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RECORD OF THE COMMITTEE OF ARRANGEMENTS OF THE WORLD'S HOMEOPATHIC CONVENTION.

Ar Niagara Falls, June 10th and 11th, 1874, the Committee of Arrangements met at the call of the Chairman, and adopted the following as its Annual Report to the Institute:

REPORT.

The Committee have adopted and they recommend to the Institute to sanction and adopt the following plan for conducting the World's Homœopathic Convention:

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"1. That the American Institute of Homœopathy meet in 1876 in Philadelphia as The World's Homopathic Convention under the auspices and control of the American Institute of Homœopathy'; and that the date of the meeting be determined at the Annual Meeting of the Institute in 1875.

"2. That the Bureaus and Committees of the Institute which shall be appointed in 1875, shall present their usual reports at the regular meeting of the Institute in 1877; and that, in 1876, in place of the reports and discussions of the Bureaus and Committees of the Institute, the World's Convention receive the reports and discussions of essayists and debaters of our own and foreign countries, to be appointed by the Committee of Arrangements.

3. That the transactions of the World's Convention be published in a handsome bound volume, to be distributed among the members of the Institute and their foreign guests; and that the expenses be paid by the Institute."

The Institute, by a unanimous vote, passed the following resolution :

"Resolved, That the Institute accept and adopt the Report of the Committee of Arrangements of the World's Homeopathic Convention, and that it authorize the Committee of Arrangements to proceed to execute the plans adopted by them"

The following were elected to fill vacancies in the Committee of Arrangements:

Alabama, Dr. F. F. DE DERKER, Mobile.
Mississippi, Dr. D. B. CHASE, Natchez.
Texas, Dr. WM. M. MERCER, Galveston.
Illinois, Dr. A. E. SMALL, Chicago.

New Hampshire, Dr. J. T. WHITTLE, Nashua.
Vermont, Dr. C. B. CURRIER, Middlebury.

Rhode Island, Dr. Wм. von GOTTSCHALK, Providence.
Louisiana, Dr. WALTER BAILEY, New Orleans.

On motion it was resolved that the chairman be empowered to fill all other vacancies, and that the Executive Committee have power to fill vacancies in their committee, and the Chairman of the Committee of Arrangements was made ex-officio a member of the Executive Com

mittee. On motion the chairman was directed to print the proceedings and reports of the Committee of Arrangements and distribute copies among the members of the same, that they may know what has been done and is proposed to be done by the committee and what is expected of them.

At the meeting of June 11, 1874, the Committee of Arrangements unanimously adopted the following report of a sub-committee appointed to present a final plan of operations:

1. That, wherever State or National Homœopathic Societies exist, they be appealed to to furnish historical and statistical reports concerning Homœopathy in their respective States or nations; where there are no such societies, that prominent resident physicians be requested to do this work; and they recommend that the business of applying to these societies or individuals, in the United States, be placed in the hands of the Chairman of the Committee of Arrangements and of the members who represent the respective States; and that, if the members representing States refuse or neglect this duty, the chairman of the committee shall have power to assign the work to other physicians. The object of associating the chairman with the State members is that he may have cognizance of what is doing and may be able to supply deficiencies. Also, the chairman shall be allowed to assign the business of soliciting and receiving reports of various sections of our country to such members of the committee as may be peculiarly qualified to assist him.

"2. As regards foreign countries, that the Committee of Arrangements authorize their chairman to appoint a sub-committee of two members to act with the chairman as an Advisory Committee,' and which, with the chairman, shall conduct the foreign correspondence of the Committee of Arrangements and appoint essayists and debaters. They shall proceed, without delay, to the work of securing historical and statistical reports and of appointing and securing essayists, to the end that ample time may be allowed for the production of works worthy of the occasion, and shall make every effort to have all papers and reports in the hands of the chairman as early as January 1, 1876.

"3. It being, at this time, uncertain what number of foreigners may contribute to our transactions, the apportionment of appointments as essayists, etc., among our own and foreign physicians, shall be left to the discretion of the chairman and Advisory Committee; but an American physician should be appointed to prepare a historical summary of what has been done and is doing in each of the departments of medicine which it is proposed to discuss in convention. This will complete the historical portion of the transactions, giving us the history and statistics of Homœopathic Institutions, representation and thought.

"The chairman and Advisory Committee shall also secure, if pos sible, in addition to essays from foreign individual physicians, official scientific communications fro.n foreign National Homoeopathic Associations.

"In recommending the lodgment of so much power and responsi

bility in the hands of the chairman and a small committee, the subcommittee are influenced by a consideration of the impossibility of conducting so complicated a business, to be done altogether by correspondence, if it be left in the hands of a large committee scattered over the Union. But they regard it as well understood, that, whenever this may be possible, the chairman shall consult with the entire Committee of Arrangements and shall seek and procure their approbation and consent to such measures as he and the Advisory Committee may propose."

This report having been unanimously adopted, the Committee 'of Arrangements, on motion, adjourned subject to the call of the chair

man.

CARROLL DUNHAM, M.D., Chairman.

ROBT. J. MCCLATCHY, M.D., Secretary, p. t.

THE NEW YORK OPHTHALMIC HOSPITAL FOR EYE AND EAR, corner 3d Avenue and 23d Street, report for the month ending August 31st, 1875:

. Number of prescriptions, 2,427; number of new patients, 286; number of patients resident in the hospital, 27; average daily attendance, 93; largest daily attendance, 126.- ALFRED WANSTALL, M. D., Resident Surgeon.

CORRESPONDENCE.

SAN FRANCISCO, July 30, 1875.

MR. EDITOR: In the June number of the American Journal of Homoeopathy Materia Medica upon page 409, there appears an article over the signature of "H. N. M.," entitled "Answer to an Anonymous Pamphlet, etc.," in which the writer refers to a previous pamphlet which he regarded as the outbreak of a jealous feeling on the part of a few physicians because one man was popular with the people. He regrets" such squabbles." So would any one, if they were from such cause as he has represented. Now, inasmuch as the appar ently one-sided opinion of "H. N. M." has been given to the profession, it would seem no more than justice to all that the subscribers should make it known that they consider Dr. Fraser's pamphlet a damage to the good name of Homœopathy, and that it contains statements utterly devoid of truth. The pamphlet referred to by Dr. Fraser bears the names of three fifths of the committee who investigated the charges against him, and therefore is not anonymous.

There are in this city twenty-three physicians practising Homœopathy who were here during the investigation, and who are cognizant of the facts in the case, and of that number the undersigned would distinctly say that it is on account of unprofessional conduct on the part of Dr. Fraser that they make this statement, and that all the

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jealousy that exists is for the cause of Homœopathy, and the honor of the medical profession.

A sufficient number of facts can be furnished to substantiate the

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To the Editor of the New England Medical Gazette:

Sir,-In concluding some very excellent remarks upon Dr. Berridge's diatribe in a recent number of your journal, Dr. Murray Moore, in the July number, received this evening, writes: "Dr. Pope may have some personal feeling preventing him from inserting Dr. Berridge's contributions in the Monthly Homoeopathic Review; but it is much more probable, nay, it is a fact, that the three editors of that Review do not consider Dr. Berridge's clinical cases worth printing.' Upon this I desire to remark that I never have allowed and trust that I never shall allow personal feeling to influence the appearance of any article in the Review while it is under my direction. If Dr. Berridge or any other man will write for the Review what is worth reading, calculated to be useful, or fit for publication, I shall be happy to insert it. Such or so much of Dr. Berridge's contributions as have ranked under one or other of these requirements have appeared in the Review. Some of those that did not do so have, I believe, been exported. In the last number there is a paper by Dr. Berridge, and I have by me a considerable amount of manuscript by him on the same subject, which will appear as opportunity offers. The estimate Dr. Moore has formed of his character is perfectly correct. I am, sir, Your ob't serv't,

LONDON, August 5, 1875.

ALFRED C. POPE.

RECAPITULATION OF THE CHIEF OBSERVATIONS ON DROSERA ROTUNDIFOLIA.

[We venture to give the following long extract from Darwin's latest work, entitled Insectivorous Plants, as the results of his experiments, conducted with such admirable patience and described in such plain and forcible language, merit the attention of physicians of whatever views or practice. The unmistakable effect of infinitesimal doses is of itself a point of the highest importance, and although we are

not allowed, of course, to draw a direct inference from these experiments to the effects of our remedies, nevertheless they are evidence in favor of our practice, which must be received and which in due time will carry more weight than it does at present with the majority of materialists. One effect the knowledge here given will certainly have, namely, to familiarize men's minds with the effect of medicinal substances in a state of extreme attenuation.

Another point to which we would draw attention, is the remarkable sensitiveness or irritability of vegetable tissues, possessing, of course, no nerve structure of any kind, and yet capable of reacting promptly and powerfully under the stimulus of touch, and contact with organic or other foreign matter. This will shed a flood of light upon the modus agendi of medicinal substances on the animal organism, and assist materially in settling the question of the dependence of drug effects upon nerve tissue.

Finally, the accuracy and wisdom displayed in the conduct of the experiments must strike every scientific mind in the most pleasing manner when they are compared with the sterile and unreasonable character of the research prevalent among physiologists, and the mass of uninteresting or useless rubbish it brings forth. — EDS. GAZETTE.]

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As summaries have been given to most of the chapters, it will be sufficient here to recapitulate, as briefly as I can, the chief points. In the first chapter a preliminary sketch was given of the structure of the leaves, and of the manner in which they capture insects. This is effected by drops of extremely viscid fluid surrounding the glands and by the inward movement of the tentacles. As the plants gain most of their nutriment by this means, their roots are very poorly developed; and they often grow in places where hardly any other plant except mosses can exist. The glands have the power of absorption, besides that of secretion. They are extremely sensitive to various stimulants, namely repeated touches, the pressure of minute particles, the absorption of animal matter and of various fluids, heat, and galvanic action. A tentacle with a bit of raw meat on the gland has been seen to begin bending in 10 s., to be strongly incurved in 5 m., and to reach the centre of the leaf in half an hour. The blade of the leaf often becomes so much inflected that it forms a cup, enclosing any object placed on it.

A gland, when excited, not only sends some influence down its own tentacle, causing it to bend, but likewise to the surrounding tentacles, which become incurved; so that the bending place can be acted on by an impulse received from opposite directions, namely from the gland on the summit of the same tentacle, and from one or more glands of the neighboring tentacles. Tentacles, when inflected, re-expand after a time, and during this process the glands secrete less copiously, or become dry. As soon as they begin to secrete again, the tentacles are ready to react; and this may be repeated at least three, probably many more ti.nes.

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