and of the impossibility of their breeding — to ward off the crisis of the increase of the insane with which we are concerned?

This judgment is not for the physicians to give; the judgment is yours — you, the thinking class of this world. And let your decision be swift, before the matter grows worse and the calamity overwhelms you.

Among my patients, in one of the hospitals for mental illnesses, was a woman with acute insanity — a disease which excites the patient to

such a degree of savagery that she becomes a danger not only to those close to her, but to herself as well. Had this woman lived fifty years ago, it would have been her lot to spend the greater part of her life in the hospital; but her case today is among those easily cured. We have not, however, been able so far to guarantee against relapse, and so the patient's visits were repeated whenever the acute fit of insanity returned to her; each time, her stay with us took no more than a few days to restore her to her original normal state.

The husband of this woman was a man among my patients, afflicted with the falling sickness, "epilepcy," and his regular visits to my clinic were the greatest barrier to his entering the insane asylum. But for this modern scientific treatment, the asylum would inevitably have been his fate. This treatment of the man and his wife opened to them the way to permanent union, and they begot thirteen children. Now seven of them are permanent inmates of the insane asylum, four have been admitted temporarily, and two have married — against my will.

What could I have done about this? The law obliges me to treat every patient individually according to the latest meth-ods. The law forbids me to place anyone in the insane asylum unless his remaining outside constitutes a danger to the health of the patient or of those close to him. The law forbids me to keep the man's wife a single day in the hospital after she has recovered from her fit of insanity. So the two spouses go out into the world to multiply, and the number of the insane in our hospitals doubles, and we physicians stand with folded hands, unable to bear the responsibility and settle the matter without your opinion. Public opinion must help solve this problem before the time passes and we repent when the hour of repentance is past.

I can almost hear you saying: "Since the picture is so black, what led you to claim, at the opening of your talk, that you are not pessimistic about the results of improving the race in the coming generations? So long as mental illnesses are on the increase and the proportion of mental balance is in retreat, where is the justification for this optimism of yours?"

In answer to this I say: "Let us suppose that the efforts expended in treating mental illnesses stopped, and nature took its course: the strong would inevitably crush the weak, these mental illnesses

would be consumed in the furnace of the mind, and the race would come out victorious in its mind, triumphant over its weakness."

This is the conclusion reached by the men of research on this subject, and they have built their theory on two principal factors:

The first factor is heredity. I have already made clear to you that the predisposition to insanity is transmitted by heredity; but it has been proved that the sound mind surpasses the sick mind in strength, and that, given sufficient time, it overcomes the weakness and proves its strength in the end. This struggle between the strong and the weak may take a stretch of time exceeding hundreds of years, but the strong will inevitably triumph and subdue the weak.

The second factor which will assure the victory of the sound mind over the sick mind is nature itself — nature, which takes precautions against every weakness that may befall it through the workings of the civilized world, and therefore keeps in reserve a vast supply of its children who have not yet been tainted by this disease and who still live far from the world of civilization.

The situation is developing from bad to worse, and it will grow worse still before it steadies and improves.

Our knowledge of the causes of this disease grows stronger day after day. We hope that a day will come when we can supply you with ample information about the crushing of this disease.

This requires time, but we have faith that we shall triumph in the end, and our long experience with the insane will be our best guide to the road along which we must direct you for the mental improvement of the race.

The number of those afflicted with mental illnesses has doubled during the last twenty years, and our knowledge of the causes and effects of these illnesses has multiplied more than ten times during the same period; and it will keep on increasing so long as we treat and study these unfortunates. This requires enor-mous expenditures. In England, ten mil-lion English pounds are spent on research into this disease. If it is granted us to continue our studies for another twenty years, we may arrive at an answer for you as to how we can cure mental illnesses.

The work is arduous, and the number of those laboring for it is small, and the East is still at the beginning of its awakening. For us to reach our goal and win our victory, we need three things: first, we need a great deal of money, to be spent on research and investigation.

Second, we need the help of a number of educated young women and young men.

Third, we need the sympathy of public opinion, its support, its understanding, and its appreciation of our efforts and studies.