Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1879-05-01
The Increase of Insanity.
From the Cincinnati Commercial.

| WClC 1OOO GCtOco III
the insane asylums of n. York than du-
ring the previous year. An inquiry
among physicians reveals the fact that
this decided and alarming increase of
mental disease is quite general, especial
ly among business men and the so-called
better classes. Much of it is attributed
to land JUSTLY the severe business de-
preston and the shrinkage of values
that has reduced so many to poverty who
were in comparative affluence. But
there are many and varied causes at
work other than loss of property which
are marked factors in the production of
the general result, and these causes and
their prevention should engage the Sc
rious attention of our people generally.
1t is but stating fact universally acce-
ded to, that the brain is the physical or
gan of the mind, as the stomach is of di-
gestion. 1t is a simple statement, and
yet people act continually as if it were
myth. When the, physical system is
disordered we lose no time in consulting
a physician. Weare. well versed in our
ailments and their symptoms, and are
generally quick to act when disorder
threatens or warns of their appearance.
But the delicate brain, the organ of the
God-like mind, sends warnings that are
rarely needed until too late, and when
we are happily, perhaps, unconscious of
this truth, we are confident brief expo
sition of insanity, its prevention, its
symptoms and treatment in early stages
will be of profit. The brain is the organ
of the mind; it is also the seat of dis
ease, but not necessarily the seat Of
its cause. This is very important dis
tinction, and, as thus stated, original
with Morel, an accepted authority. In
sanity may be the effect of a lesion of
the brain, or the effect of the reflex ac-
tion of any diseased or injured bodily
organ. High authorities differ as to the
extent to which the dictum of Morel
will apply. bnt all admit its general
truth. But in every case of unsound-
ness, its approach is heralded by uner-
ring ndications-unerring we mean to
the expert-but as the patient generally
is ignorant of their meaning the maturi-
| ty of the affliction is reached to the sur
prise of all the relatives and friends and
to the dismay of the patient himself.
Should the patient suspect the real
meaning of his maladay he is struck
with horror, cOnceals it with religious
secresy within his troubled breast, and
only adds another and HEAVIER trouble to
his others, and through his own caution,
hastens the catastrophe.
The initial symptoms are themselves
of an insidious character, but the pa
tient should not trust to his own judg-
ment Gtself perhaps impaired in such an
important matter. His best plan is to
Immediately consult an expert in such
cases the ordinary physician has rarely
the knowledge which will enable him to
form correct diagnosis. If he have
any of the following Irregularities we'll
defined he will have fufficient reason to
seek advice as quickly as possible. In
distinctness of utterance, irritation,
quick to anger on slight prOyocatiOn, a
want of conference and continuity of
thought, variableness of temper, marked
loss of memory, and change in the
character, manners and habits. For in
stance, a neat, cleanly person becomes
slovenly and careless, q pure-minded one
will become vulgar, and even obscene, a
religious man will become profane and
| impure, &c. In the female sex, cerebral
disturbance is, in a large proportion of
cases, the reflex effect of bodily disturb
ance, and DIR. Storer, of Boston, an emf
nent Gyn@cologist, asserts that her sex
is the predisposing, exciting and cOGtin-
uing cause of insanity. There is no
doubt but that the evolution of her
sexual functions at different periods of
her life is attended with mental disturb
ance, and viewed in this light presents a
powerful claim on mans tenderness.
We may as well state here that our so
eial life is very productive of those pre-
cocious cratic ideas, so detrimental in
every point of view to the growing
youth or maiden, and so often the remote
cause of insanity In males intemper-
ance predominates over any other siugle
cause, and where there has existed a
hereditary predisposition it is invariably
incurable. What a lesson! before which
Murphy's appeals are but as idle talk.
Where the victim of alcohol has become
a confirmed dipsomaniac, there is again
no hope, and fortunately his lease of life
is in any case brief one. 1t would
hardly be supposed that too much eating
would prove cause of insanity, but it
is a powerful help to other causes, and
occasionally the sole one. The question
of consanguineous marriage is as yet not
settled in connection with lunacy, but
evidence of it's unwisdom is sufficient to
require its discouragement. The most
alarming symptoms of unsoundness in
young people is love of solitude, and
when habitual, should awaken keen So
licitude on the part of parents and
| friends.
The poetic temperament is especially
liable to arrangement, presenting the
complete antithesis to the mathematical,
the proportion being one to one hundred.
The bearing of this statement on the
mooted question among educators as to
the several merits of the mathematical
and the classical curriculum is obvious,
as the exact sciences are powerful helps
| In conserving the mental powers. In