The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-11-16 00:00:00

Remaining

13.9 15.6 14.8

Of those connected with the Society of Friends, 22 per
cent., and of others 37 percent., had suffered from more than
one attack of mental disorder when first admitted into the
institution ; of 415 patients, 228, or about 55 per cent., were
resident in cities or large towns, and 101, or 24 per cent.,
from small towns and villages ; and 88, or 21 per cent., from
more completely rural districts. A very interesting table is
given below, showing the rank or profession of those who
have been admitted during the 40 years.

_
- _
Men. Women.
Gentlemen and gentlewomen
Clergymen of the Church of England 1
Military officers 2
Physicians and surgeons
Solicitor
Architects and artists
Literary persons
Schoolmasters, governesses, &c.
Merchants, &c
Manufacturers
Tanners and curlers
Farmers, &c
Wives and daughters of farmers
Agents, clerks, and commercial travellers
Chymists and druggists
Persons in various descriptions of trade .... 46 G
Wives and daughters of the same 3O
Ship captains and sailors 4
Housekeepers l2
Seamstresses
Shopmen and shopwomen
Domestic servants
Mechanics and artisans
Wives and daughters of ditto l9
Shoemakers
Tailors 3
'Weavers .
Exact rank not known ....

It appears that the mean age at the origin of the disorder
was 34, the men on the average being attacked two years
earlier than the women. With regard to the origin of the
disorder, nearly one-third of the whole cases admitted were
found to be attacked at from 20 to 30 years. With reference
to the influence of marriage some important facts are ad-
duced, as the following statement will prove. Of the patients
admitted from 1796 to 1840, there were

Unmarried
Married, but having had no offspring
Married, with offspring
Widowed, but having no offspring.—
'Widowed, with offspring

Men. Women
144 166
8 14
51 41
3 6
14 21

It appears from the above table that of the patients sub-
jected to treatment for the last 40 years two-thirds, or 66 per
per cent. (64 per cent. for the men and 68 per cent. for the
women), had never been married. Of those who had been
married only one-fifth bad never had offspring.
We now proceed to the consideration of the probable
causes of the mental disorder. The causes of insanity arc
generally divided into predisposing and exciting, physical
and moral. Of all the causes of mental disease, those which
have a tendency to predispose the brain to take on that pe-
culiar morbid action which generally gives rise to insanity
are of the most importance. These causes are frequently
insidious in their character, and therefore are often altogether
overlooked. The predisposing causes are divided into physi-
cal and moral.

The following tables illustrate their operation :
PREDISPOSING CAUSES.
PHYSICAL. Men. Women
'Hereditary tendency 32 36
Fright to the mother, followed or met by

_
premature birth
2 2
Congenital weakness of mind in various
degrees
Decided congenital peculiarly of mind l9 4
Extreme degrees of melancholy or nervous _

temperament
Lactation by parent strongly predisposed 1 0
Period or senility (average age of attack, 72
years) 2 4
Insufficient exercise, or the stooping posture 2 0
Fever

lt ickets

Apoplexy and paralysis
Epilepsy

Biitidiless

Chorea..
Hysteria

0 1
1 1
4 0
1 1
0 2
1 6

.. ... Hypochondriacal tendency 2 1
Dyspepsia, &c.
Gout and Rheumatism 0 3
Injudicious bloodletting
Spermatorrhcea 1 0
Irregular secretions
intemperance and free living ' l2 1
In the 415 persons 232 laboured from physical predis-
position ; with regard to the hereditary predisposition, it
should b recollected that the cases were not considered of
an hereditary character the history of which had only been
characterized by the existence of insanity in collateral blood
relatives, it being obvious that cases of this kind do not
necessarily establish any direct hereditary transmission.

The following were the moral predisposing causes:Li.
Neglected or perverted education, in three Men. Women

cases very indulgent, in one very rigid 4 1
111-regulated temper and disposition....
Solitary mode of life 0 1
Mental disquietude
Political enthusiasm

Excitement connected with religious hopes,
fears, and apprehensions 5
No predisposing causes known B3 81

A table is given showing the exciting causes of the disor-
ders, so far as these were stated or could be ascertained :

PHYSICAL EXCITING CAUSES

Men. Women
Fevers and febrile diseases
Mechanical injuries of the head..
Inflammation of brain
Apoplexy and paralyses
Neuralgia and cephalgia
Hysteria
Dyspeptic and liver disorders
Unnatural propensities 6 0
Irregular or suppressed secretions. . 0 10
Puerperal disorders
Protracted or suddenly subsiding lactation.. 0 2
Checked perspiration
Suppressed skin eruptions
Suddenly subsiding diarrhoea 1 0
Long continued ill-health
Loss of sleep from fractured arm
Severe scald in infancy .. 1 0
Injudicious use of mercury ... 2 0
Intemperance
Use of opium and spirits ... 0 2
Generally dissipated and dissolute conduct.. 2 0
The following tabular statement presents a view of the
MORAL EXCITING CAUSES.

Men. Women.
Joy fronfelated anticipations .. ............ 3 0
Fear or terror
Sorrow from the death of relatives ... .
..... 5 15
Unhappy marriages
Domestic distress . ...... 2 .12
Anxiety respecting livelihood and pecuniary
losses ................................ 19 14
Anxiety as to the success of business
.... 10 1
Anxiety from perplexing trusteeships and
other affairs
5 0
Disappointed plans and hopes
... 2 3
Disappointed affections
.... 9 21
Disappointed matrimonial plans .......... 4 3
Great changes in mode of life .............. 0 2
Excessive mental exertion
Long and anxious nursing
Remorse..
2 0
Excitement connected with religion, &c .... 3 2
No exciting cause known
From the above table it is established that of the 135 per-
sons in whom the exciting cause appears to have been of a
moral character, there were 112 arising from sorrow,
anxiety, and disappointment from various causes. With re-
lation to the influence of ill-directed religious feelings in the
production of insanity, Mr. Thurnam observes that the his-
tory of the Retreat fully confirms the truth of Dr. Prichard's
remark, that " the circumstance of the mind of a lunatic
being occupied during the period of his disease with ideas
and feelings connected with an invisible world is no proof
whatever that the disarrangement of his understanding was
produced in the first instance by impressions related to the
same subject." Although the hopes and fears connected
with religion and a future state did not in many cases ope-
rate as a cause of insanity, they in many instances materially
modified the character of the disorder. In 162 cases of me-
lancholy, 42 persons were afflicted with fear connected with
a future state. In nine out of 52 cases of monomania the
hallucinations assumed a decidedly religious character.

THE NIGER EXPEDITION

We have much gratification in stating, that the news of
mortality among the persons engaged in the expedition to tha
Niger, proves to be greatly exaerated. A letter from a
gg
gentleman on board of the Albert, dated off the Nunn, Aug.
10, says—" The Wilberforce, Soudan, and Amelia, joined
us yesterday; the officers and men of all the vessels, so far
as I can learn, are in good health." On the 16th he again
writes—" We are now anchored above Alkurnah Island,
having passed over the shallow part of the narrow creek,
where we had 14 feet water, with the Amelia tender in tow ;
the Wilberforce and the Soudan come up to-morrow morning.
There is one coloured man in the Albert, and anther in the
Wilberforce, who have the African fever, but the symptoms
are favourable ; both these men are West Indian negroes, and
entered the ships in England. With these exceptions, lam
happy to say, the officers and men of the expedition are quite
well.',

A letter from another gentleman, dated on board the
Albert, the 19th of August, says—" We entered this river
on the 14th. The health of the whole expedition has bee
i all along very good, considering the number engaged n it,
and any illness of consequence which has occurred has becu
almost exclusively confined to the black men. In the Albert
we have unfortunately lost two men, one named Johnston., a
white, fell from the foreyard-arm during our passage from
Sierra Leone to Cape Coast, and died two hours after, the
accident from injury to the brain ; the other was Mr. Back,
the mathematical instrument maker, who was attacked on
the 9th instant, with symptoms of fever of a low. typhoid
kind. It appears he had been suffering for some time fromdyspepsia, and this attack supervening upon a constitutxix
previously debilitated, proved fatal on the 15th ; there evi-
dently was nothing local in the cause of his death."
A letter from the chaplain to the expedition, dated the 18th
of August, says—" all the officers and people of the whole
squadron enjoy at present perfect health."
From letters received up to the date of the 20th of August,
the whole of the losses sustained appear to have been three
from casualties during the voyage, which, with two coloured
men, and one European—the.latter not from African fever—
comprises the entire loss of life sustained by the expedition
from the time of its quitting England to the 20th of Aug.
The total number employed in the expedition is about 300
persons.

LIVERPOOL CORN EXCHANGE, Nov. 12.
Upon foreign Wheat the duty for the ensuinr, week is re-
duced to 235. Bd. per qr. ; on Flour to 14s. 21(1. per barrel ;
but raised on Barley to 13s. 10d., and on Pease to 12s. 6d.
per yr. ; remaining upon other foreign, and upon all British
colonial produce, unvaried.

The receipts of English, Irish, Foreign and Canadian
Wheat since Tuesday' amount to 11,710 qrs. • which, with
the 62,169 qrs. specified in our circular of that date, comprise
73,879 qrs. into this port within the last ten days. Of Barley
and Oats we have to note a moderate supply, but very little
Grain of other kinds fresh in for to-day ; whilst of Flour and
Oatmeal the arrivals are again rather extensive.
The only feature in the trade worth naming between
Tuesday and to-day, was confined chiefly to a few thousand
barrels of States Flour, sold at 375. 6d. to 38s. per barrel,
the transactions in any kind of Grain during that time having
been very unimportant, the late overflowing imports condu-
cing to render the buyers extremely inactive.
At this day's market, upon a slender attendance of town
and country millers, the operations in Wheat were very
limited in amount ; holders generally, however, steadily ad.
hering to our last quotations, and many cargoes being in
the course of landing to hold over for future sale, the cur-
rent rates of Tuesday remained stationary.
In Flour no sales of moment, nor any material change in
prices were apparent.
Malting Barley remained unaltered, but good Irish and
Foreign, being more saleable, were the turn dearer.
Malt, Beans, and Pease, although taken off sparingly,
maintained their previous value.
Oats, in the absence of country demand, were in slow re-
quest, but, being held with rather more firmness, supported
former prices.
Oatmeal appeared to meet little notice, and barely realised
Our last currency.