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    314 INSANITY, PAST AND PRESENT.

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    Qp Insanity, Like Other Diseases, Change...

    is its epidemical character . There is a story told by an ancient writerthat the Milesian virgins destroyed themselves in large

    , numbers ; neither threat nor persuasion conld deter them , till a decree was passed that the body of every one who did this should

    be dragged through the streets by the same rope -whereby she hanged herself . In like manner Tarquin commanded that the

    bodies of those soldiers who committed suicide in order to avoid making roads should be treated -with the utmost ignominy . This

    effectually prevented the contagion of example . In modern times this tendency to imitation is still preserved—ignited charcoal is now

    the rage , then prussic acid , then hanging , then drowning . But we may take this comfort to ourselves , that two men commit suicide to

    every woman . Would that the same proportion existed as regards insanity ; but as we proceed in the examination of the statistics

    of different countries , we shall find that , with a single exception , mental disorders are everywhere found to be more _frequent among

    women than men . "We have briefly noticed the lunacy returns in regard to cities .

    Let us now do so in reference to the countries of which those cities are the capitals , and we shall find that in most instances their

    relation to each other is the same , the number" of the insane being strictly in accordance with the moral and physical condition

    of the people . Russia , Turkey , Greece , and Norway , average less than Italy , Spain and Portugal , and these again bear a small

    proportion to France , America , and Great Britain , the three nations most remarkable for civilization , commercial enterpriseand

    intellectual attainments ; and as the necessity is greatest , , so in these ; three countries more than in any other both public and private

    attention has been directed to providing - asylums for the insane as well as to preventive measures for checking the spread of the evil .

    Taking the _jDopulation of France at the average of thirty-seven millions , the proportion of the Insane is one to every eight hundred ,

    or ,. in round numbers , forty-five thousand persons deprived of their reason . This number is stated by inferenceas not more than

    twenty-four thousand are under treatment in the , public and private asylums . Yet we believe that we have considerably understated

    the number , as , when the census was taken in 1851 , it was discovered that there were twenty-four thousand four hundred and

    thirtythree individuals of _Linsoimd mind living in _jDrivate dwelling-houses , of whom no return was made ; and if this number be added to the

    population of the asylums in that year , a total of forty-five thousand Is obtained , so that in our calculation we have made no allowance

    for the increase of insanity . The truth would be nearer approached were the insane stated at fifty thousand . But setting aside the

    unrecognised lunatics , let us glance at the condition of the twenty 1 -four

    thousand under treatment . These are distributed amonga hundred and eleven lunatic _establishments ; of these , sixty-five are public and

    forty-six private , - eleven are clevoted exclusively to men , seventeen

    314 Insanity, Past And Present.

    314 INSANITY , PAST AND PRESENT .

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Jan. 1, 1861, page 314, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01011861/page/26/