444 EDITORIALS

be studied by such organizations as the Commission on Medical Education, and the Council on Medical Education and Hospitals, of the American Medical As­sociation.

As a measure of voluntary control, it might be thought well to establish a na­tional advisory board from which each year the medical colleges of the country would receive recommendations as to the number of matriculants to be ac­cepted for the next college year.

Alike for physician and patient, ex­cessive dependence upon the law of sup­ply and demand as regards the number of medical practitioners is likely to de­velop more harm than good, and arti­ficial control may prove necessary in the interest of all concerned.

W. H. Crisp.

MEETING AT SALT LAKE CITY The American College of Surgeons

has nearly 2,000 Fellows who restrict their practice to ophthalmology and oto-laryngology. But the "General Sur­geons," who control the policy of the organization, have been slow to recog­nize that these "specialists" had as real and deep an interest in raising profes­sional standards as those who under­took operations on any part of the body, and claimed special right to the surgical prestige and traditions of the past. These leaders, impressed by the im­portance of annual clinical congresses and the great numbers of surgeons brought by such congresses into opera­tive clinics in the large eastern cities, have never been willing to undertake one of these annual gatherings west of the Mississippi River. But, to com­pensate Fellows who live far from the eastern cities, for lack of opportunity to join the throngs that crowd the clinics of the Annual Congresses, Sectional Meetings have been established, where the Fellows who live in a group of states can have the advantage of seeing and hearing some of those who direct the affairs of the College from the cen­tral office, and other prominent sur­geons invited to these gatherings.

Such a Sectional Meeting has been held for the first time in Salt Lake City, February 27 to March 1 inclusive. The

states constituting this section are Utah, Idaho, Wyoming and Colorado. A similar meeting was held previously in Oklahoma City; and others followed in Spokane, Los Angeles and Phoenix. These meetings all illustrate the real in­terest and eagerness of the profession to utilize every opportunity for gradu­ate study. The local specialists, with visitors from the adjacent states, at­tended the meetings and clinics, in num­bers greater than were gathered by either of the national special societies The clinics at the four approved hospi­tals were given to presentation of cases by local men; which were then made subjects of questions and discussions by those present.

A boy, blind with sympathetic oph­thalmia, illustrated the special dangers of this disease to children. There was a case of alternating exophthalmos of high degree, associated with thyroid disease. The photography of cases was illustrated. Treatment of detachment of the retina came in for the usual discus­sions.

The most striking feature of the meeting was the evening meeting, on health interests for the public. This filled the Tabernacle, holding ten thou­sand, and an overflow meeting of about fifteen hundred in another hall. It was the largest meeting of the kind ever held in America, and the audience stayed three hours to hear the ad­dresses, which were given in both the auditoriums. Moving pictures made the people familiar with the work of hos­pitals ; as, in the scientific sessions, they illustrated operations on the eye.

Edward Jackson.

INTERSTITIAL KERATITIS, A MODERN ANACHRONISM

Interstitial keratitis is one of the most intractable and one of the least satis­factory diseases to treat. It frequently reaches the ophthalmologist after the cornea has been so involved that the restoration of good sight is impossible. I t is one of the most common causes of defective vision and of blindness. It is also one of the most preventable of the eye diseases.