Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Index of 1180 Post-Mortems of the Insane, State Hospital for the Insane, Norristown, Pa
In the performance of autopsies unless careful records are made and some means adopted for their publicity the benefits derived are largely personal to the individuals engaged in the immediate study and are lost to a large extent after the passage of time and may never be of general advantage. While each case is important in itself to the pathologist engaged upon it and to the clinician correlating the findings with his bedside studies, there is a larger view that should invariably be held in mind. That of broad comparison with the idea of recognizing pathologi cal principals and of obtaining a basis for deeper investigations than the hasty examination of isolated cases is likely to suggest. There have been accumulated considerably over a thousand records of autopsies per formed upon the bodies of insane subjects in the State Hospital for the Insane at Norristown; and while the study involved has been almost wholly directed to the general lesions of the cadavers and to but very little of the finer points of the nervous system. The group certainly ih cludes a fairly representative list of the somatic changes which are apt to occur among the insane and perhaps some of the lesions are in inti mate relation with the insanity itself. For purposes of comparison and statistical study I urged upon Dr. Sommer the desirability of indexing the accumulated records which were practically never examined or util ized. This he has with conscientious and persevering work aecom plished. It might be objected that the large amount of time consumed in such detail should have been otherwise occupied; but, although it might be no real answer, it would at least be a fit rejoinder to remind the objector that without such detailed effort all the time given in vears past to the doing of autopsies and to their recording would be practic ally lost. It has, from what I have seen of the work of preparation of this index, been a most tiresome task; but I am disposed to put a high value upon it and believe that clinicians and pathologists will value this volume for the statistical information it affords in so many ways. Vir chow's fame especially grew from the use he made of the work of others in the deduction of principles from a mass of records he brought under his examination. Whatever facilitates such work for the confirmation of our present beliefs or the establishment of new ideas is a real contri bution to science; and in this sense I must express my appreciation and commendation of Dr. Sommer's work.
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