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388 INSANITY, PAST AND PRESENT.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
' « In The Last Number Of This Journal W...
large , the .. last return gave 15 , 787 , or one in every 1 , 467 of the general population ; while the deaf-mutes were 9803 or one in every
,, 2 , 365 ; and the blind as . 9 , 794 , or one in every 2 , 36 7 . The same rule stands good with other countries—the lower the type of the
inhabitants , and the more frequent the intermarriages , the greater the proportion of idiocy to the population . It is hardly necessary
to cite an example so familiar as that of the Alpine valleys , where , secluded from the busy world , deprived by the overshadowing
mountains of air and sunshine , compelled to subsist on food possessing few nutritive qualities—generation succeeds generation ,
feeble in body as in mind , incapable of improvement , and perpetuating nothing but misery and degradation . In Norway , to a
eertain extentthe same causes exert-their influence . The population is stationary , , and considerably more than half the insane in
the country are idiots ; for of the recognised lunatics , out of 4 , 290 no less than 3287 are imbeciles . Scotland is another notable
instance ; so is Ireland , ; so also is England ; while , in the metropolis , the number of pauper lunatics is stated to be 4 , 219 , the idiots are
but 442 . Yet , look at the returns from Wales , and the case is exactlreversed—there the idiots predominate over the lunatics ; and
the ratio y in the other counties is precisely in accordance with the stated rule . Likewise the deaf and dumb abound most where the
inhabitants are stationary ; least were they are migratory . Thus , in London and the Northern districts , the average of deaf-mutes is as
one ; in every 2 , 000 of the population ; in the South-western counties , as one in every 1 , 300 ; in Devonshire , especially in the
neighborhood of Crediton , it is one in every 1 , 100 ; while in the ScillIslands the proportion is as one in every 446 ; for the
population y , though only numbering about 2 , 600 persons , has yet six deaf and dumb among them .
Passing from insanity in its negative form , or when co-existent with life itselfas in the born-idiotwe have to regard it when
developed at a , later period , when intelli , gence has been awakened and the unconscious infant has grown into a reasoning and
responsible being . According to a summary made by M . Brierre du IBoisinontout of 2900 lunaticshereditary predisposition was found to
have , existed in , 1 , 410 men , and , 1 , 490 women . Again , in Ireland , _, out of the 6197 cases admitted into the district asylums between
1852 and 1856 , the causes which led to the attack are stated in 2152 instances . Divide , them into two classesphysical and moral , , and
we find that out of 722 menand 707 , women of the first class hereditary predisposition is found , in no less than 360 men and 333 ,
women ; while within the last two years there were admitted into the Limerick asylum 10 , and into the Waterford 6 individuals
having the relationship of brothers and sisters ; and into the _Carlos asylum , 19 persons in the relation of first cousins . The
reference returns made to hereditary in reference tendency to the , asy and lums , moreover in Norway , confirm are precise the truth
388 Insanity, Past And Present.
388 INSANITY , PAST AND PRESENT .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Feb. 1, 1861, page 388, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01021861/page/28/
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