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Medical Diary
1536
NOTES, COMMENTS, AND ABSTRACTS HOMOSEXUALITY AS A DETRIMENTAL FACTOR THAT homosexuality is detrimental to the individual and to society was argued by Dr. A. BALDIE at a meeting of the Medical Society of Individual Psychology held on June 13th, Dr. H. C. SQUIRES, presiding. Dr. Baldie described sex development in general as the expression of a basic predisposition, the emergence and the elaboration of which was biologically conditioned in infancy and early childhood by individual general experience, and in the early years of puberty by individual sex experience. There were thus as many sex deviations as there were individuals. Any type of deviation could be imposed on an individual so as to reinforce or inhibit activities associated with primary sex characters. Secondary sex characters as well as behaviour appeared to be as much a series of responses to experience as to All the end-results of sex innate determination. development were attained by the initiation and fixation of responses with which were associated complex autonomic nervous and other somatic These end-results included female disreactions. tribution of fat and hair, and feminine characters of posture, gait, voice, manner, and behaviour, and complementary masculine characters associated with male activity and relation. Following the initiation by fortuitous experience of a prototype there followed an inevitable process of individual selection of subsequent experience : so that finally there must emerge an individual with devia specific life style, repressed, restricted, or ated : homosexual or heterosexual according to the nature of early experience. The homosexual deviation tended to be correlated with definite types of relation and behaviour ; the deviation, from the viewpoints of biology and psychopathology must be tested according to (a) its effective influence on natural increase; (b) its compatibility with normal physiological equilibrium and the adequacy of the individual successfully to adapt to life. Judged by these tests, homosexuality was a morbid relation ; socially the exaggeration of condemnation represented an ambivalent response to mass sex sentiment, supported by religious sentiment. Legal sanctions were the logical outcome of these; but the value of punitive, as distinct from preventive, measures to control behaviour based on so deep-seated a personality deviation was questionable. In the course of the discussion which followed, the opposition pleaded for a more tolerant attitude to individuals whose mentality is not in harmony with their physical make-up ; claimed that the individual sex life, if it does not interfere with the rights of others, is a private concern; and protested against the tendency of some nations to confine the function of women to child-bearing and childrearing. The motion was carried by a large majority. THE IRISH MEDICAL ASSOCIATION
OUR Irish
correspondent writers:-"The annual general meeting of the Irish Medical Association will be held in Dublin on Wednesday next, July 3rd. Last year, for the first time, a scientific session was held as part of the annual meeting, and the precedent is to be followed this year. Discussions on immunisation against diphtheria and puerperal sepsis have been arranged and three or four speakers on each topic chosen. At its business session the Association will have important business to consider. For the past twelve months negotiations have been proceeding with the object of uniting the branches of the British Medical Association in the Irish Free State with the Irish Medical Association, and a draft scheme has been agreed on and has received the sanction of the council of the British Medical Association. It will come for approval before the Irish Medical Association next week, and later in the month before the representative meeting of the
British Medical Association. Should it be approved by both these bodies the necessary steps will be taken to have the scheme working at the beginning of next year. There is no doubt that medical organisation in Ireland has suffered in the past by the fact that it was in the hands of two separate bodies however friendly might be their relations, and the various methods adopted to secure united action on behalf of the whole profession have not been altogether satisfactory. If union is brought about the profession in the Irish Free State should be provided with an efficient and convenient representative organisation."
NEw PITUITARY EXTRACT. — Messrs. Allen and Ltd. bring to the notice of our readers the fact that in their Research Department there has been prepared an extract containing the thyrotropic and adrenotropic hormones of the anterior lobe of the pituitary. This extract has been found, by physiological test, to be active. The same department has also prepared an extract of prolactin, the galactagogue hormone of the anterior lobe of the pituitary. Supplies
Hanburys
of both these extracts are available in limited quantities for research work, and Messrs. Allen and Hanburys Ltd. will be glad to receive inquiries about them.
Medical
Diary
Information to be included in this column should reach us in proper form on Tuesday, and cannot appear if it reaches us later than the first post on Wednesday morning. SOCIETIES ROYAL SOCIETY OF MEDICINE, 1, Wimpole-street, W. TUESDAY, July 2nd. Annual Meeting of the Society. 5 P.m. SATURDAY.
Orthopcpdies. Meeting at the Bath and Wessex Children’s Orthopædic Hospital (Miss M. Forrester-Brown, Dr. Ronald Gordon, and Mr. John Bastow). 2.15 P.M. Cases, including nerve cases of orthopaedic importance. ROYAL
MEDICO -PSYCH OL 0 GI[CAL
ASSOCIATION.
WEDNESDAY, July 3rd, THURSDAY, and FRIDAY.—Conference in London.
LECTURES, ADDRESSES, DEMONSTRATIONS,
&c.
FELLOWSHIP OF MEDICINE AND POST-GRADUATE MEDICAL ASSOCIATION, 1, Wimpole-street, W. MONDAY, July 1st, to SATURDAY, July 6th.-PRINCE OF WALES’s GENERAL HOSPITAL, Tottenham, N. All-day in medicine, surgery, and the specialties.NATIONAL HOSPITAL FOR DISEASES OF THE HEART, Westmoreland-street, W. All-day course in cardiology (open to all).-ST. MARK’S HOSPITAL, City-road, E.C. All-day course in proctology.-WEST-END HOSPITAL IN-PATIENT DEPARTMENT, Gloucester-gate, N.W. Demonstration on Fundus Oculi by Mr. Lindsay Rea, on Tuesday, July 2nd, at 8.30 P.M.—Courses and clinics arranged by the Fellowship are open only to members and associates (unless otherwise stated). HOSPITAL FOR SICK CHILDREN, Great Ormond-street, course
W.C. THURSDAY, July 4th.-2 P.M.—Dr. R. S. Frew: Pain in Childhood.
3 P.M., Dr. W. W.
Payne : Diuresis Out-patient clinics Ward Visits 2 to 3.30 P.M. (except
(Pathological Demonstration). 10 A.M. to 12 noon.
Wednesday). NATIONAL HOSPITAL FOR DISEASES OF THE HEART,
Westmoreland-street, W. MONDAY, July 1st, to FRIDAY.-Intensive
course.
(Last
week.) SOUTH-WEST LONDON POST-GRADUATE ASSOCIATION. WEDNESDAY, July 3rd.-4 P.M. (St. James’s Hospital, Ouseley-road, S.W.), Dr. H. C. Cameron : Convulsions in Infancy and Childhood. UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM. TUESDAY, July 2nd.-3.30 P.M. (General Hospital), Dr. C. G. Teall : The Radiography of the Chest. FRIDAY.-3.30 P.M. (Queen’s Hospital), Mr. R. K. Debenham : Demonstration of Surgical Cases. MATERNITY AND CHILD WELFARE CONFERENCE. MONDAY, July 1st, TUESDAY, and WEDNESDAY.—Maternity and Child Welfare Conference in London. OXFORD OPHTHALMOLOGICAL CONGRESS. WEDNESDAY, July 3rd, THURSDAY, FRIDAY, and SATURDAY.—Congress at Oxford.
NOTES, COMMENTS, AND ABSTRACTS HOMOSEXUALITY AS A DETRIMENTAL FACTOR THAT homosexuality is detrimental to the individual and to society was argued by Dr. A. BALDIE at a meeting of the Medical Society of Individual Psychology held on June 13th, Dr. H. C. SQUIRES, presiding. Dr. Baldie described sex development in general as the expression of a basic predisposition, the emergence and the elaboration of which was biologically conditioned in infancy and early childhood by individual general experience, and in the early years of puberty by individual sex experience. There were thus as many sex deviations as there were individuals. Any type of deviation could be imposed on an individual so as to reinforce or inhibit activities associated with primary sex characters. Secondary sex characters as well as behaviour appeared to be as much a series of responses to experience as to All the end-results of sex innate determination. development were attained by the initiation and fixation of responses with which were associated complex autonomic nervous and other somatic These end-results included female disreactions. tribution of fat and hair, and feminine characters of posture, gait, voice, manner, and behaviour, and complementary masculine characters associated with male activity and relation. Following the initiation by fortuitous experience of a prototype there followed an inevitable process of individual selection of subsequent experience : so that finally there must emerge an individual with devia specific life style, repressed, restricted, or ated : homosexual or heterosexual according to the nature of early experience. The homosexual deviation tended to be correlated with definite types of relation and behaviour ; the deviation, from the viewpoints of biology and psychopathology must be tested according to (a) its effective influence on natural increase; (b) its compatibility with normal physiological equilibrium and the adequacy of the individual successfully to adapt to life. Judged by these tests, homosexuality was a morbid relation ; socially the exaggeration of condemnation represented an ambivalent response to mass sex sentiment, supported by religious sentiment. Legal sanctions were the logical outcome of these; but the value of punitive, as distinct from preventive, measures to control behaviour based on so deep-seated a personality deviation was questionable. In the course of the discussion which followed, the opposition pleaded for a more tolerant attitude to individuals whose mentality is not in harmony with their physical make-up ; claimed that the individual sex life, if it does not interfere with the rights of others, is a private concern; and protested against the tendency of some nations to confine the function of women to child-bearing and childrearing. The motion was carried by a large majority. THE IRISH MEDICAL ASSOCIATION
OUR Irish
correspondent writers:-"The annual general meeting of the Irish Medical Association will be held in Dublin on Wednesday next, July 3rd. Last year, for the first time, a scientific session was held as part of the annual meeting, and the precedent is to be followed this year. Discussions on immunisation against diphtheria and puerperal sepsis have been arranged and three or four speakers on each topic chosen. At its business session the Association will have important business to consider. For the past twelve months negotiations have been proceeding with the object of uniting the branches of the British Medical Association in the Irish Free State with the Irish Medical Association, and a draft scheme has been agreed on and has received the sanction of the council of the British Medical Association. It will come for approval before the Irish Medical Association next week, and later in the month before the representative meeting of the
British Medical Association. Should it be approved by both these bodies the necessary steps will be taken to have the scheme working at the beginning of next year. There is no doubt that medical organisation in Ireland has suffered in the past by the fact that it was in the hands of two separate bodies however friendly might be their relations, and the various methods adopted to secure united action on behalf of the whole profession have not been altogether satisfactory. If union is brought about the profession in the Irish Free State should be provided with an efficient and convenient representative organisation."
NEw PITUITARY EXTRACT. — Messrs. Allen and Ltd. bring to the notice of our readers the fact that in their Research Department there has been prepared an extract containing the thyrotropic and adrenotropic hormones of the anterior lobe of the pituitary. This extract has been found, by physiological test, to be active. The same department has also prepared an extract of prolactin, the galactagogue hormone of the anterior lobe of the pituitary. Supplies
Hanburys
of both these extracts are available in limited quantities for research work, and Messrs. Allen and Hanburys Ltd. will be glad to receive inquiries about them.
Medical
Diary
Information to be included in this column should reach us in proper form on Tuesday, and cannot appear if it reaches us later than the first post on Wednesday morning. SOCIETIES ROYAL SOCIETY OF MEDICINE, 1, Wimpole-street, W. TUESDAY, July 2nd. Annual Meeting of the Society. 5 P.m. SATURDAY.
Orthopcpdies. Meeting at the Bath and Wessex Children’s Orthopædic Hospital (Miss M. Forrester-Brown, Dr. Ronald Gordon, and Mr. John Bastow). 2.15 P.M. Cases, including nerve cases of orthopaedic importance. ROYAL
MEDICO -PSYCH OL 0 GI[CAL
ASSOCIATION.
WEDNESDAY, July 3rd, THURSDAY, and FRIDAY.—Conference in London.
LECTURES, ADDRESSES, DEMONSTRATIONS,
&c.
FELLOWSHIP OF MEDICINE AND POST-GRADUATE MEDICAL ASSOCIATION, 1, Wimpole-street, W. MONDAY, July 1st, to SATURDAY, July 6th.-PRINCE OF WALES’s GENERAL HOSPITAL, Tottenham, N. All-day in medicine, surgery, and the specialties.NATIONAL HOSPITAL FOR DISEASES OF THE HEART, Westmoreland-street, W. All-day course in cardiology (open to all).-ST. MARK’S HOSPITAL, City-road, E.C. All-day course in proctology.-WEST-END HOSPITAL IN-PATIENT DEPARTMENT, Gloucester-gate, N.W. Demonstration on Fundus Oculi by Mr. Lindsay Rea, on Tuesday, July 2nd, at 8.30 P.M.—Courses and clinics arranged by the Fellowship are open only to members and associates (unless otherwise stated). HOSPITAL FOR SICK CHILDREN, Great Ormond-street, course
W.C. THURSDAY, July 4th.-2 P.M.—Dr. R. S. Frew: Pain in Childhood.
3 P.M., Dr. W. W.
Payne : Diuresis Out-patient clinics Ward Visits 2 to 3.30 P.M. (except
(Pathological Demonstration). 10 A.M. to 12 noon.
Wednesday). NATIONAL HOSPITAL FOR DISEASES OF THE HEART,
Westmoreland-street, W. MONDAY, July 1st, to FRIDAY.-Intensive
course.
(Last
week.) SOUTH-WEST LONDON POST-GRADUATE ASSOCIATION. WEDNESDAY, July 3rd.-4 P.M. (St. James’s Hospital, Ouseley-road, S.W.), Dr. H. C. Cameron : Convulsions in Infancy and Childhood. UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM. TUESDAY, July 2nd.-3.30 P.M. (General Hospital), Dr. C. G. Teall : The Radiography of the Chest. FRIDAY.-3.30 P.M. (Queen’s Hospital), Mr. R. K. Debenham : Demonstration of Surgical Cases. MATERNITY AND CHILD WELFARE CONFERENCE. MONDAY, July 1st, TUESDAY, and WEDNESDAY.—Maternity and Child Welfare Conference in London. OXFORD OPHTHALMOLOGICAL CONGRESS. WEDNESDAY, July 3rd, THURSDAY, FRIDAY, and SATURDAY.—Congress at Oxford.