Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1894-04-26

several years been disturbing the
hlnacy administration of New York;
but he has added to the value of the
Journal in the exact ratio that he has
stirred the bile of the state IIlnacy
commission. There was no reason
why they should take offense at his
public3 ton of essays showing that in
sanity is fast increasing. instead of
diminishing, as these commissioners
said it would; nevertheless. they were
much offended. and have been seeking
in several petty ways to hamper and
degrade the Journal But it is pleas
ant to see that DR.. Blumer goes on his
way. unconcerned at the attacks. and .
preferring TO tell the truth. rather than .
to be an organ of Albany intrigues
The Journal last year printed many .
Instructive papers, read at Chicago or .
elsewhere, showing what is the condi- /
ton Of the insane and of lunacy ad /
miniSTatiOn in many parts of the (
world; and among these was one by |
Dr.. Chisholm Ross of Newcastle in /
Australia. giving facts concerning in |
sanity in New South Wales. at the !
L.
the population was 1.132 231 Some of /
the results given were curious and sur
prising. 1t has long been known that !
the Irish, as a race, are peculiarly !
liable to insanity: but the diSpropOr-
Tomato numbers Of the insane Irish
! in this Australian province, as COM
pared with the natives, and with other
naNOnalltieS, are astonishing. Of the
whole populationGn New South Wales
in 1881 (751 .46S) about One-eleventh
were -born,-69.1 1872: in 1891 they
had increased by immigration to 10
O51. Yet the Irish insane under care
in 1881 were S04. or one in every So;
| while in 1891 they had grown to 1926,
! or one in every 70. But among the
EngliSh-born people, 010,674 in 1881,
and 154,2 29 in 1S9D there Were only
l04 and 9O4 in the two yearS,-oue
in 157, and one in 171,-an actual
falling off in the proportion which in
any case was but half the ratio of the
! malady among Irishmen. The ratio in
! 1881 of the Irish-born insane to the
| whole people was 11.63 in 1000; and.
! ten years after it was 1867; but
| among the English it was only 6.36 and
! $50, while among the natives of the
! island it was as low as LAO and liz
! These figures are very hard to explain,
especially in view of the fact, alleged
by Sir Arthur Mitchell, that it is the
! well who emigrate from Ireland, leav-
! ing the lnsound behind. The whole
ratio of the insane to the sane is
much less, as might be expected, in a
country like New South Wales than in
England, Ireland, or Scotland; and
does not seem to be much increasing
In the April Journal another inter
eSting paper relates to the insane in
Cape Colony of South Africa,-Of
whom DR.. Greenlees, who writes it, is
one of the caretakers, as Superintend
ent of the Grahamstown asylum. The
whole people of Cape Colony were
1,527,224 in 1891. of whom fourth
(376.9S0 were white Europeans by
race; two-fifths (6OS456) were Kafirs;
5O.3SS were hottentots, and the rest
of several colored races. The num-
Der of the insane of all colors was
110S. or only one in 1.467; while in
England the proportion is one in 331
and even in New South Wales is one
in 361. Among the Europeans in
Cape Colony, however. there is one
insane person to every S47, while
the HOttentots furnish one in every
600 and the Kafirs only one in 200.
/ General paralysis is practically I'M
known there among the colored races,
and is less than a third part as COM
I q q in
The deaths are about equal to the re-
coveries in Cape Colony: while in most
| civilized countries the deaths exceed.
| Of the increase in occurring insanity
there, the insanity figures do not en-
! able us to judge; but in New South
: Wales DR. Ross does not think it is
/ increasing.
We have received the latest figures
! Of the insane in Wisccnsin,-a state
: where the account of them is kept
rather more carefully than in most
countries. On January 1, 1898, there
were under supervision in Wisconsin,
with an estimated population of /, 1885,
! 900, 1896 insane persons; a year later,
(January 1, 1S94) there were 3,747,-
a gain of 221, or more than per cent.
! in one year; the population in the
> same time having hardly gained 2
| per cent The average number under
! care for the year ended October 1,
, 1898, had been about $3.50; the recov-
= cries were 219, and the deaths 3O6.
| There are now more than 2.2O0 pa
| tents in the small county asylums of
! Wisconsin, and about 1000 less in the
! three state hospitals. The Milwaukee
county hospital has about $50. Three
new county asylums are soon to be
opened: when the small asylums will
shortly contain $500 and the large
hospitals, including Milwaukee, less
than 1 800