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Hokitika Guardian, 11 October 1933, Page 4

Dn H. It. C. Rutherford, speaking in the Neurology and Psychological Section of the British Medical Association Conference at Dublin, laid stress on the fact that little attention is paid to the influence of school life when considering mental disorders. Retaining in memory a large amount of facts and figure imposed one of the most difficult strains to be experienced in life, he said. When it was remembered that at 'adolescence the brain was immature, and that, although mental illness might have been absent u,o to the school age, yet it was likely that minor physical disturbances bad been present for many years, and perhaps even since birth it would not

scorn a matter for surprise that I’lhvehoses occurred frequently at this period. There was a danger in what one might term “the excessive education of the unfit,’’ with whom he would number backward children, and those who shoved anv marked evidence of a nervious condition associated with a pro-disposition to mental illness, even though some of them might be of the brilliant type. They should hasten slowly during this period, and so remove any strain upon the intellect. “I have known excessive smoking to be the only apparent exciting cause of several cases,” Dr Rutherford added, “and. indeed, I regard it as being a fairly common contributory cause of mental illness. Its effects are not so obvious as those of alcohol, for alcohol, if taken in sufficient quantities, will soon terminate the desire for its continuance by means of the production of a n acute psychosis; but in the ease of excessive smoking tlie effects are insidious, with the production of gastric disturbances, loss of appetite, and a generally lowered physical condition, which make a. mental attack likely to occur with little other provocation. One contemplates with some alarm the future of a generation vet* unborn, the mothers of which ere harassed with a desire for slimness and excessive smoking.”