NEW THEORY OF INSANITY

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 309, 24 September 1918, Page 9

NEW THEORY OF INSANITY

.YOUR PROFESSION TELLS YOUR CRAZE. ' • ''A:new iheory of insaiirtv is dißousseel in the London' "Lancet." • It ascribes' every fornv of mental obliquity to tho profession, trale or other occupation which the patient pursues. Given the patient's calling, .and his disease may be determined. This theory, it seems; .was suggested to ft London doctor by an inmate of the Hanwell Lunatic Asylum. The "Lancet" gives forth this powerful, though possibly ironical, comment:— '' "Members of tho medical profession arc very seldom ill, but when they are, tho difficulties of treatment are seriously increased by a frequent and obstinate refusal of the ailing doctor to take medicine. It is not, of course. - that'the doctors lia-vp any doubt of the efficacy of tho drugs which thoy dißnense. Their'attitude is purely altruistic. Tho more drugs they drink, the less there will bn for their natients. One of the after-effects'of this medioonhobin, is that the doctors who contract the disease live to an extreme old ane. T)r. Purr, who refused to'talti his own pills, lived to bo 132. Such longevity is not in the best interests of tb« nrofoßsio'- since tho younger men hove to w ; ' so long for a nrpnt.ion. Medicine !" such ccscs should be forcibly administered. Veronal Given food • results'. Jf the insane nationt. be a. politician bis mentsd twist \vi" \w wlint. tli" T.nivet.' enlls horror honor!, or d»>nd of honours. This mmi'fests itself, in fi consuming horror lest . n tiHn should li'o thrust noon the pp- , tient for sen-ires rendered to his, country. It. is useless to arfiio and liersunde him that he has done notliiii" to mer't nonnlnr recnirnition: the circa' 1 of n. baronetcy haunts him dnv su'd night. There / is no cure for the disease."