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1' 1 INSANITY; ITS CAUSE AND CURE. ' 11
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.
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1 p referred to the same to unsanitary source , while mental much conditions physical . disease can readily be
I We come now to another class of causes , namely , those en-I I from gendered this b is y one the excessive fertile luxury source of the men age tal . disease Spring o ing ver-work directl of y
I the brain . Again very to quote Lord Shaffcesbury on this , point , he I I says actual , " increase I cannot of but insanit hazard ythere the op is inion developed , that a if very there considerable is not an
I tendency of society . towards It is impossible it , and I , think not to it see arises the from effect the that excitable is produced state
I I by small the trading immense classes speculation , and that people take kee s p p lace ing amon costermongers g all the various shops ,
and every one who has five pounds that he can invest . All these peop of disappoin le are carry tments ing i the t on great to a ruin very great that has extent come , and upon the so number many
families and individuals , , and tlie horrible distress to which they have been subjected , have had a 'very considerable effect upon their
I I minds thus in ; a even stat ts e of succeed perpetual each ag other itation with . It grea does t not rapidity signif , soci whe ety ther is
' it is political life or literary life , everyone must see that life is now infinitely more active and stirring than it used to be . The very
power of locomotion keeps persons in a state of great _nervoiis excitementand it is worthy of attention to what an extent this
, prevails . I have ascertained that many persons , who have been in the habit of travelling by rail , have been obliged to give it up , in
consequence of its effect upon the nervous system . I _^ was speaking to one of our commissioners the other daywho had just come off a
j simmer ourney , , and and he he was said not that able his , whole without nerves , some were period in of a state rest , to of
enter upon business . I think that all these things indicate a very strontendencto nervous excitementand in what it may issue I
do not g know ; y but I am quite sure , in , regard to persons in that class of life entering into tradeand living inand constantly under
the influence of this stir and ag , itation , that , their nervous systems are in a much more irritable state than they were twenty years ago . "
The history of hundreds in our asylums is told in a few sentences such as these . He was in businessseemingly successful
, , had a fine house and an expensive family , and was accustomed to luxury ; he speculatedfailedand went mad . Ah ! if
that every familhad not been so , exensive , had been accustomed to labor instead y of to luxury , as p the true , state of their affairs
required , the reckless speculation would never have been entered and the husband and father might have been a prosperous
upon , man instead of a lunatic and a pauper . Such cases are so numerous as to influence largely the returns of the commissionerswho
at-, tribute to it the great increase in the number of pauper lunatics ,
as self- comp supporting ared with 1 . those in private asylums , who are generally
1' 1 Insanity; Its Cause And Cure. ' 11
1 ' 1 INSANITY ; ITS CAUSE AND CURE . ' 11
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Sept. 1, 1859, page 11, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01091859/page/11/
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