Here, as in most other urban populations in this country, the diseases causing the largest mortality are consumption, malarial fevers, bowel affections and pneumonia. This, however, as well as the mortality from infectious diseases, has been reduced by the improvement in sanitary conditions throughout the city. Many dilapidated dwellings were destroyed or renovated, low and wet grounds filled to street grade or drained, and the accumulation of refuse and filth nowhere permitted. Prominent among the reasons for the low death rate for the resident population must be considered the abundant supply of artesian water. Analyzing the death rate of 23.07 per thousand, we find that for the negroes it is 26.60, and for the whites 19.56. Moreover, these rates include the deaths occurring among non-residents, who come in large numbers from other States, and especially from the adjoining States of Arkansas and Mississippi, to our hospitals. Eliminating these and deaths from violence, we find that the rate for the resident white population of Memphis sinks to 12.19 per thousand. Even with the colored population included, but excluding non-residents and deaths from violence, the rate is but 15.25 per thousand-an exhibit that establishes beyond question the healthfulness of this city. Among the causes of death, tuberculosis is the chief, destroying more lives than pneumonia, all malarial diseases, diphtheria and scarlet fever combined; more also than scarlet fever, diphtheria and all diarrhoeal and dysenteric diseases. What a harvest of glory awaits him who discovers immunization from the inroads of the tubercle bacillus ! While commending the Board for its zeal in the past, we would urge upon it the closest possible scrutiny of the meat and milk supply, and especially of the latter, and direct attention to a selection in this issue of the MONTHLY (p. 214), giving the results of official investigations in Massachusetts, which show that at least three per cent. of the general milk supply of large cities contains bacilli and will prove infectious. THE MONTHLY was recently favored with a call from Mr. S. G. Steiner, representing Parke, Davis & Co. of Detroit, Mich. IN a communication to the Mississippi Medical Monthly the chancellor of the State University advocates the addition of a medical department to that institution for the purpose of advancing medical education in the State. If by "advancing medical education" were meant further additions to the hosts of ill-qualified graduates annually sent out by no small proportion of the medical colleges of this country, there would be grounds for the proposal, but if, as is no doubt true, the elevation of the standard of medical education is intended, the scheme would prove a failure. For the efficient teaching of medicine, clinical and other demonstrative instruction is now everywhere regarded as essential, and this is possible only in connection with large hospitals and dispensaries, such as exist and can exist, only in centers of population larger than any to be found within the borders of the commonwealth of Mississippi. The advancement of medical education is to be attained, not by the multiplication of medical colleges, but by the establishment of one efficient examining and licensing board by and for each State, for service on which no member of a medical college faculty should be eligible. The licensing power being thus independent of the teaching bodies could exact whatever qualification it might deem sufficient. In this direction Mississippi has done and is doing excellent work. Since the establishment of her board the annual accessions to the ranks of the profession within her jurisdiction have been of a high order of excellence, and, moreover, notwithstanding the requirements of this by no means lenient body, have been more than ample to meet the needs of her population. These and the more liberal provision of facilities for academic instruction, in order that young men may be properly qualified from an educational standpoint to enter upon the study of medicine, are the lines along which the profession and the State must labor in "advancing medical education," whether in Mississippi or elsewhere. THE Buffalo Medical and Surgical Journal will shortly reach its fiftieth anniversary-an event to be signalized by an increase of its reading pages from sixty-four to eighty. The Journal is an ably edited periodical, and among the most welcome of our exchanges. We congratulate its accomplished editor, Dr. William Warren Potter, on this evidence of prosperity, and trust that many similarly satisfactory semi-centennials are in store for the Journal. SOCIETY MEETINGS. The Medical and Surgical Society of Mississippi will convene in Jackson on the 8th inst. The Kentucky State Medical Society will hold its fortieth annual meeting in Harrodsburg on June 12, 13 and 14, 1895. Medical editors, publishers and business managers are cordially invited to attend the second annual meeting of the American Medical Publishers' Association, at the Eutaw House, Baltimore, Md., May 6, at 9:30 A.M. Subjects of vital importance will be discussed, and a profitable and pleasant session is anticipated. Landon B. Edwards, M.D., President, Richmond, Va.; Charles Wood Fassett, Secretary, St. Joseph, Mo. The fifth annual meeting of the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States will be held at Buffalo, N. Y., May 21, 22 and 23, 1895. President, Geo. M. Sternberg, Brigadier-General and Surgeon-General U. S. Army, Washington, D. C.; Secretary, Eustathius Chancellor, Lieutenant-General and Medical Director, N. G. Missouri, 515 Olive street, St. Louis. The morning session of the first day will be held in the Star Theater at 10 o'clock. Sessions will be held at 9 A.M. and 2 P.M. daily. The general committee headquarters, and register, will be in the Iroquois Hotel. Addresses: Addresses of welcome, by Mayor Jewett and Governor Levi P. Morton; address on behalf of the medical profession, by Roswell Park, M.D.; address by the President. Entertainment: The Citizens' Committee of Arrangements has provided an elaborate program for this meeting in the way of receptions, &c., and extends a cordial invitation to all members and prospective members to participate. There will be an excursion to Niagara Falls, and probably Fort Niagara. This will afford an opportunity of viewing the great cataract and the prodigious electric power plant which is exciting the atten tion of the industrial and scientific world, also the historic battle ground of Lundy's Lane and Queenston Heights, Geueral Brock's Monument, the Rapids of Niagara, and other interesting places. The usual concessions on the certificate plan have been made by the traffic associations east of the Mississippi river. Tickets are good for three days after adjournment. Hotels: The social headquarters will be the Hotel Iroquois. At the New Tifft House, the Genesee Hotel, and the Broezel House, reduced rates may be obtained. Special: A committee of ladies will entertain any ladies who may be in attendance. Undress uniform will be worn during the day, and full-dress with side-arms at evening entertainments. Mr. R. C. Hill, Secretary Committee of Arrangements, Hotel Iroquois, Buffalo, N. Y. DR. A. LAGORIO, Director of the Pasteur Institute of Chicago, makes the following report of the results of the preventive inoculation against hydrophobia obtained at that institution since its inauguration, July 2, 1890: From July 2 to Dec. 31, 1890, persons treated, . . 37 107 From Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 1892, persons treated, . . 101 Total,. 366 The persons treated came from the following States: 206 from Illinois, 39 from Iowa, 26 from Indiana, 25 from Kansas, 23 from Ohio, 10 from Arizona, 6 from Missouri, 4 from Minnesota, 4 from Michigan, 4 from Louisiana, 3 from Tennessee, 3 from Kentucky, 3 from Texas, 1 from Wisconsin, 2 from South Dakota, 3 from Indian Territory, 2 from Nebraska, 1 from New Mexico, and 1 from Oklahoma Territory. Three hundred and forty-one persons were bitten by dogs, 9 by horses, 7 by cats, 5 by skunks, 2 by wolves, 1 by a mule, and 1 by a pig. One hundred and ninety-five persons received severe and multiple bites on the hands and wrists, 47 on the head and face, 47 on the arms and shoulders, and 77 on the legs and thighs. Following the role of Pasteur, the patients treated have been classified into three categories First Persons bitten by animals recognized and ascertained to be rabid by the control experiment made in the laboratory, or by the death of other persons or animals bitten by the same animal. Of this category 123 were treated. Second: Persons bitten by animals recognized to be rabid by the symptoms of the disease shown during life. Of this category 160 were treated. Third: Persons bitten by animals strongly suspected to be rabid. Of this category 83 were treated. The mortality of persons bitten by rabid animals prior to the discovery of the Pasteur and antirabic treatment was as follows: 88 per cent. for the bites of head and face, 67 per cent. for the bites of the hands, and 20 to 30 per cent. for the bites of the limbs aud trunk. We feel, therefore, pleased at the results attained at this institute, as only two deaths have been reported out of the 366 patients treated, thus giving a mortality of 0.54 per cent. Besides the above, 372 other persons applied for treatment, but were sent back, as it was recognized either by the control experiments or by history of the case that the animal was not rabid; their wounds, however, were treated free of charge. The institute will thankfully acknowledge any assistance or donations from private individuals or institutions contributed for the relief of the poor. TEXAS will establish a dental college in connection with her State University. Georgia's new law providing for a State board of medical examiners went into effect on January 1. There are actually three boards-regular, homeopathic and eclectic. Bacteriologists and pathologists should take notice that by the new postal regulations, "disease germs and matters from diseased persons" are unmailable matter, and cannot in the United States be sent by post. |