See [Appendix III], p. 200.
ADDRESS BY
DR. PIERRE JANET
The Chairman: Our country may be hesitating a little—I hope it will not be for long—in joining a league of nations to prevent war, but there can be no doubt of our immediate readiness to co-operate internationally to prevent and reduce disease. Our distinguished guest from gallant France, Dr. Pierre Janet, professor in the College of France, evidently feels confident of our sympathy and willingness to collaborate in this latter respect, for he has ventured across the ocean, with Madame Janet, in response to our urgent invitation. His introduction to an audience of American psychiatrists would be quite out of place. His fame as a pathological psychologist has circled the world. In the science of medicine he is a modern Titan. For to-day's address he has chosen as a subject, "The Relation of the Neuroses to the Psychoses."
DR. JANET
Mr. President, my dear colleagues, ladies, and gentlemen: The Americans and the French have met on the battle-fields and they have faced together the same sufferings for the defense of their common ideal of civilization and liberty; it is right that they should meet likewise where Science stands up for the protection of health and human reason, and that they should celebrate together the Festivals of Peace. The President and the organizers of this Congress have greatly honored me in asking me to represent France at the celebration of the centenary of the Bloomingdale Hospital; but above all they have procured me a great pleasure in offering me the opportunity of coming again to this beautiful land, of meeting once more friends who had welcomed us kindly in former days; our old friends of past happy days who have become still dearer to us since they have been tried during the bad days.
Allow me, in the first place, to present you with the best wishes of the French Government who have had the kindness to charge me to interpret the sentiments of sympathy which they feel for all manifestations tending to render the relations that unite our two countries closer and more fruitful. The Academy of Moral and Political Sciences has equally charged me to assure you that it is happy to be represented by one of its members at the commemoration of the centenary of Bloomingdale Hospital that has so brilliantly and generously continued the tradition of Pinel and Esquirol. The Academy takes a lively interest in the psychological and moral studies of this Congress that seek the cure of diseases of the mind and the lessening of mental disorders. The Medico-Psychological Society, the Society of Neurology, the Society of Psychology, the Society of Psychiatry of Paris are happy to take part in these festivals and are desirous of associating still more closely their work to that of the scientific societies of the United States.