Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1878-06-23
INSANITY.
Rapid Increase of Mental Disorder
Here and Abroad-The Appa-
rent Causes.

New York Herald: Within the past few
wears the steady increase IN the number of
commitments to hospitals and asylums for
mental diseases has attracted general atten-
ton. An examination of the yearly reports
of the principal asylums of the country shows
that during the past five years or more there
has been a pretty regular increase In the ratio
of insane persons to the population and, as
stated in the report for 1877 of the Willard
asylum fer the insane, that the increase Is
out of proportion to that of population, and
seems TO be confined to the dependent and
middllng classes. In England and Wales
the ratio OF insane to the population is one to
three hundred and seventy-three; in Massa-
chusetts, one to four hundred and twenty
three; New York, one to FIVE hundred and
eighty-seven; Illinois, one to eight hundred
and sixty SIX; and Iowa, one to one thousand
one hundred and one. Ghis shows that the
density Of population has more or less pre-
disposlng effect, producing, as it decidedly
does, deter!orstlDg InHuence on the human
race, morally aud physically. The increase
in the number of insane Ia the State of New
York for the past quarter of a century is
over one hundred per cent, and, according
to experts In mental diseases. this increase is
not confined to any particular Sec
tons of the State, but is more or less
general. No one who has been a constant
reader of the daily papers for the past few
the great increase Of the reports of suicides,
homicldes and the commitments of alleged
lunatics IN the different city and county asy
lums. While much of this is directly due to
the rapid increase of the population of New
York and neighboring cities, there must be
other causes for the disease at work. Increase
of population brings with it overcrowding,
disease producing surroundings, bad sanitary
arrangements, which, by lowering the tone
of the people, both In a moral well as
physical point OF view, directly predisposes
the very poor and mIddling classes to mental
disease. DR.. luke, a Well-known London
alienist, has written work under the title of
Insanity IN ancient and Modern Life. In
this he deliberately investigates the causes Of
mental diseases in Great Britain, where the
increase of lunatlcs has been enormously
large during the past half century. After 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 sixty-slx thousand
six hundred and thirty-six, DR.. luke con-
cludes that the principal causes of mental
disease at the present time are: First, in
toxication. including the action of alcohol
and allied stimulants, not only IN the indi
vlduals taking them to excess, but upon his
or her ohsprlngs, whose weakness produces
degeneracy IN the succeeding generation;
second, that detective 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
the large, insutficlenty fed populations
Closely allied to this DIR. luke considers bad
sanitary arrangements and overcrvwding In
filthy dwellings. Under the third class of
causes he considers moral influences, ''partly
mixed in character, which excite or depress
the emotions profoundly, as dissolute life,
depraved habits, domestic sorrow or misery,
commercial speculations and losses, religious
excitement, disappointments in love and
general overwork." Under the fourth and
last head is considered intellectual strain as
a 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 asy!ums in this country,
public and private, confirms to a very great
extent the observations of Dr. luke made in,
England.