Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1902-04-25
The World Going Mad?

the pulpit and in gatherings where
wise men meet. There is much more
insanity now than there was a genera
ton or two ago. The brain and nerve
specialists make this statement and
they have a wealth of statistics to back
it up. So they declare that the ten
dency of the world is toward universal
madness, and calmly ask what is to be
done about it. Those who hold this
opinion are not in the position Of the
crazy man who thinks that he is sane
and everybody else is crazy. They are
experts in mental and nervous dis
eases, and they see that the hospitals,
asylums, retreats and other institutions
of like kind, whatever their name, are
getting more numerous and more
crowded, every year. The world is go
ing at a fast and faster pace, and no
wonder that countless thousands of
the men and women who try to keep
I'D with it become mentally unbal-
auced IN the awful effort. There are
many things in these times to drive
one mad which were not known, a
century or generation ago. The
business competition is keener; the
social whirl is dizZier; there are more
fads: brain is too often developed at
the expense of health and Drawn;
marriage laws are too lax; the whole
battle of life is hotter and more des-
perate No wonder that fewer people
went insane in the stage coach days,
before electricity had been harnessed
and steam utilized. The good old
times were slow old times, and mans
mind was seldom called upon to work
fast enough to endanger it's balance.
AS % the opinions and statements of
our eminent alienists it may be of in
terest to know that DR.. r. 3. Hoyt of
Detroit. says that within 200 years the
whole civilized world will be fit candi-
dates for the insane asylum. DR.. w.
B. Fletcher of Indianapolis, is more
hopeful and he expresses the opinion
that "the sickly Christian is very likely
to combine with the healthy natives of
uncivilized lands and, through the in
fusion of fresh and untainted blood,
prevent the catastrophe for a time"
| Dr. Fletcher says that in his own home
state of Indiana a case of insanity a
| half century ago was rarely ever heard
of, and statistics. show that there was
| but one case in every 1900 people,
while now there is a case in every 400
| inhabitants, and each new census re-
port shows an increase. DR.. Spitzka
| of New York, points out that it is so
| throughout the whole of the civilized
| world, and in such countries as France,
| the increase in insanity is alarmingly
great. In England and Wales in 1929,
there was but one case of insanity TO
| every $50 people, while in 1900 there
| was a case to every 500 Inhabitants.
He is unable to give the rate of in
| crease in this country but declares that
it has been large.
If the world is really going mad at
the rate indicated by these authorities,
it is a good time to consider the condi-
| ton of madness, it's cause and effects.
And who is to judge of madness and
say what constitutes it? 1t was one of
the sayings of Diogenes that most
men were within a fingers breadth of
| being mad for, said he, if a man
walked with his middle finger pointing
out, folks would think him mad, but
not so if it were his fOrefinger. 1t may
be that the spirit of genius pervades
the world more than in former days,
for, as Seneca said, almost a score of
centuries ago, there is no great genius
without a tincture of madness" Or it
may be politics which is unsettlng the
minds of men. There are often evil
denccs of this and Pope observed that
party is the madness of many for the
. gain of few
There are differences of opinion
among the poets as to the desirability
: of madness. To be sure, Browning
said:
ITS filter being sane than mad
but he also said in his Confessions:
How sad and bad and mad it was!
But then, how it was SWEET!
d And no less a poet than Dryden
= averred
r There is a pleasure sure
| In being mad which none but madmen
know
So there may be a pleasure and a sweet
ness in being in that condition which
the ancients and savages have looked
upon with such superstition and those
of later and wiser times with such pity.
The world may be truly a paradise, a
realm of bliss, when the prophecy of
: BODY AND BRAINS.