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INSANITY, PAST AND PRESENT. 389
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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.
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' « In The Last Number Of This Journal W...
Of a question which has been lately much agitated—the influence of the mother in transmitting to her offspring the predisposition to
insanity . It is often said that children inherit the mental characteristics of their mother . Of a great hero , how frequent the
observationthat such a one has all his mother's gentleness of heart , her patience , , her humility , qualifying and tempering the sterner
attributes of Jiis nature . If this is true , so also is it that mental disorder may be startled be traced at the oftener idea to of the the mother transmission than the of mental father . disorders Let us not it ;
follows but the same rule as other disorders . It is now generally admitted that tionscrofula and insanity are merely
variaconsump , tions of one disease ; they may be compared to three grafts upon one stem , differing , indeed , in form , yet deriving their vitality from
the same source . When developed under the form of consumption , we never make a question about hereditary tendency . Take , for
of examp the le Chest , the returns and we made find that by the out Brompton of 1000 cases Hosp — ital 660 for men Diseases and
, 340 women , —no less than 117 men and 119 women were born of consumptive parents , or , in other words , that one in every four
there patients was had 11 heredit " 9 per ary cent predi , males sposition and . 13 In * 4 referenc per cent e , to females insanit — y ,
the or , combined chance of , 12 the J per hereditary cent , of transmission the cases under of consumption observation ; so is that just
double in comparison to that of insanity . In reference to insanity which results from moral causes , a
distinction must be drawn between the educated and the uneducated . Among the latter class , intemperance takes a prominent
placeaccording- to Lord Shaftesbury , seven-tenths of the lunacy cases may be ascribed to this propensity ; while another fruitful source is the
love of speculation which is even apparent among the poor and indigent . Want of food also depresses the nervous system , and
i grief gnorance , care , , unhinges or disappointment and destroys acting its equilibrium on the unb . alanced In Ireland mind , out of
of 220 men and 461 women , grief was found to be the predisposing cause in 4 7 of the former , and 85 of the latter ; next came fright , then
loss of property , jealousy , and domestic trials . We glean from the reports furnished by American asylumsthat out of 12838 patients ,
, , 22 * 7 per cent , were connected with grief , disappointment , and other depressing emotions 8 * 2 with excitement and exaltation consequent
; business upon erroneous and their views attendant of religion anxieties ; 6 * 9 with and property losses , povert and 5 y -5 , and per
cent , for , over mental application . In France the , statistics give a similar result . Among moral causesthe most frequent is
grief arising from the loss of money ; next , to that is religious exaltation ; next , disappointed love , pride , sorrow resulting from
bereavement , jealousy , political events , excess of intellectual work ; and lastly , isolation and solitude . It would be mere " repetition ,
to give the statements made from observations on insanity
Insanity, Past And Present. 389
INSANITY , PAST AND PRESENT . 389
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Feb. 1, 1861, page 389, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01021861/page/29/
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