A hundred years of growth and activity in the work thus established have
now been accomplished, and it seemed fitting to the Governors of the
Hospital that the event should be commemorated in a way that would be
appropriate to its significance and importance. It was decided that the
principal place in the celebration should be given to the purely medical
and scientific aspects of the work, with special reference to the
progress which had been made in the direction of the practical
usefulness of psychiatry in the treatment of illness generally, and in
the management of problems of human behavior and welfare. Arrangements
were made for four addresses by physicians of conspicuous eminence in
their particular fields, and invitations to attend the exercises were
sent to the leading psychiatrists, psychologists, and neurologists of
America, and to others who were known to be specially interested in the
field of study and practice in which the Hospital is engaged. It was
felt that, in view of the place which France and England had held in the
movement in which Bloomingdale Asylum had its origin, it would add
greatly to the interest and value of the celebration if representatives
of these countries were present and made addresses. How fortunate it
was, then, that it became possible to welcome from France Dr. Pierre
Janet, who stands pre-eminent in the field of psychopathology, and from
England Dr. Richard G. Rows, whose contributions to the study and
treatment of the war neuroses and to the relation between psychic and
physical reactions marked him as especially qualified to present the
more advanced view-point of British psychiatry. The other two principal
addresses were made by Dr. Adolf Meyer, who, by reason of his scientific
contributions and his wonderfully productive practical work in clinical
and organized psychiatry and in mental hygiene, is the acknowledged
leader of psychiatry in America, and by Dr. Lewellys F. Barker, who,
because of his eminence as an internist and of the extent to which he
has advocated and employed psychiatric knowledge and methods in his