Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1899-11-08

thus &C impaired proportiOnatelyw with the
insane among other women. Until
this has been done we shall lack arith-
metica proof Of the theory; but the
CENSUS Sheds no light on this problem.
Certain facts, however, make strongly
against the theory: one branch of
which is that the solitude, hard work
and unsuitable companionship of
women in the rural districts directly
causes insanity.
Now. although we know little, as
yet, of the real causation of insanity
particular cases. we do know that it
ONES. in most cases. from physical
CO 'nditions, not from those which are
st richly mental. Among women, in
"a uity as often inherited. and often
ocopSiored by accidents and diseases
peculiar to the sex. / know no reason
Why farmers families should inherit
the insane tendency more than others;
nor why the women in rural districts
should be specially liable to feminine
malad les. But we do know that one
form of inSanity-tEe dreaded Senerai
IA. alysis-is far less common in the
country than in centers OF dense popu-
, Ia ton; and we must note the TACT that
insanity in general seems To increase
most in such ccnterS In proportion as
: cauutry becomes less rural and more
urban, insanity is found to increase
m re RAPIDLY; while our manufacture
ing cities like Lowell. Lawrence and
Bc ston. send more than their due
share of omen 70 the insane hos
! nit,ls. This was the observation of
The late DIR. Goldsmith. made to me
! while he WAS at the head of the Dan
z-crs rrnatic hospital; and. though it
-annot b. automatically proved, for
! lack of the elei' ats of calculation, it
| has long seemed to me extremely prob
/ able.
In travelling through the country we
,ftcn see Woodlands which locomot We
srarkS nave It I on fire: in Maine they
may he pire or spruce: in Massachu-
SettS, maple. oak or chestnut; in New
| York sometimes the magnificent tulip
tree Could we say that the pine is
moro exposed to engine fires than the
| 90 i? Certainly the maple will be thus
! attacked sOone" than the tulip tree.
| Wherever as in New England when
the dclusion first began to be encour-
aged the wives and daughters of
| farmers make up great part of the
! feminine POPULATION, insanity among
! them has leen common: but not more
SO than it now is among the operative
| population of factory towns. 1t is not
| solitude and not alM avs hard work
which causes insanity among women;
| tie vicious women Of cities who toll
not, neither do they spin, are more ex
posed to insanity by their ways of life
| than the families of farmers in YER
mont or Michigan or on the prairies
of the Northwest.
| The fallacy of which l write is one
: of the many fruits of insufficient
/ prem ses and TASTY generalization.
The English quack who invented a
remedy FOR aii complaints tried it first
| or = shoemaker, who recovered: his
next tatient was a blacksmith who
! died Thereupon he marked the bottle
wh.ril contained his panacea: This
| medicine cures shoemakers, but kills
/ blu OK smiths" Much of the reasoning
about insanity and its cause or cure
| which / have encountered since l first
began to study the subject in 1863 has
! been of this primitive sOrt-post hoe.
| rgO prU pter hoe, as pedantS say.
| There have been few pedarts more
pedantic than many of the writer's on
psychi try and neuroses. and their ar
yuments are often addressed to the
fancy rather than the logic of their
reade