we have had excellent success with this food. If table scraps are not available, cooked beans. nuts and meat two or three times per week should be provided. The amount of food given should always be greater than will be consumed if one is desirous of quick returns. When rats are fed on a sufficient quantity of a well-balanced ration they are very prolific and grow rapidly.

A pair should be placed in each compartment. The female comes in heat about every five days and the period of gestation is approximately 21 days. The period of gestation is prolonged a few days if the female is nursing a litter of young during this time. Numerous instances are on record where mating has occurred the same day that young were born.

The number of young in a litter varies from one to fifteen, the average number being about six or eight. They grow rapidly and can be weaned at 30 or 35 days of age. If one desires to maintain a pure breed the young should never be allowed to remain with the parents after they have reached the age of fifty days, as breeding is likely to occur. A litter should always be weaned regardless of age as soon as (preferably just before) a new litter is born to prevent starvation of the newborn. In case the weaned litter is very young (25 to 35 days) milk should be added to their diet. To prevent inbreeding the sexes should be separated at weaning and confined in separate cages. With proper food, however, inbreeding can go on without apparent detriment for a number of generations.

The sexes in the young may be distinguished by the following characteristics:

The males may be recognized by a greater distance between the anus and the genital papilla.

In the male the genital papilla is larger than in the female.

At about 15 days of age the nipples are visible in the female.

After the hair covers the body a strip extending from the anus to the genital papilla remains almost bare in the female, while in the male this region is covered with hair except a

small area immediately below the anus which later becomes the scrotum.

After the descent of the testes into the scrotum the males can readily be distinguished.

The age at which the young females become sexually mature varies between rather wide limits, but usually between 70 and 90 days. The earliest age at which we have found them sexually mature is 69 days. Lantz1 records a case of sexual maturity at the early age of 35 days and Jackson2 one at 49 days. Sexual activity in the females may continue until they have reached the age of 600 days. We have not determined the ages at which sexual activity begins and ceases in the male.

A great difference is noticed in the ability of females to produce young. Some appear to be sterile, while others have given birth to as many as nine litters. If one is desirous of securing numbers, the offspring from prolific breeders should be selected for breeding.

The rats do best in a well-ventilated room of fairly uniform temperature. Extreme temperature should be avoided.

Since these animals need daily attention they can not be shipped long distances unless provision is made for watering and feeding them en route. Our available supply is quite limited but we can generally furnish a few pairs to any one within shipping distance who is willing and able to breed rats for purposes of supplying the government, or for general scientific research.

The three main items for success are cleanliness, a sufficient quantity of a balanced ration, and avoidance of great changes in temperature. With these carefully looked after success is assured.

J. R. SLONAKER PHYSIOLOGICAL LABORATORIES OF STANFORD UNIVERSITY

1 David E. Lantz, "Natural History of the Rat," In "The Rat and its Relation to the Public Health," by various authors. P. H. and M. H. Service, Washington, 1910.

2 C. M. Jackson, "On the Recognition of Sex through External Characters in the Young Rat," Biological Bulletin, Vol. XXIII., No. 3, August, 1912.

THE ORGANIZATION OF THE MEDICAL PROFESSION FOR WAR1

I FEEL greatly honored by the election to the position of president of the American Medical Association. I recognize not only the honor but also the responsibility of assuming the leadership of the organized medical profession of the country at this time. The war has made unusual and exacting demands on us. The government and the people are looking to us to furnish in this great emergency not only the necessary number of medical men for the Army and Navy, but also the highest degree of medical service and efficiency. This is proving to be a war not simply between well-organized armies but between efficiently organized nations. It is now clear that in order to win the war we must organize the entire nation in such a way that every man and woman must become a useful part of a great and powerful national military machine. No part of such a great national organization is more important than the medical profession, and on this, the opening evening of this great war meeting of American physicians, it is my purpose to address you on the organization of the medical profession for war.

The American Philosophical Society: PROFESSOR ARTHUR W. GOODSPEED

615

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MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended for review should be sent to The Editor of Science, Garrison-onHudson, N. Y.

ORGANIZATION OF THE ASSOCIATION

There are in the United States more than 145,000 men and women licensed in the various states to practise medicine. Of these more than 81,000 are members of the

1 Part of the president's address by Arthur Dean Bevan, M.D., Chicago, before the American Medical Association at the Sixty-ninth Annual Session, Chicago, June, 1918. The address is printed in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

American Medical Association, and more than 45,000 are Fellows. The American Medical Association is organized along the most democratic and representative lines. No profession in this or in any other country is more thoroughly and efficiently organized than the American Medical Association. The unit of the organization is the county medical society. It is the avowed purpose of the county society to receive into its membership all reputable practitioners who are legally qualified to practise medicine. The county medical society is a democratic organization. It is not, nor is it intended to be, a select and exclusive medical society. Its functions are educational and social. It exists for the purpose of using the united efforts of the physicians of that county for the benefit of the people and for the education of its members. Any county society that is not democratic and representative is not fulfilling its proper function. By virtue of membership in the county society the physician becomes a member of his state medical society and of the national society-the American Medical Association.

During the first half century of its existence, the American Medical Association was a rather loosely organized body. It was founded for the special purpose of elevating the standards of medical education and practise. Its ideals were high, and it accomplished a great deal of good. Not, however, until its reorganization in 1901 on broad democratic and representative lines, did it become in fact the organized medical profession of the country. The American Medical Association is not sectarian, but is broad enough to include in its membership all licensed physicians who honorably practise scientific medicine.

ACTIVITIES OF THE ASSOCIATION

Since its reorganization, the American

Medical Association has had a record of splendid achievement. It has succeeded in elevating the standards of medical education in this country, which has been uneven and unsatisfactory, to a position where they are as high as those in any other country. It has improved the character of medical instruction until we can now state without fear of contradiction that the medical student can obtain as thorough and complete an education here in America as anywhere in the world.

Moreover, the American Medical Association has accomplished much through its council on medical education in cooperation with The Journal. Through these departments it has been of great service in creating a register of licensed practitioners. A register of medical students is now kept so that the association possesses a full record of the medical career of each licensed practitioner and medical student.

The American Medical Association and its constituent state medical associations have succeeded in securing improvements in the medical practise arts of most of our states protecting the people against ignorant and inefficient practitioners and securing better public health service.

The American Medical Association has through its Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry done outstanding, pioneer work against the unscientific and unnecessary use of drugs and against the prescribing of secret formulas and "quack" medicines. It has done more than any other medical organization to place drug therapy on a sound and scientific basis.

The Journal of the American Medical Association has become the largest and most influential medical periodical in the world. It has a circulation of more than 65,000 copies, and in the best sense it is the instrument that keeps the profession in touch with the affairs of the association, with sci

entific medicine, and through well-prepared abstracts with the current medical literature of the world.

It is now more important than ever that these admirable activities of the association should be continued and amplified, and that steps should be taken to meet the new problems that will confront the association after the war. These will undoubtedly include the stimulation of medical research, the development of an adequate American medical literature, the creation of postgraduate medical facilities not only for our own medical men, but also for the medical men from other countries, who will find here in our great democracy a welcome and opportunities in medical instruction and medical research second to none. But these things can and must wait on the one great problem that confronts us now, the winning of the war.

DEMANDS MADE BY THE WAR

The problem that confronts the country in this war, as far as the development of the medical departments of the United States Army, Navy and Public Health Service are concerned, can briefly be stated in this way: If we raise an army of 3,000,000 men, 10 per cent. of this number will be in the medical department, that is, 300,000 officers and men, and of these at least 25,000 must be qualified physicians and surgeons. If we raise an army of 5,000,000 men, the medical department will contain. 500,000 officers and men, and it will be necessary to have between 35,000 and 40,000 qualified medical men. At present there are more than 200,000 men authorized in the Medical Department of the Army. Of these, somewhere from 20,000 to 25,000 will be medical officers, and the balance enlisted men and nurses. If we create a navy of 500,000 we shall need 3,500 medical men. If we create a navy of a million, which is

probable, we shall need 7,000 medical men. The need of the Public Health Service, although more modest, will be considerable, and must be met. No one can prophesy the extent or duration of the war, but we can say with certainty that it is the purpose of the American people to create and maintain the largest and most efficient navy in the world and to organize and train and equip an army large enough to win the war.

WHO REPRESENTS THE MEDICAL PROFESSION?

The efficient organization of the medical profession of this country for war is being splendidly accomplished by the cooperation between the Medical Departments of the Army and Navy and the organized profession, the American Medical Association. It has been unfortunate that a medical advisory committee which is not in any way representative or democratic, and which has no proper function in the efficient organization of the medical profession for war, should have been called into existence. A small coterie of specialists, of gynecologists and surgeons, no matter how eminent or how successful they may have been as promoters and exploiters of special medical societies, can in no way in this great emergency and in this great democracy represent the medical profession.

RESPONSE OF THE PROFESSION

At the outbreak of the war, the American Medical Association offered to the United States government its entire organization and machinery to assist in the enormous expansion that became necessary. Through the officers of the county societies, the state societies, and particularly through the columns of The Journal, the needs of the government were placed before the organized profession of the country, and they responded splendidly to the call. So far

25,000 have gone into the Medical Departments of the Army and Navy. No other profession or calling has responded more promptly to the needs of the country than the medical profession. The great bulk of the medical men who have gone into the government services were members of the American Medical Association.

The demands made on the medical profession by the war are so great that it is evident that in order to secure the necessary number of medical men for the government, and at the same time prevent hardships in some communities and institutions, it is necessary to organize the entire profession of the country in a systematic way. It therefore became necessary for the American Medical Association, acting with the Surgeon-General's Office, to take a census of the available medical men in the United States in each state, in each county, in each medical school and in each hospital, and to attempt to secure from each one of these different units at least 20 per cent. of the medical men. This plan will enable the government to secure the necessary number of medical officers for an army of 5,000,000 men or more, and a navy of 1,000,000 without any great hardship to any community or to any institution. It is evident that a plan of this kind is absolutely essential, and it is the purpose of the American Medical Association through its county and state societies and its national organization to create such a systematic classification and secure the adoption of this plan. Such a plan means a voluntary draft of the medical profession by the profession itself. The medical profession will supply the men needed by the government. No conscription, no compulsion will be required.

THE HONOR ROLL

The survey has been completed, and was published in The Journal, June 1. It gives

the honor roll of the men who have already gone into the service from each county and state society. It gives the number of men under 45 and under 55 years of age in each county and the percentage of men who have volunteered. Up to this date about 15 per cent. of the total number of men have volunteered. The Surgeon-General of the Army has called for 5,000 more medical officers, and the Surgeon-General of the Navy needs about 2,000. It becomes necessary for us to raise the total number of medical officers this year to about 30,000, which means nearly 22 per cent. of the medical men of the country.

As president of the association, I desire to call the serious consideration of each county medical society to the fact that in order to do its duty it should furnish at least 20 per cent. of its members for military service. This situation should be met fully and promptly by each county medical society. In order to prevent hardships to communities due to lack of medical service, and in order to prevent the crippling of medical schools and hospitals, no community and no institution, unless it is clearly oversupplied, should be allowed to furnish more than 50 per cent. of its medical men. As far as possible the quota from each county should be filled by men under 45 years of age. If this is not possible men up to 55 will be taken. As fast as each county fills its quota of 20 per cent.-and this should be done by each county within the next few months-the secretary of the county medical society should notify the secretary of the state medical association and the secretary of the American Medical Association of that fact.

THE SUPPLY OF MEDICAL MEN

Profiting by the experience of the great nations that entered the war in 1914, the medical profession of the country, and the