Western cyclone., 1886-11-25

Two to five years. Observation-Disclosures. 134
Five to ten years. '.....-..-..---'.-..... ,68 68
over ten years -.--...... Ioo -.
| Unknown - 48
$50
Given a uniform population, sufficient
accommodation for the insane, and an
unchanging sentiment as to sending
those bereft of reason to the state insti-
tutions, it is evident that as soon as a
certain natural adjustment took place,
each years applications must represent
the number of cases which would annu-
ally arise. An accurate determination
of the annual expectancy of insanity
from the foregoing table, however,
is not possible, but we can ar
rive at a conclusion which may be
helpful.
Considering all the influences bearing
upon this matter, it seems to me we
shall not be far from the truth if we con-
clude that the cases under five years du-
ration and one-fourth of the unknown
cases, represent the number occurring
during the biennial period, at least so
far as they are likely to find their way
to the state institutions. This calcula-
ton gives three hundred and eleven
Obi as the annual expectancy in an
average population of 100000. In
other words, one person in a
little more than 1000 may be expected
to become insane each year, and with
our present population 333 may be ex-
pected to become insane in the state
during the current fiscal year. It may
also be expected that rather more than
one-half of these new cases will recover,
that few will die in the early stages of
their disease, and that the deaths among
the insane of former years will limit the
normal amount of increase Of the number
of insane In the state to about 100.
The annual increase of insanity in
Kansas is not confined, however, to what
may be termed the normal expectancy.
OF the $50 cases who applied for admis-
sion during the last two years, it is
known that several had recently come in
to the state, in some instances having
been taken out of other institutions and
brought here ''for the benefit of their
health" and it is very probable that
many others really belonged to this
class. These insane persons can gain no
residence in the state, and almost i'm
mediately become a burden upon us
which ceases only when death occurs.
The plain inference from these facts is
that the settlement laws' of Kansas
need revision, and that estate board of
charities" should be empowered by law
and enabled by appropriations to investi-
gate insanity and pauperism, and to
send to their places of residence such as
have no claim upon this commonwealth.
At the beginning of the biennial period
the number of inmates was two hundred
and eight (208); the number admitted
during the period, including transfers
from Osawatomie, five hundred and
forty eight (548) and four a returned
from trial visits of former years making
the whole number under treatment seven
hundred and twenty (720).
The whole number discharged, includ-
ing absentees, is three hundred and
twelve (312), leaving our number at the
end of the period fve hundred and eight
(5O8) AN increase Of exactly three hun
dred (300).
There tables are necessarily imperfect
and incomplete. They are made up
from the papers received from courts and
friends, which abound in accidental and
sometimes Intentional errors. as when
friends suppress important information,
and VIXEN accidental and concomitent
circumstances. or even the consequences
of the disease, are assigned as causes of
insanity.
In this connection, word may be ap-
propriately said regarding the very er-
roneous ideas which widely prevail re-
garding the chronic insane. A certain
number of persons in the state become
insane every year. These cases consti-
tute the recent, or acute and presumably
durable cases of insanity. They pretty
rapidly fall into three divisions: First,
those in which the violence of the disease
proves speedily fatal, small proportion,
about five or six per cent, but who of
course appear but once in statistics of
mental disease. The second division is
made mp OF those who recover their men
tai health, comprising above one-haf Of
the original cases, and they also disap
pear from the statistics. This leaves a
little less than one-haf of the new cases
which arise, to fall into the class of
chronic insane" some of whom may
survive many years. is obvious that as
year after year goes on, each bringing
its resideum to swell the ranks of chronic
insanity, by far the larger number of the
insane belong to the chronic class, in
whom recovery is well nigh hopeless. In
fact, nine out Of ten, perhaps nineteen
out of twenty of the insane to be found
IN the state, are chronic and hopeless
cases. Hence the proportion of durable
cases TO be found In the institutions is