of examination for conferring degrees, and the reputed number of pupils and of graduates at the several medical institutions in the United States, during the year:-noticing also the requirements of the United States Army and Navy Boards of Medical Examiners, the legal requirements exacted of medical practitioners in our several states, and all such measures, prospective or established, in reference to medical education and the reputable standing of the profession, as may be deemed worthy of special consideration.

The Committee on Medical Literature shall prepare an annual report on the general character of the periodical medical publications of the United States, in reference to the more important articles therein presented to the Profession, on original American medical publications, on medical compilations and compends by American writers, on American reprints of foreign medical works, and on all such measures as may be deemed advisable for encouraging and maintaining a national literature of our own.

The Committee on Publication, of which the Secretaries and Treasurer must constitute a part, shall have charge of preparing for the press, and of publishing and distributing such of the proceedings, transactions and memoirs of the Association, as may be ordered to be published. The six members of this committee, who have not the immediate management of the funds, shall also in their own names as agents for the Association, hold the bond of the Treasurer for the faithful execution of his office, and shall annually audit and authenticate his accounts, and present a statement of the same in the annual report of the committee; which report shall also specify the character and cost of the publications of the Association during the year, the number of copies still at the disposal of the meeting, the funds on hand for further operations, and the probable amount of the Assessment to be laid on each member of the Association for covering its annual expenditures.

VI. FUNDS AND APPROPRIATIONS.

Funds shall be raised by the Association for meeting its curent expenses and awards from year to year; but never with the view of creating a permanent income from investments. Funds may be obtained by an equal assessment of not more than three dollars annually on each of the members; by individual voluntary contributions for specific objects; and by the sale and disposal of publications, or of works prepared for publication.

The funds may be appropriated for defraying the expenses of the annual meetings; for publishing the proceedings, memoirs, and transactions of the association; for enabling the standing committees to fulfil their respective duties, conduct their correspondence, and procure the materials necessary for the completion of their stated annual reports; for the encouragement of scientific investigations, by prizes and awards of merit; and for defraying the expenses incidental to specific investigations under the instruction of the association, where such investigations have been accompanied with an order on the treasurer to supply the funds necessary for carrying them into effect.

VII. PROVISION FOR AMENDMENTS.

No amendment or alteration shall be made in any of these articles, except at the annual meeting next subsequent to that at which such amendment or alteration may have been proposed; and then only by the voice of three-fourths of all the members in attendance.

And, in acknowledgement of having adopted the foregoing propositions, and of our willingness to abide by them, and use our endeavours to carry into effect the objects of this association, as above set forth,-we have hereunto affixed our names.

NAMES OF MEMBERS.

RESIDENCE. INSTITUTIONS REPRESENTED.

In connection with the foregoing "Plan of Organization," the committee beg leave further to report the following as one of the ordinances, or by-laws of the proposed association, viz:

THE ORDER OF BUSINESS.

The order of business at the annual meetings of the American Medical Association shall at all times be subject to the vote of threefourths of all the members in attendance; and until permanently altered, except when for a time suspended, it shall be as follows, viz: 1. The temporary organization of the meeting preparatory to the election of officers.

2. The report of the Committee of Arrangements on the credentials of members; after the latter have registered their names and addresses, and the titles of the institutions which they represent. 3. The calling of the roll. 4. The election of officers. 5. The reading of minutes.

6. The reception of members not present at the opening of the meeting, and the reading of notes from absentees.

7. The reception of members by invitation.

8. The reading and consideration of the stated annual reports

from the standing committees.

9. The selection of the next place of annual meeting.

10. The new appointments to fill the standing committees.

11. The choice of permanent members by vote.

12. Resolutions introducing new business, and instructions to the permanent committees.

13. The reading and discussion of voluntary communications introduced through the committee on arrangements.

14. Unfinished and miscellaneous business.

15. Adjournment.

Before bringing this report to a close, the committee beg leave to remark, that in preparing the foregoing "plan of organization," and "ordinance" accompanying it, they have constantly had in view, as worthy of imitation, the plan of organization and order of business adopted without any previous concert of action, by the Medical Convention of 1846.

The plan here presented, differs from the mode of organization

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adopted by the late Convention, principally in such points as are necessary to give permanency and influence to the proposed association. It is believed to be sufficiently simple and at the same time sufficiently comprehensive and practicable, for organizing the whole of the Medical Profession of the United States into a permanent body; and for carrying into effect all the objects contemplated in the formation of a National Medical Association.

All of which is respectfully submitted.

JOHN WATSON,

JOHN STEARNS,

F. CAMPBELL STEWART,
ALFRED STILLÉ,

N. S. DAVIS,

E. D. JENNER, (by the Chairman.)

Cases observed by S. HENRY DICKSON, M. D., Prof. Instit. and Pract. Med. Col. State So. Ca.-The habit of keeping a case-book is one which should be recommended to every physician commencing practice. Such a record is advantageous to himself, in a great diversity of modes, and may be made interesting and instructive to others. A fact clearly stated can scarcely fail to possess some importance, absolute or relative. On looking back upon a collection of professional memoranda, I have thought an occasional extract might, at least, entertain, for a moment, the readers of the Southern Journal of Medicine, &c., and offer for publication the following, among the first which presented themselves on turning over the leaves.

1. Hydrophobia.-On the 5th February, 1840, I was desired to visit Julius, a black boy, three years of age, belonging to Mrs. M. He had been sick since the evening of the day before; had complained of pain in his head and stomach; had taken a purgative and voided a worm, (lumbricus.) His skin was cool; his pulse very quent; his lips slightly livid; his tongue of natural appearance. His eye was wild; his countenance anxious; and he sighed and sobbed a good deal; he said his head and stomach hurt him, but not much.

fre

Confessing that I did not clearly comprehend the case, I advised that he should be put into the warm bath, and a mustard poultice afterwards applied over the abdomen, and prepared for him a mixture of carb. potass. with tinct. opii. camph. This was in the after

noon.

Next morning, (6th,) his mistress who had attended to him assiduously, mentioned that there was something very peculiar in his manner of taking his medicine, which alarmed her; and stated that he had been, some months before, bitten by a dog. On looking at his arm, we found the scars, four in namber, quite noticeable, projecting slightly. His pulse was now feeble, and even more frequent than yesterday; he shewed incessant fear of something undefined, and an anxious desire of change of place, throwing his limbs about carelessly and irregularly, in a manner resembling the movements in chorea;

the skin was cold; the lips livid; the eye staring, and the pupil so widely dilated that the iris seemed a mere ring.

I blew suddenly upon his cheek, and was startled by the horrid convulsion into which he was thrown-indeed, it seemed likely to prove immediately fatal. A few drops of water, sprinkled on him, produced a similar effect. He was dreadfully agitated at the sight of water, and refused to drink anything. His breathing was little more than a mere succession of sobs. He still walked, though with a staggering step and great debility.

A few hours elapsing, he became thirsty, and asked for water, which he grasped at with frantic eagerness, throwing his arms about; he succeeded in swallowing some of it, in spite of the violent spasm brought on by the attempt, menacing prompt suffocation. Indeed, he now seemed more convulsed when a puff of air was blown at him, or a few drops of water sprinkled on him, than when he made the effort to drink. Terror was strongly depicted in his countenance; his muscles were scarcely a moment at rest; he became very loquacious, complaining of headache and great thirst, and often calling for water. He died in the evening, having been ill about fifty-four hours.

A post-mortem examination shewed the membranes of the brain much injected, while the cerebral substance had undergone almost no change in appearance. There was nothing of morbid alteration discoverable in the viscera of the thorax or abdomen. There was well-marked subcutaneous inflammation beneath and around the scars on his arm, left by the bite from which he suffered.

This case is instructive, from the age and condition of the subject. The phenomena were purely physical, and, of necessity, free from any intermixture of imaginative conditions. The dog which inflicted the wounds had not been thought diseased, but was killed on the spot, as a worthless little animal, by his owner, whom he vexed by attacking him also. The wounds were very slight, and healed quickly, having excited no apprehension whatever. The occurrence took place in the September previous--an interval of between four and five months separating the injury from its fatal consequences.

The most impressive symptom here was the super-sensitiveness of the cutaneous surface. This was, in degree, extreme, and singularly characteristic, as it seemed most readily to respond to the impulse of atmospheric air set in motion. A sudden touch would, indeed, startle the patient, and the attempt to swallow would threaten suffocation; but, a puff of breath from the mouth, or the sensation communicated by waving the hand towards him, would bring on spasm and convul

sion.

This peculiar symptom presented itself also, very strikingly, in a second case, which I saw some months after, with Dr. Bellinger. His patient, too, was young and unimaginative-a fine, intelligent boy, of about 11 years of age, son of respectable Irish parents. He died in August, having been bitten in April; never suspecting, so far as I am aware, any connection between his attack and the injury re

ceived so long before. The whole history of this case, indeed, strongly resembled that of which I have above given a brief state

ment.

2. Bifid Vagina.-Mrs.

came to the city, 1839, to consult me. She has been two years married--has always suffered from irregular and scanty menstruation; it is but a few months since she has become aware of the existence of some genital malformation. The vagina is divided--neither longitudinally, nor transversely, but obliquely-by a membranous partition. Both tubes are long and narrow. Coition is difficult, particularly if the right (and somewhat anterior) opening be entered. The left, which is obliquely posterior, leads to the uterus, the os tincæ presenting; the right conducts to the side of the uterus in which the membraneous partition loses itself; the cul de sac is not to be reached by the finger; a long probe or bougie may pass up six inches or more, but gives pain, and, when withdrawn, is coated with bloody mucus. The dividing membrane lies in loose folds; is smooth and well lubricated; projects slightly between the labia. It possesses very little sensibility.

3. Obliteration of the Vagina.-I have seen three instances of this condition of the female parts. One was in an old African woman, who could give no history of the affair at all. She had, strangely enough, a stone in the bladder, the irritation of which gave the first occasion for discovering the fact. There was a very small opening, just sufficient to allow the insertion of a probe, which it was necessary to introduce frequently, to remove small urinary concretions or calculi, which presented themselves. She was upwards of ninety years old when I first saw her, and lived to be near a hundred—and, of course, as she was always relieved by the probe, was not a subject for lithotomy.

The second was in an old lady, often attacked by suppression of urine, but free from any calculous deposit. The labia had, in this case, as in the preceding, united so perfectly that there was not left any trace of a vulva, except a mere elevated ridge-a sort of raphe in the perineum. The opening which communicated with the bladder only admitted a probe or very small bougie. She had suffered from difficult labor, in which the parts had undergone much injury, from unskilful handling, followed by long and severe inflammation.

The third was a most unfortunate instance, resulting, in a beautiful young married woman, from inflammation of the womb and its appendages, after a protracted first labour. The obstruction here occurred about an inch and a half within the vagina, and was exceedingly firm and unyielding to the touch, seeming fibro-cartilaginous. I advised waiting till menstruation should be attempted, in the hope that the projection of some portion of the obstructing tissue might direct where an opening could be made with safety. But, although there are sufficient reasons to believe that the ovaria did not partake in the disorganization and derangement inflicted, yet years have elapsed without any such effort as I have alluded to.Southern Journ. of Med, and Pharm.