The Chronicle PUBLISHED DAILY LEVIN. WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 29, 1915. MENTAL HOSPITALS.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 29 September 1915, Page 2

The Chronicle PUBLISHED DAILY LEVIN. WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 29, 1915. MENTAL HOSPITALS.

'1 lie annual report on Menial Ilo^pitak>, submitted to Parliament last week, allows that the increase in the number ot causes ol insanity recorded ill New Zealand (.and, in tact, Australasia) .luring recent years was again apparent in m-1-10. Itie reports shells no

light on fcoinc aljstnt.se points relating lo insanity tliai (til part, at leinstj are Hithin the knowledge oi some experts tt the mental hospital service; but when the time-, becomes opportune maybe the autherities will deal, in tlietr reports, with this aspect of insanity. Thoy eould, at least, in a guarded way show how certain cases might be cured

in the incipient stage without necessity lor the expense and degradation that iollow upon the commitment of patients to mental hospitals. It is well within the knowledge ol some experts in Insanity that certain types of mental disease are caused by the influence (our own word is •'domination") ot minds ol a baser type over people reduced by illness or strain io a point of resistance below liorniiiility. • Ihe trouble is .manifested in a lorm ol hypnotism that is as much practised in .\cw Zealand as in other countries, and its victims are to bo seen in the neurotic wards oi l'orirua and elsewhere. When some Ministry arises that is seized of the widespread gravity of tlio position, an-i when some Minister in Charge of Public llosipbals is appointed who will be ol a temperamental nature to allow ol a thorough investigation of the parts played by men till hospitals in relation to the general trouble, a sweeter and healthier atmosphere will surround us

Hevcrting to the statistical aspect a the problem ol dominion insanity, iv' nolo that tlio report of the luspectorGeneral of Mental Deieetivcs .shows that at the beginning ot 1911 there 'were 3964 patients on tlio Mental Hospitals Register, and at the end of the year the total had swelled to -1111. !n addition to these, another 7-l. f ) were under care, control or oversight outsicfe of thTfce 'institutions. The total proportion of mentally defective patients to the total population was 1 hi 2(38 (exclusive of Maoris) and 1 in '270 (•inclusive of Maoris). T'liese ligures are almost identical with the ratio :n England and Wales last year (1 to 207k hut considerably below tlio.se of Ireland (L in 175). The number of patients admitted to New Zealand lnen.al hospital during 11)14 was 808, being 8-1 in excess of the number admitted during 1913. The steady increase in the number oi eases certified is shown >n a table drawn out by Uie inspector-Gen-eral. It covers a period of eleven years. The quinquennial period uf 190-1-b had a record ot new cases totalling 0,71 per ten thousand population; the period for 1909-13 had a record ct ti.lo per ton thousand; the year 1911 record of 0.07 per tell thousand, i'or the decennial period 190-1-1913 the percentage Was 0.07. Taking into account the secondary as well ns the initial admissions, the percentages run : 1901.-7.01 per ten thousand; 1909-13 7./30 per ten thousand ; 191-1. 7.80 pel ten CTiousand ; 1901-13, i .80 per ten thousand. In England and Wales during 1913 every 10.000 of the genor-'il population contributed -1.98 finst admissions and 0.01 total admissions (idiot establishment excluded); in -Scot - land the ratio for total admissions wis 7.78. arid in Ireland 7.80.