RURAL LIVING CONDITIONS 329 



lie health nurses, of which the first semester's work 

 is theoretical and is carried on at the University, 

 while the second semester provides field work in 

 Detroit. The problem of providing health officials 

 possessed of medical knowledge and experience for 

 the rural sections has long concerned the State De- 

 partment of Health, which has sought to persuade 

 the legislature to abolish the present system, which 

 allows local officials, chiefly the township supervisors, 

 wholly devoid of medical science, to serve as the 

 health officer, in favor of a system of full-time phy- 

 sicians in every county of the State. 



The question is sometimes raised regarding the 

 relative prevalence of insanity and other mental dis- 

 orders in rural as compared with urban communities. 

 It is recognized that the greater loneliness and mo- 

 notony attending rural life may intensify a ten- 

 dency toward psychopathic conditions in certain indi- 

 viduals. As a countervailing influence, the greater 

 prevalence of psychoses arising from alcoholism, 

 syphilis and drug addiction among city dwellers is 

 noted by the superintendents of the State hospitals 

 of Michigan. There is a general agreement among 

 these superintendents that, when proper allowances 

 have been considered, there is no definite evidence 

 of a preponderating amount of insanity in rural, 

 as against urban, districts. 



In 1914 a special State commission investigated 

 feeble-mindedness, epilepsy and insanity in Michi- 

 gan. The investigation brought out that the district 

 with the largest number of admissions of persons to 



