But that was before the war. When the data from the draft board examinations came in, we were presented with the amazing fact that over five per cent. of all rejections were by reason of "mental defect." In some states the rejections for feeblemindedness exceeded ten per cent. of rejections for all causes! Add to this an equal number of rejections for other forms of nervous and mental disease, and one gets some idea of the relative importance of the subject. We have long been impressed with the universality of tuberculosis; yet in some states (e. g., Kansas) the rejections for mental defect and disease exceeded those for tuberculosis of all forms! This includes rejections by draft boards, camp surgeons, and also discharges. In addition, there were over 10,000 admissions" to hospitals in the mobilized army on the basis of mental defect. This represented four cases per 1,000 admissions. Startling enough is the fact that this number included nine officers! The total loss in time exceeded 138,000 days, and if to this is added the loss in time from other forms of mental disease, the loss approaches threequarters of a million days! This is over 2,000 years! Add to this awful numerical frequency of feeblemindedness the well-known fact that feebleminded persons complicate every social problem. I say it is "well known," but I wonder how well known it really is. Do you know that 25 per cent., one-fourth, of all the inmates of reformatories and penitentiaries are feebleminded? Do you know that fully half of the juvenile delinquents in institutions are feebleminded? Do you know that onesixth of the men and two-fifths of the women brought into the police courts are feebleminded? Do you know that half (if not threefourths) of all prostitutes are feebleminded? And, of course, these prostitutes are spreading not only immorality, but syphilis and tuberculosis. Add to this the question of vagrancy, that of pauperism, of family desertion, of illegitimacy, and realize that without question feeblemindedness is the most constant and most frequently present factor in the common etiology of these social ills. For example, V. V. Anderson," Associate Medical Director of the National Committee on Mental Hygiene, who has done such valuable work on the relation of mental defect to delinquency, in a survey of the state of Georgia, found that "40 per cent. of the inmates of almshouses investigated were feebleminded"; that nearly twothirds of all the state prisoners at the state farm were mental deviates. "Of 122 immoral women examined 43.5 per cent. were found to be feebleminded. . . Probably the greatest factor in the spread of venereal dis 10 Provost-Marshall's Report, 1919. 1 Anderson, V. V., Mental Defect in a Southern State; Mental Hygiene, III, 4 Oct., 1919. ease is the feebleminded prostitute." Adler" adds to this list unemployment in a suggestive study of this evil, although he does not call the disease feeblemindedness. Fernald" points out, to quote from an article by Dr. Frankwood E. Williams, that "a very large proportion of the neglected and dependent children in the care of the state of Massachusetts are feebleminded and are the offspring of the feebleminded; that many of the immoral and diseased girls found in rescue homes and shelters are defective and absolutely incapable of reform or of self-support; that a large proportion of the mothers of illegitimate children are feebleminded; that a majority of the parents prosecuted by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children for abuse of their own children are feebleminded. Studies of prostitutes have invariably shown a high percentage of mental defect and psychopathic conditions. "Recent surveys in various states have shown areas honeycombed with mental defect communities, from which most of the able in mind and body have long since passed out into the world at large, leaving the defective to breed among themselves; foci worse than foci of infection.' And finally add the great numbers of school children who are kept hopelessly plodding away, but whose inferior mental equipment will not permit them to pass beyond a certain point, often far down in the scale. They clutter up the national educational system; they handicap the teacher, they retard the other students, they progress not at all themselves. con Ernest Southard, of Boston, in my opinion one of the greatest minds that ever tributed to American medicine, grouped all the evils of the world under five heads, constituting the "Kingdom of Evil." The groups are disease, ignorance, vice, crime, poverty. It will be noted that they are, respectively, the chosen fields of the doctor, teacher, minister, lawyer, economist. It was Southard's idea that the diagnosis of social cases should be made by exclusion in this given order; that medical relief should be considered first, educational second, etc., as a matter of general principle. Thus he would say that in a family burdened by social woes, disease (e. g., tuberculosis) should first be eliminated. But it is obvious that tuberculosis is much more likely to be an effect of ignorance, vice, crime and poverty than a cause Sunmount O' Santa Fé Burton Holmes, the famous travelogue man, was once a guest at Sunmount. He declared it to be one of the most beautiful spots he had ever visited. To prove his sincerity he took numerous pictures; and when one recalls that Mr. Holmes has trained his camera on the world-famous beauty spots of the globe, one begins to appreciate the force of the compliment. Later he incorporated the pictures in one of his travelogue lectures. But even the photographic genius of a Burton Holmes cannot do justice to the wonderfully unique and colorful setting of Sunmount. It cannot, for instance, reproduce with real fidelity the glistening snow-peaks of the Sangre de Cristo range, as they rear their rugged heads upward into the blue sky out of the indescribable purple haze which enshrouds them below. It cannot depict the depth and detail of the far-reaching vistas of mountain and valley, plain and prairie, which greet the eye from the eminence of the Mountain of the Sun. It cannot paint upon the vision the picture of the little mud-brown hut just across arroyo with its faded blue shades drawn, its delapidated door hanging listlessly ajar, the shimmer of the noon-day heat as it rises from the roof, the droning, drowsy silence, or the sleeping burro which stands just outside. Back beyond are the motionless hills. They are shot with glorious tints and tones and hues and colors, the like of which are seen only in New Mexico-and then only at eventide when they illumine the Western skies like the reflected brilliancy from a sea of fiery gems. The attempt of the camera to repaint these things upon its flaccid film is truly pathetic impotency. A stone's throw away, and yet a brace of miles distant, appear the hazy outlines of the historic city of Santa Fé. It is the "City of Holy Faith," where barely a hundred years after Columbus planted triumphant foot upon these shores, the intrepid conquistidores had proclaimed their capital under the rule of the King of Spain. To-day its quaint plaza is filled with tourists from the ends of the earth, lolling lazily upon the tree-shaded benches. They watch the passing procession of blanketed Indians, range-tanned cow boys, grizzled Indian scouts, becloaked descendants of the old Spanish dons, artists, poets, archaeologists, writers, law-makers, or, perhaps, the dignified figure of the Spanish-blooded governor himself. Santa Fé the compelling; Santa Fé the unique-with its generations of pulsing history, its wonderful architecture, its quaint and crooked streets, its oldest church, its nearby prehistoric cliff dwellings, its picturesque Indian villages; and, just a few miles from the business district, a scenic wonderland where one may catch glimpses of the Grand Canyon, the Yosemite and the Yellowstone-scenery as yet unmarred by the hand of man. All this is in sight of Sunmount! Here we have our two large buildings and our twenty-five cozy, comfortable, airy cottages. One of the large buildings is given over to administering to the wants of the inner man, including that much-to-be-desired thing, recreation. The other, with its charming walls that so typify and keep alive the spirit which animated the ancient Santa Fé architects, houses those patients who do not care for the cottage life. Traditional in its atmosphere, it yet embodies all the features of a modern, up-to-the-minute sanatorium. Have I cited the most attractive features of Sunmount? Yes-save one. And that I have left for the last, because it is the best and because it is generated by the others. I refer to that intangible, indefinable something we call the "Sunmount Spirit." One feels this spirit the instant the genial Major-Doctor grasps the hand in cordial welcome. One senses it at first sight of the Mrs. Major-Doctor, "The Lady of the Flowers," happily toiling in her beautiful Sunmount gardens. It comes in the form of a refreshing breeze, when the young staff-doctors enter one's apartment. It is the spirit of genuine, hospitable fellowship, that which the French call "en famille," within the family circle. If you catch what I mean, you will know that Sunmount may not be quite Home By FRANK T. KOONS, Baltimore, Maryland (Continued) The Outdoor Sleeper, feeling the chill of the late October air within the house, has gone outside to get warm, for paradoxical as it may seem, his open sleeping porch, free from indoor drafts, affords more ease and comfort, particularly when he is snugly ensconced within the protecting folds of his coldweather toggery. Therefore, he "wraps the drapery of his couch about him and lies down," not yet "to pleasant dreams," but to a peaceful contemplation of the beauties of nature. The sun has just set behind the distant hilltops, bathing the world in a sea of glory and illuminating the autumn foliage where Jack Frost with his magic wand has been busy painting the forest in gorgeous colors of crimson, russet, yellow, gold and maroon. He employs himself for a while trying to distinguish by their yellow foliage the poplar, hickory, chestnut and sycamore, intermingled with the scarlet, autumnal dress of the maple, oak, gum and dogwood, and the more modest colors of the linden, elm, birch and magnolia, against a background of the perennial green of pine, fir, cedar and spruce. The shadows lengthen, and "Twilight lets her curtain down the evening star at this time in the present year of grace being Earth's lovely neighbor, Venus. Venus is a conspicuous object in the western heavens at the time these lines are being penned, but it sets early, around 7 P. M., which is about the hour Jupiter is rising in the east. Both planets may be easily recognized, as they stand forth sharply defined, not "twinkling" like the other stars, but shining with a steady, mellow brightness, as do the other members of our solar system, Mercury, Mars, Uranus, Saturn and Neptune. He finds it easy to pick out the seven brilliant stars forming The Dipper (Ursa Major, 1-7), now skimming along the northern horizon, and projecting a line through the two forming the outer edge of its bowl, called the Pointers (6 and 7), has no trouble in locating the North Star (8), known also as the Pole Star, and indicated on the accompanying chart as Polaris. The distance between the North Star and the first Pointer (6) is about 35 degrees and the average distance between each of the seven composing the Dipper is about 6 degrees, which figures he employs roughly in estimating the positions of other heavenly bodies. Connecting the star (4) joining the handle and bowl of the Dipper with Polaris by a straight line and extending it about the same distance beyond the Pole he finds Cassiopeia (9-13), sometimes called The Chair, a constellation in the form of the letter W. By drawing another at right angles, not far from Polaris, through one connecting Cassiopeia and the Dipper, the yellow Capella (14) will be seen on the right hand and the brilliant Vega (15) on the left, both stars of the first magnitude, and each about the same distance from the imaginary connecting line. Vega marks the apex of a beautiful little triangle formed with two fainter stars on the east about 2 degrees apart. The North Star, uniting with six others beyond it, forms a smaller figure called the "Little Dipper" (Ursa Minor), about half the size of the larger, but as the group is rather faint it is not easily traced. Draco (The Dragon), an extensive chain of stars running around the Little Dipper, is recognized without difficulty, as are also the four fainter stars in Cepheus, about midway between the Dragon and Cassiopeia. The first two stars in the handle of the Dipper (2 and 1) point to Arcturus (16), now just about setting on the western horizon, whose soft, yellow brilliancy makes it impossible to mistake for any other. About half way between Cassiopeia and Capella on the side of the Milky Way farthest from the North Star may be seen the constellation Perseus, from which locality the shooting stars emanate in August, and in which constellation is found the variable star Algol (17). In the opposite direction, directly east of Vega, may be noted Deneb (18), the brightest star in Cygnus (The Swan), which holds his attention as it is at the upper extremity of the Northern Cross, now almost exactly overhead and directly in the Milky Way. Albireo (40), which the telescope reveals as a beautiful double star, the primary a topaz yellow, and the smaller a sapphire blue, is seen in the bill of the Swan about 30 degrees southwest of Deneb, at the foot of the cross. South of the Cross, about 40 degrees, is seen Altair (19), a white sun in Aquila (The Eagle), known by three stars in a nearly straight line, of which the middle one, Altair, is the brightest. Nearly midway is the constellation Delphinus (The Dolphin), known as "Job's Coffin," easily recognizable from its four principal stars arranged in the form of a diamond. The Eagle is about 15 degrees east of the meridian, (Star-Map on next page. Text continued on p. 264) |