The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1883-04-14
The Weak and the Wicked.

Out of q total population of about fifty
millions there were in 1880 a little over
a quarter of a million of people insane.
idiotic, blind and deaf and dumb in the
| United States In every million of pop
ulation there were 1854 victims of in.
sanity, ,533 idiots, $40 blind and 67s
deaf and dumb.
Apparently there was large increase
in the proportion or these defective peo-
Pile as compared with 1870, 1860 and
1850, But the proportional increase
seems To have been due chiefly or alto
gether to more thoroughness in gather.
| ing the statistics concerning them. An
exact and trustworthy census. of the in
sane especially, it is almost impossible
to get. In the first place, what is the di-
| yiding line between sanity and insanity
| We have seen how, in u recent case, q
| jury decided that man was sane who
was pretty generally pronounced lu.
matte by the professional experts In men
tai disease. Whether Guiteau was o
responsible agent has hardly yet been
| decided, though the brain of the assassin
| has been dissected. And, sane or insane,
he went abroad among men during life,
and doubtless was about as well balanced
mentally rs thousands of men aud wom-
en- who are on the streets to-day. Very
many dsunkards are the victims of as
genuine and as dangerous a mania as
| that which affects large part of the
| population of our insane asylums, and
| the number of people who are subject 10
| insane impulses or who are what is
called half-cracked, is multitudinous.
| Besides. families are slow to aeknowl-
| edge insanity among their members, pro-
1 yided it is not of a sort to compel seclu-
| sion in an asylum. But, to cover such
cases so far as possible, the Census
| Bureau sent out blank forms of return
to 100, 900 physicians in the Union, four
| ffths of whom responded with the de-
sired information, and by the lists they
| sent the regular returns of the enumera-
| tors were corrected. Under such cir
| cumstances, of course the total number
| obtained was pretty sure to be much
| larger, proportlonatcly than 1t was in
previous censuses, when equally thorough
methods of obtaining returns were not
! adopted. But even then we cannot take
| the figures with entire confidence. The
result is AN approximation only. AT
! least, we do not get from the census for
| 1880 sufficient data To enable rs To answer
| the question whether insanity is on the
| increase that is, whether the ratio OF
new eases othe total population is grow
ing larger.
1t seems fair to conclude however,
that there is no decline in the proportion
of insanity. The number of the insane
manifestly grows at least with the in
! crease of population. More than that
cannot be deduced from the census table.
Out of total OF 81 ,997 insane re-
turned in 1880, A 4OS were males and
/ 1889 females; 65.65t were natives and
26,346 were foreign; $3.50 were white
and 6, l57 colored, We see, therefore,
] that insanity attacks women oftener han
men. OF idiots, however, the total of
| 76, S95 was made up of A., 800 males and
3l,586 females. The negro population,
| too, is much more liable to idiocy than
insanity. the number of colored idiots
being 1919 to 6, l57 lunatics. The for,
eign population, however, contributed
only 1907 to the idiots, while its insane
numbered 26,346. The tendency to in
sanity among the foreigners is very
| striking, they furnishing considerably
more than one-quarter of the whole num-
Der of insane, while there were only
about one-seventh as many of them in
| the Union as natives. 1t is suggestive
| to observe also that there is the same in
creased tendency TO insanity, but in a
less marked degree, in natives who re-
| move from one part of the Union to
another, especially from the Atlantic to
the Pacific coast. The immigrant is sub
! iected to an unwonted strain, and the
law Of the survival of the tittest works
with especial rapidity in his case. Life
| in the old grooves he might sustain with
out mental damage, but in new paths he
loses his wits. 1t is the strong birds
which stand the migratory flight; the
weak ones dro p by the way.
OF the blind there were more males
than females, the total number having
been 1928, made up of rs, 748 males
! %, 1870 females. The same was the case
with respect to the deaf and dumb. Out
| of total of 1888 there were 1867
and 10, 81 females.
The total number of paupers enumer.
ated in almshouses was 81 ,O67, besides
whom there was great body of outdoor
! paupers, of whom the statistics are mani
| testify so incomplete that they are of no
account whatever The total, according
| to the census, was 1883; but how
worthless these figures are is shown by
the return from Boston of only thirteen
outdoor paupers for the whole city.
The number of prisoners in confne-
ment in the United States was SO, 255,
against 1892 lunatics confined in asy-
lums In the number ofprisoners, how
ever. were certain persons charged with
offenses and awaiting in county jails
their trial; and there were some insane.
Prisoners held for debt, however. were
not included, nor were witnesses locked
up to secure their testimony. OF i'm
prsoned debtors the total was forty
| eight, and of imprisoned witnesses 10Y.
1t is creditable to our civilization that
these figures are so small; but that there
are any such prisoners is blot on our
legal system. A .
The total mum Der of felons at hard
! labor in prisons and penitentiaries was
| 30,623, and 4, 1888 convicts were at work
outside of prison walls, under lessees or
| under county officials. About ~, 900 of
| the prisoners did some work, and 16, 900
were maintained in idleness: 81, 1876 were
males and 5000 females, 46, 1913 native
and 12,917 foreign, 42,294 white and
| 1861 colored. Among the colored were
incl uded 531 Cinnamon, one japanese
and 161 Indians. Y. Sun.
| "A new anonymous prophet has
arisen, and lifting the curtain which
| hides the next decade he pictures the