Prophylaxis of mental disorder / by Sir Humphry Rolleston, Bart., K.C.B., M.D., Regius professor of physic in the University of Cambridge; President of the Royal College of Physicians of London.

  • Humphry Rolleston
Date:
[1925?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Prophylaxis of mental disorder / by Sir Humphry Rolleston, Bart., K.C.B., M.D., Regius professor of physic in the University of Cambridge; President of the Royal College of Physicians of London. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Reprinted from the British Medical Journal, October 81st, 1925. % PROPHYLAXIS OF MENTAL DISORDER.* BY Sir HUMPHRY ROLLESTON, Bart., K.C.B., M.D., Regius Professor of Physic in the University of Cambridge; President of the Royal College of Physicians of London. The widespread activities now in being to improve national health, the appointment of a Royal Commission on Lunacy Law, and the recent movement in favour of mental hygiene make this an appropriate opportunity for a full discussion of the prevention of mental disorder. In the first place it is a matter not only of general professional interest and intimately connected with measures calculated to prevent all forms of disease, but is wrapped up also with child welfare, education, training, and even housing conditions. It is a branch of public health, and both of these two fields of activity will benefit from closer co-operation. A discussion such as this, though in a special section, should be on very broad lines, for it deals with the highest reactions of the human organism, in fact with its reactions as a whole, whereas in other branches of medicine one organ or system of organs chiefly, though by no means entirely, attracts our attention. The practical recommendations as to the desir¬ able steps to be taken must be largely determined by the relative importance attached by experts in mental disease to the etiological factors, which still demand much more patient research. It is therefore perhaps right that the opening paper should be presented on general grounds, and it is certainly essential that the special knowledge of members of this Section should be brought to bear on a subject of national importance. The discussion will have an educational value for those of us who are interested rather in general medicine than in this special and rapidly pro¬ gressive branch; personally, I would express my debt to your President, Sir Frederick Mott, Dr. Hubert Bond, and others. It must be remembered that probably the bulk of patients in ordinary practice present some disorder, however slight, of mind, conduct, or feeling, spoken of as “ nerves,” neur¬ asthenia, night terrors, and that in this early stage of con- *A paper read in a discussion in the Section of Neurology and Psycho logical Medicine at the Annual Meeting of the British Medical Association Bath, 1925. [357/25]