The Norfolk Virginian. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 186?-189?, 1895-07-06
IHE HOTBED OF PEREGS
The Dread Disease Has Its Storm
Centre in New York.
More Victims of the Disease There
Than In All the Rest of the Coun-
try. Its Spread Quoted Against
Assertions As to Mans
Growing Strength.

IN ptflei OF ltS tutuOr Inal the human race
was never so healthy and strong us at
prosept, has eaught the eye of the med
fcal fraternity, and somo of its members
]. are not slow TO combat the assertion.
One very pertinent example cited to
uphold the opposite view of the situa-
tion and which will have as great an in
terest to the lay us tho professional
mind is the alarming increase in one
3 very deadly disease of the present time,
which has been brought into exceeding
! notoriety Through the prominence Of
many Of its victims-paresis
Whatever be said OF the increase Of
paresis throughout the world is Of don
ole moment TO Americans for the reason
II that New York is 'ho, bed of the
disease, the storm center, whose rush
ing existence is u barometer to the bust
& nets activity elsewhere III this country.
81 AUTHORITIES say there are twice as many
Y victims of paresis in that city and state
MS IN the entire remainder Of the coun-
try.
La single asylum, for example, that
ct Ogdensburg, there were among the
500 admissions 81 cases of general par
Ssls This would make the proportion
OF general Yaresis more than per cent.
Among seven state asylums, to which
See patients were admitted in 1890,
there were &C cases Of general paresis,
or little over per cent. If per cent
4 be the general ratio for this disease in
tho state of New York, then tho total
4 number of patients among the 10, 900
4 insane would be about 400. AS u mat
tor OF fact, the number is much creator
because the proportion OF this disease is
z larger in the New York and Kings
. county asylums than in those of the
!. state at large. But even if there were
but a 900 cases of general paresis among
q the 100, 600 insane of this country it
( would be an extraordinary evidence of
che development Of disease which in
4 She last century was certainly not known
even if it did exist
Matteaw;n is the asylum devoted by
New York state to the caro- of its Grim
s1nal insane One would scarcely expect
to find i'll this class very large num-
her of patients. Yet among tho ITO
Il male patients admitted TO that institu-
,tion during the last year six wcro vic
TINS of the malady. There havo been
admitted into this asy hmm during the go
4 years of its existcme-from Sept. 20.
$3.50, to Sept, 80 hast ycar-a total of
3 1,15l patients, and of these there We're
40 parctics.
A strong contrast TO these figures is
\ FURNISHED by the report of Il VOL known
4 connecticut Institution, tho Hartford
Y Retreat, by which it appears that in n
Y total of lO2 admissions there was only
\ one case Of general parcsis, Il refreshing
Z proportion, met with also i'll the figures
from many, indeed most, other asylums
outside New York city
~ Coming again to tho local New York
institutions, it may be said that there
IS total population of about 800 vic
TINS OF this malady in the public asy-
y lum on Ward island, number which
ID being augmented each year by the
4 ever growing list of fresh patients.
The exhibit from Bloomingdalo is
much worse than this, quite naturally.
because it is to this semiprivate retreat
that many Of the city's victims go. Tho
disease from its character is found in
much creator proportion among persons
able to pay for their maintenance than
an the ranks Of those who must be re-
Il moved to the public hospitals. There is
no lack OF it in recent years among all
GLASSES of the city's roidents, but bust
4 ness and professional worry, together
with dissipation Of various kinds, in
(which men and women Of means find
themselves at liberty to indulge in the
4 crowded centers, plays q large part in
making targets for this subtle disease.
These patients are the ones most likely
to DO found in such, q place as Bloom
ingdale.
One hundred and twenty light insane
persons We're admitted to that institu-
b ton last year. OF these Is were suffer
Z ing from that general paralysis of the
brain and body known popularity as par
: esls This is, moro than S "a per cent Of
the admissions Of persons who had sue
cuinbed to all the various forms of in
sanity to which mankind is a victim.
Here is curious thing" said DR..
Fitch of the Bellevue hospital staff, TAX
ing from a drawer Of his desk card.
1.-The man whose name is on that card
was an actor. examined him at Belle
fyne, and he was sent over to the Ward g
Island Insane asylum He was suffering
! from paresis. He handed me the card
when saw him in the hospital"
The card was an ordinary pasteboard
and read as follows.