Waterbury Democrat., 1903-02-07
MORE BECOMING INSANE.
Growth of the Big Cities Is Filling
 Their Asy1ums with the Mem tally UnsOund.

Insanity in Chicago is on the in crease, but only to the extent expected | by the increase in thecity's population and the changing of conditions there, reports the Tribune.
 Dr. D. R. Brewer, professor of men,
 tai and nervous diseases in Rush and | the Northwestern Women's Medical college and the author of a textbook
 on the subject, of insanity, said: 'In- ranity thrives i'll urban communities. Great cities are the hotbeds of degen- cracy. In New York the proportion of insane to the sane is one to $40. In Chicago it is one to 400. The rate is increasing in all great cities. Briehys the reason is that in this day and age we are living too fast. Modern condi- tions of life are enfeebling. We live in flats in which all the attention is paid 10 heating, none at all to ventilating. We come downtown in the street cars in which the air is worse than that of the Black Hole of Calcutta. We bolt our meals, rush from one employ ment to another, take little or no time to sit down and pull ourselves together. Naturally, in every great city, the tendency is toward an increase of in sanity. Such is the case in Chicago.
 Insanity increases in old and settled communities, said Dr. H. N. Mover. Chicago is reaching that stage in it's development where we will reap some of the destructive effects of modern civilization, These effects are not seen in new communities for several reasons First, it is not the sick, the lame, nor the halt who emigrate. It is the young and vigorous. Persons of sound minds and sound bodies, not subject to lnsan- ity. Then, as pioneers, they live an outdoor life, and breathe plenty of fresh air, have few of the vices which abound in great city, and altogether are those least liable to mental disor- ders. The state of Minnesota, for in- stance, is to-day a representative com munity of the pioneer class, and con- sequently smaller proportion of in sanity is found there thani in any other state in the union. Chicago has passed out of the pioneer class and has reached the second or third generation descen ed from that sturdy race, and conse- quently we may now expect an in crease in insanity. In every great city that has fully passed the formative period the ratio of insanity is about one to $40 of the population. Insan- ity will continue in Chicago until we have reached that ratio"
 In Chicago the method of having person declared insane and sent to an an asylum is the same that it has been for years. All the cases come be- fore the county judge, Judge Carter. There are two modes of inquiring into a persons sanity, either by trial before jury of six, or the judge can, if he so elects, rule that the examina- tion shall be in chambers before the judge and two experts in insanity, appointed by himself. The latter meth cd has less publicity than the jury trial, which, however, must be always resorted to where there is a contest in the case, and where there is some ground for the belief. that the per sons who bring the charge % insanity might have some ulterior motives in sending the alleged insane person away to an asylum.