The Press: Mental Hygiene

Fifteen years ago there was no organized effort in any nation to combat mental disease and defect. Conditions in institutions for the insane and feeble-minded had advanced little since the time when “Bedlam” was first contracted from “St. Mary’s of Bethlehem,” an English asylum. The idea of forestalling and preventing the development of mental disorders was a novelty.

About 1900 a young man not long out of the university had an attack of amnesia (loss of memory occurring in some forms of insanity) and wandered about the country suffering harrowing vicissitudes for three years. In time he recovered and returned to his family and to normal life. But he retained a vivid memory of his experiences, set them down in a manuscript, resolved to turn them to account for human welfare. William James and a few other far-sighted gentlemen encouraged him.

The young man was Clifford Whittingham Beers; the book, his graphic autobiography, A Mind That Found Itself. In 1908 Mr. Beers founded the Connecticut Society for Mental Hygiene, the first organization of its kind. Similar bodies have since been initiated in more than 20 states. Mr. Beers has devoted his life and resources to the movement, has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars. In 1909 he founded the National Committee for Mental Hygiene, of which he has been Secretary ever since. He was instrumental in starting a correlative agency in Canada. Other countries followed suit. Four years ago, Mr. Beers took the first step toward world-wide cooperation in mental hygiene. In 1925 in Manhattan will be held the First International Congress on Mental Hygiene. The participation of the great European countries has been promised and Mr. Beers has secured the personal approval of King Albert of Belgium, Cardinal Mercier, Georges Clemenceau (once a physician in a Paris insane hospital), David Lloyd George, Sir Eric Geddes, Sir Maurice Craig (of Guy’s Hospital, London) and other leaders.

Dr. William H. Welch, Dean of the School of Hygiene and Public Health of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, was elected President of the National Committee for Mental Hygiene at its annual meeting last week, succeeding Dr. Walter B. James, professor of clinical medicine at Columbia. Dr. Welch is the most distinguished pathologist and bacteriologist in the United States. Now 73 years old, he has been since his interne years at old Bellevue one of the most versatile and influential figures in the American and world public health movements. Among other officers of the Mental Hygiene Committee are Dr. Charles W. Eliot, President Emeritus of Harvard, and Dr. Bernard Sachs, of New York, Vice Presidents, and Otto T. Bannard (Manhattan banker), Treasurer. The Medical Director is Dr. Frankwood E. Williams, successor to Dr. Thomas W. Salmon, who is now Medical Adviser.

The Committee’s chief accomplishments :

1) Collection and standardization of statistics from state institutions throughout the U. S.

2) Publication of a high-class Journal, Mental Hygiene.

3) Establishment, in coöperation with the Commonwealth Fund and other agencies, of a “Joint Committee on Prevention of Delinquency,” which conducts child clinics and demonstrations in Dallas, St. Louis, St. Paul, Minneapolis and other cities, as well as in foreign countries.

4) Surveys of mental hygiene conditions in Maryland, Indiana, Mississippi, Cincinnati, etc., followed by organization of local physicians and agencies to meet the needs revealed.