to which much labor attaches and very little honor. The preparation of the minutes, extending usually to seventy-five or one hundred printed pages, is in itself no small labor. The arrangement for the printer of the various contributed articles, so that they may go to the public in a shape that will not make their author's blush, is also a considerable labor, involving sometimes the rewriting of the whole article. The proof reading is another considerable labor-a labor so considerable that book publishers estimate the cost of proof reading to be equal to one-half of the cost of composition. To bring the matter home to your apprehension, the reading of the proof of last year's volume of Transactions, in a first class publishing house, would cost over one hundred dollars. Add to this the time and energy consumed in the correspondence necessarily attaching to the position, and the expense of attending the meetings, and you will begin to realize that the position of Secretary of the Association is not by any means a sinecure. I have filled this position now for four consecutive years. I have attended every meeting at my own private expense. I have even paid the annual assessment of ten dollars regularly as other members have. I do not say that for this the Association owes me anything-not even thanks; but I think I can say that I do not owe the Association anything-except gratitude for the confidence which it has reposed in me. I have done the labor of the office cheerfully. It has indeed been to me a labor of love, and my sufficient compensation has been the hope and the belief that I was doing my profession some service. I mention the matter simply to pave the way to some suggestions as to the future policy of the Association with reference to their Secretary-suggestions which could not be properly weighed without some such preliminary statements. The suggestions I have in mind are these:

The Secretary ought to receive a regular salary of not less than one hundred dollars, and in a few years, when the resources of the Association have increased sufficiently to warrant it, the sum ought to be much larger than this. I do not think the Secretary ought to make any money out of the Association, but he ought to be able without taxing himself to employ such clerical and other assistance as would enable him to get rid of as much of the labor which, I have mentioned as possible. You understand, I hope, that I am not speaking for myself. I am accustomed to do a great deal of work for nothing; and am willing to do a great deal of work without compensation in money, or in money's worth, for the advancement of any cause in which I feel deeply interested. The Association voted at the last session to pay the Secretary's necessary expenses for the future. I have informed the President that I should decline to accept the arrangement, preferring to pay my own expenses-at least until the income of the Association should be largely increased. My sole object is to take advantage of the knowledge which my experience in the office has given me, so that at the proper time the Association may act advisedly in the premises.

For all the money transactions which I have been engaged in for the Association the Treasurer has my vouchers. All of which is respectfully submitted.

JEROME COCHRAN, M. D., Secretary.

Dr. Weatherly had some strictures to make on a portion of the report, which are here given as written down by himself:

Dr. Weatherly stated he had some objections to Dr. Cochran's report in reference to the volume of transactions. He thought the cost too high, and said that there were at least two articles in the volume that ought to

have been left out. One, delivered by himself-a copy of which was not furnished for publication, from the fact that the Association took no action on it, and he considered it private property. The other, an article by Dr. Cochran, which had been published previously in the Mobile Register, and making forty or fifty pages in the transactions, at a cost of probably one hundred dollars.

Other articles might have been left out, as he thought it unnecessary to publish everything said before the Association.

CIRCULAR LETTER OF THE PRESIDENT.

MEDICAL ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF ALABAMA,
OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT,

GREENSBORO', ALA., September 25, 1871.

My Dear Sir-As President of the Medical Association of the State of Alabama, permit me to call your attention to the inadequacy of the laws of collection, and the imperfect and vexatious manner in which physicians are compelled to proceed in the collection of their fees for services rendered professionally.

At the March term of the Circuit Court, after the trial of several such cases, Judge Clark, of North Alabama, said: "The laws of the State, as regards the collection of physicians' dues, are inadequate, and ought to be amended." This fact is so patent to every one that it is unnecessary that I should go into particulars, or make an urgent appeal to your interest in the subject.

A petition to have the laws reformed was gotten up and sent by the Medical Society of North Alabama to the last Legislature, and the application was singularly snubbed, ignored and disregarded; yea, ridiculed by a member, who said "physicians were already too well paid, and ought only to get forty cents a mile." But it is wonderful that the said honorable member should have forgotten that he was at that moment receiving forty cents a mile going and returning, besides eight dollars per diem, to ridicule our honest and just petition for redress of grievances! The last Legislature passed laws protecting landlords and others, and amongst this class we single out the law granting protection to livery stable keepers. No. 58 in the acts of 1870 and 1871, which empowers livery stable keepers to advertise and sell stock to pay their charges for keeping and feeding said stock! With pretended ideas of even handed justice, the same Legislature singularly refused to grant the same kind of protection to the medical profession!! Now there are about 1,800 physicians in the State, who are paying an average of $20 each for licenses, which will aggregate about $36,000, and surely for that amount, leaving out of question the eminent services of the profession, which no one can be so hardy as to deny, some protection ought to be afforded by the State to the infamously defrauded physician, whose services are demanded upon all occasions, irrespective of the wear and tear on their own health, and the cash expenses to which they are continually subjected.

Having in view the concert and unanimity necessary to secure for ourselves protection before the law in the collection of our just claims, I beg you will sign and return to me the accompanying petition without delay, and that you will also secure the signatures of all the medical men in your vicinity. It is also very desirable that you should exert every available influence upon the Representative to the Legislature from your immediate county. Respectfully and cordially yours,

T. C. OSBORN, M. D., President Medical Association State of Alabama.

PETITION OF THE PHYSICIANS OF THE STATE OF ALABAMA.

To the Honorable the Senate and the House of Representatives of the State of Alabama:

We, the undersigned, physicians practicing in the State of Alabama, would most respectfully ask your honorable body to take into consideration the great disadvantages under which we labor in the collection of our fees for medical advice.

We most respectfully represent that farmers and farm laborers when stricken with disease very seldom have ready money on hand to pay for the medical attention necessary to restore them to health and usefulness. In most cases their crops are made over to their merchants by liens or deeds of trust, which swallow up the whole proceeds of the crops when they come into market, leaving nothing to pay the attending physician, without whose services in many instances the crops could never have been made.

In the case of the hired laborer the condition of things is even worse; it being customary for him to give a lien on his crops to secure payment for supplies, so that at the end of the year he is unable to satisfy any other creditor than the lien-holder, nothing at all being left to pay for medicines and medical attendance, which are as necessary in sickness as food and clothing are in health.

Believing that the system of contracts by liens, mortgages, and so forth, cannot be abolished; and knowing that deeds of trust having priority have been renewed to the merchants from year to year, to the exclusion of other creditors; and it being also true that physicians are prevented from securing such liens by various considerations, one of which is that in more than half the cases the expenses of the lien would exceed the amount of the bill; your petitioners can see no means of relief except through the interference of the legislative power of the State.

We therefore pray the enactment of a law giving to physicians a standing and statutory lien upon all farm crops, to take precedence of all other liens and claims of whatever nature, with the one exception of the lien of the landlord, which ought to have priority; and with the provision that this law shall be applicable only to physicians who are graduates of respectable medical colleges, and to physicians lawfully licensed by a Board of Censors or Examiners, acting under authority of the State. We also most respectfully represent that the exemption laws at present in force in the State of Alabama operate with peculiar harshness when applied to the claims of practitioners of medicine. The services of physicians necessarily involve a different sort of obligation from that which obtains in ordinary transactions. A grocer, a merchant, or a mechanic can easily and properly refuse to extend any accommodation to persons who disregard their obligations and fail to pay their debts. But it is not so with physicians. The commonest dictates of humanity, as well as the immemorial traditions of our profession require that we should extend our services and our professional skill to all who stand in need of them— that is to say, to all who suffer from any bodily affliction. But, still further, even if we could harden our hearts against any particular individual from whom we had received bad treatment, what are we to do when the families, the wives and the innocent children of such persons, require our ministrations? The relief which our art enables us to best w ought to be given, but it is hard indeed that in such cases our time and skill, which is all the capital we have, should be expended without reward; that we should be forced on grounds of humauity to labor for the families of dishonorable persons who are really able to pay for our

services, but who laugh at our claims because of the legal immunity conferred by the exemption laws of the State.

We therefore pray the enactment of a statute excepting the lawful and reasonable pecuniary claims of practitioners of medicine from the operation of the laws of the State exempting certain property from execution for debt; and this also with the provision that this exception shall be made in favor only of physicians who are graduates of respectable medical colleges; and of physicians lawfully licensed by Boards of Censors or Examiners acting under authority of the State.

In conclusion, we ask for our petition the consideration of your honorable bodies on the ground that we are good and law abiding citizens and tax-payers of the State; and on the further ground that our benefactions to the poor would amount, if estimated in money value, to many hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. And, as in duty bound, your petitioners will ever pray, &c.

The report of the Treasurer, Dr. W. C. Jackson, was read and, on motion, received and approved.

TREASURER'S REPORT.

W. C. JACKSON, M. D., Treasurer,

1871.

In account with Medical Association of the State of Alabama.

March 21-To balance on hand.....

DR.

.$143 97
500 00
80 00

$723 97

There is still due the Association the sum of ten ($10) dollars, annual assessment, from Dr. L. S. Green.

All of which, with vouchers, is respectfully submitted.

W. C. JACKSON, M. D., Treasurer.

Reports of Standing Committees being next in order, Dr. Kumpé, Chairman of the Committee on New Constitution, stated that there were no members of the committee present except himself, and asked to defer the report until the next day. Granted.

Committee on Asylum for Inebriates and Opium Eaters, Dr. P. Bryce, of Tuskaloosa, Chairman. No report. On motion the committee was continued.

Committee to memorialize the Legislature with reference to recommendations suggested by Dr. F. A. Ross in his annual address as President at the meeting in Mobile in 1871, Dr. J. M. Williams, of Montgomery, Chairman. The Chairman not being present, and

no formal report having been prepared, Dr. Weatherly made a verbal report to the effect that the recommendations in question had been presented to the Legislature, but without any practical results. On motion, the committee was continued.

Committee on Purchase of Marine Hospital reported as follows, and, on motion, was discharged:

REPORT OF COMMITTEE TO MEMORIALIZE THE LEGISLATURE ON THE PURCHASE OF THE U. S. MARINE HOSPITAL AT MOBILE.

The committee appointed for this purpose have not been able to make any progress, for the reason that the United States Congress has not authorized the sale of the Hospital, and it has not been possible as yet to obtain the authority of the United States granting the sale.

The committee to prepare a tribute of respect to the memory of Dr. Robinson Miller, of Mobile, deceased, reported as follows:

The committee appointed to prepare resolutions expressive of the sentiments of the members of the Medical Association of Alabama on the occasion of the death of our associate, the late Dr. Robinson Miller, submit the following:

Resolved, That in the death of our honored associate we have to deplore the loss of a most faithful servant to our noble profession, who conscientiously and ably performed every duty, public and private, with which he was entrusted; who in his social relations was eminently pure, truthful and reliable, with a heart always open to the calls of charity, and a hand ever ready to assist, regardless of self or consequences.

Foremost in giving his professional aid and friendly sympathy, not only to his professional brethren, but to the stranger, wherever and whenever a call was made for the relief of the suffering poor he was prompt to respond, and will always be gratefully remembered for his generous devotion and disinterested labors during the years when pestilence swept our Southern cities.

When War, with all its demoralizing effects, pressed heavily upon us, he was always at his post, faithful to his trust and cheerfully performing his duty, winning confidence and friendship from all who knew him.

Upon the return of peace (at least such peace as we were permitted to have), he sustained himself with the same unfaltering honor that had always marked his career, true to his profession, true to himself, and true to his native South.

When called to the Professorship of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children in the Medical College of Alabama, he filled the chair with distinguished ability and rapidly won his way to the love and confidence of his class-working, as ever before, faithfully to the end, until his failing health compelled him actually to take his bed.

Cut off when many years seemed yet before him to increase his reputation and usefulness, with zeal and ambition still strong and active, beloved by his associates, trusted by all-we cherish his memory and mourn the loss of his kindly presence.