Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1882-08-13
INCREASE OF INSANITY.

INCREASE OF INSANITY.
what .. Called By New York Physi
| DIR. A. e. Macdonald, the medical
| superintenent of the insane asylum al
Wards Island, has been giving the New
York Evening Post some interesting
points concerning the increase Of insan-
| ity. :,
DIR. Macdonald, "thst insanity is the di-
sease of civilization. AS civil
ization increases in sanity
keeps pace with it. The real reason
Is probably not so much that the brain
is worked too hard, but that more COM
pick civilization requires harder work,
| and that with the crowding into cities
| men are exposed to bad food and
| air, two factors now recognized as i'm
portant in the etioiogy OF insanity. In
| Europe insanity star more common
| than here, and we, wholiye in seaboard
towns, see more of 1t than the people of
the West. Certain forms of insanity,
such as paresis, or soffening OF the
brain, for instance, are common here
| fully one out offifteen of my patients
! In this establishment suffering from it
while in the West il isalmost unknown.
and Western doctors come East to study
The disease. 1t has been stated on good
authority that in England the ratio of
insane persons to the population has
doubled in the last thirty years. The
English statistics give the number of
| insane persons in 1860 as 1910 to every
10000 of the population; in 1870 it had
risen to 24.56, and in 1880 toss27.94. 1t
has been commended that the better
statistics oflater years have produced
an apparent increase in the number of
insane persons and doubtless there is
some ground for this opinion. In form
er times insane persons were allowed
greater liberty than at present; if poor
they were thrust into pauper asylums,
or If belonging to well-to-do families
were kept at home, under the notion
that the disease was incurable and that
no harm was done by letting 1T run its
course. 1t is also true that degree OF
eccentricity which to-day would entitle
a pauper 10 free Judgment in this asy-
ulm was not regarded as constituting
insanity thirty years ago., Another
point is that more careful and searching
statistics are gathered now, and cases
of insanity in many families brought to
light which in former years would have
been concealed. All these reasons may
be advanced with justice to explain the
change in the statistics. With regard
to our New York institutions, their
present overcrowded condition cannot
be taken as proof positive that insanity
is increasing among us to any alarming
extent, because with increased immi-
f;nK x.ya n crot nQfiQnfo
The scrunity of immigrants Is not severe
enough; scores of persons are allowed
to enter the country every year who be-
come burdens upon the public as insane
patients. Their condition may not eX-
cite suspicion at the time of landing, but
their friends know that an access of in
sanity is only matter of time.
"In my opinion theincrease of insani-
ty is due to unfavorable conditions or
life. For instance, the class OF work.
men who furnish us the most cases
the cigar ma kers-are those whose lives
are most unhealthy, living as they do
in small, ill-ventilated tenement-house
rooms, in which they do their work.
The tobacco men have been quite in
eensed because the anti-tobacco enthus-
lasts have published the fact that We
have more cigar-makers than any other
wOrkmen as evidence Of the pernicious
effect of tobacco upon the brain; but as
a matter of fact no elias work harder,
live upon poorer food or lead more Sc
dentarK life than the cigar-makers.
Their Insanity comes from their mode
of life, not from the tobacco they work
at. 1t will probably be found some day
that sewerage, the amount of sunlight
which a man receives, his food and
drink and cleanliness, have more to do
with insanity than is generally suppos-
ed. Here in New York, where we have
the worst tenements on the continent,
we have the most insanity. In Eng
land and France, where the crowding
is still worse and the work among the
lower classes harder, they have more of
it than we have.
1.-THE changes in the treatment of in
sane persons which have taken place
in the last twenty-five years are import
ant, because they show how completely
our notions with regard to the charac-
ter of mental disturbances have chang
ed. The old-time belief was that the
insane person must be treated by force
or by moral suasion; if he could not be
brought to see the error of his wild opin-
ions by argument, then the strait ack-
ct or bath of cold water was the prop
er treatment. Medicine was considered
as of little value. Within the last
twenty years insanity In all its forms
but not idiocy-has been recognized as
a disease due to physical arrangement
just as much as is headache. There
fore medicines are used to restore, if
possible, the body to its normal condi-
ton. The success in treating insanity
by medicine has borne out this theory.
Our experience in the cure Of insanity
may be summed up roughly as follows:
Ifcases are taken in hand within three
months after the disease appears, three
out of five cases get well, of which three
only one is likely to remain permanent
Nv free from recurrent attacks. If there
is delay in treatment extending to six
months, mot more than half the pa
tients have any opportunity of recover
ing. In the case Of patients who are al
lowed to 60 for more than year with
out treatment, the cases of recovery do
not amount to more than two per cent.
These facts may explain why poor men
have better chance of recovery than
the rich, because when poor man
goes insane bis family being unable to
support him, send him at once to the
asylum, whereas the man in comfOrta-
bic circumstances is kept at home until
he becomes dangerous"
Our Boys.
From the Neip York Graphic.
Question. Who is this? -..,s4
Answer This is the American boy