HEREDITARY INSANITY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1857, 17 September 1913, Page 7

HEREDITARY INSANITY.

QUESTION FOR EUGENISTS,

SEGREGATION OP THE UNFIT.

There aro some interesting remarks in the report of the Mental' Hospitals Department, which was introduced into ( the Legislative Council yesterday afternoon on one of the chief causes of insanity. Dealing with tho question of heredity—the cause assigned in 14.97 per cent, of tho cases admitted last year —Dr. Hay, the Inspector-General, says: "The.returns. with respcct to heredity d 6 not,'and never do, represent its total incidence. One may hold that tho stress alleged as tho causo >vas of itself insufficient to disorder a stable brain, but can enter only what is acknowledged, and ono may observe nervouj peculiarities among visiting relatives, pointing to common inheritance; but the knowledgo cannot always be nsei in compiling statistics, either becauso theso persons have shared tho same faulty environment, or tho characteristics .may havo descended from a branch unrelated to tho patient. We havo, however, examples of heredity being denied in cases where there aro other members of tho family already in ono or other of the mental hospitals, and it is clear that the percentage abovo is too small.

A Future Burden. "One cannot leave this subject without calling attention to tho burden, of misery and cost which present-day humanitariamsm is piling up for the future. That civlilisaition should leave the destiny of the' unfit to a ruthless struggle for existence is unthinkable. Wo are not going back to tho laws of Lycurgus, but' forward, even' if it be from the Koran, wherein it is written, 'Give not unto those who are weak of understanding tho substance which God hath appointed you to preserve "for them; but maintain them thereout, and clothe them, and speak kindly unto them.' The truest kindness is to reduce as far as in our power lies the number of unfit persons brought into being without; proceeding to drastic ■ remedies, which are all very well when considered academically,-,but.which would in application defeat, their object. "One strongly feels that the real need is for education in these matters, a slow process, but one which in the end is more likely to effect its purposo, and it should always bo remembered that legislative hindrances to marriage, often suggested, do not sottlo the question of procreation. Undoubtedly, a material and, lasting good would result if legislation could bo framed to include a section of feeble-minded, women, who do not come within the definition in the Mental Defectives Act, among persons to- bo segregated and rationally provided for.

"Our Act can include thoso alone in whom there is a recognisable degree of' mental deficiency, necessitating their being placed under oversight, care, or control; but thero aro others who, among those with whom thoy habitually associate, would hardly oo regarded as feeble-minded, and, having a blunting of tho moral sense and a decided pliancy under temptation, are a manifest danger in tho oommunity, and should bo placed out of harm's way until thoy become harmless."