If we are familiar with the early warnings of mental disease, many a useful member of the community may be spared and perhaps years of suffering averted.
It is a well-known fact that the chances of recovery from mental disease are lessened in proportion to the length of time it is allowed to run without being brought under the influence of appropriate treatment.
“I think,” says Dr. Samuel Woodward, “it is not too much to assume that insanity in its incipient form, uncomplicated, is more curable than any other disease of equal severity; more likely to be cured than intermittent fever, pneumonia or rheumatism."
Experience proves that nine cases out of ten recover if placed under treatment within three months after the attack. It is, therefore, specially the duty of the general practitioner who is first called to such cases to familiarize himself with the early symptoms of this distressing malady, in order that he may arrest its progress at a time when curative measures are most effective. ...