The Lake Charles echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1876-1898, 1878-07-25
Some Causes of Mental Failure.

The first is the fifteenth biennial re
mort of the trustees of the Illinois Cen
t-al hospital for the insane; the second
q nauer On Modern Life and Insanity.
Contributed by Mr.. ID. Hack luke K
Macmillan's Magazine, which has at.
+yocted considerable attention from goci.
aIorists in England. The report corers
she wears 1875 and 1876, during which
,criod 521 patients were admitted. Oh
these 226 were unmarried l69 males
and 66 females) and 257 married (l2s
males and l83 females). The total num-
her of men was 30l against go Women.
Az to the occupation 21e, the plurality
are ouoSed as having simple domestic
duties and probably are all women; I49
were far ners, 81 laborers, and the re-
mainder scattering through all the vari-
ous csllings. As to the exciting cause
of insanity, this ie reported as unknown
in $50 cases In as Instances as owing TO
III health, In 80 to female ailments, and
DO on scattering.
MIR. luke in his paper goes over a
wide range of statistics, which it ia un-
necessary here to recapitulate, our OBJ.
iect being chiefly to direct attention to
The concordance OF some of the data
obtained in this Illinois asylum with
those collated In England And the
frat point to be noticed is the plurality
of farmers over men of other eccupa-
lions. There has already been much
discussion as to the relative liability of
manufacturing and agricultural districts
to mental disease, and the gtneral de-
duction Appeals to be that farmers and
AGRICULTURAL workers are afflicted In ex-
cess The reason even for this by the
lunacy commissioners of Scotland il
significant. They refer, says Mr.. luke,
"the persistent rural funacy chiefly to
the constant migration of the strong
from the rural to the urban districts,
the necessary exodus of the physically
and mentally healthy leaving behind an
altogether disproportionate number of
congenital idiots, imbeciles and chronic
insane in the agricultural counties"
Even if in this country we are not dis
posed to admit that there is any so exN
tensive I'D exodus from country to city
as ID here ndieated-although the
governor of New York in his last mes
sage takes occasion to advise against
this very movement, and strongly to
point out its Acknowledgements there
still appears, according to MIR. luke,
large amount of insanity and idiocy in
country districts, whatever may be its
relative proportion TO that elsewhere.
From the Illinois asylum data it will
also be observed that the number of
single males 10 largely i'm excess of that
Of single females, but that the numbers
Of married people of both sexes closely
approximate. Despite the increased
responsibilities of family support upon
the men, the pfoneness to insanity de-
cEeases, while on the other hand the
domestic and physical troubles incident
to wellock more than double the per-
oentage OF women. This aecords again
with Mr. Tuke's statements OF the large
proportion of those engaged in domestic
occupations in English asylums.
The percentage OF intemperance noted
Flu the Illinois report - l5 out OF
|s2l--is exceedingly SMALL In Great
9bfitain this cause Enthusiastically takes
Ethe lead, some authorities going SO far
kas to attribute half of all the cases
etheEeto. In the United States, DIR. Rush |
pas stated that it produces fully one
Ethhd OF all the meutal failures. Mr. !
Eluke places the percentage as low as IL, |
ka'tef taking into consideration all the !
[esyiums in England. DIR. Dickson, of |
st' Luke's Hospital, ia London, has,
however, pointed out that while intem-
epefanee is often an exciting cause to in
PANTY, yet the incentive to drunkenness
y the result rather than the cause of l
ofain deterioration in the first instance.
hegaEded 40 this light, or rather if we
Eonaaef, as IL perhaps most logical,
heoflety as q disease, and classify it
pun other ailments, it will probably 4
'ppeaf, az indeed it does from the stats /
EcS Of the asylum we are considering,
East Che road TO insanity lies chiefly
khfough I'LL health, and that those who
ose Their minds through other causes
'te much in che minority.
Inc brain, it would appear, is more
II gradually to follow physical deterior-
slol 1han to be impaired suddenly by
uysical causes; or, ip other words, as
ysnlnS which will produce O hyper@-
Pug oi portion or the whole Of that
Fsan ey which it's normal functions may
mtefiered with may become an exr
Alg cause, that condition ID perhaps
ote readily superinduced by the direct
,ssca connection OF che brain with 4
elsf impaired organs. 4,
, Hence it follows that anything which
aSl the bodily consolidation is
NV o % affect the mind, and hence, as
sAs oe expected, any form of intems
,slce, whether in drink, in mental
PHYSICAL toyerwork, may react upon
otsln as well as upon the rest of the
' sta Y we knew how far this excess