El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1912-09-23

MAJ 1t is believed the proceedings
w of that section of the Inter
national Congress OF Hygiene and Dem
ography which deals with the preven-
ton of mental diseases will be ranked
among the most interesting features
of the sessions of the big organization
Along with other nOn-contaglous as
eases, insanity is making heavy 1nroads
upon the health Of the nation. WINE
the sick rate and the death rate from
all germ caused diseases is constantly
declining through the increasing Ell
fectiveness of hygienic measures, the
opposite is true of those diseases winch
are not caused by germs and notably
true Of mental diseases, 1t has oeen
shown, for instance, that there are
approximately three times as many
insane people in the United States to-
day as there were before the civil war
in proportion to population.
National Treatment OF Mental Diseases.
The United States now has a national
organization for the extension Of ny
gienic measures against mental disease
and it will tell, through one of Its lead
ing members, just what has been &C
complished along that line 1t is gen
orally recognized that there are now
numerous preventable causes of mental
unbaIance, such as the too free use OF
intoxicants, the marriage and rearing
of families by weak minded people,
morbid surroundings, and the ike 4
study Of the cause and an effort TO as
sess the responsibility that shall be
laid at the door of each, Will be one OF
the features of the discussion 1t also
has come TO be understood that thOu-
sands who formerly were given up to
be hopelessly insane may be treated
in such way as to restore their men
tai balance and make them useful mem
bers of society. At the government hos
initial for the insane at Washington a
system of prolonged cross examination
to find the real cause of the victims
decisions has been reSorted to, and
once the doctors are able to hit upon
the idea that threw the victims mind
off its balance. success frequently at
tends their efforts to break down the
delusion-
Long a Study of Educators.
Feeble mindedness has long been the
study of educators and medical men,
! with a view both to alleviating the con-
/ ditiOn of those who suffer and to pre-
I vent the birth of feeble minded chill
I dren. In order to get at the subject
/ properly it was decided by the English
! royal commission on feeble minded to
4 define it's varying degrees. To those
who from birth or an early age are 50
| defective that they are unable to guard
| themselves against common physical
! dangers it gave the name of idiot.
I An ''imbeciIe" il defined as one 1ncapa-
! BILE of earning living but capable OF
guarding against ordinary physical
dangers. Those who are able to earn
| their own living under favorable cir
! cumstances, but who, from birth or
f; early age are incapable o. managing
! themselves and their affairs with or
! binary prudence. it called "morons-
/ 1t has been estimated that the proper
! tions of the. people of weak-minded-
ness from childhood are about as fol-
/ lows: Idiots. % percent; imbeciles,
| so percent; and morons, % percent
| The moron is pronounced the worst
! drag upon societ4s since few people rec
ognize him as feally feeble minded
k~z~ cfu r.
| son. with too much sense to be called
| crazy and too little TO be called strong
/ minded Usually he becomes either
pauper or a criminal 1t has been found
I by investigation by the famous Cation
| laboratory that there are many pau
| pers in the almshouses Of England
( whose parents. grandparents, and
/ greatgrandparents were paupers be-
Heretofore little hope has been held
! out of eliminating feeble mlndedness-
I Because no one had yet found cure, 1t
vas presumed that no cure could be
, found-a line of reasoning that would
I have been fatal to the hopes of flndlng
/ all great cures for disease we use to-
day had it been followed. In the case
/ of idiots it has been agreed that the
only hope there is of their elimina-
1 ton is by eugenics, since the defect
I i've nature Of their brain tissues,
/ which has been shown by examination
leads to the conclusion that the mental
One of the Causes.
! One Of the causes. of feeble minded
ness in childhood is the absence, or a
diseased condition, of the thyroid gland
the gland whose enlargement causes
=oitre It has been found that treat
ment with thyroid extract will usually
; restore the victime to health and nor
! NAL mindedness. 1t has been suggest
J ed that a large number of cases OF
! feeble mindedness that set in when the
child is from 10 to II years of age
may be caused by some similar physical
/ condition 1t is not improbable that
/ research along this line will be dill
! gently pursued in the hope of finding
/ the cause of such feeble mindedneSs
| and recognizing the symptoms OF its
onset in time to adopt preventive
1t is now generally conceded to be
4 true that the major portion OF the
feeble mindedness Of the race is an in
| herited quality. While statistics
| conclusively prove that much of It
comes from environment. they also
show that the descendants of the feeble
minded are largely feeble minded
! themselves. Records OF individuals
who have married and where both are
feeble minded, disclose the fact that
their children and their childrens chill
dren. even down to the third and
fourth generation, have shown more
weak minded and criminal progeny
than normal minded
The historic case of the Jukes family.
where a very large percentage Of the
| offspring were either feeble minded
or criminals is pointed to by every
student of the problem. Another case
| is that of young soldier OF the Revo-
/ lutionary war. who after he was mus
1 tered out of the army. married feeble
| minded woman in New Jersey. At the
{ time Conklin made his Investigations he
/ found that from the feeble minded
| daughter of that marriage there were
$50 descendants. Later the soldier mar
ried a Pennsylvania Quakeress OF nor
nal mind. From that marriage there
resulted eight normal children. and yet
| from these eight children there were
| descended only 465 persons OF the de-
scendants OF the first marriage only
IS were normal-46 out OF 4S0-while
out of the sos descendants Of the second
! marriage 362 were normal. OF the first
/ marriage there were $50 who were a
serious detriment to the community
T while of the second there were but
| three.
WipinE Out Hereditary Feeble Minds
Indiana is leading the way toward
wiping out that feeble mindedness and
; criminality that comes from heredity
A law has been passed which has fol
its purpose the prevention of offspring
from criminally inclined people. An
other law provides that no marriage
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