HEREDITY IN INSANITY. 83 



middle classes, are kept at tome among their relatives 

 and friends, and so never come within the knowledge 

 of the Board at Whitehall. However, taking the 

 Commissioners' figures alone, we may say that there 

 is one insane person to every 300 of the population, 

 which is a statement sufficiently startling in itself. 



There is a belief abroad that insanity is on the 

 increase among the people of these countries, and cer- 

 tainly the figures set forth year after year by the 

 Commissioners in Lunacy go far in support of such 

 belief. If we take the totals at decennial periods we 

 find the insane population of England and Wales 

 increased alarmingly, thus : 



Total insane on January 1 8; 9 . . . 36,762 



1869 ... 53,177 



1879 ... 69,885 



1889 ... 84,340 



Here we have a steady increase in the insane popu- 

 lation of England and Wales at a rate of over 1500 

 a year. Nor is this increase to be accounted for by 

 increase in the general population, for the Com- 

 missioners' own figures show that the proportion of 

 insane to every io,OOO of the population was on 



January 1859 . . . 18.67 to the 10,000 



1869 . . . 23.93 



1879 . . . 27.55 



1889 . . . 29.07 



Many men learned in lunacy and well able to 

 form sound opinions on the subject, have reluctantly 

 admitted, that upon other grounds than an increased 



