INGLIS INSANITY. 



535 



INGLIS, HENRY DAVID, a popular writer of 

 travels, was the only son of a barrister in Edin- 

 burgh, and was descended from a very ancient 

 family. His maternal grandmother was daughter 

 of the celebrated colonel James Gardiner, who fell 

 at the battle of Prestonpans; and was herself the 

 authoress of an heroic poem. Through her Mr 

 Inglis was allied to the noble house of Buchan and 

 the Erskines. The writings of Mr Inglis are two- 

 fold Travels and Fiction. Of the former class, 

 his " Spain in 1830" is unquestionably his best 

 work ; and his " Ireland in 1834 " attracted very 

 considerable notice. His " Channel Islands " 

 abounds in elegant descriptions of natural scenery ; 

 while his " Tyrol," his " Switzerland and the Pyre- 

 nees," and his " Norway," are all books of much 

 merit, and have altogether contributed to establish 

 for him a just and well-earned reputation; while 

 they have been of great utility to the world, by 

 making one part of it better able to appreciate the 

 moral character and the physical advantages pos- 

 sessed by other parts. Of his fictitious works his 

 " New Gil Bias " has been ranked by his biogra- 

 phers as his best. Mr Inglis died in London, on 

 the 20th March, 1835, aged forty. 



INGLIS, JOHN, D.D., an eminent divine of the 

 church of Scotland, was a native of Perthshire. 

 In 1776, he was translated from the parish of Tib- 

 berinuir to the Old Greyfriars' church in Edin- 

 burgh, where he became the colleague of Dr 

 Erskine, and the successor of principal Robertson. 

 He was subsequently appointed one of the deans of 

 the Chapel Royal. For nearly thirty years, he was 

 the leader of the presbytery of Edinburgh ; and, 

 though he differed in church politics from what is 

 called the popular party, he lived with all on terms 

 of affectionate kindness and cordiality. As a 

 preacher, his discourses were much admired for 

 their intellectual character. His death took place, 

 at Edinburgh, on the 2d Jan., 1834, at the age of 

 seventy-one. Besides some minor publications, he 

 left two works of great merit one on the Evi- 

 dences of Christianity, and another in defence of 

 Ecclesiastical Establishments. 



INSANITY, (a.) There is an opinion afloat 

 that insanity is on the increase in this country, and 

 the opinion is in some degree borne out by a com- 

 parison of late registers with those of an older 

 date. Dr Powel, who first directed attention to 

 this particular department, grounded his belief of 

 a positive increase on the apparent augmentation 

 in the London registers for lunatics. These in- 

 cluded all lunatics confined in private asylums 

 throughout England, which gave an increase as 

 compared with eight quinquennial periods from 

 1775 to 1814 ; the aggregate for the former being 

 1783, for the latter 3647. This is a conclusion 

 which Dr Burrows says is not borne out by facts, as 

 the register does not comprehend lunatics confined 

 in unlicensed houses. Comparing the lunatics 

 with the census of the population for 1800, Dr I 



Powel arrived at the conclusion, that there was 

 one lunatic to 7300 persons, a conclusion which 

 shows how absurd it was to attempt a statistic 

 account of insanity with means so inadequate. 

 Pinel thought that the increase in the returns of 

 the insane might be accounted for in various ways 

 irregularity in former returns, and increase of 

 the inmates of asylums, from the better arrange- 

 ments which now prevail. He says that the 

 greater the liberty in any country, the greater the 

 number of insane is likely to be. 



In 1806, a select committee was appointed to 

 inquire into this subject, and in the report which 

 they sent in, they gave for England and Wales an 

 aggregate of 2248 lunatics. In 1815 another 

 report was made, which gave nearly double the 

 number, but which -increase should be ascribed to 

 the inaccuracy of former returns rather than to any 

 positive augmentation in the number of the insane. 

 By the returns which were made in 1819, Dr Bur- 

 rows found the aggregate of lunatics confined in 

 public hospitals and asylums to be 1456, in private 

 asylums 2585, in all for England and Wales, 4041, 

 to which he added half the number for those con- 

 fined in private asylums not registered. In this way 

 he raised the whole number to 6000, which he con- 

 sidered the nearest approximation to the total number 

 of lunatics in Great Britain, and which gives us a pro- 

 portion of about one lunatic in 2000 persons. In 

 1826, Sir A. Halliday made a return of the lunatics 

 confinedin public and private asylums in England and 

 Wales, giving as the gross amount, 4782, to which 

 he adds those of whom the law takes no notice, as 

 living with their friends, and concludes, from an 

 experience of twenty-five years, that the number 

 confined in England and Wales, in public and pri- 

 vate asylums, exceeds 8000 ; yet, with this appar- 

 ent augmentation, he is not disposed to believe 

 that insanity is on the increase with us. He esti- 

 mates the insane of Scotland at 3700. In 1829 he 

 sent in another report, which gave for England and 

 Wales, 6806 lunatics, and rates the idiots at 5741, 

 to which he adds for places not returned 1500, in 

 all 14,000. The proportion of insane to the popu- 

 lation is, he says England one in 1000; Wales, one 

 in 800; Scotland, one in 574. In the gross amount 

 of 14,000 the paupers are estimated at 11,000. 



Some very curious returns have been made, 

 showing the influence of different habits and pur- 

 suits in life in producing insanity. In twelve Eng- 

 lish counties where the population is employed in 

 agriculture, the proportion of insane to the gen- 

 eral population is one in 820, and the lunatics are 

 to idiots as five to seven. In twelve counties 

 where the people are differently employed, the 

 insane are to the population as one to 1200. Peo- 

 ple who work in mines are reported to be less lia- 

 ble to insanity than those who work on the surface. 

 Is it because they are less exposed to the exciting 

 influences of a busy life, which are ever passing 

 around us in our intercourse with the world, and 



