The experience of the past year, the data already accumulated by the BOARD, and the desirability of removing any objection to a measure so beneficent, suggest the propriety of preparing a plain, simple circular of specific instructions concerning the selection of virus, the mode of performing the operation, the care to be exercised as to physical condition of the subject, and the precautions to be observed during the vaccinal disturbance. Such a circular, while addressed to the laity, would not be without value to the physician himself, and I recommend the appointment of a committee for its preparation.

Medical Practice Act:

During the quarter, certificates have been issued to 90 graduates on recognized diplomas, and 2 to non-graduates on length of practice. There have also been six certificates issued to midwives, and there are still remaining in the office the papers of sixteen others to whom certificates will issue as soon as these are returned with the necessary signatures of members.

In looking over the results accomplished under the Medical Practice Act, I have been much impressed by the marked change in the proportions of non-graduates to graduates. When the law went into effect in 1877, the best sources of information gave an excess of nongraduates over graduates, while to-day the proportion is less than one of the former to five of the latter.

Very many of our licentiates to whom certificates have been issued upon examination, have complied with the request of the BOARD by subsequently attending lectures and graduating.

It would be well, I think, to authorize a communication addressed. to all non-graduates under 45 years of age who are practicing under the 10-years' exemption clause, recommending their attendance at some reputable medical school and graduation therefrom. The same recommendation might also be made to those licentiates upon examination who have not yet conformed to the expressed wish of the BOARD.

With the present advancing standard of medical education, it will soon be difficult and expensive for members of these two classes to comply with the technical requirements of good schools, and there is a rapidly growing tendency to demand the higher qualifications of such schools, not only from applicants for places of trust and profit in the public services, but also from the profession generally by the public at large.

In this connection I am glad to be able to state that the reception of the BOARD'S schedule of requirements for recognition of diplomas after the session of 1882-83, has been very generally satisfactory. The effect of this action will be by no means confined to the medical schools of our own State, or even those of immediately adjoining territory, but is already manifest in many of the Eastern colleges.

While preparing this report, the Cincinnati Lancet and Clinic, of Sept. 30, comes to hand, containing an editorial in which occur the following apropos passages:

Some States have done a good work in appointing boards of health and clothing them with power to regulate the practice of medicine. Such boards have accomplished much in freeing those States from the practice of unqualified men, both native and foreign.

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These State Boards have directly elevated the standard of medical education in many ways. They say directly to the medical colleges: Unless you adopt and adhere to a fair standard of educational and examination requirements we will not recognize your diplomas. While the State of Ohio has no State Board of Health or registration law, neighboring States having such laws have indirectly caused Ohio colleges to advance their requirements for graduation.

Office Work:

Attempts to secure the returns of vital statistics from the county clerks, to promote the adoption of the burial permit ordinance, to perfect the history of the small-pox epidemic, and to complete the returns of the vaccination of public-school children, together with an unusual amount of routine correspondence, have swelled the office work for the quarter much beyond the average of that for the summer months usually in the absence of an epidemic.

The following figures indicate, to some extent, the character and amount of this work:

Received

Communications, letters, etc....

Report of cases, small-pox epidemic, (Form 80)

Economic reports, small-pox epidemic, (Form 86)..

1,890

1,321

63

Returns of vital statistics

School-vaccination returns.

Registration of certificate returns

Sent

1,055

172

243

Of the above, 512 packages were sent by express at a cost of $S6.56, and the remainder by mail at a cost of $105.08. There were also sent 43 telegrams and received 47-at a cost of $25.06.

In addition to the foregoing work, there has been compiled a complete directory of the diploma-granting medical institutions of the United States and Canada, showing the organization, course of instruction and requirements for graduation of each of these bodies. This will be included in the annual report of the Board for 1881, now going through the press.

1,210

1,408

190

744

425

130

1,420

18,425

90

2

6

Action on the Secretary's Report:

At the conclusion of the reading of the above it was referred to a special committee consisting of Drs. Ludlam and Clark, Dr. Clark was also added to the auditing committee.

AFTERNOON SESSION.

At 2 P. M. the minutes of the morning session were read and approved.

On motion of the Secretary, the Board went into executive session, at the conclusion of which the Secretary announced that the following orders had been made:

Henry A. Luders, of Collinsville:

In the case of certificate No. 5,256, issued Nov. 1, 1881, to a man then residing in Chicago, lately at Collinsville, Madison county, and claiming to be Henry A. Lüders, a graduate of Göttingen University, that said certificate be revoked on the ground of fraud, it having been ascertained by the Secretary that the real graduate of that name died three years ago.

Joseph Atherton, of Leland:

In the case of certificate No. 4,732, issued Oct. 14, 1880, to Dr. Joseph Atherton, of Leland, LaSalle county, that the Secretary be authorized to revoke said certificate in his discretion.

A large number of other cases under the Medical Practice Act, involving a voluminous correspondence, were also considered, but with the foregoing exceptions were held under advisement.

Lüders' case seems worth presenting in detail:

On the 6th day of October, 1879, a man calling himself Dr. Henry A. Lüders presented a diploma of the University of Göttingen, to one of the members of the STATE BOARD OF HEALTH, in Chicago, for verification as required by law before a certificate is granted. The usual affidavit. with fee, was sent to the office at Springfield, but, owing to some informalities in the affidavit, and the want of letters of recommendation, no certificate was issued. The applicant was written to twice, and finally replied that he would in a few days send the required letters from prominent German physicians of Chicago. These not being received, af er considerable delay, he was again written to, but the letter was returned from the Chicago postoffice "not called for.'

A letter was then addressed to one of the physicians whom he had mentioned, who replied that he knew Lüders, but doubted whether he was legitimately entitled to the diploma he held. As there was a possibility that this doubt was the result of prejudice, the He finally replied, from St. Louis, on applicant was again written to on January 10, 180. the 16th, requesting that the certificate be forwarded to him there, and enclosing a document, addressed to Peter Lüders, sta ing that his son Henry had attended two courses of lectures, in 1865-66, at the University of Göttingen, and was a diligent student. In refusing the request to forward him a certificate to St. Louis, the history of the matter up to this time was briefly cited, and he was advis d that he must clear up the doubts as to his graduation, and furnish the necessary letters of recommendation before a certificate could be granted to him.

In response to this, he forwarded, on the 20th of January, 1880, a diploma issued to Heinrich Andreas Lüders, on the 15th of May, 1866, by the University of Göttingen; and further stated that he could not furnish letters of recommendation, owing to his want of professional acquaintance in this country, but hoped the certificate would be issued to him at once, while he would write to Germany for the necessary letters.

An examination of the diploma showed it to be a genuine document, duly signed and sealed: but the atmosphere of doubt which had gradually enveloped the case, caused the Secretary to reply that he had no authority to issue a certificate until the letters of recommendation were received; that if the applicant knew no professional men in the United States, it would be necessary to wait until he could obtain letters from Germany, adding that the BOARD had been already imposed upon by men who were graduates, but who turned out to be professional scoundrels."

To this letter no reply was received, and nothing more was heard of "Dr. Lüders," until October. 1881, when he wrote (on the 15th,) from Collinsville, in Madison county, inclosing letters of recommendation purporting to be from reputable practitioners, and asking that the certificate be sent to him at once, as he proposed to practice in Collinsville.

A certificate was finally issued to him on November 1, 1881-over two years after his first application-but even now with some hesitation, notwithstanding the presentation of a genuine diploma from "a medical institution in good standing," a certificate of attendance upon lectures, and endorsem nts as to moral and professional character.

The certificate of the Bo RD and his unscrupulous methods enabled Lüders to obtain considerable practice in Collinsville; but his steady avoidance of the medical men of the place, together with the stories which were circulated concerning his practice, aroused suspicion, which was further strengthened by the discovery that he was receiving letters under another name.

This suspicion was finally proved well-founded by the receipt of a letter by Charles P. Ochsner, of Collinsville, who had written to the dean of the medical faculty of the University at Göttingen, inquiring concerning the diploma of Dr. Lüders. Prof. Leber, the dean, replied that Heinrich Andreas Lüders, of Riffenbrück, in the Duchy of Braunschweig, after completing his literary sindies at the University of Erlangen, was graduated in medicine from the University of Göttingen, on the 15th of May, 1866; that he returned to his native place, Riffenbrück, where he practiced his profession until his death, in November, 1878, being then about 39 years old; and that the diploma presented to the ILLINOIS STATE BOARD OF HEALTHI must have been fraudulently obtained, and the possessor was undoubtedly an imposter.

Meanwhile occasion had been found to caution some of the correspondents of the BOARD concerning the fellow, and when the statements of Prof. Leber were communicated to the Secretary, it was determined to make an example of him. It was decided to prosecute him for felony under the 13th section of the Medical Practice Act; but in order to do this successfully it was deemed advisable to secure the diploma as evidence. Unfortunately, before this could be done, the sham doctor took the alarm and left for paits unknown two days before the Secretary's arrival in Collinsville.

It has since been learned that his proper name is Lambrecht, and that he is a barber by trade: but how he became possessed of the real Dr. Lüders' diploma and other papers has not yet been ascertained. The letters of recommendation which he finally forwarded are pronounced forgeries.

He appeared at one of the colleges in Cincinnati during the session of 1882-3; but, upon publication of the above facts and of the BOARD'S action in revoking his certificate, he was identified, and soon thereafter disappeared.

Report of Committee on Secretary's Recommendations:

The committee to which was referred the Secretary's quarterly report submitted the following:

MR. CHAIRMAN: The committee appointed to consider the various subjects discussed, and suggestions and recommendations made in the quarterly report of the Secretary, beg leave to state that, having duly considered the same, they regard the several suggestions therein contained as timely and wise, and recommend their approval and adoption by the BOARD.

A. L. CLARK,
R. LUDLAM.

The following committees were then appointed in accordance with the Secretary's recommendations, on the subjects mentioned:

On Prevalent Preventable Diseases-John H. Rauch, John McLean, R. Ludlam, A. L. Clark, W. A. Haskell.

On Sanitary Code-Newton Bateman, John M. Gregory, John H. Rauch.

The communication to county commissioners and the circular on vaccination suggested in the Secretary's report were also authorized.

the

At 4:30 P. M. the BOARD adjourned to pay its respects to Governor, meeting again at 7 P. M. for the informal consideration of sundry matters connected with the Medical Practice Act and with the current sanitary work.

At 10 P. M. the auditing committee reported that it had examined the various accounts submitted, and had found the same to be correct. Adjourned.