ter, and have been very forcibly presented by former committees; and although improvement in this, as well as in other features of our literature is apparent, marking a corresponding advancement in the cultivation and intelligence of the profession, and in the development of the science itself, yet the grounds for these complaints are still so great, as to call for reiterated expressions, and for continued efforts towards their removal. Based, as such faults commonly are, upon an imperfect general and professional education, and accompanied by a vagueness of thought and a defective appreciation of the features which in each case should be observed and recorded, your Committee are fully aware of the little influence these statements will have upon the great body of those who need the admonition; and they are also aware that decided and permanent improvement in these as in other respects, must depend upon the operation of those slower causes, which, commencing with the primary school, shall follow the student in his course through the academy, the literary and professional colleges, and through his maturer hospital and other clinical studies, presenting him to the world a scientific, a cultivated, and in every sense an accomplished physician; and, after fully entering the profession, improvement must depend upon the operation of those other causes, which, inducing to, and accompanying associations with others, stimulating to continual study, to careful observation, and the frequent use of the pen, shall keep the aspiring physician to the advancing steps in the march of progress.

But a high degree of general perfection is not yet attained, and too much must not be required in articles, before admission into journals. While editors should exercise a proper power of rejection, they should not too readily discourage beginning efforts, as in so doing they may nip a bud which would otherwise soon expand into a flower, and ultimately produce the most wholesome fruit. Excrescences may sometimes be trimmed away, thorns may be removed, a proper direction given to distorted shoots, but the true bud of promise should be carefully preserved. The imperfections of youth and inexperience must ever be endured. The child should not be discouraged when taking his first tottering steps, or when lisping his first broken sentences; and if the first efforts of writers are repressed because of their imperfections-if no articles are received which have not attained to a high degree of excellence, our periodical literature will become meagre indeed. Under a too rigid system of rejections, few writers would ever attain to

any considerable degree of skill and perfection, as few in active life will practise composition for the mere purpose of improvement in the art. In our present condition nothing is perfect, and great reforms are not speedily effected. We should be indulgent and hopeful when improvement is progressive, though that improvement be slow.

Another class of articles, in medical journals, are occupied with the expression of opinions on various theoretical, scientific, and practical subjects. Affording expression of such opinions is also a proper function of these periodicals. Novel views are thus often suggested, and are presented to the profession for what they are worth-some, to be sure, furnishing only the most feeble and temporary glimmer, while others shine on with steady lustre, becoming fixed stars in the galaxy of truth. While too great license of crude speculation should be discouraged, a large degree of liberty in these expressions may with propriety be allowed. Still, it should be remembered, that facts are ever more valuable than opinions, and that a series of well devised and carefully executed experiments, are vastly more valuable than any succession of hypothetical speculations, however ingeniously conceived or happily expressed.

As an evidence of improvement in the profession and the science, the tendency in original writing now is, to the presentation of distinctly defined and well ascertained facts, and to specific inquiries into their causes and significance, rather than to the expression of vague opinions, or the indulgence in abstruse processes of a priori reasoning. While it is admitted that sound reasoning from facts. tends to the clearer perception and firmer establishment of truth, attempts to reason without facts can only lead to confusion and. error. The many systems of false doctrines, of the past and the present, have had their origin in attempted reasonings without a proper basis of demonstrated facts.

In many journals of late, both European and American, clinical lectures, first delivered to medical students, have been published. When clear, discriminative, and practical, as such lectures usually are, no more useful matter finds access to the pages of these periodicals. Physicians and surgeons in active practice need occasionally to have their minds refreshed on elementary principles, as well as to be briefly informed of the latest opinions and discoveries in pathology, of the best processes of diagnosis, and of the most scientific and successful methods of treatment. Clinical lectures, delivered by competent teachers to advanced medical students,

serve in an eminent degree all these purposes, and their publication in journals should be encouraged, as adding to the value of our periodical literature.

The style of the contributions to our medical journals, though in many instances very far from perfection, is however constantly improving, and in the main may be considered as highly respectable.

The chief characteristics of a good style for medical as for other scientific productions, are brevity and perspicuity. In this variety of composition, excess of ornament is peculiarly out of place, and is seldom met with in our medical periodicals. No fault of style is more offensive than that which attempts to communicate what should be said "plainly and decently" in inflated, affected language; and a profuse use of newly-coined, or foreign words, is decidedly objectionable. As new facts are constantly brought to light in the rapid advancement of the science-as objects or conditions not before observed, or processes not before witnessed become known, new names and new phrases are often required to represent and express them; still, those writers find the most pleased and willing readers who make the least use of novel and technical words, or of unusual phraseology. Plain, practical men (and the great body of physicians are such) are disgusted with a profusion of learned terms belonging to other languages; and it is alike an evidence of good sense, and real, not affected learning, to make use of language the simplest and most generally understood, which will convey the precise meaning intended.

Occasionally, though very seldom, articles are found in our journals in which all rules of rhetoric, and many of grammar, are disregarded; and more frequently the errors of the press, which cause the writer to utter absurdities the furthest from his intentions, remain uncorrected. Considering the extreme annoyance to writers which these blunders produce, as well as the danger of conveying false impressions to readers, they cannot be too scrupulously avoided; but those who have had much experience with types and printers will be inclined to treat leniently those conductors of journals whose editorial income will not justify the employment of professional proof-readers, who are necessarily much occupied with other pursuits, and who, notwithstanding all the care they can afford to bestow, are annoyed more than mere readers can be, by discovering too late these unseemly blemishes which had escaped them before, or by finding the errors they had marked in the proof, it

may be more than once, still staring them in the face. Of no good thing is constant vigilance more emphatically the price, than of presenting the pages of a professional journal, abounding in unfamiliar proper names, and technical, often foreign terms, free from errors. It seems due to the unfortunate editors of medical journals, insufficiently sustained, that thus much should be said to render their position in this respect appreciated.

The selections in our journals are for the most part judiciously made, and if many of them contain the same articles, it is only an evidence that different members of the editorial fraternity have similar appreciations of what is most valuable to their readers. As few physicians take more than one or two journals, this circumstance should not be a subject of complaint.

In some of our journals, translations of important articles from the French, German, and Italian are found, serving for the highest instruction in science; and many of these articles may be regarded as models in the art of composition. As comparatively few physicians have access to these foreign journals, or possess a knowledge of their languages, this species of literary labor should be encouraged.

In most of the journals a collection of brevities are made—an accumulation of scientific and practical items, constituting a department not the least interesting and valuable to the busy practitioner; and occasionally summaries of current medical intelligence from different parts of the world are found, serving usefully in keeping physicians interested in the affairs of their profession.

The spirit manifested in the editorial departments of our journals is, with few exceptions, liberal, honorable, courteous, and just; and the feelings of fraternity are generally cordial and warm. Differences of opinion must be expected occasionally to exist, and different interests will sometimes come in collision; and while this is the case, the imperfections of our common nature will be likely to produce some unpleasant results; but the bond of union, produced by an interest in a common cause, and that cause so noble as the advancement of a great and benevolent profession, should certainly, as it usually does, smooth down asperities, and preserve that courtesy and kindness which ever should exist between gentlemen and brethren.

From the contentions existing between the different portions of our common country, and which have so deeply affected the political, the religious, and the literary periodicals, the medical journals,

with scarcely an exception, have kept aloof; and it is devoutly to be hoped that the influence of this portion of the press, combined with the harmonizing power of this Association, may ever be exerted for the promotion of union both of hearts and states.

It has been justly said, that in a literary point of view the critical department of journalism holds the first rank, while it must be acknowledged that the labor of this department is often the most imperfectly performed. Occasionally an able review will be met with, giving a clear and faithful account of a work in hand, accompanied with judicious comments, showing an accurate knowledge of the subject, and an extensive acquaintance with books; but too often the place of critical reviews is taken by the most meagre "notices," couched in language at once stereotyped and vague, and sometimes betraying the profoundest ignorance, both of the work and the subject of which it treats. These notices, though sometimes flippant and censorious, tending to do injustice to authors by their misplaced severity, usually consist of the honeyed words of common-place eulogy, which, according as it is understood, may do injustice to either authors or readers. In some instances, in looking over the accounts of the same work in several journals, the most opposite statements will be found. In such cases, all cannot be right, and unfortunately the standing of the respective journals does not always indicate which is to be regarded. Still there is usually a similarity of language used, not only in different journals, respecting one book, but in most of the journals, respecting all books "placed by the politeness of the publisher on our table." The types which shadow forth such expressions as "No physician's library can be complete without it," "It should be in the hands of every student and practitioner," &c., might be supposed never to be distributed. In stating these facts, it is by no means intended to pass a general sentence of condemnation on editors of journals. In all this, there is no evidence of a disposition to do injustice either to authors and publishers on the one hand, or to the reading profession on the other. There are causes, aside from any corrupt motive, or even from indifference, which almost of necessity produce these results. To read carefully the works on different subjects, which make their appearance in such quick succession from the medical press-to compare them with similar works of the present and the past, so as to give an intelligent and valuable critical opinion respecting them, is no trifling task; and no man, even the ablest and most learned, with the pressure of a large practice, and