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81
After the usual votes of thanks, the opening proceedings
terminated.
The Congress was divided into various sections for the consideration
and discussion of subjects bearing upon the various
aspects of Public Health work.
Sir James Crichton-Brown, who was President of the Preventive
Medicine Section, gave a very stirring Address on the
"Prevention of Senility." He stated that the most vigorous
period of human life, in its entirety, was obviously between twentyfive
and forty years, but to say that men above the latter age were
comparatively useless was to fly in the face of the biographical
dictionary. Much of the best work had been done by men over
forty, and he was prepared to maintain that long after sixty, when,
according to Dr. Osier, retirement and silence should be imposed
upon all men, contributions of inestimable value had been made
to our fund of knowledge. The best antiseptic against senile
decay was an active interest in human affairs, and those kept
young longest who loved most. It was a good working hypothesis
that the natural life of man was 100 years, that so far as it fell
short of that it was curtailed of fair proportion; he thought that
every man was entitled to his century, and every woman to a
century and a little more.
Dr. T. Hyslop gave a very interesting discourse on "Brain
Fag in Children," pointing out that any learning by rote was one
of the most vicious causes of brain fag, and was largely due to
competition as determined by our vain-glorious system of merely
accumulating knowledge.