that promised to be fruitful. Even to-day
the same prejudices are all too inhibitory; but thanks to the
unprecedented development of the natural sciences during the period
since this hospital was founded, we are witnessing, in our time, a rapid
transformation of thought and opinion concerning both the normal and the
disordered mind, a transformation that is reaching all circles of human
beings, bidding fair to compel the strongholds of tradition and
prejudice to relax, and inviting the whole-hearted co-operation of
workers in all fields in a common task of overcoming some of the
greatest difficulties by which civilization and human progress are
confronted. And though the brunt of this task is borne and must be borne
by the shoulders of medical men, physicians assume the burden
cheerfully, now that they know that they can count upon the intelligent
support and the cordial sympathy of an ever-enlarging extra-medical
aggregate. No better illustration could be given, perhaps, of the change
in the status of psychiatry in this country and in the world than the
contents of the programme of our meeting to-day at which a distinguished
investigator from London tells us of the biological significance of
mental disorders, an eminent authority from Paris explains the
relationship between certain diseases of the nervous system and these
disorders, and a leading psychiatrist of this country speaks upon the
contributions of psychiatry to the understanding of the problems of
life. Psychiatry, like each of the other branches of medicine, has come
to be recognized as one of the subdivisions of the great science of
biology, free to make use of the scientific method, in duty bound to
diffuse the knowledge that it gains, and privileged to contribute
abundantly to the lessening of human suffering and the enhancement of
human joys. General practitioners of medicine and medical
specialists--at least the more enlightened of them--welcome the
developing science of psychiatry, are eager to hasten its progress, and
will gladly share in applying its discoveries to the early diagnosis,
the cure, and the prevention of disease.

That the majority of medical and surgical specialists and even most of
the widely experienced general practitioners, though constantly coming
in contact with major and minor psychic disturbances, are, however,
still far from realizing the full meaning and value of the principles
and technic of modern psychology and of the newer