The paper of the evening was presented by Dr. A. E. Benjamin, the subject being “Goiter Operations with Simplified Technic.” The paper was thoroughly discussed, the whole evening being given over to its consideration.
The reading of Dr. White’s thesis was deferred until another meeting.
Twenty-seven were present.
Fred E. Leavitt, M. D., Secretary.
CORRESPONDENCE
To the Editor:
In the February 15th issue of The Journal-Lancet is a discussion by Dr. Klaveness, of Sioux Falls, S. D., on a paper on “Syphilis and Its Relation to Society” by Dr. McLaughlin, of Sioux City, Iowa. In this discussion Dr. Klaveness states: “We are unfortunate here in South Dakota in this respect, that we do not have the population and the laboratory facilities for resorting to the Wassermann reaction at all times, and any man within the State who would systematically carry out a Wassermann reaction now and then would invalidate his findings very materially, inasmuch as it is very well established that, in order to obtain reliable readings, you must have a serologist or bacteriologist to follow this work exclusively in order to get accurate findings. It is immensely important, and it would be a boon to the suffering people, if we could have a state serologist.”
This statement by Dr. Klaveness is contrary to the facts as they now exist and did exist at the time he discussed the paper at Watertown, S. D., in May, 1914.
We have a well equipped medical laboratory in South Dakota in connection with the medical department at the State University at Vermillion, and we have been doing the Wassermann test.
This misstatement should have been corrected at the time it was made, but was not, as I was in Watertown but part of one day during the State Meeting last May and did not hear the paper or its discussion.