RELATIONS TO OTHER SCIENCES 261 



object that has been fairly well attained, so far as regards the care 

 and guardianship of the insane is concerned. Thus, the matters of 

 commitment, detention, guardianship, discharge are problems fairly 

 well solved in many states, and their discussion is not in the sphere 

 of my address. I can but express the hope, however, that the tend- 

 ency of legislation will be to lessen the restrictions and simplify the 

 legal methods connected with the care of the insane. It should be 

 easy to get into a hospital and easy to get out. The insane should 

 more and more be considered as sick persons, which they are, and 

 treated as nearly as possible on such lines, both by the doctor and the 

 lawyer. 



Psychiatry and Anthropology 



The results of the work of anthropologists of the Lombroso school 

 have been fruitful to penology and the saner and more rational 

 dealing with criminals ; but they have so far not been of much help 

 to the psychiatrist. The elaborate measurements and observations 

 which have been made show a larger number of anomalies and marks 

 of deviation from the normal in the insane as a class than in the 

 healthy. But these stigmata are never sufficient of themselves to 

 justify one in saying that an individual is defective, or degenerate, 

 or insane. 



In some very marked types of insanity they are practically 

 absent. This is especially true of insanities that develop late and 

 have slight dementing tendencies. Insanities with decided moral 

 defect, such as those known as original paranoia, or moral insanities, 

 those characterized by obsessions and compulsions, also show often 

 few stigmata of degeneration. Those with decided intellectual defects 

 and dullness have a large percentage of physical marks. Such, at 

 least, has been my observation. 



The science is still young and it should receive the support of 

 psychiatrists. This is being given in some hospitals of this country. 

 An anthropologic laboratory, even if but a modest one, should form 

 part of the equipment of the psychopathic hospital. And observa- 

 tions should be made not perfunctorily and in accordance with some 

 limited conventional plan, but with great attention to detail and with 

 minds open and ready for advance and change. The simple accumu- 

 lation of fifteen or twenty measurements and notes has been done 

 until it has nearly fulfilled its usefulness. 



The foregoing remarks do not lend themselves to recapitulation. 

 I have endeavored to show some of the relations of psychiatry to its 

 nearest allied sciences and to indicate the lines along which work can 

 be carried with mutual help to all, but to the special advancement of 

 a sounder knowledge of that capstone of all the medical sciences, the 

 pathology of the mind. 



