The Weekly Gazette for Middlesbrough, Stockton, Hartlepool and Cleveland District. — 1880-09-04 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

DRINK, RELIGION, AND "HIGHPRESSURE."  In the report of his recent official visit to the Sunderland 'Union lunatics in Sedgefield Asylum, Dr. Parker Crossby says: If If anything may be called • pleasing' to look at so many unfortunate fellow creatures, it was their clean and healthy appearance. With two trifling exceptions, their conduct before us was good. One woman, annoyed at the absence of the chairman, for whom she had prepared a surprise, had to be hastily removed from the room, and personally I have reason to be thankful I escaped what might have bevn a serious injury. One poor man had composed a song in honour of our visit, which he gave in good style to the tune of The Anchor's Weighed.' His strange delusion is that he has had hydrophobia for fifteen years. We could not fail to notice one striking symp• torn' of chronie disease; in many cases the patients had lost all memory of time, could not tell their age, nor how long they had been in; and although they seemed to know some of the Guardians by sight, could not recollect names or particulars. On the other hand, some answered questions very readily, and to look at them they seemed quite sane. I regret to say that a very large proportion of the oases are confirmed idiots and chronid imbeciles. It is a question whether many of these could not be as well treated in the union as at an asylum if sufficent accommoda. lion were provided, with a larger staff of officials. Something will have to be done in a few years time. Insanity is fearfully on the increase. There are in Great Britain alone no less than 93,634 certified lunatics —England, 71,191; Scotland, 9,624; and Ireland, 12,819. In addition to these, there must be at least twice as many who belong to what is called the ' nervous temperament,' and who, though eccentric and not suspected, . . . .  - . are at any moment liable to develop into acute mania. Of these there has been a number of cases lately in the law courts, and suiciies and murders we read oi daily are also examples. Many people say that ' drink' is the chief cause, and I will not attempt to deny that it is a fearful source of brain discease ; but my experience teaches me that the case of persons so affected are habitual drunkards' and those so-called 'sly drinkers' most frequent among women. I fear the grocers' license has this to answer for to a great extent. Some of the worst oases of insanity I have seen were women who had never tasted until they had the facilities offered them by many unscrupulous persons who had this license, ani who, I learned, allowed them spirits and charged the husband for groceries. I Lope this is not the case now. Such reople are not particular either to quantity or quality, and it is well known that a great amount of fiery and bad ' stuff' is soli in some parts of the country. Pure alcohol, in a diluted form—call it whisky, wine, or what you like, is a valuable stimulant —(the question is how much stimulant a man requires in these depressed times?)—and to those in health a glass of good ale cannot do harm; but such people as I have referred to cught entirely to avoid it. Another fertile cause of insanity is religion; and here I speak with the greatest reverence, as life without it is a mockery and delusion, but so much ' external' show and excitement cannot be too strongly condemned. Some of the socalled revivalists and salvation armies, though they may mean well, have driven hundreds of persons into asylums. 'I here are several other causes, such as love and jealousy; but my own opinion is that the true cause of so much increase is the rapid progress of the times we live in. On every class, and on all ages, the pressure of life as it is to-day puts a most severe tension. Competition waxes keener, the struggle for existence grows more exciting, the rapidly-increasing population makes the laws of demand and supply m re difficult to manage ; and that this struggle involves danger is certain, for statistics prove that while annzitauts, clergymen, and other wellto-do people, who have to take little thought for the morrow, not only live much longer than shopkeepers, artizans, and labourers, who have to contend for daily bread for themselves and families, but are very seldom found amongst the insane."