Neurological specialism : presidential address delivered at the annual meeting of the New York Neurological Society, May 1, 1883 / by W.J. Morton.

  • Morton, William J. (William James), 1846-1920.
Date:
1883
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Neurological specialism : presidential address delivered at the annual meeting of the New York Neurological Society, May 1, 1883 / by W.J. Morton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    the treatment of the insane, which is now occupying public attention. In 1878 there was voiced by this Society ideas that have been powerful in preventing great injustice to these unfortunates. The movement, signalized in its early stages by single and scattered shots from various quarters, opened into a steady fire against the oppressors of the insane from the moment that the Neurological Society en- tered into the contest. The history of our share in this work should not be forgotten. At the stated meeting of March, 1870, our retiring President read a paper upon “ Reform in Scientific Psychiatry,” and a Committee on “Asylum Abuses,” consisting of Drs. Wm. A. Hammond, E. C. Seguin, E. C. Spitzka, W. J. Morton, L. C. Gray, T. A. McBride, and E. C. Harwood, was appointed to make a report. The committee drew up a memorial to the Legis- lature of the State of New York, praying for an inquiry into the management of our insane asylums. This memo- rial was referred to the Committee on Public Health. The members of the Committee on Asylum Abuses will prob- ably never forget their first experience on coming in contact with a political medical ring, as shameless as it was power- ful by reason of its alliance with low politics. The report of the Senate Committee in response to the memorial was an unexampled specimen of trickery and mendacity. But a breach in the Chinese wall of seclusion, secrecy, and tyranny which surrounded the management of the insane in many asylums was effected. Our committee was pertinacious and undaunted, and within two years had the pleasure of knowing that a second Senate report, embracing all that they had claimed, had been presented to the Senate ; though, strange to say, thanks to methods known to Albany politics, this report has never been printed and made public. But the proceedings in the Legislature are now compara-