The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-05-15
CALEDONIA GOING MAD.
The Whole Population Will in Time
Become Insane.

Become insane.
E+.om the 81. Louis Globe Democrat.
A. recent meeting of the West End W.
=. + T., Mrs. E. A Meriwether, who has
inst returned from a visit to the Pacific
Slime, read an interesting paper on the
r,o,al condition of California. I'm proper
+ion to its population" she said, California
has more insa lity than any other State in
,ba Union. In his report of 1882 DR.. Z. r.
wilkins, the resident physician Of the State
osvlum at Napa says: If the ratio of IN
,.aasa continues, as it has done in the past
tranty wears, one-third of the population
~ the State will be insane by the end of the
cantury' Since that report the ratio has
ror decreased on the contrary, it has in
rnraosed. The Napa building was finished
IN 1876 and intended to hold only 800 pa
tants 1t has been made to hold $50, and
stiU they come. Each small room intended
IN receive one inmate is made to take two
Reds are spread down at night in the halls
there is also another State asylum at
stockton equally as crowded Stockton
bas $50 insane and every day brings
fresh recruits to this army of unfortunates,
Dr Wilkins, O Tennesseean and an old
friend, invited me to visit the Napa institu-
ION which is fifty miles from San Fran
cisco; thus it happened that for three days
and nights | was under the same roof
which shelters $50 crazy people. SO
alarming is the increase of insanity that
the state is now building third asylum
In addition to these, throughout the coun-
try are several private retreats in which
the weather. classes place their unfortu-
mates Ii nothing is done to stop this evil
the time is not far distant when the num-
her of sane people will hardly be sufficient
m care for the afflicted; indeed if the ratio
continues to increase in the future as it has
in the past, little calculation may show
the time when the whole State will be mad,
and neighbOring States will be called on to
care for CALIFORNIA; insane. While in Napa
| learned some remarkable facts concerning
mental diseases, which it were we'll the
world should know.
'Dr. Wilkins and other experts say that
the finer, the better the quality of the
human brain, the less is it liable to any
species of mental disorders. The lower,
the poorer the natural intellect, the easier
If loses its balance, is overthrown, becomes
frenzied or demented. Dementia means
utter loss of mind. In Napa were quite a
number OF men, young, strengthening men,
who had not as much sense as fly, worm.
This condition is never durable. Frenzied
arrangement may be cured, dementia
never.
DR.. Wilkins SAYS women enjoy almost an
Immunity from incurable brain diseas es,
such as general paresis, organic disease Of
the brain and paralysis. Forty men TO four
women die of these fatal diseases. In con-
nection with experts opinion that the
weaker the mind the more easily it goes
insane, it may seem a little odd that so
many more men go insane than women,
since from time immemorlal women are
counted the weaker vessel. Of the |, $50
insane at Napa only about 1856 are women
l,1l5 insane men to 335 insane women. OF
the 1850 insane in Stockton about the same
dsproportion of the sexes exists. How is
this to be accounted for. Every mother
who has reared family of boys and girls
knows that while these boys and girls are
under her supervision the girls are fully as
liable to brain diseases as her boys. 1t would
not do to say woman'S co Imperative immu-
nifty from lunacy comes from her superior
brain. 1t would never do to hint that the
lords of creation are
NATURALLY WEAKER-MINDED
than women. Where, then, must we look
for the cause Of this strange state of
affairSl
Dr. Wilkins informed me that two thirds
of CALIFORNIA; insane are of foreign birth,
and that one-third of the States popula-
ton was of foreign birth. Thus we have
the singular fact that one-third of the popu-
lation furnishes two-thirds Of the insane.
The large majority of the foreign insane in
the State asylums are from Germany and
Ireland. Only a small proportion are from
pagan China, yet in San Francisco alone
are about $1,000 on 45, 1000 Chinese In
Napa were thirty-five Cinnamon and one
Insane Chinawoman.
DR.. Wilkins says that 80 per cent. of all
the insanity in the State is directly or in
directly caused by alcoholic drinks. The
population of San Francisco is about $780,
O0O The greater proportion of lunaticS
are furnished by this city. There are
nearly 5000 dramshops in San Francisco,
one drinking place to every seventy souls,
one to every eleven voters. 1t is estimated
that 1900 men nightly visit these shops
10 per cent. of these visitors are under the
age of 80 years; hundreds are under 1S
made a study of Chinatown, going through
u both by day and night to learn the ways of
pagans. China town, though small part
OF San Francisco, is in reality small sec
uon OF heather China set down in America.
there are observed all the habits and Gus
toms OF China; here they will not adopt the
Ghrlstlans practice Of dramshop visiting.
In all Chinatown | did not see beer
saloon or a whisky shop. True, some of
UneSe heathens smoke opium, but from my
observations and all the testimony | could
get not one quarter to the extent that our
people drink. I visited the opium dens,
oo'h by night and by day, and found COM
paFalVely few using the poison. Every
Cnlnaman who could speak admitted that
OPIUM was bad, and so far as | could learn,
no effort is ever made to induce people to
learn the habit"