The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1878-06-06
l.50 Per Annum.
Some Causes of Mental F4iIure.

Some Causes Of Mental Faiiure.
We have before us two suggestive
documents which furnish datS for con-
sIdeTatiOn.
The first is the fifteenth Biennial re-
port of the trustees of the Illinois Cen
tral hospital for the insane the second,
q paper On Modern Life and inssnity,
contributed By Mr.. ID. Hack Tuke to
MRcmillRn's Magazine, which has at
tTacted considerable attention from soci-
olOgists In England. The report covers
the years 1875 and 1875, during which
period 52I patients were admitted. if
these 226 were unmarried (160 males
and 66 femaies) and 257 married (l24
males and 1S3 females) The total NUM-
Der of men was 301 against 220 women.
As to the occupation 210, the plurality,
are quoted as having simple domestic
duties, and probably are all women; lag
were farmers, 90 laboFers, and the re-
mainder scattering through all the vari-
Gus callings. As TO the exciting cause
of insanity, this ie reported SIS unknown
in $50 cases, in 45 instances as owing to
Ill health, II 80 to female ailments, and
SO Oh scattering.
Mr.. luke in his paper goes over
wide range of statistics, which 1t is 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
first point to be noticed is the plurality
of farmers over men of other eccupa-
tions. There has already been much
discussion as to the relative liability of
manufacturing and agricultural districts
20 ,kal nd hn a.
duction appears to be that farmers and
agricultural workers are afflicted in ex-
cess. The reason even for this by the
lunacy commissioners of Scotland Is
significant. They refer, says Mr.. Tuke,
60 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 sn
altogether dispTopOrtiOnate 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 eX~
tensive an exodus from country to city
as Is here indicated-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 disadvantages--yet there
still appears, according TO Mr.. Tuke,
large amount of insanity and idioey in
country districts, whatever may be its
relative proportion 10 that elsewhere.
From the Illinois asylum data it will
also be observed that the number OF
single males is largely in excess of thai
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 proneness to insanity de-
creasss, while on the other hand the
domestic and physical troubles incident
to wedIOck more than double the per
centage of women. This accOrds again
with Mr.. Tuke's statements OF the large
proportion of those engaged in domestic
occupations in English asylums.
The percentage OF intemPeTance noted
in the Illinois report 10 out OF
521--is exceedingly small. In Great
Britain this cause nnmistakRbly takes
the lead, some authorities going so far
SIS to attribute half of all the cases
thereto. In the United States, DIR. Rush
has stated that it produces fully one
third of all the mental failures. MIR.
luke places the percentage as low as y,
after taking into consideration all the
asylums in England. DIR. Dickson, Of
St. Luke's Hospital, in London, has,
however, pointed out that while intem-
perance is often an exciting cause to in
sanity, yet the incentive to drunkenness
is the result rather than the cause of
brain deterioration in the first instance.
Regarded in this light, or rather if we
consider, as is perhaps most logical,
inebriety IS q disease, and classify it
with other ailments, it viii probably
appear, as indeed it does from the stats
tics of the asylum we are considering,
that the road to insanity lies chiefly
through i'll health, and that those who
lose their minds through other causes
are much in the minority.
The brain, it would appear, Is more
apt gradually to fellow physical deteTiOT-
alton than to be impaired suddenly by
physical causes or, in other words, az
anything which will produce a hypeTe-
mia of portion or the whole of that
organ by which its normal functions may
/ be interfered with may become an ex-
citing cause, that condition is perhaps
more readily supeTiDduced by the direct
! physical connection of the brain with
other impaired organs.
Hence it fellows that anything which
I debiIitates the bodily constitution is
/ liable to affect the mind, and hence, as
might be expected, any form of intems
| peTance, whether in drink, in mental
| or physical overwork, may react upon
/ the brain as well as upon the rest Of the
| system. If we knew how far this excess
| of strain might be carried before insanity
| became likely, a probable safeguard
would be at hand, but this Is not the
case, and it Is quite possible for a perscn
| TO heap up predispOsiDg causes to limit
| beyond which an accidental condition,
In itself utterly incapable of affecting his
normal unimpaired mind, may carry
! him.
I The logical conclusion obviously il
/ that upon the good health of the COM
/ munity depends its immunity from in
sanity. every man." says mr. luke,
| "win break down at his weak point,
be it what it may :" but clearly if his
! life be so ordered as not to continually
carry him up to that weak point, the
breaking down cause viii have to be
phenomenally great perhaps in the
! majority of cases to render it efficient.
| There is, therefore, such thing as un-
preventSble lunacy, bnt pTeventable lu-
macy occurs most frequently, and this
Mr. luke thinks, may be reduced tC
g minimum By the widest extension of q
thorough but not oppressive and toe
sarly commenced education, by the
practical application of the ascertaiueo
truths of physiological and medica
science, and by the influence Of mora
culture. 81 Scientific American.