San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1897-11-27
INSANITY IN ENGLAND.
The Rate Is Increasing Faster Than
the Population.

/
Light seems at last to break in upon
the darkened vision of the English ex-
perts in lunacy in regard to the in
| crease of new cases of insanity in their
| country; for, though the official lunacy
commissioners flew of whom have
much renown as experts), in recent
special report thresh over the old straw
about apparent increase" and "accu-
mutation" and come 10 no very clear
conclusion, yet they state that OF 62
superintendents and others supposed
to have experience in the matter, only
30 declare decidedly that occurring
insanity"-that is, new cases-have not
increased, while ten believe that it has
gained beyond the gain in population.
or course the English statistics are not
in such condition as to allow very exact
differences to be drawn from them, but
we notice that where the effort has been
made to sift out the old cases the in
crease in new cases is apt to be greater
than where the traditional humdrum
way of reporting first admissions"
(Which may be of persons insane for 20
years) is followed.
Thus, in the great county of London,
where only the "new names" are COM
puted for five years, the actual gain in
these first admissions was I'll from
January, 1892, to January, 1864 gain
Of % per cent. in five years, or much
beyond the gain in population. The Of
ficials giving these figures, however,
wish to make certain allowances (Which
may or may not be required, after
which, they say, sit will be found that
occurring insanity has not increased
so greatly out of proportion to the pop
ulation as appears at first sight"
This may very well be true, since
no one acquainted with the facts be-
lieves that there is rapid gain in new
casestof insanity beyond what the gain
in population would require. But there
is no other way of accounting for the
very steady and now enormous increase
of accumulated insanity in England
than to suppose that some sort of it is
due to the steady increase of new cases.
Thus the proportion of registered in
sane to population, which was but 1867
in $1,000 in 1859 Zone in every $3.50, was
in 1896 31.3s in 10000 Zone in every 319).
Here there was large gain in the whole
population, though much less than the
gain among the insane. But in coun-
ties where population has been losing
and in the whole countries, like Ireland.
where this is so, we still see gain in
the new admissions of the insane. Thus
in Nottingham, where the population
in ten years (1ss6-1S95) fell off more
than 5000. or 2h per cent, the yearly
insane admissions went up from 100
to about $50.
The first requirement for statistical
accuracy On this matter, which excites
increased interest everywhere, is to
compute carefully the first attacks, as
distinguished from old or relapsed
cases. Until this is done for some con.
siderable area of country, where the
population is reasonably permanent
great cities showing disproportionate
increase, for several reasons, the labor
of investigators among discordant and
incomplete statistics will hardly fur
nish basis for inference of any value.
In this English report the nearest APP
proach to such statistics seems to be in
orsetshire-though still very imper-
feet; and there the singular result is
that while from 1873 to 1893 the popu-
lation (about $4,000 did not gain at
all, the total of asylum patients rose
from BAG to sci, and the aggregate i'm
sane. ETC., in the county from 541 to GIG.
Here emigration had probably removed
so many of the young and vigorous that
insanity increased among a compare
lively enfeebled remainder. The same
observation would be true of Ireland as
a whole.-Springfeld CMass.) Republic
an.