Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1878-07-12
INSANITY.
The Ratio to Population and the Causes Of
Madness.

The Ratio TO Population and the Causes Of
Madness.
in England and Wales the ratio Of in.
sane TO the population is one to 373; in
Massachusetts, one to AS; New York,
one to 687; illinois, one to 500; and
Iowa, one to l, l01. This shows that
the density of population has more or
less predisposing effect, producing, as it
decidedly does, a deteriorating influence
on the human race, morally and physi-
cally. The increase in the number of
insane in the State of New York for the
past quarter of century is over 100 per
cent, and, according to experts in men,
tai diseases, this increase is not confined
to any particular sections of the State,
but is more or less general.
No one who has been a constant read
er of the daily newspapers for the past
few years can fail to have been Impress
ed with the great increase in the reports
of suicides, homicides and the commit
ment of alleged lunatics to the different
city and county asylums. While much
of this is directly due to the rapid in
crease of population of New York and
neighboring cities there must be other
causes for the disease at work. Increase
of population brings with it overcrowd-
ing, disease-producing surroundings,
bad sanitary arrangements, which, by
lowering the tone Of the people, both in
moral as well as physical point of
view, directly pred4sposes the very poor
and middling classes to mental disease.
DR.. luke, well-known London alien
ist, has written work under
the title OF Insanity in Ancient and
Modern Life" In this he deliberately
| investigates the causes of mental dis
eases IN Great Britain, where the in
crease of lunatics has been enormously
large during the last half century. At
ter a careful examination of all the
statistics, showing that the number Of
insane people confined in asylums in
England and Scotland at the present
time reaches &c, 1886, DR.. luke concludes
that the principal causes of mental dis
ease at the present time are: First, in
toxication, including the action of alco-
hol and allied stimulants, not only in
the individuals taking them to excess,
but upon his or her offspring, whose
weakness produces degeueracy in the
succeeding generation; second, that de-
fective nourishment, leading as it does
to exhaustion and malnutrition of the
nervous centers, causes degeneracy OF
the race, the evidence of which can be
seen in large, insuficiently-fed popula-
ton. Closely allied to this, Dr. luke
considers bad sanitary arrangements
and overcrowding in filthy dwellings.
Under the third class of causes he con.
siders moral influences, "partly mixed
in character, which excite or depress the
emotions profoundly, as a dissolute life,
deprayed habits, domestic sorrow or mis-.
cry, commercial speculations and losses,
religious excitement, disappointment in
love and general overwork." Under
the fourth and last head is considered
intellectual strain as cause of insanity
which he holds to be the least frequent
of all causes, if examined alone.
An examination of the reports of the
principal lunatic asylums in this coun
try, public and private, confirms to G
very great extent the observations Of
DR.. luke made in England.