growth of the Board, saying there is nothing like printer's ink to inform the public of what we are doing, and the Board has used it lavishly. These tables will be printed and put into the hands of all the members, and they will see how the Board has induced, to use a mild term, the county authorities to improve the condition of public buildings.

He called attention to the prompt remedy the Board offers in time of the incursion of such disease as yellow fever, cholera or small-pox. The State has placed a contingent fund of $2,500 at the disposal of the Board for such an emergency. In case of the appearance of such a disease the Superintendent of Health would report at once to the State Board, who would send a committee and such assistance as was needed to stamp out the disease.

He mentioned the occurrence of glanders among horses in Wil mington about a year ago, when the State Board succeeded in blotting out the disease in two months. It is a disease not only destructive to animal life, but is also communicable to man, therefore it fell within the province of the Board of Health. The Agricultural Department had no provision for the arrest of glanders-a very surprising fact. The law of the State requires that animals so suffering shall be destroyed, but does not place the duty of determining the disease on any one. We had no expert to diagnose the disease, so it devolved upon the Board to employ an expert.

He hoped the profession of the State would be interested not only to do what might be asked of them, but that they would study the matter so as to be able to instruct members of the Legislature as to what the Board is doing and what we want. There are practical matters constantly arising, such as the healthfulness of drinking water. To make this plain, Prof. Venable has been studying the matter and will read a paper giving the result of his researches. Some months since the Board received information of the appearance of cerebro-spinal meningitis in La Grange among the students in a boy's school. This county is without a Board of Health, but the State Board secured the aid of the local physician, Dr. Hadley, who had consented to make investigations in regard to the water supply and other hygienic conditions.

Dr. Hadley being present, stated he had received a day or two ago the returns of the chemist who examined the water, but he is not yet ready to report.

Dr. Wood continued, saying the Board had the authority to send experts to investigate such conditions, and could in this way be of great aid to schools.

Dr. Satchwell said he had adopted a novel way of getting a hearing on health subjects, by making arrangements with both political parties to give him the first fifteen minutes at every stump-speaking. Dr. Venable, of the State Board of Health, read a paper on "The Sanitary Aualysis of Water."

Dr. Thomas F. Wood thanked Prof. Venable for his aid in elucidating some of these questions about drinking water. He stated that the paper would be printed by the Board of Health and distributed to each member of the Society, and given as much prominence as possible in the secular papers.

In reply to a question concerning the care of the poor not in the Poor House, Dr. Thomas F. Wood considered it a matter that devolved upon the county.

On motion, the Conjoint Session adjourned, and the Society called to order by the President.

On motion, the special order of business for the hour immediately after convening in the afternoon was made the report of the Mortuary Committee.

Dr. Thomas F. Wood announced as the subject selected for discussion, "Are the Masses Passed after Large Doses of Sweet Oil Gall-stones?"

The paper was prepared by Dr. Burbank, of Wilmington, who was prevented from attending.

The meeting adjourned.

SECOND DAY-AFTERNOON SESSION.

The Society was called to order at 3: 15 o'clock.

On motion, the special order of business adopted at the morning session was changed to allow the reading of the report of the chairman of Section on Practice of Medicine, Dr. L. G. Broughton. After the reading of the report it was, on motion, referred to the Committee on Publication.

The special order of business was resumed, and Dr. S. S. Satchwell read the report of the Obituary Committee, containing an

eulogy on the late Dr. Will. Geo. Thomas, ex-President of the Society.

Dr. Eugene Grissom said it would seem almost an act of supererogation to attempt to add a word of eulogy to that already pronounced upon the name of the great and good man who has passed from us. I will, however, as one having known Dr. Thomas since 1859, when, having just received my degree, I became a member of the Society, whose confréres, the great men of his day-Johnson, McKee, Manson and others-have crossed the river and are resting in the shade, and while my acquaintance with him was not intimate, it was unbroken from that period till his death. In view of these facts, it may not be amiss to pluck one laurel to place upon his grave. I knew him during the war, in its earlier months, when about Wilmington he was ever ready to contribute his skill and his labor to the benefit of the sick soldier without any regard to the sacrifice and labor it placed upon him and without reward. If there is any one object that seemed to be the great polar star of his life, of his ambition, the impression made upon my mind and the minds of those who knew him more intimately than I did, was his conscientious regard for duty-the grandest principle of the likeness to his character. He did his duty at all times and in all places, to all men, and he must have had within him a wealth of noble aftermemories of noble actions and hopes of the noble felicity. He went down to the grave calmly and without a fear. His example will teach upon earth while his spirit is with God.

He moved the adoption of the report, and that a page in the minutes of the Society be inscribed to his name. Carried.

[NOTE.-The Report of the Committee on Credentials is summed up in the final list of new members.]

Dr. Satchwell stated that he had another paper on the death of our late ex-President, Dr. W. T. Ennett, that was not yet completed, and asked to have it referred by title to the Committee on Publication. So ordered.

The President stated that in reference to the question of registration which was discussed yesterday, the Board of Examiners wrote to the Attorney General asking him the power of the Board with unregistered men in possession of diplomas issued prior to 1875-whether they had the power to grant them a license? The Attorney General telegraphed his opinion, which is, in substance,

that those who have not yet registered, but were eligible before the 1st of January, 1890, can obtain a certificate from the Board of Examiners giving them permission to register by sending to the Board a certificate, sworn to before the clerk of their respective counties, that they were qualified to register before the 1st of January.

Report of the Chairman of Section on Pathology and Microscopy. Dr. Julian M. Baker read his report on "Progress in Pathology and Microscopy," which was referred to the Committee on Publication.

Dr. Thomas F. Wood read a paper forwarded by Dr. Thomas S. Burbank (who was absent) on "Are the Masses Passed after the Administration of Large Doses of Sweet Oil Gall-stones?"

Dr. Wood hoped the paper would be largely discussed, knowing how much interest has been lately felt in the subject by the medical public, and how ably Dr. Burbank was prepared to defend it were he present.

Dr. Payne became interested in the subject a few years ago, and as gall-stones are most common in fat women, when one came to his office with symptoms at all pointing to that trouble, he always administered large doses of sweet oil, and always with the passage of these green masses as a result. There was never a failure, and thought he could get a like result from any member present. He thought the masses supposed to be gall-stones were formed in the bowels by the emulsification of fats.

Dr. Thomas F. Wood had had quite a number of cases of indubitable hepatic colic. The oil was not supposed to relieve pain, of course, and was not given until this had been relieved by opium. After action of oil you get several substances besides gall-stones. He thought the large green masses are bile soap, but in cases of genuine hepatic colic there are in addition fragments of white particles sometimes stained a dirty green color. These white masses separated from the green ones give the reaction for cholesterin. It is not certain that these masses come from the gall-bladder, but it is certain that we get fragments of cholesterin mixed with the green He has seen along with these masses clearly defined gallstones. He held that whether sweet oil could or could not cause the expulsion of gall-stones from the bladder, in well-selected cases

masses.

we certainly get fragments of cholesterin, and often permanently relieve our patients. We know that there are sometimes enteroliths in the bowels, and that they probably have their origin in the gallbladder. Could not the cholesterin come from the oil? Not if the oil is pure. There is no doubt that sweet oil has a cholagogue effect, as shown in a paper in the Therapeutic Gazette for May, 1890.

Dr. Payne called attention to the fact that the pain was due to the passage of the stone through the hepatic duct, and when the oil was given after the pain had ceased, the stone being already in the bowel was easily carried out.

Dr. Thomas F. Wood referred to the intermittence of the pain in obstruction, and to the fact of post-mortem examinations frequently revealing the fact of the gall-bladder being packed with gall-stones without there having been any evidence of hepatic obstruction or colic during the life of the subject.

Dr. Payne attributed the intermittence of pain to the occasional passage of a stone.

Dr. Wood thought that if a patient is suffering intermittent pains and during an interval a dose of oil is administered with the passage of these fragments and a relief from future pains and clearing up of the icteric skin and sclerotics, it is proof of the efficacy of the oil in removing them.

Dr. Roberts mentioned a case in which a drinking man subject to bilious colic had had several attacks in a few months. He ordered a large dose of oil and the man was relieved from further trouble. Dr. Nicholson had tried it in only one case without satisfactory results.

Dr. Monroe thought the oil acted only as any purgative would act, likening it to calomel and castor oil. He would like to see the effect of the administration of half a pint of castor oil.

Dr. McDonald mentioned the case of a large man who had suffered for weeks with gall-stones. After trying other things he gave sweet oil and ether, and he passed a great many of what he considered gall-stones, being marked by facts, the patient recovering and having no more trouble. He has had good effects from it many times in duodenitis. He believed it did remove stones in some

cases.

Dr. Poole referred to a paper presented in his county Society (Rowan) in which the following facts were disclosed: A patient