Mental Diseases and Their Modern Treatment

Mental Diseases and Their Modern Treatment
by Selden Haines Talcott, A.M., M.D., Ph.D. Medical Superintendent of the Middletown State Homeopathic Hospital in Middletown, N. Y.; Professor of Mental Diseases in the New York Homeopathic Medical College and Hospital
I DEDICATE THIS WORK TO THE CLASS OF 1900 OF THE NEW YORK HOMEOPATHIC MEDICAL COLLEGE AND HOSPITAL AND TO ALL OTHER EARNEST STUDENTS OF MENTAL MEDICINE
PREFACE
During the past twenty-five years I have been engaged in the practical work of ministering to the needs of the insane. This work has resulted in a gradual development of that form of treatment which has been designated as "The Hospital Idea". In other words, the asylum has given place to the hospital in the protection and restoration of mental invalids. The fact is now generally recognized that the insane man is a sick man, and needs for his comfort and cure the application of such means as are ordinarily used for the benefit of the sick in a modern general hospital. Acting under this belief, our patients have been favored with such treatment as may be best exemplified by skilled physicians, trained nurses, and hospital methods and appliances. At the Middletown State Homeopathic Hospital there have been afforded not only hospital measures for the recuperation of the mentally sick, but the indicated homeopathic remedy has been applied with conscientious fidelity in each case. Individualization, and hospitalization, and homeopathic treatment, have been the methods pursued in the institutions under my charge during the past quarter of a century. This work embodies, in a series of lectures, a long experience in working for the good of the insane. In it I have tried to explain the nature of the disease under consideration; also its causes, its tendencies, and its conclusions under favorable treatment.
This work is not an exhaustive treatise upon insanity. It consists simply of a few "blaze marks" guiding the way through the wilderness of mental disorder, and into the sunny fields of health. If it shall become an aid to the medical student in the acquisition of knowledge, and to the busy practitioner in the care and cure of the sick, then its purpose will have been accomplished.
THE AUTHOR Middletown, N. Y., April 1901
CONTENTS
LECTURE I THE HUMAN BRAIN
Its coverings, divisions and subdivisions, weight, functions, localization of functions, operations, uses, abuses, and capabilities
LECTURE II THE INSANE DIATHESIS OR ABNORMAL TENDENCIES OF THE HUMAN MIND
Definition. Causes, inherited and acquired. Evidences, avoidance, and treatment
LECTURE III SLEEP, SLEEPLESSNESS AND THE CURE OF INSOMNIA
What is sleep? The Condition for sleep. The natural causes of sleep. Causes of insomnia. Suggestions for the induction of sleep, Remedies
LECTURE IV HISTORY AND CLASSIFICATION OF INSANITY, THEORIES, DEFINITIONS, AND REQUIREMENTS FOR COMMITMENT
History. Classification of insanity. British Classification. American Classification. Theories, Definitions. Requirements for commitment. Contraindications of commitment
LECTURE V MELANCHOLIA
Definition. Causes. Forms. Symptoms, courses and cases. Delusions. Prevalence and prevention. Pathological states
LECTURE VI MANIA
Characteristics. Causes. Forms. Symptoms, courses and cases. Pathological states
LECTURE VII DEMENTIA
Nature. Forms. Causes. Symptoms and treatment of acute dementia. Chronic dementia. Masturbatic dementia. Syphilitic dementia. Epileptic dementia. Organic dementia. Alcoholic dementia. Senile dementia. Pathological states
LECTURE VIII GENERAL PARESIS
History. Synonyms. Stages, Cases. Causes. Pathology. Diagnosis, prognosis and treatment. Prevention
LECTURE IX TREATMENT
At home. In sanitariums or State hospitals. Means for treating the insane, kindness and gentle discipline, rest in bed, enforced protection, exercise, amusement and occupation, artificial feeding, dietetics, moral hygiene, operations, the hospital idea
LECTURE X MEDICAL TREATMENT
How to prescribe. Principal remedies for the treatment of melancholia, mania, dementia, and general paresis
HOSPITAL CONSTRUCTION
Site. Construction of buildings. Solariums. Ventilation, heating and lighting. Protection against fire. Furnishings and decorations. Congregate and ward dining-rooms. Kitchen and bakery building. Boiler house, dynamo plant and laundry. Cold storage building. Outbuildings for stock of various kinds
COMPENDIUM OF MATERIA MEDICA
Comprising the leading remedies and their principal indications in the treatment of mental disorders
LECTURE I THE HUMAN BRAIN
Three thousand years ago, more or less, there were inscribed above the portals of the temple of Apollo at Delphi these immortal words, "Gnothi Seauton", which being translated from the original Greek into the present vernacular of the United States, means "Know Thyself". That we may know ourselves better than before, let us consider today the human brain, its functions, its uses, its abuses, and its capabilities.
No one can presume to unfold in all their fullness and perfection the mysterious workings and the marvelous mechanism of the human brain. So intricate a subject can never be fully understood except by the Infinite Mind that planned and brought into action this rarest product of all creation. Still, possibly, we may comprehend in a measure the mechanism of the brain, and by careful study come to understand in some slight degree the uses of that wonderful organ, and also the disastrous effects of its misuse.
We shall proceed to strip off the coverings of the head and pursue our searches to