Norwich bulletin., 1916-02-05

ton where the doors close behlnd an
incurable. the rest Of whose life is,
| for obvious reasons, charitaply hidden.
| The Death Rate.
| 1t is only when the aggregate toll
| of pareSiS is considered that the need
of measures to combate it becomes ap-
parent. Since the disease runs a fatal
| course in from one to three years an
| either. from the reports of admissions
to hospitals or from the mortality re-
ports. The annual death rate from
1 paresis in the state of New York is
| about one thousand; one man in
| every nine and one woman in every
thirty, the country over, who die be-
| tween the ages of forty and sixty die
| from this disease. The admissions to
| the hospitals for the insane in the
| United States number about seventy
! thousand annually. and of these ap-
| proximately ten per cent. are victims
| of general paralysis. The ratio in the,
| eastern states is somewhat higher.
| Syphilis of the brain and. other syphili-
| tic disorders causing insanity are re-
| sponsible for from one and half to
| two per cent. more. A very consider
able number of paretics and other of
/ the classes just mentioned never come
| to hospital care. The aggregate, then,
| of mental diseases resulting from
| syphilis, a preventable disorder, must
| run well toward ten thousand annually.
| AS public health problem the con-
troll of hyphilis is outranked in num-
| Der and kind only by diseases than
| can be counted on the fingers of one
| hand.
Alcohol Greatest Cause.
Certain poisons produce degenerative
| disorders of the nervous system which
| eventuate in mental weakness; of
! these alcohol is responsible for by far
| the largest number. There is no
| community of opinion as to the exact
/ Ofo he
| tenn, and out of widely differing opin-
| ion it is not easy to arrive at conclu-
sions. In the last general census
which was inclusive of the population
of institutions for the insane the
computation of alcoholic psychoses
was meant to include only the men
tai diseases which. by their character
istic symptoms are known to be the
direct of alcoholic intemperance'.
Above ten per cent. of the admissions
into institutions for the insane were
reported under the general head al
coholic psychoses". This would mean
that at the present time not less than
seven thousand of the admissions in
an illness of alcoholic origin. Ten
per cent. is probably too low; twelve
or fifteen would perhaps be nearer a
! true estimate. The percentage of re-
covecies is very small. 1t cannot be
a. source of any particular satisfaction
found to be higher than in any other
division in the national census.
Korsakoffs disease is a characteris-
tic though not very common form Of
poisoning. 1t is characteristic by I'M
usual disturbance of the memory,
Justification of memory So called-loss
of interest in family and affairs, and
utter inability to attend to business.
Such patients are unable to recall in
a iTaor hot hos toll MIA ltJr-
ing the day, and they make up out of
whole cloth statements that are so CO.
herent and connected as to deceive
those who are not informed as to the
facts. One patient related in great
detail his experience in attendance at
the funeral of a friend, where the fu-
neral was held, the clergyman who
presided, the persons who were pres
ent-in fact, such detail as to make it
seem impossible that the story could
have been a fabrication, yet the man
had not been away from the hospital
grounds for many weeks, and the
friend whose funeral he had so fully
described was himself still attending
when this disease declares itself and
alcohol is uhdeniably teh cause.
Abuse of Alcohol and Law Violations.
The abuse of alcohol is probably re-
sponsible for many of the so-called
paranoic conditions out of which grow
so, many attractions against the law.
These systematized delusional states
are marked by suspicious and jealous
les of those who have formerly been
most trusted. The explanation that
has been advanced for this particular
mental attitude is that when the pa
tient has arrived at the point that he
has suffered mental impairment from
alcohol poisoning his judgment has
become weakened, his ability to meet
environment has narrowed, until he
looks upon those who have criticized
him as responsible for his troubles.
Out of this situation ideas of jeal-
ousy and persecution grow rather ma
turally. 1t may be admitted that only
certain temperaments suffer from al
cohol poisoning, but it should be re-
membered that without the alcohol.
peculiarties and idiosynosynorasies
would not have developed into mental
disease.
Alcohol and syphilis stand in the
role Of destructive agents to the ner-
vous system and they are both con-
trfbutory causes in other forms of in
sanity than paresis and the alcoholic
psychoses
Physicians and nurses working out
side the hospitals and investigating
conditions in which insanity has
arisen are able to confirm many of the
earlier assumptions relative to the
causal influence of alcohol The
elimination Of alcohol and syphilis
would relieve the occurrence of insan-
ity from twenty-five to thirty five per
cent.
Many PreVentabIe Cases.
In the other groups, formed under
the present system of classifying the
different forms of insanity, there are
no preventab1e classes but undoubted-
ly many preventable cases. Insanity
is not inherited as a disease but an
hereditary tendency exists in about
twenty per cent. of the, cases that
come under hospital care. If we were
to include the offspring of the feeble
minded who become insane, the per-
centage would be somewhat larger.
me preparatory schools and colleges
turn out an unfortunately large num-
Der suffering from mental disease Of a
serious kind. 1t may be questioned
here If work under undue stress in
lines for which the pupil was not well
equipped may not be largely response
bic for the overthrow. These are
causes that lie within, and the time