Practical psychology and psychiatry : for use in training-schools for attendants and nurses and in medical classes, and as a ready reference for the practitioner / by C.B. Burr.

Burr, C. B. (Colonel Bell), 1856-1931.

Date:: [1930], ©1930

Credit: Practical psychology and psychiatry : for use in training-schools for attendants and nurses and in medical classes, and as a ready reference for the practitioner / by C.B. Burr. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$1 he answer to his teacher, “I don't know,” by the schoolboy unprepared with a lesson will often be re¬ peated by scientists and philosophers, and many among them will be tempted from time to time to add “and nobody else knows.” \\ hatever nature’s forces, in their essence may be, however, the processes, at first in all probability orderly, are frequently interrupted by the ingenuity and inventiveness of man. Such interruptions may, conceivably, proceed to a perilous degree. When I read, for example, of the proposed control and diver¬ sion of lightning, I cannot forbear a shudder. Is this a primitive and unworthy fear harking back to nature worship ? Perhaps. In view of tidal waves—Galveston, Japan coast, and elsewhere—the desire, long entertained, to sub¬ ject the power of tides to commercial purposes seems rather appalling. Little understood, and potentially devastating forces are constantly being “harnessed to subserve human wants (Shall I write “necessi¬ ties”?). Thus far, results have proven for the most part valuable assistants in the world’s business but their “laws” may not perhaps with impunity be in¬ definitely defied. Application of Our Knowledge.—Of knowledge, more and more of which is being constantly accumu¬ lated, much is useful and available for practical ends, and its application tends greatly to prolong and im¬ prove animal and plant existence. For example, so recently as in my professional lifetime, pus germs have been identified, and the fact that the means for prevention of their production and for their destruc-$