INSANITY INCREASING

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 3, 1904

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 30, No. 31.

INSANITY INCREASING.

The following extract from the Christian Work is a sober setting forth of a condition which modern science knows no way of altering. It is a condition, also, which is becoming more pronounced with each year. We quote:—

From the statistics just put forth by the State Commission on Lunacy of New York it is shown that the past year has been marked by a disquieting increase in the number of the insane. This increase is some forty per cent. above the normal. Very similar conditions obtain in other states. In Massachusetts, for example, the net increase has been much greater than in New York, and the same is true in many states where the statistics are presumably complete and correct. The observation of greatest interest in this connection would seem to be that there is a relation between the increase of insanity, and the development of industries, which is sufficiently pronounced to unsettle the popular belief that the isolation and monotony of farm life are conducive to insanity. The reverse seems to be the fact. In this relation it is worthy of attention that Superintendent White of the Government Hospital in Washington, who has made a study of this subject, finds that insanity prevails much more in the manufacturing districts than in the agricultural districts. The ratio of insanity per capita is three times as great in Massachusetts as in Texas. The state of New York is now carrying 40,000 insane people. All the facts obtainable point to the conclusion that an agreeable, quiet life, free from anxiety and worry, is the best guarantee against the dread disease, insanity.

While the closing sentence is true, still that fact does not relieve the situation; for the general tendency of the times is to desert the country and flock to the cities. This not only adds to the congestion of the cities, but, by thus doing, increases the very causes that are admittedly increasing insanity. What a proof of a debilitated race, that one state alone is able to muster an army of more than thirty-three regiments of insane. It is a striking sign of the times.