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 BEARD

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BEARDSLFA*

the basis of psychology, and his outlines appeared in various papers in the "Popu- lar Science Monthly." This reconstruc- tion applies especially to the phenomena of living human beings, and to the sources of error in our reasoning, and the mis- apprehensions that come from those errors. He maintained that it was a most important defect in the Baconian philosophy that these sources of error were not formulated. This he attempted to do, maintaining that human testi- mony as such is, in matters of science, of no worth; that neither honesty nor quantity of non-experts in the special matter in hand can establish any scientific fact. He affirmed, therefore, that in science the rejection of average human testimony is the beginning of all wisdom. In his work on "American Nervousness," he treated of the causes of nervous dis- orders, and of nervousness in general, and of their greater prevalence in America, demonstrating that the great cause of nervous diseases is civilization, other accredited causes being secondary and stationary, and that the cause of the great prevalence of nervous diseases in America is dryness of the air and extremes of heat and cold. Mr. Herbert Spencer, in his visit to America in 1S82, made a speech substantially repeating many of the thoughts and some of the language of Dr. Beard's writings on this latter sub- ject. In his work on " Neurasthenia," he brought the professional attention to a large number of symptoms of nervous and functional diseases, which he con- tended were of immense importance scientifically and practically. In his treatise on sea-sickness, Dr. Beard brought into prominence these two facts: That sea-sickness was a functional disease of the nervous system, induced mechan- ically by concussion, and that it could be in many, and perhaps in the majority, of cases entirely prevented. The plan of treatment suggested by his work has now been successfully carried out on every sea and for the longest voyages. When the inventor Edison thought he had discover- ed a new force, the " Etheric Force," Dr.

Beard spent much time in experimenting both with Mr. Edison and independently, reaching the conclusion that the phe- nomena represented an unnoticed phase of induced electricity. Beard's writings were essentially philosophical in character. He accepted the principle of evolution. All of his writings on the nervous system were based upon the development theory. He contended that it was impossible to obtain sound and philosophical ideas of the nervous system in health and disease, except on the basis of that theory. He, therefore, carried the evo- lution theory into the study of insanity and all functional diseases of the nervous system and of trance and allied states, and aimed at a radical reconstruction of insanity on that basis. He was the first who clearly and prominently demon- strated that the facts of the phenomena of delusions belong to psychology instead of to physics or physiology, and should, therefore, be brought into science exclu- sively by psychologists. It was in this field that Dr. Beard was laboring when the summons came on January 23, 1S83.

He married, in 1S66, Elizabeth Ann Alden, of Westville, Connecticut.

Among other appointments he was lecturer on nervous diseases in the University of New York; physician of nervous disorders to the Demilt Dispen- sary; fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine; member of the New York County Medical Society, of the New York Society of Neurology; and founder and editor of the "Archives of Electrology and Neurology" which came out for two years. A full list of his writings can be seen in the "Surgeon-general's, Catalogue' ' Washington, District of Columbia.

Tr. Med. Soc. of the State of N. York, 1883.

Jour. Nerv. and Ment. Dis., N. V., 1883, u. s..

vol. viii (with portrait).

Med. V .v ,. Phila. L88 :, vol. lxii.

Med. Record, N. Y., 1N83, vol. xxiii.

Med. Leg. Jour., N. Y., 1883-4, vol. i.

Beardsley, Hezekiah (1748-1790).

The first to describe congenital hyper- trophic stenosis of the pylorus in infants, Hezekiah Beardsley deserves a short