Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1903-07-02
DOCTORS TO UNITE.
American Medical Association to Re-
organize.

HeupeT oI the state Medical society
councillors, states that branch of
] the American medical association is
soon to be organized in every county
in the state of Iowa. AT the national
| meeting of the association held in st.
Paul two years ago plans for com
plete reorganization of the association
We're adopted. The county organiza-
| ton or society was adopted as unit.
The congressional district was made
basis of representation entitled toy one
representative in body to be called
the state medical society councillors.
Above the district organization is the
| state association and back of that is
the national body called the American
medical association. At the last meet
ing OF the Iowa state association, held
at Sioux City, it was voted to conform
to tho national plan adopted by the
| American association.
| National Organizer.
| With the view of organizing the new
work DR.. j. N Mccormack, of Bowling
Green, KY, the chairman of the COM
mitten on organization of the Ameri-
| can medical association was recently
in consultation with the Iowa state
! councillors in session held at Des
Moines. There were present at this
4 meeting the state councillors, the of
ficers of the state association and 9TH
| er prominent medical men of the state.
Among those present were the follow
| ing counselors:
First district, c. E. Ruth, Keokuk;;
Fourth, w. G. Egloff, Mason City;
sixth, d. G. Brockman, Ottumwa; sew
enth, E. E. Dorr, chairman, Des
Moines; tenth, G. H. Churchill, Fort
| Dodge; eleventh, f. Hornibrook, Cher
okee; DR.. j. A. Scroggs, of Keokuk,
president of the state medical society;
DR.. v. L. Treynor of Council Bluffs,
secretary of the state society, and DR..
| w. j. Finleyof Sac City, member of
the reorganized committee of the state
society. DR.. E. Luther Stevens was
present at the conference, being one of
the editors, with DR.. Dorr, of the Iowa
Medical Journal
| The Aims.
AT the last meeting of the American
Medical association, held in New Or
leans, it was decided:
| First, to abolish distinctions be-
| tween schools of medicine, admitting
] homeopathic and electic physicians, Ii
censed and in reputable standing, to
membership with alopathic physicians
in the National Medical association,
in state societies and in county organ
| izations
Second, to push the agitation for
improvement of the hygienic condi.
lions in all the cities of the country.
Two or three things were thought
by Chairman Mccormack and his COM
mlttee to be necessary to do to make
these reforms effective. One was to
1 set to work the energy that will
/ bring into membership in the associa-
| ton the entire 10000 practicing and
u licensed physicians of the different
Il schools in this country by organizing
4 societies in every county n the ma
1 ton; to adopt a system of university
4 extension for the benefit of tlId mem
j bers of the county societies; and to
Il have established in the medical and
other colleges of the country a course
i in medical economics which will equip
! the nublic man and the physician of
the future to meet the hygienic prob
4 lens he is bound to come in contact
/ with.
At the recent meeting of the state
councillors with DR.. Mccormack 1t was
4 decided to begin work at once Of or
I ganizing society of the physicians in
! every county in Iowa. They are to be
4 admitted without reference to the
school to which they belong. The quail
4 ification is license and reputable
4 ness. Alopaths, homeopaths, eclectics
4 osteopaths--all doctors who do not
4 practice sectarian medicine will be adj
/ mitted. The same work is being car
i ried forward under the new national
I constitution, drafted by Dr. McCor-
mack and his committee and adopted
4 recently at New Orleans and in every
1 state. He has visited most of them,
i starting in Florida and zigzaggin9
across the country till he reached New
Jersey. There are 10000 licensed
! physicians in this country, including
1 practitioners in all schools. OF these,
1 but 10000 belong to the medical soci-
j cites. 1t is proposed, through the coun-s
! try organization unit, to get them all
4 into the uniform organization.
4 Each county society will arrange
i for a sort of postgraduate course In
medicine for its members, If adyis-
Z able. Physicians who have had the
i advantages of the new and advanced
/ discovery of the practice will be asked
to deliver lectures before the county
Il SOClelleS. II Is projected IOr the pur-
pose of giving every physician asso-
citation with his fellows and the bene-
fit, of all the latest advances in the
medical sciences.
Il Would Solve Sanitary Problems.
4 Aside from the progress in the pro
fession itself. the chief aim of the re-
organization is the preparation of the
doctors and the people of the future
for the sanitary problems that are COM
4 ing with the increased density of pop
ulation. These relate to the disposition
of sewage, the pollution of water sup
4 plies and the impurities of food sup
4 plies. Agitation to effect better APP
probation Of the deplorable conditions
in this line already prevalent in the
west will be one of the aims of the re-
organized society. This is true in
Iowa. The establishment of medical
economics chairs in the colleges will
be urged as an educational agency cal
culated to help solve the problem the
In, iol, a,.a hot gl3s