ganization, either inherited or acquired, demand for themselves and the protection and good of the community, a place of refuge and control that shall tend to educate while it supports them. Not only for minor criminals, but for the pauper class, should such house be organized. Pauperism and crime go hand in hand; as a rule they are inherited. The environs of the individual, however, can do much to either prevent crime or lift out of pauperism; these classes we shall always have with us in increasing numbers; indeed, until the law to prevent improper marriages shall have been enacted and enforced, but even then they will demand attention, as much as criminals, minors in years, demand a reform school, or criminals of the graver kind and advanced years demand State penal servitude-so much do those guilty of minor crimes, or those who are paupers and a public expense, demand an organized industrial centre in which they are shielded and protected, where they can support themselves without much or any cost to the people. Such centers we look for, such we must have; nor is this a Utopian idea-it is altogether a practical one. So ends the catalogue. If any stares aghast at the magnitude of the needed work here presented, we are not surprised; if any do not see the necessity of the work here set forth, they do right to condemn; but to approve and yet to falter in efforts to perform, is either cowardice or want of proper enthusiasm. Let us work, watching while we wait. MENTAL HYGIENE. BY JAMES WALTER HERVEY, M. D., INDIANAPOLIS, IND. I am embarrassed with the magnitude of the inquiry to which I am to call your attention, The task before me is something like asking you to look out upon a shoreless, a fathomless ocean, upon whose bosom a calm never slumbers nor a quiet ever reigns. I shall not pursue the simile so far as to ask you to embark with me upon a voyage to explore its limits and attempt to fathom its depths; I shall be content to ask you to permit me to only gather some shells from the shore and cast them at your feet— hoping that, should you deem them worthy of gathering up, in doing so, you may find something that may induce you to search for the treasures that lie buried within its caves. One of the sweetest of the English poets, caught this idea in looking over a country grave-yard, where the ashes of great, though untutored, minds were reposing-which he expresses in this beautiful language, "Full many a gem of purest ray serene, The dark, unfathomed caves of the ocean hear; It would be preposterous for me to promise to elaborate this subject in detail, in a paper which must submit to the demands of brevity. The usual definition of hygiene, is "the art of preserving health;" but this definition comes far short of comprehending all that this term should express. Dr. Albert Buck, in his introduction to the latest and most exhaustive work now extant on public hygiene, says: "The aim of hygiene is to improve and preserve health, as well as to prevent disease. "In a broader sense, the study of hygiene includes the examination of the conditions which affect the generation, development, growth and decay of individuals, of nations and of races, being on its scientific side, coextensive with biology, in its broadest sense including sociology, rather than physiology, merely, as some writers state. Whatever can cause, or help to cause, discomfort, pain, sickness, death, vice, or crime-and whatever has a tendency to avert destroy, or diminish such causes, are matters of interest to the sanitarian." With a definition so exhaustive as this, the enormity of the subject of mental hygiene becomes apparent, and our interest in it becomes more absorbing than under the specifications of the accustomed definition. Mental hygiene, then, commences with our infancy, and ends when the mind ceases to respond to the impress of tangible relations. There should be some regulation by which the abilities of each individual should be estimated. Our peculiarities and idiosyncrasies should be determined, our talents defined, and the proper pursuit in life classified, that our natural energies be utilized and our mental capacities directed into the right channel. There is, as I conceive, no duty in all the walks of life so intimately connected with the public welfare and happiness, as that of an intelligent adherence to the teachings of mental hygiene; and there is no responsibility more weighty than that which parents owe to their children, and the state to its citizens, of giving proper direction to the thoughts of childhood by the parents, of those of riper years by the state. As the state holds the citizen responsible for his acts, and punishes him for his crimes, and as the character and prosperity of the state depends upon the character and condition of its citizens, the duties and responsibilities of the state and of the citizen are reciprocal. What the state, therefore, has a right to demand of the citizen, the citizen has a right also to demand of the state the conditions which make that demand attainable. And, as the state makes provision for the education of its citizens, through its department of public instruction, that public instruction should be founded upon an enlightened appreciation of the demands of mental hygiene. If my judgement has not betrayed me into an error, a state department of public instruction, without a competent department of mental hygiene, is as futile as to attempt navigation without a compass and chart. But few parents are qualified to give direction for such rules and regulations as will give proper directions to the minds of their children, for the training of their thoughts, with reference to pursuit and citizenship, so as to develop their natural mental capacities, elicit their special talent, and to demand proper precaution not to over-tax their energies; to restrain, in a proper way, unwarranted exercise of the emotions, improper indulgences and tendencies of the character. Why should parents be any better qualified for this duty than they are to cure them when sick, or to so protect the general health of their families as to not need the services of a physician? It is a decree of the Creator, that each voluntary act we perform is in some way directed by the mind. The mind is the higher law of our being-it connects us with the Creator; through it He makes known to us his purposes, as far as they relate to us; defines our duties and responsibilities to Him, and accepts, through it, our devotion. It is the bond of union between Time and Eternity, Mortality and Immortality. The mind is given to us for the government of all our social and moral relations, that we may hold in subjection the unwarrantable dictates of appetite and passion. The great apostle of the Gentiles pointed out this law to the Romans (see Romans, 7 chap., 23, 24, and 25 verses), wherein he refers to the struggle ever going on in his members, between the dictates of his mind and the appetites and passions of his body. The history of the human race is replete with evidence of this incessant conflict. The world, as we find it to-day, with its toiling millions struggling for a scanty subsistence; with its bickering discords and rankling strife; its cruel wars waged against the rights and liberties of the down-trodden and oppressed, at the dictation of usurping, unscrupulous tyrants; with its wrecked lives, blasted hopes and ruined fortunes; its fallen virtue, debased manhood and its bleeding hearts, is an incontrovertible evidence that the battle still rages between mentality and brutality. If that time is to ever come, when man ceases to usurp the rights of man, and the nations of the earth dwell together in peace, it will be when each mind is developed to its ultimate capacity, directed in its proper channel and employed in its proper pursuit; when each trade is properly manned, each hand properly directed, and each profession properly filled, under the dictates, training and direction of a wise, thorough, and a human system of mental hygiene, which is the true gospel of the human family and the correct theory of all human association. It is as much the duty of the state to classify the talents, estimate the abilities, train the thoughts, and direct the pursuits of its citizens, as it is to provide schools for popular education. From all along the line of this too long neglected duty, this most urgent necessity, there is coming up a cry for help. Since I have given this subject some thought, I have been astonished at the urgency of this demand, and over awed with a conviction of the disastrous results of its neglect. The more I have examined the subject, the deeper have become my convictions that the best talents, and the best efforts of the medical profession, are demanded to bring this question before the tribunal of public sentiment. We will commence at childhood; as "Infant Mental Hygiene " is, and must be, the starting point for future successful efforts in this field of public utility. We must impress, first of all, the importance of the mind's influence upon the body in childhood; upon parents, teachers, and the State authorities. Human life may be defined to be a dependent phenomenal entity, resulting from the manifestation of mind on matter, by force, through a wonderfully wrought organization, modified by inherent susceptibilities; a force whose operations depend upon the organization, its natural endowmenst, its environment, and its normal and abnormal impressions. All of life's motions, states, and conditions are the result of involuntary organic life excitation or voluntary movements; each of which may be normal or abnormal. The forces by which all motion in the human system is produced is derived from the same source, and are corelated. Thought exhausts life force, as does motion. The force that produces motion, may be spent in thought; hence, the influence of the mind |