The Position of Psychiatry and the Rôle of General Hospitals in its Improvement

Abstract

Gentlemen,—In the first place I desire to express my thanks to the council of the medical school for the honour they have done me in asking me to give the introductory address which is customary at the opening of each of our winter sessions. That I particularly esteem the privilege will be readily appreciated when I remind you of where we are gathered, and that this is the first function which has taken place in the Bland-Sutton Institute of Pathology, which, with its laboratory, lecture theatre, and museum, will always be a monument to Sir John Bland-Sutton's princely munificence, to his affection for the hospital and medical school, to his devotion to science, and to his belief in her power to relieve suffering humanity. and who will dare attempt to gauge the direct and indirect influence of this institute? Sir John's catholicity is well known, and I feel assured of his sympathy when I venture to hope that psychiatry, which is the branch of medicine in which my interests are specially centred, will have its fair share of the blessings that doubtless will be showered from this institute.