February 23: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
ON THIS DAY IN 1919, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “Brooklyn has the distinction of having the largest Naval medical supply depot in the United States, and probably the best known Naval medical depot in the world, considering its far-reaching influence, during the world war. The health of every person wearing the blue of Uncle Sam’s Navy was the constant study of Capt. R.P. Crandall and his staff, quartered in the handsome new structure located at Pearl and Sands Sts., which was completed the latter part of July. Although the staff moved into the new building before the final touches were given to the structure, the regular deliveries continued and supplies were promptly sent to ships and Navy hospitals here and abroad. That the death rate in the Navy during the epidemic of influenza was lower than that in the Army, in proportion to its enrollment, was due largely to the enterprise and efficiency in the Brooklyn depot. The demands placed upon the depot through those trying months were adequately met, although its officers and men worked night and day to keep supplies in constant flow to the hospitals and ships.”
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ON THIS DAY IN 1935, the Eagle reported, “A child’s overactivity is not a sign he is a little dynamo physically, as parents believe, but a danger signal. Studies of such children, showing that physical causes were not chiefly responsible, were reported to the American Orthopsychiatric Association in Manhattan today by Dr. Asher T. Childers, psychiatrist at the Central Clinic, Cincinnati. Overactivity, he said, should be regarded as a symptom and not as a disease. It appears in about 10 percent of children admitted to child guidance clinics. It reveals itself in such things as over-talkativeness, boastfulness, distraction, attention-seeking and restless sleep. More rarely as fighting, destructiveness and cruelty. The real source seems to be emotional. Dr. Childers found four causes: ‘First, frequent home changes resulting in inefficient training in necessary inhibitions. Second, inadequate, inconsistent and otherwise faulty management allowing escape from restraints. Third, prolonged over-stimulation such as late hours, irregular eating, too many movies, etc. Fourth, feelings of insecurity, chiefly the lack of a sense of belonging to any personal relationship, such as in family, school or neighborhood.’”