Upload 4 files

passages/pg18589.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,500 @@
+
+
+
+
+
+Produced by The University of Michigan's Making of America
+online book collection (http://www.hti.umich.edu/m/moa/).
+
+
+
+
+
+
+The
+
+
+ACT OF INCORPORATION
+
+
+
+and the
+
+
+BY-LAWS
+
+
+of the
+
+
+Massachusetts Homoeopathic Medical Society.
+
+
+
+
+Boston:
+
+Printed by Fred Rogers.
+
+159 Washington Street
+
+1864.
+
+
+
+
+
+ACT OF INCORPORATION.
+
+
+Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
+
+
+In the Year One Thousand Eight Hundred and Fifty-Six.
+
+
+
+AN ACT TO INCORPORATE THE MASSACHUSETTS HOMOEOPATHIC MEDICAL SOCIETY.
+
+
+
+Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General
+Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:--
+
+
+SECT. 1.--Samuel Gregg, William Wesselhoeft, Luther Clark, George
+Russell, Milton Fuller, John A. Tarbell, David Thayer, their
+associates and successors, physicians, be, and they hereby are, made
+a Corporation, by the name of the MASSACHUSETTS HOMOEOPATHIC MEDICAL
+SOCIETY, with all the powers and privileges, and subject to all the
+duties, liabilities, and restrictions, set forth in the forty-fourth
+chapter of the Revised Statues.
+
+SECT. 2.--Said Corporation may hold real and personal estate to the
+amount of fifty thousand dollars.
+
+SECT. 3.--The members of said Society shall not be liable to be
+mustered or enrolled in the militia of this Commonwealth.
+
+SECT. 4.--The members of said Society, or such of their officers or
+members as they shall appoint, shall have full power and authority to
+examine all candidates for membership, concerning the practice of
+specific medicine and surgery, provided said candidates shall sustain
+a good moral character, and shall present letters testimonial of
+their qualifications from some legally authorized medical
+institution; and if, upon such examination, the said candidates shall
+be found qualified for membership, they shall receive the approbation
+of the Society.
+
+SECT. 5.--This act shall take effect from and after its passage.
+
+
+                    House of Representatives, May 30, 1856.
+Passed to be enacted,          CHARLES A. PHELPS, Speaker.
+
+                    In Senate, May 31, 1856.
+Passed to be enacted,          ELIHU C. BAKER, President.
+
+    June 3, 1856.  Approved,          HENRY J. GARDNER.
+
+                    Secretary's Office, Boston, June 24, 1856.
+A true copy.
+          Attest:               FRANCIS DE WITT,
+                               Secretary of the Commonwealth.
+
+
+
+
+BY-LAWS
+
+of the
+
+Massachusetts Homoeopathic Medical Society,
+
+
+Revised and Adopted April 13th, 1864.
+
+
+    *    *
+
+
+SOCIETY.
+
+
+I. This Society shall consist of the persons named in the Act of
+Incorporation, and such other persons as may have been elected
+members in accordance with its By-laws.
+
+
+
+OFFICERS OF THE SOCIETY.
+
+
+II. The Society, at its Annual Meeting, shall elect, by ballot, a
+President, two Vice-Presidents, Corresponding Secretary, Recording
+Secretary, Treasurer, Librarian, and five Censors, who shall together
+constitute an Executive Committee, to whom shall be intrusted the
+general business of the Society when it is not in session; the
+appointment of all standing committees, and such other committees as
+they may deem expedient; and the selection of some suitable person to
+deliver an address, at the annual meeting of the Society, on some
+subject connected with medical science. At every annual meeting, they
+shall present a report of their proceedings during the past year; and
+shall also furnish a list of two candidates for each office of the
+Society for the ensuing year. The officers shall continue in office
+till the adjournment of the annual meeting next after their election,
+at which time the duties of the newly elected officers shall commence.
+
+
+
+DUTIES OF THE OFFICERS.
+
+
+III. The _President_ shall preside at all meetings of the Society
+and of the Executive Committee; and shall deliver an address before
+the Society, at the commencement of the annual meeting.
+
+In case of the absence or other disability of the President, his
+duties shall devolve on the Vice-President, by seniority, if present;
+otherwise on such person as the meeting may appoint.
+
+Members shall not be eligible to the office of President more than
+once in five years.
+
+
+IV. The _Corresponding Secretary_ shall have the charge and custody
+of all letters and communications transmitted to the Society; and to
+him they should be addressed. He shall prepare and transmit whatever
+communications the Society or Executive Committee may direct; and he
+shall perform such other duties as may be assigned to him.
+
+
+V. The _Recording Secretary_ shall give notice and keep a record of
+all the meetings of the Society and of the Executive Committee. He
+shall append to the notices of the annual and semi-annual meeting,
+the names of those candidates for membership that have been reported
+to the Executive Committee. He shall have charge of all papers and
+communications belonging to the Society; and shall read, at the
+meetings of the Society, all such communications as the Executive
+Committee may direct. He shall notify the chairman of every committee
+appointed by the Society or Executive Committee, of his appointment,
+in each case stating the commission and the names of the committee.
+On or before the first of April, annually, he shall transmit to the
+Treasurer a list of all who have become members of the Society during
+the year.
+
+
+VI. The _Treasurer_ shall solicit and receive all money due to the
+Society, together with all bequests and donations; and shall pay all
+bills after they shall have been approved by the Executive Committee,
+which approval shall be certified to by the Recording Secretary. He
+shall keep an accurate account of all receipts and expenditures, and
+shall give such bonds for the faithful performance of his duties as
+the Society may require. He shall submit his accounts to such
+examination as the Executive Committee may direct; and shall annually
+make a statement of his doings, and of the state of the funds in his
+hands, to the Society.
+
+
+VII. The _Librarian_ shall have in his custody and charge all the
+books and apparatus of the Society. He shall keep an accurate
+register of the same, and arrange them in a proper manner; and shall
+make such disposition of them, from time to time, as the Executive
+Committee may direct for the benefit of the members. He shall receive
+and record all donations made in his department to the Society, and
+shall make a report at the annual meeting.
+
+
+VIII. The _Censors_ shall examine the qualifications of all persons
+presenting themselves for membership, and for that purpose shall hold
+meetings on the days of annual and semi-annual meetings, and at such
+other times as they may deem necessary. They shall report the names
+of all approved candidates for membership to the Executive Committee
+at least three months before their election as members by the Society.
+
+
+IX. There shall be a _Committee on the Materia Medica,_ who shall
+select medicines for proving; and shall, at the expense of the
+Society, obtain and distribute the same to its members, or such other
+persons as they may deem suitable. They shall receive and examine
+communications upon the _materia medica_ from the members of the
+Society, and report thereon at any regular meeting.
+
+
+X. There shall be a _Committee on Clinical Medicine,_ who shall
+receive and examine communications proper to this department, and
+report thereon at any regular meeting. They shall also report upon
+any epidemics which may have occurred in the state or country during
+the year,--their characteristics, mode of treatment, and results; and
+such other facts relating to the practice of medicine as they may
+deem important.
+
+
+XI. There shall be a _Committee of Publication_ consisting of the
+President, Recording Secretary, and at least three other members, to
+whom all matter for Publication shall be referred, and under whose
+direction it shall be issued; the expense of which shall not exceed
+in any year a sum designated by the Executive Committee.
+
+
+XII. There shall be a _Committee of Arrangements_ whose duty shall
+be to make such arrangements as will add to the interest and
+importance of the annual and semi-annual meetings, such as selecting
+a suitable place for the meetings, soliciting communications,
+appointing subjects for discussion, providing refreshments for
+members, &c., subject to the direction of the Executive Committee.
+
+
+XIII. There shall be a _Committee on the Library,_ who shall select
+and obtain such books and publications as they may be able to, by
+donation, subscription, or purchase with funds set apart for that
+purpose by the Executive Committee or Society.
+
+
+XIV. The Executive and all other Committees shall have power to fill
+their own vacancies.
+
+
+
+MEMBERSHIP.
+
+
+XV. Any person who has received the degree of Doctor of Medicine
+from a legally authorized medical institution, who sustains a good
+moral character, and practices medicine in accordance with the maxim,
+_"Similia similibus curantur,"_ may become eligible to membership,
+after having been examined and approved by the Board of Censors. He
+shall be elected by ballot at the annual or semi-annual meeting, and,
+after his election, shall sign the By-laws before becoming a member.
+
+
+
+HONORARY AND CORRESPONDING MEMBERS.
+
+
+XVI. Persons who have excelled, or made any great advancement in
+medical or other science, may be elected honorary members and
+physicians of eminence residing out of the State, may be elected
+corresponding members of the Society by a two-thirds vote of the
+members present at any stated meeting, provided the said person shall
+have been approved by the Executive Committee. Honorary and
+corresponding members shall be entitled to the diploma of the
+Society, and to participate in its proceedings in meetings devoted to
+scientific subjects.
+
+
+XVII. Every member shall receive the diploma of the Society, signed
+by the President and Secretary, for which he shall, upon his
+election, pay the sum of five dollars.
+
+
+XVIII. Any member in good standing shall have the privilege of
+withdrawing from the Society, by giving notice, in writing, of such
+intention, and paying all arrearages due to the Society.
+
+
+
+RETIRED MEMBERS.
+
+
+XIX. Members on removing from the State, or on retiring from
+practice, may, provided all their dues to the Society are paid, by
+vote of the Executive Committee, be placed on the list of retired
+members, and as such, shall be exempt from any assessments, and shall
+not receive, except by courtesy, any of the publications of the
+Society, nor be entitled to speak or vote at any of its meetings.
+
+
+XX. Any person who has resigned his membership, or been placed on
+the list of retired members, may, on application in writing, be
+reinstated by vote of the Society at any regular meeting.
+
+Any member removing out of the State shall have liberty to retain
+his membership, on paying his annual assessment.
+
+
+XXI. Any member may be expelled from the Society, or, having
+resigned his membership, may be deprived of his privileges, by a vote
+of two-thirds of the members present at any regular meeting, upon
+charges of the following description; provided the charge or charges
+against him have first been considered by the Executive Committee,
+and provided he has been notified of the same by the Secretary, and
+an opportunity has thereby been given him to make his defence before
+the Society:--
+
+  1. For any gross and notorious immorality or infamous crime under
+the laws of the land.
+
+  2. For any attempt to subvert the objects or injure the reputation
+of the Society.
+
+  3. For advertising, publicly vending, or pretending to the
+knowledge and use of any secret nostrum.
+
+  4. For furnishing to any person, or presenting in his own behalf,
+a false certificate of character and studies as a student of
+medicine, tending to deceive the public, or the Censors of the Society.
+
+  5. For habitually furnishing advice or holding professional
+consultations with persons who practice medicine without the
+necessary acquirements to entitle them to the respect, confidence or
+courtesy of the members of the Society.
+
+
+XXII. As the object of the Society is to improve the science of
+medicine, to increase the influence and usefulness of its members,
+and to secure greater harmony and friendship among them, therefore it
+is of the highest importance that each member should so conduct
+himself, both in his private and professional life, as to command the
+entire respect of his colleagues.
+
+Every person who becomes a member is understood to take upon himself
+an obligation to communicate to the Society any discoveries he shall
+have made relating to the science of medicine or surgery, and to co-
+operate in such measures as my be adopted by the Society for the
+advancement of these sciences; and, on his refusal to do so, he shall
+be subject to such censure as the Society, by a two-thirds vote,
+shall inflict.
+
+
+XXIII. Every member of the Society shall be assessed annually three
+dollars ($3), and such other assessments as a majority of the
+members, at any legal meeting, may determine.
+
+
+
+DELEGATES.
+
+
+XXIV. The Executive Committee may appoint delegates to other
+Societies and Associations whenever they deem it advisable to do so;
+and such delegates shall receive certificates of appointment from the
+recording Secretary.
+
+Accredited delegates from other Societies and Associations shall be
+allowed to participate in the scientific deliberations of this Society.
+
+
+
+MEETINGS OF THE SOCIETY.
+
+
+XXV. The annual meeting of the Society shall be held on the second
+Wednesday of April, and the semi-annual meeting on the second
+Wednesday of October, at ten o'clock, A.M., in such one of the cities
+or towns of the Commonwealth as the Executive Committee may
+determine. A special meeting of the Society shall be called by the
+President, on the written request of ten members, stating the object
+of said meeting.
+
+
+
+MEETINGS OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
+
+
+XXVI. The _Executive Committee_ shall meet on the third Wednesday of
+April, July, October, and January. At the first or annual meeting the
+Committees and the Orator shall be appointed for the ensuing year.
+
+At the meetings of the Executive Committee, five persons shall
+constitute a quorum. A special meeting of the Executive Committee
+shall be called by the President, on the written application of three
+of its members.
+
+
+XXIII. All proposals for alteration of the By-Laws shall be
+presented to the Society in writing, and shall be refereed, without
+debate, to a special Committee, who shall consider and report on the
+same at the next annual meeting of the Society.
+
+
+
+FORM OF SUBSCRIPTION.
+
+
+_The subscribers agree to comply with the By-Laws of the
+Massachusetts Homoeopathic Medical Society._
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+MASSACHUSETTS HOMOEOPATHIC MEDICAL SOCIETY.
+
+
+The SEMI-ANNUAL Meeting will be held in the Meionaon Hall, Tremont
+Temple, Boston, on Wednesday, Oct. 12, 1864, at 10 o'clock A.M.
+
+
+In the morning session, the following, among other papers will be
+read.
+
+  THE EARLY HISTORY OF HOMOEOPATHY IN MASSACHUSETTS; by Samuel
+Gregg, M.D.
+
+  VARIOUS OPERATIONS FOR CATARACT WITH RECENT MODIFICATIONS; by H.
+C. Angell, M.D.
+
+  ON THE HYPODERMIC INJECTION OF MEDICINES HOMOEOPATHICALLY
+INDICATED; by J. H. Woodbury, M.D.
+
+
+Members are requested to prepare and present at this Session, papers
+on any Medical Subject.
+
+
+A collation will be provided between 12 and 1.
+
+
+In the afternoon session the subject of discussion with be
+DYSENTERY. As a _verbatim_ report of the discussion will be entered
+on the records, members are requested to give, in a concise form
+their observations in regard to this disease the present season; its
+peculiar character and frequency, and the therapeutic action of any
+medicines with their distinctive indications.
+
+
+Any clinical reports may be forwarded to the _Committee on Clinical
+Medicine,_ S. M. Cate, M.D. of Salem. Attention is called to the
+importance of filling out the _Statistical Records_ and forwarding
+them to Dr. Cate at the close of the year.
+
+
+Any "medical provings" may be forwarded to the Chairman of the
+Committee on _Materia Medica,_ H. L. Chase, M.D. of Cambridge.
+
+
+The following persons have been approved for membership by the
+Executive committee.
+
+    FOR HONORARY MEMBERS:
+
+  Constantine Herring, M.D. of Philadelphia; John F. Gray, M.D. of
+New York; F. F. Quinn, M.D. of London; G. H. G. Jahr, M.D. of Paris;
+J. Fleischmann, M.D. of Vienna.
+
+    FOR CORRESPONDING MEMBERS:
+
+  Wm. E. Paine, M.D. of Bath, Me.; Alpheus Morrill, M.D. of Concord,
+N.H.; A. Howard Okie, M.D. of Providence, R.I.; Henry M. Paine, M.D.
+of Clinton, N.Y.; Carroll Dunham, M.D. of New York City; C. Neidhard,
+M.D. of Philadelphia; Walter Williamson, M.D. of Philadelphia; J.H.
+Pulte, M.D. of Cincinnati, O.; R. Ludlam, M.D. of Chicago, Ill.; Wm.
+T. Helsmith, M.D. of St. Louis, Mo.; Arthur Fisher, M.D. of Montreal,
+C.W.
+
+ The Censors and Executive Committee will hold sessions for the
+examination and approval of Candidates for membership.
+
+                    I. T. Talbot, Recording Sec'y.
+
+   Boston, Oct. 4, 1864.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+

passages/pg35244.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,469 @@
+
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Bryan Ness and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+  Eugenics as a Factor in the Prevention of Mental Disease
+
+
+  By HORATIO M. POLLOCK, Ph.D.
+  Statistician, New York State Hospital Commission
+
+
+  THE NATIONAL COMMITTEE FOR
+  MENTAL HYGIENE, Inc.
+  370 Seventh Avenue
+  New York City
+  1921
+
+
+
+
+The National Committee for Mental Hygiene
+
+  FOUNDED 1909
+  INCORPORATED 1916
+
+  370 SEVENTH AVENUE, NEW YORK CITY
+
+  _President_
+  Dr. Walter B. James
+
+  _Vice-Presidents_
+  Charles W. Eliot
+  Dr. Bernard Sachs
+  Dr. William H. Welch
+
+  _Executive Committee_
+  Dr. William L. Russell, Chairman
+  Dr. Owen Copp
+  Stephen P. Duggan
+  Dr. Walter E. Fernald
+  Matthew C. Fleming
+  Dr. Walter B. James
+  Dr. George H. Kirby
+
+  _Treasurer_
+  Otto T. Bannard
+
+  _Committee on Mental Deficiency_
+  Dr. Walter E. Fernald, Chairman
+
+  _Committee on Education_
+  Dr. C. Macfie Campbell, Chairman
+
+  Edith M. Furbush, Statistician
+
+  _Executive Officers_
+  Dr. Thomas W. Salmon, Medical Director
+  Dr. Frankwood E. Williams, Associate Medical Director
+  Dr. V. V. Anderson, Associate Medical Director
+  Dr. Clarence J. D'Alton, Executive Assistant
+  Clifford W. Beers, Secretary
+
+
+
+
+GENERAL PURPOSES
+
+
+The National Committee for Mental Hygiene and its affiliated state
+societies and committees are organized to work for the conservation of
+mental health; to help prevent nervous and mental disorders and mental
+defect; to help raise the standards of care and treatment for those
+suffering from any of these disorders or mental defect; to secure and
+disseminate reliable information on these subjects and also on mental
+factors involved in problems related to industry, education, delinquency,
+dependency, and the like; to aid ex-service men disabled in the war, to
+cooperate with federal, state, and local agencies and with officials and
+with public and private agencies whose work is in any way related to that
+of a society or committee for mental hygiene. Though methods vary, these
+organizations seek to accomplish their purposes by means of education,
+encouraging psychiatric social service, conducting surveys, promoting
+legislation, and through cooperation with the many agencies whose work
+touches at one point or another the field of mental hygiene.
+
+When one considers the large groups of people who may be benefited by
+organized work in mental hygiene, the importance of the movement at once
+becomes apparent. Such work is not only for the mentally disordered and
+those suffering from mental defect, but for all those who, through mental
+causes, are unable so to adjust themselves to their environment as to live
+happy and efficient lives.
+
+
+
+
+[Reprinted from MENTAL HYGIENE, Vol. V, No. 4, October, 1921, pp.
+807-812.]
+
+
+EUGENICS AS A FACTOR IN THE PREVENTION OF MENTAL DISEASE[1]
+
+HORATIO M. POLLOCK, PH.D
+
+_Statistician, New York State Hospital Commission_
+
+
+The burden of mental disease is each year becoming heavier. State
+hospitals for mental disease throughout the country are overcrowded, and
+the construction of new hospitals does not keep pace with the increase of
+patients. Fairly complete censuses show that the number of patients with
+mental disease under treatment in institutions increased from 74,028 in
+1890 to 232,680 in 1920. The rate per 100,000 of population increased from
+118.2 to 220.1. Careful estimates based on statistics of the New York
+State Hospital Commission indicate that approximately 1 out of 25 persons
+becomes insane at some period of life. The economic loss to the United
+States on account of mental disease, including loss of earnings as well as
+maintenance of patients, is now over $200,000,000 per year. Although much
+of the apparent increase in the prevalence of mental disease may be due to
+causes that do not involve weakened resistance to the stresses of life,
+the load born by the public is clearly becoming more oppressive.
+
+Associated burdens are those of mental defect, epilepsy, dependency, and
+delinquency. These combined cause an economic loss even greater than that
+caused by mental disease.
+
+Taxpayers are groaning under excessive loads and calling in vain for
+relief, but their cries are faint compared with those of the persons whose
+relatives are mentally diseased or defective.
+
+As less than one-fourth of those who develop psychoses can be cured by
+present methods of treatment, we cannot hope for any permanent relief by
+treating patients in hospitals. The most skillful treatment should of
+course be given, but the problem must be attacked in other ways before
+any adequate solution can be hoped for.
+
+The fact of inheritance of the neuropathic constitution may be taken for
+granted. Much evidence has been adduced to prove that such inheritance
+occurs in accordance with Mendelian laws, but the subject is so
+complicated that more comprehensive studies must be made before we may
+consider the matter as settled. The application of skillfully devised
+measures of intelligence has shown us that there are many grades of
+intelligence between the idiot and the super-average. The so-called
+normals represent many types, the extremes of which are as far apart as
+the moron is from the low-grade normal. Recent studies of temperamental
+abnormalities have also revealed a wide variety of types and combinations.
+These abnormalities or marked peculiarities seem to be more or less
+dissociated from intellectual capacity. Children with super-average
+intelligence are frequently seclusive and morons often seem to be
+temperamentally normal. It becomes difficult, therefore, to establish
+standards of normality and to draw fixed lines between the normal and the
+neuropathic. This is especially true in studying family histories, when
+judgment must be based on reports of untrained observers. Mental disease
+may occur in a person of almost any type of intellectual or temperamental
+make-up. This fact was clearly demonstrated during the recent World War.
+Men of strong intellect and of exceptional poise who had withstood the
+strain of intense warfare for several months at last succumbed when
+weakened by wounds and deprivation of food and drink. These were extreme
+cases, but they illustrate the important principle that all men have
+limitations and may develop a psychosis or expire when their limit is
+reached. Psychopathic personalities give way to the common stresses of
+life, while stronger personalities yield only to extraordinary mental
+strain. It is evident, therefore, that the whole etiology of a case of
+mental disease must be carefully studied before the related family stock
+can be safely discredited.
+
+The data we have collected in the New York State Hospital Commission
+relative to the family history of patients seem to indicate that slightly
+more than half of our ascertained cases have no discoverable hereditary
+basis. If more thorough inquiries were made, the proportion of patients
+with unfavorable family history might be increased, but the significance
+of the history in relation to the family stock is open to question in many
+cases.
+
+In our hospitals for some years past, we have studied both the
+intellectual and temperamental make-up of the first admissions and have
+tried to apply uniform standards throughout the service. In 1920 it was
+found that of the ascertained cases 61 per cent were temperamentally
+normal and 88 per cent were rated as intellectually normal. Only about 7
+per cent of the patients were both temperamentally and intellectually
+abnormal. The proportion of patients with abnormal make-up varied
+considerably in the different groups of psychoses. For example, in the
+dementia-praecox group in 1920, 61 per cent were rated as temperamentally
+abnormal while in the manic-depressive group only 33 per cent were so
+rated.
+
+The absence of marked abnormalities in individuals prior to the onset of
+the psychosis cannot be construed as conclusive evidence that there are no
+hereditary defects in the make-up, neither can the development of the
+psychosis be taken as proof of a defective constitution. All the facts in
+connection with the onset of the mental disorder and previous reactions
+must be brought together before the constitutional make-up of the patient
+can be positively determined.
+
+Psychiatrists have recently emphasized the connection between bodily
+states and behavior and the importance of the sexual and endocrine organs
+in relation to the psychoses. What part of the disorders related to these
+organs is due to hereditary and what part to environmental factors have
+yet to be determined.
+
+Notwithstanding these and many other complications, there is abundant
+evidence that mental disorders occur much more frequently in some family
+stocks than in others, and that prolonged inbreeding of degenerate stocks
+is productive of most disastrous results.
+
+With the limited knowledge at hand, what is to be done to lessen the
+burdens imposed on society by the prevalence of mental disease?
+
+Three lines of action are suggested:
+
+1. Environmental stresses may be lessened and natural resistance
+strengthened.
+
+2. Procreation of defective stock may be checked.
+
+3. Procreation of normal stock may be increased.
+
+The methods now in use to prevent physical disease may be applied to a
+considerable extent in preventing mental disease. They include the
+dissemination of knowledge of hygiene and sanitation, prompt treatment of
+incipient diseases, segregation of those suffering from contagious
+diseases, and immunization of those liable to exposure to pathogenic
+germs. Another line of attack consists in safeguarding the public from
+injurious food and artificial beverages and from polluted air and water.
+The abolition of the liquor traffic and the movement to check the spread
+of syphilis are examples of effective work along these lines.
+
+Economic and social stresses should be lightened for those unable to
+withstand them. It is far easier to relieve an overburdened man by taking
+part of his load than to wait until he is exhausted and then carry him
+together with his burden. Physicians, parents, and teachers should be
+alert to detect signs of mental disorder and apply the proper remedy
+before complete breakdown occurs.
+
+Mental clinics and social workers are of large service in giving treatment
+in incipient cases. Many a case of mental disease is averted by adjusting
+the environment to the individual and by giving him a clear understanding
+of his mental difficulties and the best methods of meeting them. Wide
+extension of mental-clinic work is clearly indicated.
+
+The new science of mental hygiene is teaching us that individuals with
+unfavorable heredity may do much to overcome their constitutional
+tendencies and to preserve their mental health. It is of the highest
+importance, therefore, that mental hygiene be taught and practiced in the
+public schools along with physical hygiene.
+
+A decade ago sterilization of defectives was widely advocated and laws
+making provision for it were passed in several states. These measures have
+availed little because they have not been supported by active public
+sentiment. Judging from the present outlook, we cannot hope that
+sterilization will soon be an effective means of preventing mental
+disease.
+
+Segregation of the mentally defective and epileptic is the prevailing
+method of limiting procreation among these classes. Its eugenic value is
+beyond question, but the enormous cost limits its application. As a rule
+the mental defectives and epileptics cared for in institutions are of low
+grade. These, if left at liberty, would multiply far less than those of
+higher grade. Much is to be hoped from the colony plan of segregating
+mental defectives, as colonies care for high-grade defectives and under
+wise management become self-supporting and may be increased without limit.
+
+A new departure has been made by the state of New York in establishing a
+separate institution for defective delinquents at Napanoch. This
+troublesome group has been a serious problem in the jails and prisons of
+the state, and heretofore there has been no satisfactory way of dealing
+with them. Their segregation should have large eugenic significance.
+
+Segregation of the insane is fairly complete, but as only about one-fourth
+of the first admissions are under thirty years of age on admission, its
+value in preventing procreation in this group is not as great as would
+appear when only the number of patients under treatment is considered.
+Overcrowding and the expense of maintenance cause patients to be promptly
+released on improvement of their mental condition, regardless of the
+eugenic factors involved.
+
+Something can be done to lessen reproduction among the unfit by
+enlightened public sentiment and by better marriage laws. Marriage of
+persons with marked intellectual or temperamental abnormalities should be
+entirely prohibited.
+
+To prevent the marriage of normal persons with those carrying a
+neuropathic taint more knowledge of family stocks must be made available.
+At the present time genealogical records of the average family are
+woefully meager and comparatively few are available for public inspection.
+If we are to improve the race by better marriages, genealogical or eugenic
+bureaus must be established in cities and villages. Data concerning family
+stocks should show the defects as well as the excellencies and
+achievements of the individuals recorded and be available to interested
+parties.
+
+Love is proverbially blind, but few normal persons would be rash enough
+knowingly to join fortunes with a neuropathic or degenerate family stock.
+Unfortunately very little thought is now given to the eugenic significance
+of marriage and few signs warn impetuous youth of the danger ahead.
+
+Eugenic bureaus, by collecting data concerning family histories and by
+emphasizing the importance of family stock, would naturally promote
+marriages among persons of good stock and thereby increase procreation of
+a desirable kind. The increase of good stock would raise the general level
+of the race, even if there were no decrease of poor stock, but we may
+safely assume that more definite knowledge would gradually lessen
+reproduction among the unfit.
+
+The elimination of mental defects and diseases is after all principally a
+matter of education. We must learn by careful research what should be done
+and what should not be done and then disseminate the information so that
+it will be shared by every household. Action will slowly follow knowledge,
+but ultimately a more perfect race will be evolved.
+
+
+
+
+MENTAL HYGIENE
+
+  QUARTERLY MAGAZINE OF THE NATIONAL COMMITTEE FOR MENTAL HYGIENE, INC.
+
+  PUBLICATION OFFICE:
+  27 COLUMBIA STREET, ALBANY. N. Y.
+
+  EDITORIAL OFFICE:
+  370 SEVENTH AVENUE, NEW YORK CITY
+
+  EDITORIAL BOARD
+
+  THOMAS W. SALMON, M.D., _Medical Director, The National Committee for
+        Mental Hygiene_
+  FRANKWOOD E. WILLIAMS, M.D., _Associate Medical Director, The National
+        Committee for Mental Hygiene_
+  WALTER E. FERNALD, M.D., _Superintendent, Massachusetts School for
+        Feebleminded_
+  C. MACFIE CAMPBELL, _Director, Boston Psychopathic Hospital_
+  STEPHEN P. DUGGAN, PH.D., _Professor of Education, College of the City
+        of New York_
+  STEWART PATON, M.D., _Lecturer in Neuro-biology, Princeton University_
+
+
+  Vol. V, No. 4      INDEX      October, 1921
+
+  The Significance of the Conditioned Reflex in Mental Hygiene,
+        _William H. Burnham_                                           673
+
+  The Elementary School and the Individual Child
+        _Esther Loring Richards_                                       707
+
+  Extra-Medical Service in the Management of Misconduct Problems in
+        Children _Marion E. Kenworthy_                                 724
+
+  Mental Hygiene and the College Student--Twenty Years After
+        _Anonymous_                                                    736
+
+  Mental Hygiene Problems of Normal Adolescence _Jessie Taft_          741
+
+  Suicide in Massachusetts _Albert Warren Stearns_                     752
+
+  The Function of the Correctional Institution _Herman M. Adler_       778
+
+  What is a "Nervous Breakdown"? _Alice E. Johnson_                    784
+
+  Mental Hygiene and the Public Library _Mary Vida Clark_              791
+
+  Inadequate Social Examinations in Psychopathic Clinics _Dorothy
+        Q. Hale_                                                       794
+
+  Eugenics as a Factor in the Prevention of Mental Disease
+        _Horatio M. Pollock_                                           807
+
+  Mental Hygiene Problems of Maladjusted Children As Seen in a
+        Public Clinic _A. L. Jacoby_                                   813
+
+  Speech Defects in School Children _Smiley Blanton_                   820
+
+  Extra-Institutional Care of Mental Defectives _Earl W. Fuller_       828
+
+  Abnormal Psychology _Barrington Gates_                               836
+
+  Abstracts:
+    The Problem of a Psychopathic Hospital Connected with a
+        Reformatory Institution. By Edith R. Spaulding                 837
+    A Psychological Study of Some Mental Defects in the Normal
+        Dull Adolescent. By L. Pierce Clark                            840
+    The Social Worker's Approach to the Family of the Syphilitic.
+        By Maida H. Solomon                                            843
+    Some Practical Points in the Organization of Treatment of
+        Syphilis in a State Hospital. By Aaron J. Rosanoff             844
+    The Mental Clinic and the Community. By Everett S. Elwood          845
+    An Analysis of Suicidal Attempts. By Lawson G. Lowrey              846
+
+  Book Reviews:
+    Psychopathology. By Edward J. Kempf _Bernard Glueck_               848
+    The Unconscious. By Morton Prince _William A. White_               849
+    A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis. By Sigmund Freud
+        _Bernard Glueck_                                               851
+    Sleepwalking and Moon Walking. B. J. Sadger _C. Macfie Campbell_   851
+    From the Unconscious to the Conscious. By Gustave Geley
+        _William A. White_                                             855
+    Suggestion and Auto-Suggestion. By Charles Baudouin _Bernard
+        Glueck_                                                        856
+    Psychology and Psychotherapy. By William Brown _C. Macfie
+        Campbell_                                                      857
+    Our Social Heritage. By Graham Wallas _Miriam C. Gould_            858
+    August Strindberg: A Psychoanalytic Study with Special Reference
+        to the Oedipus Complex. By Axel Johan Uppvall _Frankwood E.
+        Williams_                                                      861
+
+  Notes and Comments                                                   878
+
+  Current Bibliography _Dorothy E. Morrison_                           891
+
+  Directory of Committees and Societies for Mental Hygiene             894
+
+  Members and Directors of the National Committee for Mental Hygiene   895
+
+
+MENTAL HYGIENE will aim to bring dependable information to everyone whose
+interest or whose work brings him into contact with mental problems.
+Writers of authority will present original communications and reviews of
+important books; noteworthy articles in periodicals out of convenient
+reach of the general public will be republished; reports of surveys,
+special investigations, and new methods of prevention or treatment in the
+broad field of mental hygiene and psychopathology will be presented and
+discussed in as non-technical a way as possible. It is our aim to make
+MENTAL HYGIENE indispensable to all thoughtful readers. Physicians,
+lawyers, educators, clergymen, public officials, and students of social
+problems will find the magazine of especial interest.
+
+The National Committee for Mental Hygiene does not necessarily endorse or
+assume responsibility for opinions expressed or statements made. Articles
+presented are printed upon the authority of their writers. The reviewing
+of a book does not imply its recommendation by The National Committee for
+Mental Hygiene. Though all articles in this magazine are copyrighted,
+others may quote from them freely provided appropriate credit be given to
+MENTAL HYGIENE.
+
+Subscription: Two dollars a year; fifty cents a single copy. Publication
+Office: 27 COLUMBIA ST., ALBANY, N. Y. Correspondence should be addressed
+and checks made payable to "Mental Hygiene," 27 Columbia St., Albany, N.
+Y., or to The National Committee for Mental Hygiene, Inc., 370 Seventh
+Avenue, New York City.
+
+Copyright, 1918, by the National Committee for Mental Hygiene, Inc.
+
+
+
+
+Footnote:
+
+[1] Read before the Section on Eugenics and the State of the Second
+International Eugenics Congress, New York City, September 26, 1921.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+

passages/pg37000.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,396 @@
+
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Richard J. Shiffer and the Distributed
+Proofreading volunteers at http://www.pgdp.net for Project
+Gutenberg. (This file was produced from images generously
+made available by The Internet Archive.)
+
+
+
+
+
+[Transcriber's Note: Every effort has been made to replicate this
+text as faithfully as possible, including obsolete and variant spellings
+and other inconsistencies. Text that has been changed to correct an
+obvious error is noted at the end of this ebook.]
+
+
+
+
+  THE PROPER
+
+  LIMITS
+
+  OF THE
+
+  GOVERNMENT'S Interference with the Affairs
+  of the EAST-INDIA COMPANY,
+
+  ATTEMPTED TO BE ASSIGNED.
+
+  WITH SOME FEW
+
+  REFLECTIONS
+
+  Extorted by, and on, the distracted State of the Times.
+
+  By JOHN, EARL of STAIR.
+
+
+               ----And beshrew my soul,
+     But I do love the favour and the form
+     Of this most fair occasion; by the which
+     We will untread the steps of damned flight,
+     And, like a 'bated and retiring flood,
+     Leaving our rankness and irregular course,
+     Stoop low within these bounds we have o'erlook'd,
+     And calmly run on in obedience.
+
+
+  LONDON:
+
+  PRINTED FOR J. STOCKDALE,
+  OPPOSITE BURLINGTON-HOUSE, PICCADILLY.
+  MDCC LXXXIV.
+
+  Entered at Stationers' Hall.
+
+
+
+
+THE PROPER
+
+LIMITS
+
+OF THE
+
+GOVERNMENT'S Interference with the Affairs of the EAST-INDIA COMPANY,
+&c.
+
+
+Each day's experience proves the fallibility of conjecture, even when
+established on apparently the surest foundations.
+
+Having stated, indeed materially and substantially proved, that the
+annual peace expenditure of the state, if decently, not profusely, nor
+even amply provided for, could not be performed for less than sixteen
+millions five hundred thousand pounds; and having asserted, with truth,
+that the annual receipts have scarcely, on the most productive years of
+the public revenue, exceeded twelve millions; and the necessary
+corollary, arising out of these propositions, being an annual surplus or
+sinking fund to the amount (if at all proportional) of at least fifteen
+hundred thousand pounds, as a provision for great civil emergencies or
+future wars, without which no system of finance can be either
+respectable or assuredly permanent; and it following of necessary
+consequence from these premises, that the proper peace revenue, from
+something more than twelve millions, which is its present amount, ought
+to be raised to eighteen millions yearly:--these matters, I say, being
+as I have represented them, I firmly believed the public affairs of this
+country were tolerably embarrassed, and weakly imagined Ministers might
+find full employment in extricating them, without courting, and eagerly,
+through right and through wrong, aspiring and grasping at the management
+of affairs fully in as great a state of confusion as our own. But I find
+I greatly under-rated the cravings of the appetite of our late rulers,
+who seem to have had stomach for all difficulties, however remote from
+the natural and needful course of their public functions, and however
+averse the parties interested were to trust their concerns to their
+direction. In consequence of this canine hunger and thirst after
+regulation, a bill was brought in and passed by a very great majority of
+the House of Commons, to virtually consolidate the embarrassed concerns
+of the East-India Company, in direct opposition to the desires of the
+proprietors, with the no less embarrassed affairs of this unhappy
+country. This bill has been thrown out by a wise and virtuous majority
+in the House of Peers; but as the majority there was but small, and
+threats are thrown out (in order to make it still smaller) against
+Peers, for exercising their indispensable distinctive prerogative duty
+of giving honest counsel to their King; and as the same majority,
+leagued to promote their own advancement and the ruin of the state,
+still exists and exults in the House of Commons; I doubt not but the
+same strange destructive measure will be resumed. It therefore becomes
+the business of every well-wisher to the prosperity of Britain, to
+oppose and to refute the specious nothings offered to blind and to
+conceal from the public the designs of a dark and fatal tendency
+attached to it; and I think it my duty, moreover, and a justice due to
+the creditors of the public in particular, at least, to such as shall
+adhere to me, to protest and enter my dissent in their name against any
+increase of the public debt, by the addition and incorporation of the
+debts of the East-India Company with those of the public, in any manner,
+whether openly, or by implication and management.
+
+I now proceed to consider the reasons offered in vindication of the bill
+by which so daring a violation of every thing the laws hold most sacred
+was attempted.
+
+The first plea that was insisted on, was, that the Company was bankrupt;
+but this argument defeats itself. If they are bankrupt, the law has
+provided a due course of proceeding: Ministers, or the Deputies of
+Ministers, are not the proper assignees to the bankrupt's estate: the
+trade is, moreover, by the civil death of the Company, open to every
+adventurer. But this pretext of bankruptcy is but a flimsy disguise
+easily seen through: Ministers are not so eager to obtain the
+administration of the affairs of a bankrupt: the virtuous majority in
+the House of Commons, increased without any visible cause, or known
+success, or advantage of any kind, real or pretended, obtained to the
+public from the cares of the late administration;--increased, I say,
+from a small doubtful few in the disapprobation of the peace, to a
+steady, triumphant majority of one hundred and fourteen in the business
+of the East-India Company; gives no note or appearance of a present
+bankruptcy in the Company's affairs; but to those that do not know the
+incorruptible integrity and disinterestedness of the British legislative
+bodies, gives an ugly hint and surmise of what is likely to happen in
+future. Of bankruptcy I need say no more; it confutes itself.
+
+The next plea is humanity, and a wish to restore in India a better and a
+juster system of government, less rapacious, and less oppressive to the
+natives. This is certainly a fair and generous object; but how do the
+means correspond with the end, or, what solid proof have we that
+excesses do exist, or, at least, have been carried to the singular and
+unnatural extent each parliamentary declaimer is pleased to assign to
+them? Having forced the Company to bear a share in all the foolish wars
+Britain involved herself in, money must be found. The smooth swindling
+methods of funding, without giving the creditors adequate securities
+for either principal or interest, are not practicable in Cina.
+Self-preservation enforced the necessity of violence, more obnoxious in
+the beginning, but, perhaps, in the end, less ruinous than the soft, sly
+deceits of Europe. Those violent measures, palliated by the necessity of
+self-preservation, excepted, what remains but an _ex parte_ charge, in
+Reports to the House of Commons, curious and voluminous indeed, but
+without confrontation of the accused, or any other necessary preliminary
+to condemnation, sought by private equity, or required by public
+justice? We have only an inform mass of matter, where disappointment,
+vanity, and malevolence, are too often prompted by management and design
+to accuse, and every accusation is held forth as compleat evidence of
+guilt. Indeed, some accounts scattered through the vast abyss of eastern
+manners and customs, make by much the most useful and entertaining part
+of this exceedingly tedious farrago; though in this part it falls far
+short in beauty of style and composition, and probably does not much
+exceed in veracity, the Arabian Night's Entertainments.--But grant that
+wrongs and injustice predominate, who are to restore the golden age in
+India? We know the late Ministry, their habitudes, and connections; from
+Brooks's, then, it is fair to suppose the daring Argonauts were to have
+sailed in search of the Golden Fleece: from Almack's our bold Pizarros
+must have taken their course to civilize our new-acquired ministerial
+Peru. Determined minds used to set fame and fortune on the dies
+uncertain cast: soft souls, overflowing with Christian forbearance, and
+the milk of human kindness suckt in at the gaming-table, from such
+apostles, alas! I rather should suspect,
+
+    With Ate by their side, come hot from hell,
+    Shall in these confines, with a monarch's voice,
+    Cry havoc! and let slip the dogs of war.
+
+Yet I readily agree that it may be proper to send out a well-chosen
+commission of visitation and inspection, with adequate and efficient
+powers from Parliament; though I am greatly deceived, if they do not
+find that matters are much exaggerated. The Reports to the House of
+Commons from Committees are generally very false mediums to view the
+object they treat of through: they are moved for common by persons
+interested in the event, sedulously attended by them, and the materials
+are too often modelled and made up according to their views, and to
+serve their purposes. I have therefore ever greatly regretted the
+abolition of the board of trade, the fair, candid judges in these
+matters, or who might be made so. The argument from the abuse to the
+use, is not a fair consequence; and I sincerely and earnestly recommend
+the re-establishment of that board. From the revenues of the Duchy Court
+of Lancaster now vacant, and a small gleaning from the enormous
+overgrown sine-cures in the Exchequer, this may be done without expence,
+and with great emolument to the Crown and to the public.
+
+It is, besides, the height of absurdity, to think the Indians are
+unhappy because they do not live under the same constitution as the
+inhabitants of this island. The government in that country, for a very
+long period of time, has been so unsettled, that no form of it that has
+any stability, or affords any degree of protection to the subjects that
+live under it, can be pronounced to be a bad one: in every other case,
+the weaker are almost sure to be exterminated by those that are
+stronger.
+
+I should esteem it, in such uncertainty of doing any good of any kind,
+extremely improper for the public to make a common cause with the
+East-India Company, further than I have already stated, and likewise by
+assisting them with some necessary pecuniary aid in their present
+distress. The consequences of the public taking upon themselves the
+direction of the Company's trade, or even of their territorial
+acquisitions, I apprehend would be most ruinous. No nation has ever
+attempted any thing of this kind without being greatly losers by it,
+even where government was carried on principles infinitely more
+favourable to such an enterprise than the free constitution of this
+country admits of.
+
+France has often been compelled, in order to preserve the trade to India
+and their Companies from sinking, to interfere, and I believe is still
+concerned in the national trade to India; but this is on mere compulsion
+and necessity, and is, and has ever been, a very losing business to the
+Crown of France. If this is so, then how much worse must it be here,
+where the advantages taken of the public in every public business are
+enormous: and indeed the uncertainty of the time of payment, and the
+difficulty of passing the account, do warrant a demand of a great
+latitude at any time; but at present, when the ordnance debentures are
+at 30 per cent. discount, and the navy bills, which carry an interest
+of 4 per cent. are at 17 per cent. discount, it is almost impossible to
+say on what terms a contract with Government would be advantageous. In
+more settled times, I believe, 25 per cent. on estimate, and near 50 per
+cent. on arbitrary statements, did not vary much from the difference, to
+the disadvantage of the public, betwixt public and private contracts for
+the same performances.
+
+In this view, and it is a just one, nothing but absolute necessity, and
+the sure consequence of losing the trade altogether, could justify the
+interference of Government beyond the limits already assigned, if even
+these could justify it. But this necessity is happily entirely out of
+the question at present: the Company anxiously desire to go on with
+their trade: a forbearance of duties due, is all they ask, to the
+extent of, I think, a million. If it was three times as much, Government
+would be mad, if they hesitated in the alternative betwixt indulging
+them in their demand, and taking their concerns into their own hands.
+The affairs of the Company have been embarrassed before; they have
+borrowed large sums from Government, which they have honestly repaid.
+Their surplus in peaceable times is very large; and if tranquility is
+any way durable in India, and the administration of the Company's
+affairs is continued in the hands of that powerful genius of resource,
+Mr. Hastings, I make no doubt they will extricate themselves with
+honour, and do justice to every creditor they have. I am at least sure,
+that this is giving the only chance of making them beneficial to this
+country; and it is what the Company is highly entitled to.
+
+I have often wondered upon what principle of policy one of our two great
+commercial companies should be the _enfant gale_, the spoilt child of
+every administration whilst the other was treated like the step-son of
+the state, with every mark of jealousy and unkindness. The merits of the
+East-India Company towards the nation are great and notorious. Whilst
+every other country has been taxing their subjects, in order to support
+their East-India trade, the English East-India Company has been the
+support, to a good extent directly, and in a very great and eminent
+degree indirectly, of the British finances; and in the late war the
+Company maintained alone, in their dominions and enterprises, the
+superiority which usually attended the British arms in every quarter of
+the globe; and at last, in the acquisitions made by the Company's arms,
+the material indispensable sacrifices to procure a necessary peace were
+found. Indeed, their expences in the reduction of Pondicherry, and the
+value of it, and of the other restitutions made to the French by the
+definitive treaty of peace, seem to me a very onerous and most just debt
+on Britain, and why they are not stated as such by the Company, I cannot
+see any shadow of a reason.
+
+It was under the direction of their own proprietary, uncontrouled by
+parliament, that the Company rose to an unexampled height of wealth and
+prosperity: since the interference of parliament, their affairs have
+declined. Possibly now the patronage is so valuable and extensive, their
+constitution may be defective, by the too immediate dependence of the
+directors on the proprietors, who, by their brigues and cabals, overawe,
+and often make abortive the best intentions of the directors. But
+matters of charter and property are of so difficult and delicate a
+nature, that it is hard to say, whether any attempt to remedy this might
+not do more harm than good.
+
+It is related, that Monsieur Colbert, Lewis the Fourteenth's very able
+minister of commerce and finance, and to whose memory France stands much
+indebted, called an assembly of the most eminent men in the French
+king's dominions in the commercial line, to whom he proposed the
+consideration, if any, and what advantages might accrue to commerce by
+the interference of Government. The unanimous answer of the assembly
+was, _Laisser le faire_, let it alone.
+
+A new doctrine has been likewise attempted to be established in favour
+of the late India Bill, viz. That measures are not to be so fully and
+fairly canvassed as they ought, but are to rely and be supported by the
+responsibility of the proposer of them. The presumption and absurdity of
+such a proposition is too great to require an answer. The responsibility
+of the proposer often would not procure him ten pounds; and as to any
+thing sanguinary, God knows! the hazard is very, very trifling. Indeed,
+the persons who avowedly, first by denial of justice to America, plunged
+us into a war, and afterwards, by obstinately persevering in it, when
+experience had evinced the success was impracticable, and who by so
+doing have irretrievably (I fear) undone their country, enjoy in pomp
+and serenity, even to ostentation, the honours and lucrative employments
+heaped upon them. If justice is demanded for glory, for wealth, for
+dominion lost, they pay you with an ideal jest: if you want more, a
+ready vote of acquittal is at hand from a packt majority, united on the
+most sordid principles, to promote each other's advantage, in open and
+abandoned violation, on one part of the coalition, of the faith a
+thousand times pledged to bring delinquents to justice, who now are not
+only protected, but represented, with a falsehood and inconsistency that
+degrades human nature, as great, wise, and virtuous ministers, by those
+very men who not very many months stigmatized them as the base undoers
+of their country.
+
+His Majesty has, however, been pleased to nominate a new ministry: they
+are young and untried: I wish them well; and my poor support shall be
+theirs, if they deserve it. I hope their real essential bond of union is
+at least less dangerous than that of their predecessors, viz. through
+violation of charters to obtain the plunder of India for themselves and
+adherents.
+
+I should have thought a dissolution of Parliament necessary to have
+preceded, in order to procure any stability in the settlement of a new
+ministry. The reason offered against this measure was quite trifling,
+viz. the delay of public business; for the Parliament would have been
+dissolved, and a new one elected, in little more than the period of
+usual recess at this time of the year; which recess was not intended to
+have been shortened, if the late overthrow of the ministry had not taken
+place. Should the indecent interruption of every thing that does not
+promote their own continuance, still prevail in a majority of the House
+of Commons, the delay of public business will be well compensated by the
+facilities a new election will probably afford, and by the rapid
+progress of measures beneficial and necessary to the public that will
+take place hereafter, which, under the present jarring situation and
+equipoise of parties, cannot, in my poor opinion, ever be carried on
+with either certainty or dispatch.
+
+But I still dread the continuance of the present distractions. The
+politics of St. James's have had ill luck for common, and, by some fatal
+ascendancy, have generally backwards trod the very paths they most
+anxiously sought to shun. The faction has emissaries spread far and wide
+to pluck allegiance from men's hearts. It will demand, on the part of
+the King, an active, unremitting attention to replace himself in that
+state of pre-eminence and influence the constitution allows, and even
+requires. Let this never be out of mind. When his Majesty hunts the
+stag, let him reflect that he is himself the hunted stag, the royal
+hart held at bay by a fierce, unrelenting faction, who deny, or mean to
+explain away, his dearest, clearest prerogatives. A prince so virtuous,
+who never was even suspected to mean any foul play to the state, ought
+to command in every honest service, and he will command no other, those
+servants whom he is now obliged to sue to, and often is refused. The
+onward path, ingenuous openness of fair sincerity and prudent oeconomy
+in private life, lead to peace of mind, and to heaven's best gift,
+independence; they martial kings to greatness, to awe, and affectionate
+veneration. I know the delicate ground I tread; but I owe much to my
+sovereign, and, above all, TRUTH; and I will pay the debt, tho' the most
+ungrateful office, yet the surest pledge of real love and respect that I
+can give. What have I to fear? I have lived too long; I never wished to
+survive the glory of my country; and I cannot form a wish so mean as to
+survive its liberties. Whig as I am, if liberty must expire, I hold its
+Cuthanaria to be in a mild despotism. But in all the bills of mortality,
+of human grandeur, never sure was so strange a catastrophe recorded, as
+a king taken prisoner, and a great and glorious constitution squirted to
+death, by the sportings of a set of prodigal, undone, gambling,
+friblish, impudent Eton boys.
+
+  _Jan. 1. 1784._
+
+
+FINIS.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+[Transcriber's Notes:
+
+The transcriber made these changes to the text to correct obvious
+errors:
+
+  1. p.  3 Stationers Hall  --> Stationers' Hall
+  2. p.  9 brankrupt --> bankrupt
+  3. p. 12 securites --> securities
+  4. p. 19 tranquiility --> tranquility
+
+End of Transcriber's Notes]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+

passages/pg66185.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,388 @@
+
+
+                             OBSERVATIONS
+                                  ON
+                          THE COD-LIVER OIL.
+
+
+
+
+                             OBSERVATIONS
+                                ON THE
+                         OLEUM JECORIS ASELLI,
+                                  OR
+                            COD-LIVER OIL;
+
+           ITS NATURE, PROPERTIES, MODE OF PREPARATION, &c.
+
+
+                                  BY
+                             JOHN SAVORY,
+
+     MEMBER OF THE SOCIETY OF APOTHECARIES, LATE PRESIDENT OF THE
+        ROYAL PHARMACEUTICAL SOCIETY OF GREAT BRITAIN, &c. &c.
+
+
+                                LONDON:
+                 JOHN CHURCHILL, PRINCES STREET, SOHO.
+                                 1849.
+
+
+
+
+                                LONDON:
+             G. J. PALMER, PRINTER, SAVOY-STREET, STRAND.
+
+
+
+
+                                  ON
+                            COD-LIVER OIL.
+
+
+The introduction of a new therapeutical agent into general practice
+cannot fail to interest the medical profession and the public, and,
+profiting by the experience attained in a consideration of the manner
+in which former remedies have been brought into notice, extolled for
+their efficacy, persevered in for a time, and then gradually permitted
+to fall into disuse, and finally sink into oblivion, it will doubtless
+be useful to review the circumstances attendant upon the proposal now
+so generally entertained of the administration of the cod-liver oil for
+a variety of diseases and disorders.
+
+Although it is only of late that the attention of the public has
+been particularly drawn to this subject, principally by the zealous
+endeavours of the Medical Practitioners of Germany, it will be found
+upon inquiry that the remedy is by no means a novel proposal; nor are
+we even indebted to our foreign _savans_ for its introduction. It is to
+be traced back to the latter part of the 18th century, at which time
+it was extensively used in the Manchester infirmary, and its effects,
+as there exhibited, have been reported by the late Dr. Samuel Argent
+Bardsley, in his “Medical Reports,” 1807, 8vo. This able physician,
+who was for many years attached to the Manchester infirmary, in which
+institution chronic rheumatism formed a very large proportion of the
+medical cases under treatment, states, that for this afflicting malady,
+the Oleum Jecoris Aselli, or cod-liver oil, enjoyed a high reputation
+in Lancashire, and that thirty years previously to the time at which he
+published his useful and truly practical work, it was introduced by one
+of the physicians to the infirmary, and that its success was such as to
+induce the celebrated Dr. Percival to recommend it to his notice and
+attention as deserving of a fair and extensive trial.
+
+Dr. Percival remarks, (Works, vol. iv. p. 355,) that it was so largely
+dispensed at the Manchester infirmary, that “near a hogshead of it was
+disposed of annually;” yet its employment was almost solely confined
+to the relief of cases of chronic rheumatism, sciatica, and those
+contractions and rigidities so frequently the consequences of exposure
+to damp and cold. In these cases it was considered as superior to all
+other remedial means that had been used, and its beneficial effects
+were strikingly apparent. The operation of the oil in the first
+instance was mostly to increase the pain sustained by the afflicted,
+but this was soon succeeded by a gradual subsidence of the severity
+of the symptoms. It occasioned, particularly in irritable habits, an
+acceleration of the pulse, and diffused a glow of warmth over the whole
+frame of a very agreeable description. It promoted the secretions
+of the skin, and occasionally acted on the bowels. It was observed,
+that when its use had been persisted in for a few weeks the tongue
+became foul and the appetite impaired, so that an emetic was found to
+be necessary. It was, however, given in large doses, varying from one
+to three table-spoonfuls twice, thrice, or four times daily. It was
+also employed extensively as a liniment to the stiffened joints or
+limbs; but if soreness existed its use was forbidden; it was also never
+exhibited internally when fever was present.
+
+The oil employed at the Manchester Infirmary was obtained from
+Newfoundland, and brought thence in barrels containing from 400 to 520
+pounds in weight; it was obtained by the putrefaction of the livers
+of the fish, which were heaped together for the purpose. The oil so
+procured was, however, found to be exceedingly nauseous and offensive,
+both as regards smell and taste, so that but few stomachs could bear
+it, although a variety of means were resorted to to disguise its
+unpleasant character.
+
+Notwithstanding this, Dr. Bardsley remarks, that where it could be
+persisted in, such was the power of habit, that a relish for its
+flavour succeeded to its use, and what before was taken with such
+extreme disgust became pleasurably received. Dr. Percival says, the
+oil left upon the palate a savour like that of putrid fish, and that
+the perspiration of those taking it was strongly tainted with it. The
+oil, however, was not solely obtained from the livers of the cod-fish,
+but also from the ling (the Gadus Molva). So offensive was it found to
+be, that it was, in many instances, rendered necessary to combine it
+into the form of a liquid soap, and it is not too much to assert, that
+the efficiency of it as a remedy must have been, in no inconsiderable
+degree, impaired by the formulæ to which it was reduced.
+
+Mr. Darbey, the house surgeon of the infirmary, in a letter to Dr.
+Percival, states the discovery of the effects of cod-liver oil to
+have been accidental, and to have occurred in a patient who, using
+it externally, was induced also to take some of it internally. She
+recovered the use of her limbs, and in a few weeks was dismissed.
+No particular attention was directed to the circumstance until her
+return to the infirmary, in the course of 12 months, on account of a
+renewal of her complaint with considerable violence, which, however,
+soon subsided by the employment of the same means of relief. Dr. Kay,
+one of the physicians of the infirmary, remarked upon the case, and
+wished to test the character of the remedies in similar cases, and
+found the practice to succeed beyond his most sanguine expectations.
+It is worthy of remark, that the instances in which it was found to be
+most serviceable were those in which the perspiration was gradually
+promoted. Those who had been cripples for many years were found, after
+persisting in its use for a few weeks, not only to be able to quit
+their seats, to which they had been confined, but also to walk even
+without the aid of crutches or a stick. The effects were so remarkable,
+that application was made to the infirmary for the oil in all kinds of
+lameness, and an expenditure of not less than 50 or 60 gallons annually
+was the result. This practice was commenced about the year 1772, and
+continued for many years afterwards.
+
+One of the great evils attendant upon the introduction of a new
+remedy is the universality of its application to cases, often of very
+dissimilar nature. Its inefficiency to such a variety of purposes
+thereby speedily becomes apparent, and those disorders to which it may
+be beneficially applicable cease to be subjected to its operation:
+the novelty is gone; a prejudice against its use is created, and some
+new proposition speedily serves to banish it from a position it might
+probably, with advantage, have held in the Materia Medica.
+
+Dr. Bardsley, writing in 1807, however, gives his testimony to the
+efficiency of cod-liver oil in cases of chronic rheumatism, and says,
+“In some instances, where every other means have proved unsuccessful,
+it has operated in a manner so decidedly beneficial as to excite
+astonishment.” In many cases, however, of a mild description, it has
+not been of any advantage. In the chronic rheumatism of aged persons,
+in whom the muscles and their tendons have acquired great rigidity, so
+that the joints have become almost inflexible, it was found to be most
+serviceable. In females, also, whose powers had been much depressed
+by frequent parturition, and in whom debility towards the decline of
+life prevailed to a great degree, it has served to produce the happiest
+effects. And, in all the cases, in which it has been attended with
+benefit, it has uniformly been remarked that the consequences produced
+by the exhibition of the oil have been to occasion an increase of
+power, size, and general fatness. Its operation was far from being
+uniform, for whilst in some instances it produced increased action
+of the bowels and promoted the alvine discharges, in others it had
+a tendency to induce constipation. In some it occasioned increased
+perspiration, and in others an addition to the secretion of the urine.
+In some it produced an eruption of the skin, attended with a sense of
+prickling heat. In some few cases, none of these sensible effects were
+to be observed. When it proved serviceable, its beneficial effects
+were found to be apparent in the course of a fortnight, and if at the
+expiration of that time no good resulted, little was to be expected
+from a continuance of its use; it was, however, remarked, that when
+it began to be useful its progress was observed to be gradual, and it
+became necessary, in order to insure a cure of the patient and to guard
+against a renewal of the attack, to continue its daily exhibition for a
+period extending to not less than six or eight months.
+
+The observations of these enlightened physicians have been confirmed
+by more modern practitioners. Corroborative evidence has been adduced
+against its employment in acute cases, or those attended by active
+inflammatory action, and for its employment in chronic cases attended
+by a low inflammatory condition, or in those cases where want of power
+and diminished strength are most apparent.
+
+It is not a little remarkable, that after the able and valued testimony
+just alluded to, an agent of such therapeutical properties should have
+been allowed to fall into utter neglect in this country. Much praise
+is due to the physicians of Germany for investigating the subject, and
+practically testing its efficiency. It would be out of place here,
+and foreign to my purpose, to call attention to the various trials to
+which the remedy has been submitted and its efficient powers confirmed;
+these are to be found in the medical periodical literature of Germany
+and France, and have been translated and transferred to the pages of
+our own journals. (See “Medical Gazette,” “Lancet,” “Pharmaceutical
+Journal,” “Medico-Chirurgical Review,” “British and Foreign Medical
+Review,” “Continental and British Medical Review,” “London Journal of
+Medicine,” &c.)
+
+The cod-liver oil has been found principally efficacious in rheumatic,
+gouty, and scrophulous cases, with their accompanying manifestations of
+cutaneous eruptions and neuralgic pains. Whenever a deficiency of tone
+is apparent in the system, its employment has been found of benefit.
+Where, as in pulmonary cases, it cannot be looked upon as curative,
+it nevertheless tends to the general support of the frame, and may
+probably serve to give time for the employment of other remedies more
+especially directed to the existing disease.
+
+That cod-liver oil should produce fatness, will not occur as
+remarkable to any one who looks at its composition, the principal
+ingredient of which consists of carbon; this is present in all oils
+to a great degree, and it therefore offers a very valuable aid in
+cachectic cases, and others of diminished power and general weakness;
+hence it has been remarkably efficacious in cases of mesenteric
+disease: its powers also in exciting the lymphatic system to activity,
+in promoting also the capillary circulation, and in effecting
+absorption of scrophulous deposits, have been very striking, and
+demand the attention of every practitioner. Its effect is not merely
+increasing the deposition of fatty matter in the system, but, as Dr.
+J. C. B. Williams has asserted, increasing the muscular strength and
+action, and improving the colour of the cheeks and lips, and thereby
+affording evidence of improving the nature and condition of the blood.
+Dr. Copland, in his valuable Dictionary of Medicine, has given his
+approbation to its employment in cases of rheumatism and sciatica,
+and also in several cases of neuralgia. It would form a volume to
+give, even in abstract, the cases which, within the last three years,
+have been recorded of the efficacy of the cod-liver oil in a variety
+of affections; and my object in at all addressing the public on this
+occasion, is to point out the necessity of obtaining this remedy in its
+purest and most effective form, in order to insure its operation, and
+prevent it from falling into that desuetude which has characterized so
+many preceding remedies proposed by the profession.
+
+One of the greatest objections to its use was, as already stated, the
+exceedingly unpleasant savour it possessed, and the consequent disgust
+to its exhibition produced in persons of delicate stomach. This has in
+some measure originated from the introduction of a spurious article,
+or from the manner in which the original has been introduced. What
+could be expected otherwise than a most loathsome material, from
+livers heaped together by thousands sent over from Newfoundland, to
+deposit their oil by a course of putrefaction? The livers of other
+fish have also been found to have accompanied those of the cod, hence,
+probably, deteriorating the effect of that of the cod, or introducing
+an article calculated to produce no good result. At Berlin it is
+known that a spurious oil was introduced into the hospital, and the
+failure in its operation had well nigh superseded its use altogether. A
+genuine oil was however happily obtained, and the value of the remedy
+established. Various modes of adulteration have been detected. It has
+been found to be mixed with whale oil, the oil of the seal, &c.; and
+its offensive character may easily be estimated. The price at which
+the oil is to be obtained may probably, in some measure, serve as a
+clue to the discovery of these attempts, than which nothing can be
+more reprehensible. It is melancholy to reflect that in nothing more,
+or perhaps equally so, is adulteration practised than in medicinal
+articles. The public have little means of detecting these fraudulent
+proceedings, which ought, however, when brought to light, to be
+subjected to the severest censure and punishment.
+
+It is questionable how far these adulterations may be detected by the
+operation of the oil, since the principles of its immediate action in
+various diseases is far from having been satisfactorily ascertained.
+Its nutrient properties are known, and must be admitted in common with
+all adipose substances, and a knowledge of their constituents and
+action upon the human frame; but beyond this, namely, the specific
+qualities as adapted to counteract scrophula, rickets, rheumatic or
+gouty inflammation, neuralgia, pulmonary disorders, &c. is unknown.
+The well-ascertained effects of iodine in the relief of scrophulous
+diseases point out that substance as the immediate agent affording
+relief in those cases, but it has been ascertained that the quantity
+of iodine in the cod-liver oil is exceedingly small, being much
+beneath that which is ordinarily given in the treatment of scrophulous
+disorders, and without effect in those cases; still this small quantity
+may perhaps by nature be so incorporated in the composition of the
+oil, that although of diminished proportions, it may yet possess an
+increased power of action, as in the case of natural mineral waters.
+It may probably be truly averred, that no fictitious mineral waters,
+however admirably prepared, and however accurately constituted,
+according to the proportions of the several ingredients as ascertained
+by chemical analysis, are capable of producing the same effects as
+those by the water derived from the original spring. This may perhaps
+be the result of some electric or galvanic agency operating in its
+constitution, the place of which cannot be supplied by any substitute
+to be found in the laboratory of the chemist. Nature here manifests
+her decided superiority to the efforts of art, though ably directed
+by the hand of science. Dr. Pereira has suggested bromine to be the
+active principle in the oil, and others have attributed its efficiency
+to various phosphoric compounds. Dr. Williams refers its agency to some
+biliary principle; in short, nothing certain is known upon the subject:
+the cause may here be said to be occult, but the effect is apparent.
+Mons. Bretonneau asserts that he has obtained effects just as markedly
+beneficial to result from the use of the common whale oil, as from the
+cod-liver oil, although we know the power to be but very partially
+obtained from the liver of the cetaceous tribe.
+
+As, however, cod-liver oil is admitted to be an important medical
+agent, and as so many eminent medical practitioners have given
+their decided approbation to its employment, it is of the greatest
+consequence to have the article in the most perfect state of purity.
+Under this impression I have for a considerable time been engaged
+in various methods to accomplish this end, and without occasioning
+any change in its constituent properties, or altering the relative
+proportion of the several substances which enter into its formation,
+I have at length been enabled to obtain the oil from the fresh livers
+in a state of purity and comparative sapidity which I flatter myself
+will be universally approved. Its clearness and transparency is equal
+to that of any other oil even of a vegetable nature; its taste is
+such that it needs no admixture to disguise it, and it is therefore
+freed from the suspicion of being, by any combination, deprived of its
+essential and curative properties. It may be taken, not in the large
+doses previously administered in the Manchester Infirmary, of one, two,
+or three table-spoonfuls, two, three, or four times daily, but in that
+of one, two, or three tea-spoonfuls twice a day, and may, without
+fear of counteracting its medicinal quality, be agreeably taken in a
+small quantity of milk, or coffee, or beer. Infusion of orange-peel
+is a convenient and agreeable vehicle for its administration.
+Peppermint-water is also a convenient and proper means. If it be
+employed in the form of an emulsion, care must be taken that no syrup
+be employed into the constitution of which acid enters, as it would be
+incompatible with the alkali necessarily used to form the mixture.
+
+If the oil be pure and freed from all extraneous matters, and the
+livers from which it is procured be in a recent and not in a putrid
+state, there is little apprehension as to any disagreeable effects
+following its exhibition; in some cases, however, it has been found to
+disorder the bowels in a slight degree upon commencing its use, but
+that speedily subsides, and has rarely required the aid of remedies to
+counteract such effects.
+
+Externally it may be used by itself, or in combination with ammonia, or
+camphor, spermaceti, wax, &c., according to the intention with which
+it is employed, and which it is hardly necessary to say should be under
+the direction of a professional adviser.
+
+  _143, New Bond Street,
+      Feb. 21, 1849._
+
+
+                                LONDON:
+             G. J. PALMER, PRINTER, SAVOY STREET, STRAND.
+
+
+
+
+                         _By the same Author._
+
+
+                  Third Edition, 12mo., cloth, 5_s._
+
+A COMPENDIUM of DOMESTIC MEDICINE, and COMPANION to the MEDICINE CHEST.
+Comprising Plain Directions for the Employment of Medicines――their
+Properties and Doses――Brief Descriptions of the Symptoms and Treatment
+of Diseases――Disorders incidental to Infants and Children――Directions
+for restoring Suspended Animation――Counteracting the Effects of
+Poison――A Selection of the most Efficacious Prescriptions and various
+Mechanical Auxiliaries to Medicine.
+
+By JOHN SAVORY, Member of the Society of Apothecaries, and late
+President of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain.
+
+
+“This is decidedly the completest work of its kind that has fallen
+under our notice.”――_Mirror._
+
+“This very useful little manual is entirely divested of scientific
+phraseology, and may be safely consulted, in cases of emergency,
+by persons residing at a distance from their medical adviser, more
+particularly where delay may be productive of fatal results.”――_Analyst._
+
+“A work which merits the attention of our parochial clergy, who
+are often called upon to act the part of the good Samaritan. In
+cases of trying emergency, when medical assistance is not at hand,
+it will be found a safe guide, the symptoms of diseases being
+clearly defined, and their appropriate remedies plainly pointed
+out.”――_Essex Standard._
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+ Transcriber’s Notes:
+
+ ――Text in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_).
+
+ ――Obvious punctuation and spelling inaccuracies were silently corrected.
+
+ ――Archaic and variable spelling has been preserved.
+
+
+