| Show MIRE HU ng ON menth HYGIENE mechin meeting t to be called for purpose of organizing unit in sevier county mental hygiene is the application of principles of health to the mind said dr H H ramsay superintendent of the state training school at american fork and pr president dent of the utah state mental hygiene society in addressing a large and interested group of parents teachers and civic work ers ars from all parts of sevier county at the richfield high school friday evening we have done much continued dr ramsay to take care of the body governed by the mind but little in the matter of mental hygiene mental hygiene is not concerned wholly with the feeble minded or with mental deficiency but to the mental hygienist who understands its application its most useable place is that of maintaining a healthy mind in a healthy body by purging through generations it would be possible to improve the human mind and P practically eliminate defects from our midst this is a big undertaking but why do we want to do small things anyway think of mental hygiene as that which will bring results years from now what this country needs is a good well supported humane eugenics program to purify the blood stream of the human race and prevent production pio pi of defective stocks if there is not more attention paid to eugenics we shall have to build more and larger institutions for the insane the delinquent and feeble minded so that those who should be lifted from these difficulties must continue to pay tribute to defectives on down through generations erat ions the movement spread from the state of new york some 30 yea years rs ago when work was started to improve treatment of patients in mental hospitals there are now four mental hygiene societies organized in utah dr ramsay stated that two per cent of the population of any section is on an average mentally defective these children need special supervision special training in order to make the best of them there are now persons receiving training at american fork school which is in need of larger quarters these he said range from the helpless to the school type who will do equal to fourth or fifth grade work of the public schools many of them he stated will be able to return to their homes after three to six years while others will always be institutional cases approximately 20 per cent of these cases are due to accidental causes and disease either previous to or following birth which results in prevention of development of the nervous system the other cases are hereditary he stated that the delinquent lin quent usually possessed certain emotional and intellectual capacities that make him the victim of delinquency human intelligence and human emotions have a distinct foundation he added dr ramsay displayed pictures from the waverly researches of england showing the formation 0 the brain of normal and defective persons other pictures showed individuals divi duals representative of defects down to v various arlous types of idiocy and treatments to which they respond most the pictures being taken at the american fork school for showing cases when they entered the school and improvement made after a given period ther the need of special training for the mentally defective he said is evident when it is definitely shown that no teacher in the world can teach a mentally defective child more than he has the intelligence to grasp and scientific guidance can now determine the intelligence quota of the individual for those not able to grasp instruction in lines calling for high intelligence Continue don page 8 i large audience hears lecture on mental hygiene continued from page 1 quota lie he expressed the belief that schools of the future will give largely manual or hand aral training ng to many children dr ramsay stated that in inland sections of the country mongolian idiocy is found most frequently and attributed it since it is not regarded as hereditary to something lacking in food sug asting the use of more salt water fish in the diet might be found effective in ill preventing such cases R T thurber director of the sevier county welfare board presided at the meeting and before introducing dr ramsay introduced the district nurse miss west who spoke briefly and the county nurses miss greenwood and mrs wright after dr ram says lecture quint bolang who was taken from richfield to the training school at american fork last winter entertained the audience with selections on his harmonica and guitar the interest quint has taken in his woi work I 1 at the school is exemplary of the intelligent guidance given by dr ramsay and his staff A meeting will be called in the near probably next week for the purpose of organizing a mental hygiene society in Sevier count county y to work toward bi bringing biging proper care to unfortunates at a brief discussion following the meeting friday prominent citizens expressed interest in effecting such an organization |
