisfactory; four months after the operation the patient was able to walk