Page:A short history of nursing - Lavinia L Dock (1920).djvu/232

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A Short History of Nursing

2i6 A Short History of Nursing Modern preventive work as regards insanity is based on the study of psychology, and undoubtedly owes much, by indirect stimulation, to the "here- sies," Christian Science, New Thought, and similar cults. The French studies in hypnotism and many other foreign investigations promoted the found- ing of clinics for the detection and aid, or cure if possible, of incipient cases. This country saw the Psycopathic hospital opened in Boston, 19 12, and the Psychiatric clinic in Baltimore at the Johns Hopkins in 1 9 1 3 . An immense field is open- ing for the nurse in work on such lines. Per- haps the most immediately practical is in the medical examination of school children to detect mental deficiency and defectiveness. This work will lead directly to a fuller study of the social conditions producing inferior mentalities. Nurses and other social workers have already been horri- fied by intimate contact with these conditions, which offer, on analysis, a sex problem of most widespread difficulty. The entrance of the nurse into the field called "Industrial Nursing" was a gradual one. The The nurse hazards and abnormal health condi- in industry ^ions in many shops, factories , and other fields of industrial labour have given rise to the enactment of new legislation demanding, for its