Editorials.

The American Medical Editors' Association.

One of the most interesting meetings that has ever been my privilege to attend was the meeting of the American Editors Association at the Auditorium Hotel on the 30th of May. If there is in existence a whole-souled cosmopolitan body of medical men, it is certainly the majority of the American Medical Editors. To any one who has depended upon a few of the conspicuous ethical journals of the United States for their ideas as to the character of the editors as a whole, the opinions expressed by this body of physicians would certainly come as a great surprise. The universal kindly feeling towards each other, the liberality of sentiment, the abhorence of dogmatism, the carelessness as to sectarian views, is certainly refreshing, and speaks strongly for the uprooting of prejudice, and narrowness, and for the growth of a strong liberal medical sentiment throughout this entire country.

There were a number of splendid papers read and fully discussed. A close discrimination was made against illiberal ideas, and radical ethical ideas that oppose liberality.

Two facts were developed very strongly in several of the papers, which pleased me greatly, as they approve a course which I have thought best to adopt in this journal, after a long consideration of the subject. I adopted the course with temerity fearing greatly the criticism of my contemporaries because so few others had adopted the same course. One of these was the use of the pronoun I in editorials instead of the customary or traditional we. It was argued by the use of the pronoun I, the editor expresses his individuality much more strongly, and courageously assumes the responsibility for his own statements. The other was the argument in the same line expressed against the fact that so many medical journals possessed no individuality. There was no conspicuous editorial personality in the journals and the statement was made, that the use of the editor's name in the title of the journal, was a point in advancement, as the editor should be willing to acknowledge his responsibility in the journal, and that when so done he presented to the profession a journal in which the editor's own ideas, his individuality and personality would stand out conspicuously, and thus give his journal a place of its own among medical periodicals.

Ellingwood's Therapeutist, Vol. 2, 1908, was edited by Finley Ellingwood M.D.