10 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF QUEENSLAND 
which is concerned equally with social customs as with individual 
usage. Thus the prevention and cure of a disease may be visualised 
as the need for alteration in the social way of life and not merely an 
occasion for individual chastisement or re-education. When the 
psychiatrist is asked the secret of a nervous and mental disorder he can 
discuss beyond the immediate remedy to plans for future needs . . . 
more educated parents, early training on right lines for children, better 
homes, better modes of living and surer routes to the goal of individual 
and race happiness. 
If it is ever justifiable to deduce future events from past per- 
formance, one must regard the future of psychiatry with an interest 
which should not be enclosed within the narrow confines of a single 
specialty. 
Ajs Sir James Mackintosh pointed out more than a century ago : — - 
“Diffused knowledge immortalizes itself. 7 ’ 
And so in conclusion we return to that movement for freedom for 
knowledge and its dissemination among other scientists which has been 
the guiding rule of the Royal Society. Long may it continue. 
