Evening star., 1915-06-21
DELEGATESATTEND
FROM ALL SECTIONS
Gen. Gorgas Among Those at
Meeting of American Med
icaI Association.
PRESERVATION OF HEALTH
CONSIDERED IN REPORTS
Opening Session Today in San Fran
cisco-Program of Exercises
for Week Outlined.

SAN FRANCISCO. Cal. June I'll
Physicians and surgeons from all parts
of the country were here today at the
opening of the annual convention OF
the American Medical Association. They
include Gen. w. c. Gorgas. surgeon
general Of the U. S. Army; Dr. w. ].
Mayo of Rochester. Mimi, and DR.. Vic
tor " Vaughn, president OF the asso-
citation The convention will continue
throughout the week.
Numerous activities in which the as
sociation is engaged, particularly In the
line of educating the public for the
preservation of health, were reported
upon at the opening session today.
Report on Health and Instruction.
DR.. Henry B. Favill of Chicago, who
presented the report of the council on
health and public instruction, said that
during the past year the council mad
continued the development of its pro-
gram, which includes a thorough In
vestigation Of present public health
conditions in the United States. the
education of the public by every pos
sible means, in order that the people
may understand the enormous advances
in scientific medical knowledge during
the last generation for the prevention
of disease and the prolongation of hu-
man life. He reported that Dr. Charies
v. Chaplin, commissioner of health OF
Providence, r. l., had. as the speciai
representative of the council visited
| and inspected the boards of health In
all of the states and had prepared
| report as basis of standardizine anu
| classifying their work. He said siml-
lar study of fedora! and municipal
| health activities was being planned
| An important "get-together" move
ment was indicated in the report or the
central committee on the public health
| organization, which has made a survey
of forty-four different national organi-
cations working on public health sub
jects, duplicating effort, wasting money
and labor and conflicting in functions.
It was said a union meeting of all the
organizations interested was being
planned for 1916. with view to unit
| ing as many of these organizations as
| possible in a single strong national Or
| ganiZation.
| Campaign of Education.
Regarding public education work. the
council reported that the speakers bu-
reau had furnished speakers for ISL
public meeting during the year, and
| that the bureau of literature had print
ed nearly 100000 pamphlets on different
public health subjects, including cam
paign of education for mothers on how
to save babies, and on the minimum
sanitary requirements for rural schools
| The education work of the association
regarding frauds in patent medicines
and the interest shown by the public
| were reported as having steadily in
| creased, and the work which the coun-
| Gil undertook some ten years ago in
| elevating the standard of requirements
| for medical education was said to have
| been SO successful that the conditions
which were outlined in the first report
| a decade ago a s ideal have now become
| a reality. There were. however. mum
Der of further advances to be recon-
mended, among which were reforms in
methods of clinical instruction in medi-
| cal colleges.
| The secretary of the association, DIR.
Alexander r. Craig of Chicago, reported
that the membership had increased
| from 1926 in 1914 to 76,020 this year.