Cannon and Rosanoff : Heredity of Insanity 9 



DISCUSSION 



AT New York Neurological Society, October 4, 1910. 



Prof. Charles B. Davenport, of the Carnegie Institution, Washington, 

 D. C, said that in considering the reasons why the data presented in the 

 paper read by Dr. Rosanoff offered a decided advance over those that had 

 been collected before, we must recognize the fact that there were two 

 principal methods employed by the authors of this paper that had not 

 been employed hitherto, and which were responsible for the results ob- 

 tained. The first of these was the new method of collecting the data 

 concerning inheritance. Hitherto, such information had been obtained 

 largely from parents or guardians, the questioning being usually limited to 

 asking these relatives whether there were any similar cases of nervous 

 disease in the family. The result of such questioning was usually nega- 

 tive, apparently because under the conditions of the inquiry, the parents 

 or guardians were not inclined to state the exact facts. In consequence of 

 this, the patient's family history, as gathered in the hospital, has Httle 

 value, a fact that has been generally recognized by those engaged in 

 this work. 



The method of collecting data which was employed by Miss Cannon 

 and Dr. Rosanoff has been quite different. In their work, an attempt was 

 made to employ the best scientific methods: t. e., to find out what the 

 exact facts were at whatever cost of time and expense. A person bio- 

 logically trained and trained in the rapid diagnosis of mental disease visits 

 the family to which the patient belonged, and enters into such a cordial 

 relation with the members of that family that the mother, for example, 

 soon becomes quite willing to tell the truth, whereas, if she were brought 

 before the hospital officials she might hesitate or decline to tell the facts. 

 In addition to this, the field worker, who is not limited as to the time 

 and expense in her attempts to learn the facts, can visit other members 

 and branches of the family; she can see the family physician and the 

 neighbors in order to corroborate the statements made by the parents or 

 wards. By this method, in the course of time, the field worker obtained 

 the real facts in the case, and such a history, when compared with that 

 usually obtained in the hospital, clearly demonstrated the total inadequacy 

 of the latter. 



The method of obtaining a fuller and more satisfactory family his- 

 tory in cases of insanity has been adopted in the study of other mental 

 defects and diseases. The school for Feeble Minded at Vineland, N. J., now 

 employs four of these field workers, and as the results of their investiga- 

 tions they are getting to a point where they begin to realize that none of 

 these cases of feeblemindedness or imbecility are isolated; that all of 

 them have arisen from an ancestry which on both sides is neuropathic. 

 Epilepsy is being studied in the same way in the State institutions for the 

 care of such patients at Skillman, N, J., and Palmer, Mass., where they 

 have, in each case, one worker in the field, and only recently those in 

 charge of the Crocker Cancer Fund of the Columbia University have 

 decided to adopt the same plan in studying the family history of those 

 who suffer from cancer. 



The second advance in the paper of Miss Cannon and Dr. Rosanoff 

 relates to the method of studying the data they have collected. Hitherto, 

 in studying the data of these cases, it had been considered impracticable 



