The Penn's Grove record., 1921-05-13
Alcoholic Dependents Fewer

Whether or not prohibition pro
hibits. there are fewer alcoholic pa.
tients at the State Hospital for the
Insane in Trenton than formerly, is
the assertion Of DR.. Henry A. Cotton.
medical director Of that institution.
The number of alcoholic cases in the
State institution has decreased from
an average of p per cent. of male adj
missions for a period of ten years to
5 per cent. since prohibition went into
effect. 1t simply means that the class
of patients who drank to excess and
finally landed in the State hospital,
among the working class do not have
the temptations of the saloon and con-
sequently are abstainers from alcohol.
In some of the large cities this has
not been the case, as the opportunity
for drinking has evidently not been
entirely eliminated and the quantity
as well as the quality of alcoholic
beverages has produced more cases in
the big hospitals, for instance in New
York.
"Alcohol IS now a negligible fac
tor in producing mental disturbances,
having fallen from q per cent. to 5
per cent. Syphilis, contrary to the
general opinion of the population, is a
very small factor in producing mental
disease, only 8 per cent. of the admis-
sions last year being aseribed to this
cause The mental diseases due to old
age constitute about 5 per cent. of adj
missions which are definitely due to
chronic infections as found in the
teeth. ~tonsils, gastro-intestinal tract
and genito-urinary tract. This 81 per
cent. is not only durable in the early
stages, but it is safe to say most of
them could be prevented if proper
treatment was received long before
the onset Of the trouble. Infected
teeth play probably the most impor-
tant role in not only producing trouble
directly from this infection, but by the
dissemination Of this infection thru
out the system from the original
source in the teeth and tonsils. Prac-
tically all our cases have infected
teeth, most of them due to bad dental
work. and a few Of them due to abso-
lutte neglect
During the last forty years there
has been an increase in the number of
insane patients in the institutions. DR..
Cotton declared that the proportion of
insane to 100000 population is the
in New York, which is 374.6;
New Jersey fifteenth, in the list, with
248,1 and the smallest proportion is in
Arkansas, with 83.1, and the average
for the United States is 220.5.
DR.. Cotton stated that the immen-
sity of the problem of the insane is
shown by fact that in 1918 there was
over 300, 900 patients under treatment
the institutions in the United States
and at the end of the fiscal year of
1918 there wer 232, 900 patients in in
stitutions in this country. According
to the statistics of the National Com
of Mental Hygiene, the increase
IF the insane in institutions since 1880
S 468 per cent, while the increase in
he general population has been no per
,ent. during the same period. Thus
he insane have increased four times
as rapidly as the general population.
It can be seen from this increase
hat the economic loss to the popula-
ion, not only in caring for these pa
tents. but in the elimination of their
productive activity, is enormous and if
he ratio continues as it has in the past
t is not difficult to predict that the
burden will become more and more
,nerous, said DIR. Cotton.