The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-05-17 00:00:00

MENTAL DISEASE IN PRUSSIA.,

A remarkable lecture on the above subject was
lately delivered by Herr Finkelburg, Professor of
Medicine and member of the Commission of Public
Health. In Prussia, one person in 450 is affected with
Insanity, a high figure, calling for investigation of the
causes of such disorder. Among the working classses,
it was pointed out, the lack of physical and intellectual
education, insufficient food, unhealthy dwellings, and
a certain indolence of mind contribute partly to the
evil. But it is chiefly the abuse of alcoholic liquors
that fills the lunatic asylums as well as the prisons. In
the former, drunkards figure to the extent of a fifth;
in the prisons, two-fifths of the total. If the brandy
bottle could be kept in its right place, the druggist's
shop, the social problem in question would (according
to the Professor) be nearly solved.
With regard to educated people, the causes of their
insanity are naturally very different, and they often
date from the earliest education. Children do not, in
general, get so much rest as they absolutely need.
That a child work diligently, keep its place in the
class, or quickly advance to a higher class is all that
is demanded, and people do not trouble themselves in
the least as to whether the young and tender brain,
kept in incessant activity, may not suddenly stop in
its functions or its growth. Rousseau insisted on a
purely negative education till twelve years of age, and
in this he was wiser than our pedagogues. The child
who has lived in the open air to this age without con-
tracting bad habits will have greater force of appre-
hension and will progress more rapidly than another
who has been fatigued by premature work.
Among adults the Professor distinguishes two great
classes—men of work and men of pleasure. He
showed without difficulty that continual activity and
the suitable exercise of all the faculties are necessarj,
to the preservation of intellectual and physical health,
for it is the idlers that furnish the greatest number of
hypochondriacs. But there is the excess of the over-
worked man, who is liable-to mental maladies arising
from fatigue of mind, joined with material cares,
absence of sleep, emotions, and agitations caused by
a goal always imagined but never reached.
Professor Finkelburg concluded that every man
should try as much as possible to vary his occupations,
whatever they be, to distract himself from too absorb-
ing thoughts, to give his tired mind agreeable recrea-
tion, to take walks regularly in the open air, &c., in
order to restore the equilibrium of functions of body
and mind.

The Record announces that the London Society for
Promotinu Christianity Amongst the Jews received, on
Monday last, a telegr.phic announcement of the death of
the excellent Bishop Gabat on Sunday last at Jerusalem.
- - -

Some alarm has been created in Paris on the south
side of the Seine by the giving way of some houses erected
over the catacombs. out 12 miles qf streets atil carried
Tbsear4•o artmi aq,lbbOt. a year Lsnnually
div`o2li to Vicipplu-g up the interstices, but the ocji, Will
reqUire at this rate about 15 years.

411111