The Growth of Insanity in Ireland

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXII, Issue 43, 27 October 1904, Page 6

The Growth of Insanity in Ireland

lv his- annual report Dr. William Graham, Medical Superintendent of the Belfast Lunatic AsyJMni, gives Homo mte-esung facts in connection with the uWpJeasiant problem of niLieasuig insanity in Ireland. He says ' No explanation of this terrible growth has ever been offered by the advocates of accumulation. It is obvious that the source of the evil must be sought outside tine asylum walls. Turn the matter as we may in our minds, we are driven by the sheer force of facts to the conclusion that the mass of the increase is real and absolute, not apparent and relative. When all fair deductions have been made, ins'amty is tocreasifnig about 1U par cent, taster than the population in England, and with us is increasing in spite of a diminishing population. And this position is corroborated by experts whose outlook is not bounded by Ireland, but extends to the civilised world. Allow me to qiiote a few words from a recent article of Professor Lombroso •— ' Insane persons have multiplied a hundredfold with civilisation to such an extent that where a few years ago one madhouse was enonah now 100 axe needed.' ]\\ the Lnitccf States, while the population doubled in little more than 30 years, the ins>ane increased sixfold ; '■■o in tho last decade the increase in population was 30 per cent, and that of the insane 155 pe/r cent. In 1 France there were 1.-S1 insane pe>r 10,0,000 inhabitants in 1883, 133 in 18b'l, 136 in 18.88.' This sounds appaLjimg. But Facts are Facts, ard once observed an effort m.u.vt be made to trace the cau'-e. Dealing with alcoholism as a predisposing cause, accoiding to many, the view of Dr. Graham is that ' the euno-us fact remains that amongst savage peotplos alcohol does not produce that ultra-demoralisa-tion oE tho nervous system known to civilised men. Tharo must bo some other cause at work to account for it In other words, alcoholism is not merely a cause, it is an efiect as well ; a symptom of an alneady existing degeneracy of brain and nervous system. It is not denied thati continued drunkenness may set up such changes which, gradually increasing from generation to generation, wiil issue in insanity. But cases of this order a re probably exceptional. In the majority of instances theic is already a weakness of brain and nerve which leads to a want of self-control, arid this m turn ivsues in intemperance. The fact, then, on which emphasis is to be laid is not the ciaving for drink, but the degeneracy of which it is most frequently the symptom.' Turning to the more complicated problem 1 of heredity, his view is that heredity causes nothing, brings nothing into existence ; all it docs m to take up and perpetuate tendencies wihic.h from whatever cause have been originated and developed. r l lie b'H^i'nesy oE heredity ifc not to let die certain phenomena once they have been bo ught into the field of being The exhaustion which is coming on the country through tho dram of emigration was als>o dealt with in Uiis connection by Dr. Graham in his paper. Speaking of the past forty years ho says : ' hot only are flhe gentry the people who, with whatever faults, sot a higher standard of culture before the naititn disappearing, but the great middle clas's, the professional men, the educated artis>an, the brainy farmer, have had to go elsewhere in order to find adequate scope fior their talent, and energy. The lamentable result is that Ireland to-day is depleted of her best and strongest elements, retaining the weak and the unfit. In tho past forty years we have lost about four millions of the physical and mental flower of the country. Is it any wonder, then, that Mental Degeneration is on the Increase amongst us 7 ' A possible predisposing causet of the mischief, too, is the change that has taken place in the dietary of the people, whereby their physical anki mental stamina is physically affected. As Dr. Graham points out, the laborer and the artisan used to make porridge, milk, and potatoes, with an occasional piece' of fish, their staple food. Now, instead of tfhese, they try to do their y^ork by the aid of Ftimulaiits, tfuch as tea, stout, and other artificial drinks ; not only s-o, but the utter ignorance of cooking which prevails in the eowntry, even in its simplest forms makes the people easy victims to all kinds of canned' or concentrated meats. To make matters worse, the tea that) is consumed so abundantly is not China, "but; IrJdKun, or, a,s it is popularly called, ' Assam. This is often boiled, kept on the stove or near the fire. The result) is a poisonous concoction, destructive to the nerves and ruinous to the digestion.