Transactions (Volume 19) (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: ANNUAL ADDRESS ON MEDICINE. SOME CURRENT ERRORS RESPECTING INSANITY. C. B. BURR, M. D.. Flint, Mich. Mr. President and Members of the Society: The gloom encircling the problems of mind which centuries of study have failed to do more than dimly illuminate, the peculiar manifestations of those diseases characterized by disturbance of the mental operations, and the frequent necessity for hospital or custodial care for those afflicted by disorders of the intellect, have caused insanity to be regarded in former times as practically outside the bounds of general medicine, and withdrawn it largely from the day-to-day experience of those treating other diseased conditions. It is by no means uncommon at this day to hear from physicians the admission "I know nothing about insanity." Sometimes, I regret to say, this expression is accompanied by a manner which indicates that, slight as the knowledge is, the desire for information on the subject is less. The alienist, until recent years, has occupied a field un- encroached upon by the general practitioner. He has lived to himself, professionally speaking, and while he has done much good for patients in his special department of medicine he has been looked upon less as physician ministering to the necessities of diseased human beings, than custodian of the deranged and irresponsible. Fortunately, however, for hisown advancement, for the interests of scientific medicine, and above all for the well-being of patients committed to his care, he is no longer content to occupy a quasi-medical position. He has advanced his work to a high professional plane, he has introduced the hospital idea into asylum management, he has corrected evils, has reformed abuses, has adopted high ideals, has labored to remove the sentimental barriers whic...