820 



UNITED STATES, CENSUS OF. 



doubled in thirty years, the number of defect- 

 ive persons returned is nearly five times as 

 great as it was thirty years ago. During the 

 past decade (or since 1870) the increase in 

 population has been 30 per cent; but the ap- 

 parent increase in the defective classes has 

 been a little more than 155 per cent. " It is 

 not possible," says Special Agent Frederick H. 

 Wines, " to believe that there has, in fact, been 

 any such increase of the defective classes as is 

 indicated by the figures given in the tables 

 above. The inference is irresistible that either 

 the enumeration in 1880 is excessive, or else 

 it was incomplete in 1870 and in the years 

 previous." After pointing out the difficulty 

 of getting accurate statistics on these subjects, 

 Mr. Wines expresses the belief that, in the 

 census of 1880, " a much more perfect enumer- 

 ation of the defective classes, especially of the 

 insane and idiotic, has been secured than ever 

 before in the history of this or, perhaps, of 

 any other nation." Admitting that " it would 

 be claiming too much to assert that the census 

 lists are, even after all the labor bestowed 

 upon them, absolutely accurate," he believes 



that the figures are " as nearly correct as it is 

 possible to make them at the present time with 

 our present facilities for procuring them." 



Of 91,997 insane in the United States in 

 1880, there were in hospitals and asylums for 

 the insane (not including those in almshouses) 

 40,942, or over 44 per cent of the entire num- 

 ber; of 76,895 idiots, there were in training- 

 schools for the feeble-minded 2,429, or a little 

 over 3 per cent; of 48,928 blind, there were 

 in schools and industrial homes for the blind 

 2,158, or less than 4J- per cent ; and of 33,- 

 878 mutes, there were in schools for the deaf 

 (not counting those under instruction in day- 

 schools, and so not enumerated) 5,267, or 

 nearly 16 per cent. " This statement," says 

 Mr. Wines, "may serve to give a summary 

 notion of the urgency of the demand for in- 

 stitutions of the several descriptions named, 

 both in the aggregate and in proportion to the 

 number of individuals in each of the four great 

 defective classes." 



The following exhibit shows the number in 

 1880 in each of the four classes by sex, nativity, 

 and race : 



The number of persons in every 100,000 in each of the classes named, who are male or 

 female, native or foreign, white or colored, is as follows : 



"From this table," says Mr. Wines, "it ap- 

 pears that insanity attacks women more often 

 than it does men, but that, on the other hand, 

 men are more liable to the other three forms 

 of misfortune than are women. The negro 

 population is much more liable to idiocy than 

 to insanity. Both the negro and the foreign 

 population are singularly more liable to blind- 

 ness than to deafness. The tendency to in- 

 sanity among the foreign population is espe- 

 cially worthy of attention. It may be accounted 

 for in many ways : for instance, by the change 

 of climate and of habits of life, by the increased 

 anxiety and effort to advance in the scale of 

 social respectability, by homesickness, and in 

 general by the removal of the props which 

 sustain and steady a man who does not emi- 

 grate, but remains in the vicinity where he 

 was born. The same increased tendency to in- 

 sanity may be discovered (but in a less marked 

 degree) in Americans who remove from one 

 section of the country to another, especially 

 from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast." 



The total number of paupers enumerated in 

 almshouses is 67,067, as follows : Male, 35,952 ; 

 female, 31,115; native, 44,106; foreign, 22,- 

 961 ; white, 61,310 ; colored, 5,757, including 

 18 Chinese and 33 Indians. The special agent 

 remarks that " to these may be added, if any 

 one is so disposed, 21,508 out-door paupers re- 

 ported to the Census-Office, but no reliance 

 whatever can be placed upon this figure. It 

 is very far below the actual number, as will 

 be apparent when it is stated, by way of illus- 

 tration, that only thirteen out-door poor are re- 

 turned from the city of Boston." 



The number of prisoners in confinement in 

 the United States, June 1, 1880, was 59,255. 

 This total does not include 11,340 inmates of 

 juvenile reformatories. Of the 59,255, 54,186 

 were males and 5.069 females, 46,338 native 

 and 12,917 foreign, 42,294 white and 16,961 



* Including 105 Chinese, 53 Indians, 1 Japanese, and 2 East 

 Indians. 



t Including 5 Chinese and 84 Indians. 

 Including 22 Chinese and 244 Indians. 

 Including 8 Chinese and 37 Indians. 





