Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1888-01-06
The Mystery of Insanity.

Chinese in in their own country; but
insanity increases among them i'll our
civilization. Insanity is steadily in
creasing in both England and America.
The prevalence of it on the Pacific
coast has been ascribed by some OBJ
servers to the early hardships and
anxieties that bore heavily upon the
first settlers, but the recent report of
the superintendent of the insane asy-
lum of New York shows that the pop
ular belief that a calm, religious, tenn
perate life Of peaceful conditions is
quite certain to be sane one, or that
domestic life, within happy mar
riage, is generally free from madness, is
without foundation. OF the whole
number of New York City's public in
sane, 62 per cent. were of temperate
habits, and 50 per cent. used some
form of alcohol. Eighty-eight per
cent. were pagans and less than 2 per
cent. were infidels. While 32 per
cent of the unfortunates were natives
of Ireland, 80 per cent. of the United
States and 81 per cent. of Germany,
over 81 per cent. belonged to the
Catholic church. Six per cent. of the
patients were OF Jewish persuasion.
About Al per cent. were single and 40
per cent. married. Women are more
prone to melancholia than men, for of
the total number Of patients, SO per
cent. were females and Al per cent.
males.
Ceaseless toll is assigned by this re-
port as a frequent cause of insanity,
and the greater number of cases are in
non-professional callings.
Of the female portion of the pa
tients, 70 per cent. were housewives,
domestics, cooks, seamstresses or tail
dresses. Forty-seven per cent. were
dOmestics, % per cent. housewives,
3 per cent. cooks, per cent. seam
stresses and 2 per cent. tailoresses.
Of the male portion 40 per cent. were
laborers, clerks, peddlers, drivers and
carpenters. Twenty-fOur per cent.
were laborers, Z per cent. clerks, 81
per cent. peddlers, 81 per cent. drivers,
per cent. carpenters and q per cent.
cigarmakers.
These statistics do not surprise us,
for observation long ago satisfied us
that the popular disposition to ex-
plain lunacy and softening of the
brain by intemperance, avarice, lust,
crime or religion is delusion. d.
tors arc prone to jump to wrong c
clusions in such cases. We knew 4.
case in point of distinguished law
yer in New England, at one time
lieutenant-governor OF his State, who
suddenly broke down in mind, in 1876,
when about Sc years of age. The
doctors all agreed that he WAS suffer
ing from general paresis, but he is
living yet, in good physical health,
aud as bright mentally as when he
first began to have hallucinations,
twelve years ago. If he had had gen.
eral paresis, as the doctors diagnosed,
he would not have survived until this
date. The doctors know very little
about insanity; they not seldom COM
NIT sane persons rs insane, and quite
often keep patient in confinement
who is absolutely sane. The experts
in insanity all swore Guiteau was sane,
when every man who looked at him or
talked with him felt that he Was a
lunatic if there ever was one, and the
recent publication Of the diary and
scrapbook in the New York Graphic
leaves no doubt in the mind Of any
candid person that the man who shot
Garfield was mad, if there ever was Il
madman, and yet Gen. Sickles, Gen
Cole, and number of sane men, who
have escaped conviction for murder on
the ground of insanity, had no difficulty
in setting experts to testify to their
mental responsibility.
It is not very difficult to settle the
question of a mans sanity, but it
must be exceedingly difficult t. decide
what caused his mental overthr wv, for
the doctors seem to only guess ut it,
and quite as often guess wrong as
right Overwork and hardship does
not seem to explain insanity Oh this
slope, for on the Atlantic seaboard in
sanity prevails among classes that
have never known hardship, overwork,
intemperance, lust, avarice, or domes-
tic trouble.-Sd.
THE pioneers of Oregon will hold
their annual reunion in Portland June
Is, 1888. Rev. Thomas Condor, oi
Eugene, will deliver the annual ad-
dress and Hon. E. L. Applegate the
occasional address.
A PROPOSITION has been made by one
of the largest iron works on the Pa
cific coast to purchase test lot OF l,
600 tons of iron ore from the mines OF
Iron mountain, three miles from the
city of Cle-elum. AS these are the
most accessible mines in the great
iron field, the test lot can be furnished
in a short time, and the value of the
iron at once established.