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THE RECENT HISTORY OF THE RED CROSS.
KLEPTOMANIA."-THE RECENT HIsrORY OF THE RED CROSS.
1630
affiliation with the Red Cross A alliance, if only in view of the insurrections which seem as petirdical in South America It is to Europe that we must turn as its volcanic eruptions. for an adequate realisation of the horrors of war and the best means of mitigating them. Germany has just created new Red Cross branches in a region long denied such a Messing—Alsace-Lorraine. The first of these "comit6s,"" as they are properly called, completed last year, are being actively supplemented by others so as shortly to establish a solid netwOlk in organic communication with the central association. Italy, too, has honourably distinguished herself in promoting her Red Cross organisation. The recent trial trip of her Ancona branch of the asi-ociation is but the latest of a long series of such manoeuvres, to the success of which in the great evolutions of the Italian Army in Piedmont we last year gave full prominence. The Italian War Office, indeed, has shown its sense of the spirit and enterprise of the Red Cross movement by substl1ntial assistance, furnishing it with a military hospital, a relitf station, ard a sanitary train during the autumnal manoeuvres. Italy’s energy and solicitude to perfect her Red Cross have proved contagious, Spain having, in honourable emulation, appointed a grand committee of experts to study the latest improvements in the transport and relief of the wounded, and Denmark, on its side, having adopted from England an improved " charrette brancard" (or hand barrow), which seems fitted to meet all anticipated exigencies on the battle-field. So far in this retrospect of the recent of the Red Cross we have had little but harmony history to record. it would Now, appear, its developments are not from that seems the portion, more the friction exempt of all or international movements. The orgaless, nisers of the International Congress of Hygiene, which will meet next September at Budapest, had created a special ,. Rsd Cross Section," where sutjects interesting to the association would be discussed. None of the branches of the said association, however, have responded in the sense calculated on by the organisers-have, in fact, declined to send. in any communications for discussion. In consequence of this attitude the organisers have suppressed the already created "Red Cross Section," leaving its relative subject matter to be dealt with in another way. It is whispered that the " Red Cross " Associations did not approve of certain subjects imposed upon them by the organisers for discussiontheir "duty in the presence of epidemics" being one of these. Surely, however, a aodrcs revenrLz can be devised between the two bodiesI Their programme is, in each case, humanitarian, and harmony in combined working should not
the public interest, and in that of the poor, that a Poor-law medical officer should hold his appointment periiic4nciitl!l so long as he discharges its duties well, or, at the least, that if he is to be supplanted or displaced, it should be after due notice, the appointment being thrown open to all comers. If such principles are not to pravail the results will be disastrous to the profession and to the medical service of the Local Government Board.
an
___
"KLEPTOMANIA." THE close connexion between moral error and mental disease is a circumstance which constantly imposes upon the practitioner a dimculty of the same duplex character in relation to diagnosis. Moral alienation, it is well known, indicates from a very early stage the decay of the reasoning faculty. Moral insanity, in like manner, denotes that mental state which exhibits in its feeble and absolute submission to the senses the faillire of healthy self-control. Among its innumerable forms, an interest which is not entirely- pathological attaches to the sometimes rather comical vice of "kleptomania." The question of criminal responsibility overshadowed by this term brings it more or less within th scope of public opinion. There are, no doubt, a number of cases which illustrate only what may be styled the vagaries of the disease. They are manifestly related to other like extravagances of manner and action, and are the obvious effects of insare suggestion. The thefts of the imbecile and the general paralytic belong to this class; others, however, show some connexion with method and motive. These, especially if unrelated to other signs of
regarded with suspicion, There is, fr practical difference between the act of a person otherwise sane enough, who impulsively pockets your household silver, and th’it of another, who vainly labours, as in a case actually recorded, to stow the coal-scuttle in his nether garments. In deciding the question of responsibility, thereinsanity, example,
must be a
fore, the evidence of motive and the presence of other and grosser morbid symptoms, especially the latter, should, in our
opinion,
b3 allowed to exercise
a
most
important
influence. ___
THE RECENT HISTORY OF THE RED CROSS.
Ir, during the first four months of
the year the Red Cross little active service, it has been for no lack of opportunity. Africa and America have alone furnished ample occasion for its intervention. The sanguinary convict between Spain and Lllorocco had been for some time in progress, when the Spanish Association of the Red Cross, be impossible. which since the Carlist rising some thirty years ago had been allowed to lapse and had recently become reconstiTHE COLLIERY DISASTER IN SOUTH WALES. tuted, started for the seat of war. An ambulance, provided with all requisite material and equipped with a "ALL doubt that coal dust is the frequent cause of disasleft but it Madrid for before trous Riff, sixty strong, jJersonnel explosions is set at rest by the striking expeIÌments could give proof of its efficiency peace was concluded between which are the subject of a repoit drawn up by desire of the the belligerents, and it bad to return exactly as it set out. Secretary of State on behalf of the Royal Commission by The Brazilian insurrection, a far more formidable affair, Mr. Henry Hull, one of Her Majesty’s inspectors of mines offered still greater opportunities for the Red Cross-if only appointed to inquire into this subject." Such is the opening there had been a local Red Cross available ! Terrible were sentence of an annotation which appeared in THF LANCET of the sufferings of the wounded on both sides and quite in- Feb. 17th, and the views therein expressed would appear to adequate the medical assistance on either. During months have received sad and terrible confirmation by the disastrous of sanguinary encounters Brazil had occasion to repent of explosion which occurred at the Albion Colliery, Glamorgan, her supineness in having persistently refused to fall in with Wales, last Saturday. In the report to which we allude, humanitarian progress and sign the Geneva Convention- and upon which our observations were founded, occurs the frequent aLd urgent as had been the appeals made to remaikabte statement that. "of the whole of the dusts her. Her attitude towards the Red CroEs seems to have tested, that from the Albion Colliery excelled all others in - originated in a callous insensibility to suffering, which violence and sensitiveness to explosion, and this seam has the President Peixoto must have fully shared when he asserted worst history of any in the kingdom, upwards of 1650 the right of cannonading the hospitals. Let us hope that persons having been killed in it since 1845. Indeed, throughthe next step taken by that now pacified State will bring out the experiments one could not fail to be struck by the her into line with modern civilisation and signalise itself by great violence and sensitiveness to explosion exhibited by the has
seen
I
-
I
1630
affiliation with the Red Cross A alliance, if only in view of the insurrections which seem as petirdical in South America It is to Europe that we must turn as its volcanic eruptions. for an adequate realisation of the horrors of war and the best means of mitigating them. Germany has just created new Red Cross branches in a region long denied such a Messing—Alsace-Lorraine. The first of these "comit6s,"" as they are properly called, completed last year, are being actively supplemented by others so as shortly to establish a solid netwOlk in organic communication with the central association. Italy, too, has honourably distinguished herself in promoting her Red Cross organisation. The recent trial trip of her Ancona branch of the asi-ociation is but the latest of a long series of such manoeuvres, to the success of which in the great evolutions of the Italian Army in Piedmont we last year gave full prominence. The Italian War Office, indeed, has shown its sense of the spirit and enterprise of the Red Cross movement by substl1ntial assistance, furnishing it with a military hospital, a relitf station, ard a sanitary train during the autumnal manoeuvres. Italy’s energy and solicitude to perfect her Red Cross have proved contagious, Spain having, in honourable emulation, appointed a grand committee of experts to study the latest improvements in the transport and relief of the wounded, and Denmark, on its side, having adopted from England an improved " charrette brancard" (or hand barrow), which seems fitted to meet all anticipated exigencies on the battle-field. So far in this retrospect of the recent of the Red Cross we have had little but harmony history to record. it would Now, appear, its developments are not from that seems the portion, more the friction exempt of all or international movements. The orgaless, nisers of the International Congress of Hygiene, which will meet next September at Budapest, had created a special ,. Rsd Cross Section," where sutjects interesting to the association would be discussed. None of the branches of the said association, however, have responded in the sense calculated on by the organisers-have, in fact, declined to send. in any communications for discussion. In consequence of this attitude the organisers have suppressed the already created "Red Cross Section," leaving its relative subject matter to be dealt with in another way. It is whispered that the " Red Cross " Associations did not approve of certain subjects imposed upon them by the organisers for discussiontheir "duty in the presence of epidemics" being one of these. Surely, however, a aodrcs revenrLz can be devised between the two bodiesI Their programme is, in each case, humanitarian, and harmony in combined working should not
the public interest, and in that of the poor, that a Poor-law medical officer should hold his appointment periiic4nciitl!l so long as he discharges its duties well, or, at the least, that if he is to be supplanted or displaced, it should be after due notice, the appointment being thrown open to all comers. If such principles are not to pravail the results will be disastrous to the profession and to the medical service of the Local Government Board.
an
___
"KLEPTOMANIA." THE close connexion between moral error and mental disease is a circumstance which constantly imposes upon the practitioner a dimculty of the same duplex character in relation to diagnosis. Moral alienation, it is well known, indicates from a very early stage the decay of the reasoning faculty. Moral insanity, in like manner, denotes that mental state which exhibits in its feeble and absolute submission to the senses the faillire of healthy self-control. Among its innumerable forms, an interest which is not entirely- pathological attaches to the sometimes rather comical vice of "kleptomania." The question of criminal responsibility overshadowed by this term brings it more or less within th scope of public opinion. There are, no doubt, a number of cases which illustrate only what may be styled the vagaries of the disease. They are manifestly related to other like extravagances of manner and action, and are the obvious effects of insare suggestion. The thefts of the imbecile and the general paralytic belong to this class; others, however, show some connexion with method and motive. These, especially if unrelated to other signs of
regarded with suspicion, There is, fr practical difference between the act of a person otherwise sane enough, who impulsively pockets your household silver, and th’it of another, who vainly labours, as in a case actually recorded, to stow the coal-scuttle in his nether garments. In deciding the question of responsibility, thereinsanity, example,
must be a
fore, the evidence of motive and the presence of other and grosser morbid symptoms, especially the latter, should, in our
opinion,
b3 allowed to exercise
a
most
important
influence. ___
THE RECENT HISTORY OF THE RED CROSS.
Ir, during the first four months of
the year the Red Cross little active service, it has been for no lack of opportunity. Africa and America have alone furnished ample occasion for its intervention. The sanguinary convict between Spain and Lllorocco had been for some time in progress, when the Spanish Association of the Red Cross, be impossible. which since the Carlist rising some thirty years ago had been allowed to lapse and had recently become reconstiTHE COLLIERY DISASTER IN SOUTH WALES. tuted, started for the seat of war. An ambulance, provided with all requisite material and equipped with a "ALL doubt that coal dust is the frequent cause of disasleft but it Madrid for before trous Riff, sixty strong, jJersonnel explosions is set at rest by the striking expeIÌments could give proof of its efficiency peace was concluded between which are the subject of a repoit drawn up by desire of the the belligerents, and it bad to return exactly as it set out. Secretary of State on behalf of the Royal Commission by The Brazilian insurrection, a far more formidable affair, Mr. Henry Hull, one of Her Majesty’s inspectors of mines offered still greater opportunities for the Red Cross-if only appointed to inquire into this subject." Such is the opening there had been a local Red Cross available ! Terrible were sentence of an annotation which appeared in THF LANCET of the sufferings of the wounded on both sides and quite in- Feb. 17th, and the views therein expressed would appear to adequate the medical assistance on either. During months have received sad and terrible confirmation by the disastrous of sanguinary encounters Brazil had occasion to repent of explosion which occurred at the Albion Colliery, Glamorgan, her supineness in having persistently refused to fall in with Wales, last Saturday. In the report to which we allude, humanitarian progress and sign the Geneva Convention- and upon which our observations were founded, occurs the frequent aLd urgent as had been the appeals made to remaikabte statement that. "of the whole of the dusts her. Her attitude towards the Red CroEs seems to have tested, that from the Albion Colliery excelled all others in - originated in a callous insensibility to suffering, which violence and sensitiveness to explosion, and this seam has the President Peixoto must have fully shared when he asserted worst history of any in the kingdom, upwards of 1650 the right of cannonading the hospitals. Let us hope that persons having been killed in it since 1845. Indeed, throughthe next step taken by that now pacified State will bring out the experiments one could not fail to be struck by the her into line with modern civilisation and signalise itself by great violence and sensitiveness to explosion exhibited by the has
seen
I
-
I