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    146 . INSANITY AMONG WOMEN.

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    In Directing His Attention To The Import...

    In regarding- tlie absolute excess of females which these returns show , ( namely , 3 , 286 , ) the greater number of females in the

    population must not be overlooked . If , making allowance for the increase in ( 1851 the ) population we roughly of estimate England it at and 19 , 927 Wales , 609 , since ( on Janu the ary last 1 , census I 860 , )

    , we shall find that there were : — Males 9 , 763 , 161

    Females 10 , 164 , 448 Total * .. 19 , 927 , 609

    The excess of females being 401 , 28-7 . Still , even when this disparitin the proportion of the sexes is taken into account , the

    proportion y of existing cases of insanity will appear greatest among females—1 person in 5 88 being insane ( or idiotic ) among the

    maleand 1 person in 511 being insane ( or idiotic ) among the , , female _popLilation . Other circumstanceshowevermust be

    considered before we infer from _siich facts the , greater , liability of the female sex to insanity . Thus it will be foundfrom an examination

    , of the last census , ( 1851 , ) that the number of females living above the age- of fifteen years exceeds that of the males at the same period

    of life by eight per cent ., _tohich is double the excess which exists at all ages . That this is a period of life which for our _j > resent _pircpose

    must be consideredwill be clear when it is remembered that insanrfry , rareloccurs under fifteen years of age . "With this adult class , the

    y proportion of the sexes would be represented thus , —1 lunatic in 380 males , and 1 in 334 females , by which the disparity is

    considerably lessened . Dr . _Thiirnam found from the census of 1841 that the excess of females over males between twenty and fifty years

    was ( a period " still comprising . eater . " * the Thi age s mo however st liable I to find attacks does of not mental hold good disease as )

    regards the gr census of 1851 , , which shows , the , excess at this period to have been rather less than that which obtains above fifteen years ,

    namely , 6 * 9 per cent . I cannot , therefore , employ Dr . Thurnam ' s argument at the present time . But if we take the decade between

    to tlie stated Januar the latter population y in , b 1860 the eing . present _tlie It g returns iven may paper b here y of the , also Private partl writer be y _exjDlained Patients in of consequence the for , above that January the article of prop this , 18 ortion differs 59 oversi , instead of from ght lunatics , of that and has for

    her partl e y been in consequence assumed , that of it the increased difference between in the estimated 1851 and population 1860 in about . It the females same ratio being a , s during preserved the previous In ten years— of the emi prop gration ortion however of males this and

    . consequence , , the estimate femal is probabl to y insanity too high I . would Althoug here h . not repeat connected a statement with the made liability in the of "

    number " Manual of e of the sex _Psycholog insane in ical Medicine , land and , " Wales ( 1858 , is ) actuall that it is as very hih probable as 1 in 800 the . Eng y in 1841 g the

    * not Statistic much s of greater Insanity for , while p . 146 above . It the would of seem fifteen that or twenty it is excess stated

    to was have been " about , eight per cent ., " it was age not more than S'B 6 _between fi

    twenty and fty .

    146 . Insanity Among Women.

    146 . INSANITY AMONG WOMEN .

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), May 1, 1861, page 146, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01051861/page/2/