Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1878-11-23

TIE great prevalence OF insanity
on the Pacific coast 10 attracting
much comment among physicians in
the Eastern states and in Europe.
That there is q much greater per
centsge of this malady in California,
Oregon and Washington Territory
for the population than elsewhere.
is q foregone conclusion and ad-
mitted by medical men themselves.
The asylums for this unfortunate
class Of individuals have had to be
successfully enlarged, from year to
year, in the two States already
named, and tho same might be said
of the asylum in our own Territory.
But a few years ago, comparatively
speaking, fifteen was found to be the
maximum number Of patients re-
ceived for treatment in twelve months
while the institution was located in
Cowlitz county. From that time on,
the number mas been steadily aug
menting, far beyond the proportion
ate increase of our population for a
similar period. Had our population
trebled or quadrupled in the last
ten or fifteen years, it would barely
have kept pace with the frightful ILL
crease of insanity within our borders.
We DO not draw these conclusions
from indefinite estimates but
CLEAN our information from statis-
teal compilations and official re-
turns. 1t is a thing of common re-
mark that, as rule, the pioneer set
tiers who came to this coast by water
and across the plains, were noted
for their physical and mental ac-
tivity, substantial integrity and bus
mess tact. In view of these facts,
the question comes with all the
greater significance, what is the
cause of SO much alteration of mind
among our people? A writer in an
English medical journal suggests
some very pertinent ideas in regard
to this fruitful topic. Want of nu-
tricious food, stimulating drinks, a
dreary, monotonous toll, muscular
exhaustion, domestic distress, mis-
cry and anxiety, are enumerated by
him as some of tho more prominent
causes of insanity among the poor
and day-laboring classes; and he
concludes that, as q legitimate Sc
quence, the proportion of physically
weak and idiotic children is very
large among these classes. Among
the middle class, the writer enumer-
ates stress of business, excessive
competition, disastrous failure, reck-
less abandonment to evil passions,
intemperance and kindred irregul-
arities as the prime causes of mental
decentralization. In the higher class
es, intemperance still works On in
creased amount of mischief. To this
may be added the multiplicity OF
subjects of study during the period
of youth, intense brain-work of sue.
ceeding years, luxurious habits, un-
disciplined wills, desultory lives.
and the consequent early breaking
down of the nervous system. One
rule, or principle rather, is worth y
of mention. "Children of feeble
intellect who are delicately reared,
are apt to become imbecile when
brought into contact with the cares
of adult life. It is well established
rule among many physicians that IL
great many insane people were new
er absolutely sane people. Like a
sleeping volcano, there appears to
be in some minds slumbering in
sane germ, that a particular combi-
nation of circumstances will sooner
or later release and set into active
growth; then like the volcano seized
by a sudden fit of. eruption, the
mind is upset and reason dethroned
in an hour. Whenever a case of
this kind happens, it is easy for the
most unobserving acquaintance of
the sufferer to remember many little
incongruities in his mental organism.
There is another class in every pop
ulous community who are ever on
the narrow divide between the ror-
NAL and abnormal conditions of the