Brookings County sentinel. (Brookings, Dakota [S.D.]) 1882-1890, 1882-11-02
THE ALARMING INCREASE OF INSANITY

The rapid increase of insanity in this
country, says the Cleveland Leader, has
become question for serious considera-
hon, not merely by the medical profes.
sion and philanthropists, but by the
people at large. There are in the United
States to-day, according to the most re-
liable Statistics, over one hundred thou
sand insane persons. The increase in
the number of lunatios from 1870 to
1881 was over 100 per cent, whereas the
increase III population was only 26 per
cent. and the ratio is constantly grow
ing. An annual expenditure of s12, ,0Oo.-
900 is required to maintain the insane in
the public institutions Of the country.
yet less than fifty per cent. of the cases
are In the asylums, because there are
not proper accommodations for their
treatment and maintenance in those in
stitutions. With the fact that over one
half the insane are thus dependent upon
private treatment, or, in many cases,
doomed to suffer on and die without
skiilful aid or care, comes the unpleas-
ant knowledge that the number is grow
ing out OF all proportions with the pro-
visions for thsiI treatment Another de-
pressing fact is that the general charac.
ter OF the malady is more aggravated,
and the proportion Of incurable is
larger, though it may safely be said that
almost any case of insanity is incurable,
except in its early stages. The cause of
this alarming increase Of iunacy in the
United States is attributed by expert
enced medical men, who have made the
subject careful study, to tue over
taxing OF the nervous system, so
common among Americans, coupled
with an utter disregard of proper
habits of eating, drinking, and
sleeping, and the failing to take recrea-
tion at the right time, and in the proper
way. According to the testimony of
these experts, insanity itself is not hered-
itary, though tendency to it may be
inherited. These statements, which are
not mere theories, but the result of prac.
tical and scientific observation, demon
strate that the cause and remedy rest
largely with the people themselves. 1t
is possible to employ methods to check
the development of insanity, and to pre-
vent its development, even where the
inherited tendency is strong. In short,
Its growth may be checked by the strict
observance Of the laws of health for both
body and mind. We as a people live
too fast-rush and worry too much.
The ambition to excel, or to speedily gain
positions of af1uence or power, leads
thousands to mental and physical exer-
tions beyond the powers of their organ
'lzations to withstand. The result is
premature breaking down, nervous pros
tration, and, in hundreds of cases, men
tai arrangement, and in many, incurable
insanity. The startling facts that are
before us should therefore prove a warn
lug. We are year by year deg enerating,
and becoming more nervous as a race,
and it is time to call halt. Busy peo-
pie should take more recreation, should
be scrupulously regular in their habits
of eating and sleeping, and when they
feel that they have worked too hard and
are breaking down, should stop abrupt
ly, and give their exhausted natures a
chance to recuperate. As the tendency
OF this overwork is towards insanity, and
as a large proportion of cases are in
curable, extraordinary efforts should be
made to check, and, as far as possible,
prevent, what is becoming an alarming
national malady.