Insanity: Its Causes and Prevention

INSANITY:
ITS CAUSES AND PREVENTION
BY HENRY PUTNAM STEARNS, M.D. SUPERINTENDENT OF THE RETREAT FOR THE INSANE, HARTFORD, CONN.; LECTURER ON INSANITY IN THE MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OF YALE COLLEGE, ETC., ETC.
NEW YORK G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS 27 & 29 WEST 23D STREET 1883
Copyright by G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS 1883
Press of G. P. Putnam’s Sons New York
TO JOHN SIBBALD, M.D., F.R.S.E., COMMISSIONER IN LUNACY FOR SCOTLAND, IN PLEASANT REMEMBRANCE OF A PORTION OF OUR STUDENT-LIFE PASSED TOGETHER, THIS BOOK IS INSCRIBED WITH SINCERE REGARD BY HIS FRIEND, THE AUTHOR.

It is something more than two years since I read a paper, entitled “The Insane Diathesis,” at a meeting of the Connecticut Medical Society. The numerous requests received for copies of that article have led me to think that something more in detail in relation to the prevention of insanity might be desired by the reading public both lay and professional. Hence this little book. It has not been written for specialists exclusively, though it is hoped it will not prove wholly uninteresting to them, but rather for those in the general practice of medicine, educators, and the more intelligent lay members of society.
It has been written during odd snatches of time and with many interruptions, so that there exists less uniformity of style than there would otherwise be. Moreover, some of the subjects presented have been discussed by me in papers which have already been published. These papers, however, so far as they have been introduced into this work, have been rewritten, and, it is thought, improved.
H. P. S.
Hartford, Dec., 1882 .