344  The  American  Medical  Association.  {Am7u°iya904aim' 
THE  AMERICAN  MEDICAL  ASSOCIATION. 
The  fifty-fifth  annual  meeting  of  the  American  Medical  Associa- 
tion, held  at  Atlantic  City,  N.  J.,  June  7  to  10,  1904,  will  long  be 
remembered  as  one  of  the  most  successful  in  the  history  of  that 
Association.  From  the  point  of  view  of  the  pharmacist  this  meet- 
ing was  of  more  than  ordinary  interest  on  account  of  the  inaugura- 
tion of  the  innovation  provided  for  at  the  meeting  in  New  Orleans 
last  year,  admitting  pharmaceutical  members  to  the  Section  on  Ma- 
teria Medica,  Pharmacy  and  Therapeutics. 
While  it  is  true  that  the  number  of  these  members  admitted  at 
this  meeting  was  limited,  the  necessary  precedent  has  been  estab- 
lished, and  it  may  reasonably  be  expected  that  with  the  added  safe, 
guards,  provided  for  by  the  section,  at  future  annual  meetings 
the  number  of  pharmaceutical  members  will  be  materially  increased. 
The  working  by-law,  relating  to  pharmaceutical  members,  adopted 
at  this  meeting,  provides  that  any  pharmacist  desiring  to  join  the 
Section  on  Materia  Medica,  Pharmacy  and  Therapeutics  of  the 
American  Medical  Association  must  secure  the  endorsement  of  the 
local  County  Medical  Society  at  least  three  months  before  the  date 
of  the  annual  meeting  of  the  American  Medical  Association. 
This  endorsement  with  the  necessary  application  is  then  to  be  for- 
warded to  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  Section  on  Materia  Med- 
ica, Pharmacy  and  Therapeutics,  who  in  turn  will  present  the  name 
to  the  members  of  the  section  for  election. 
This  by-law  places  the  responsibility  for  efficiency  and  probity  of • 
each  individual  member  with  the  local  society,  and  it  is  hoped  that 
in  this  way  it  will  be  possible  to  prevent  fethe  admission  of  individ- 
uals who  would  be  likely  to  use  any  possible  advantage  that  mem- 
bership in  the  American  Medical  Association  would  give  them  for 
commercial  purposes. 
For  the  pharmacists  who  were  present  as  members,  guests  or 
delegates  the  meetings  of  the  Section  on  Materia  Medica,  Pharmacy 
and  Therapeutics  were,  of  course,  of  greatest  interest.  Under  the 
very  able  chairman,  Dr.  O.  T.  Osborne,  Professor  of  Materia  Medica 
and  Therapeutics  at  the  Yale  Medical  School,  this  section  was  able 
to  present  a  programme  containing  no  less  than  thirty-three  papers. 
The  initial  meeting,  Tuesday,  June  7th,  consisted  practically  of  a 
symposium  on  the  abuses  arising  from  the  use  of  secret  nostrums 
