MENTAL HOSPITALS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2159, 15 August 1907, Page 4

MENTAL HOSPITALS.

DR. HAY’S FIRST REPORT. NTERESTING STATISTICS AND CONCLUSIONS. (Spocinl to Timos). WELLINGTON, August 19.

The first report of tho InspectorGeneral of Hospitals, which seems to bo an able n.ml exhaustive document, was presented to Parliament to-dlay by the Hon. Mr. Eowlds. ‘ At tho outset Dr Bay pays a graceful and feeling trih'nto to his Into chief. “It will he noted,” lie writes, “from tho expansion of tho Department administering the Lunatics Act that the time had come for its cleavage from that administering the Hospitals and Charitablo Institutions Act and its allies. The Department had grown almost imperceptibly and their responsibilities received increments without apparently burdening tho broad shoulders accustomed the weight, but these responsibilities once laid down were wisely deemed too heavy for a single load. The late In-spector-General was no ordinary man. His mind was as massive as his framo, his nobility of thought, his geniality, his forcefulness in action, made up a personality which I believe lias left its mark on the Civil Service of the colony. To the Department ho bequeathed a part of himself, a tradition of justice, of courage to do wWait is right without the thought of applauso or blame and of a righteous regard for tho public puree. I trust it may he my lot, as it shall bo my endeavor to maintain that tradition and to justify the confidence placed in me when appointed to succeed my honored chief.”

Tho proportion of tho total insane to the total population, exclusive of Maoris, is 3.49 per thousand, or 1 in 28G. Inclusive of Maoris it is 3.35 per thousand, or 1 in 298. One of the tables given reveals the fact that the Irish are responsible for an extraordinary proportion of lunacy in tho colony. The figures for the proportion in country of origin are remarkable, New Zealand contributing only 1 lunatic to ovary Gl3 of her people, Australia 1 to every 472, England and Wales 1 to every 140, Scotland 1 to every 123, Ireland 1 to every 68. The statistics quoted in the report are mostly the result of careful study in connection with the building up of a new nation. After referring to them in some detail, ithe Inspector-General says: —“The outstanding feature disclosed by these calculations is the remarkably low incidence of insanity among Now Zealanders. AVe have not figures at hand to trace the relative incidence at different periods of our history, but one may safely venture tho opinion that on tho whole the issue of the earlier settlers is tho more stable. The romance of pioneering attracts the venturesome, the brave and vigorous —the best- class of Briton. These empire-builders are also the builders of shelters for the less robust who follow as the country becomes more settled, and who find hardships where the others bad found adventure. Thereafter gold rushes provided tlieix quota, and since those days, though we have had and still get many of the best that the older lands oan give us, there have been many of the class we all know —the man who never had a chance —and between the two varying degrees of settlers and unsettlers, the average, as our figures clearly indiioa.te, is below the average of the country of origin. A similar return with respect to crime and charitable aid would bo of considerable interest and value. It is not too much to assume that the drop from a specially to a carelessly selected parentage must be prejudicial to the offspring. Dealing, however, with the figures, which are facts, and considering that only three generations separate the New Zealander from the parent stock, it would seem that altered conditions wero awakening the dormant prepotencies of the race, and that these were assisting the environment to triumph over evil heredity. This is very stimulating, very hopeful, but it is necessary that stimulation should be followed by action, that hope should not prove a flatterer—that we should not rest content with the present achievement nor lose the fear of retrogression. It will have been observed that tho incidence of mental disease rises towards maturity, and herein a young nation about to discard a name which seems to imply tutelage may read an instructive analogy. The foregoing figures indicate the necessity where control earn .be exorcised for better control over immigration. The State may easily lose more over an immigrant who can just pass muster than it is ever likely to gain. I think it would he reasonable in tho case of those assisted with passago money or otherwise induced to come here if a medical examination embracing enquiries into neuropathic inheritance wero instituted and if all who did not conform to a strict standard were rejected. This may be considered too sweeping, because as the neurotic do not always beget neurotic, we would undoubtedly lose some good colonists, but we should go as far as possible without being positively punitive; and most certainly persons who have had an attack of insanity should he disqualified. It is no answer that apparently our figures show a great regenerate process, when it is remembered that every group of about 141 English, 124 Scots, and G 8 Irish landed hero contributes each a patient to our mental hospitals, that there will he certainly others among them afflicted with some of the graver neuroses, and that it is probably tho issue of such persons that mainly figure as the insane among the native-born. If, indeed they are regenerated in the process of time the change is no-t brought about without much human misery and without great cost to the State; but let us count the initial cost, the mere material cost, by spreading over each group the fidl expenditure on the patient, it will be found that each person in the first lot costs the State about 6s llid, in the second about 6s 11-Jd, and in the third about 12s 7JU per annum, while under like conditions each New Zealander costs about Is 4Jd.” The report contains some weighty remarks on the question of heredity. “1 do not.” says Dr. Hay, “suggest drastic measures, because the matter must he left largely to public conscience. One is not sanguine enough to believe that in the selection of a life-partner as much care will be exercised ,as in tile selection of stock, which, of course, can be done dispassionately ; but surely it is the duty of interested persons to ascertain facts of personal and family history such as liavo to be disclosed before a life insurance company will accept a risk of even a hundred pounds. If it profit a trading company to pay a medical fee to keep itself safe for so small a risk surely it would pay to ’o something to avoid the great risk of persons marrying in ignorance when enlightenment may encourage the union of healthy men and women. If public opinion were .to see in this a matter for the action of the State so much tho better for the State. The value of an individual naturally leads to the next point to be considered, namely, the health of the mother and children. Apart from inducing bodily

disorders not directly associated with insanity, apart from mental onfeoblomont duo to arrested brain development and apart from tho fact that children comparatively seldom labor under -menial disease, it, may reasonably bo presumed that the proper nourishment of the infant both before and after birth must tell when moral and physical stress is encountered later in life and when toxaeniio states linvo to bo encountered, especially if thoro bo also a neuropathic inheritance to contend with, from this standpoint alone the work that Dr. King lias initiated in tho South for tlu* protection of the health of women and children is of groat importance. Ho is demonstrating that the mother is assisting tho Almighty in a miracle, tho ultimate success of which depends on tho manner in which sho regulates her life and that once tho child is born she must not for its lasting good and for her own good de.pr.ivo it of its birthright—tho nourishment that was ordained for its uso. Tho rapid development of tho brain in the three months before birth and tho three years after, when relatively it is out of all proportion to tho body weight, surely mark these out as critical periods with regard to ultimate mental stability.”