INSANITY 



2998 



INSANITY 



into two classes, congenital (existing from 

 birth) and acquired insanity. The former is 

 due to imperfect brain development and is 

 known as imbecility or idiocy. Persons afflicted 

 with this form of mental disorder are not 

 violent, but dull, and as a rule are incapable 

 of much more than routine physical acts (see 

 FEEBLE-MINDED, EDUCATION OF THE). 



Physicians recognize three general forms of 

 acquired insanity, though various other classifi- 

 cations might be given. These are mania (see 

 MONOMANIA), dementia and melancholia. Ma- 

 nia is characterized by loss of natural self- 

 control and abnormal development of the emo- 

 tions. The victim acts and speaks in an 

 extravagant manner, is given to excessive in- 

 dulgence in eating and drinking, and if re- 

 proved or corrected may give way to wild out- 

 bursts of anger. Persons suffering from mania 

 frequently imagine they have vast sums of 

 money, great fame or prodigious strength of 

 body. Dementia is marked by mental weak- 

 ness similar to that of idiocy, its symptoms 

 including loss of memory, childishness, decrease 

 of will power and confusion of thought. Mel- 

 ancholic patients suffer from great depression 

 of spirits, and the mind is occupied with dark 

 forebodings. Not infrequently melancholia re- 

 sults in suicide. 



The most common causes of insanity, other 

 than heredity, are loss of friends, business 

 troubles, overwork, religious excitement, alco- 

 holism, injuries to the head, old age, and 

 numerous physical causes arising from disease 

 or vicious habits. For the treatment of the 

 insane, see subhead below. 



Insanity is frequently advanced as a ground 

 for defense in cases where crime has been 

 committed. The ruling generally followed in 

 American, Canadian and British courts is that 

 to establish a defense on the ground of insanity 

 it must be clearly proved that at the time 

 the act was committed the person accused 

 was so diseased in mind that he did not know 

 the nature of his act, or if he did know it, 

 he did not understand that the act was wrong. 

 Another legal aspect of the case concerns the 

 capacity of an insane person to make or draw 

 up a will. In general, a contract made by an 

 insane person is void or voidable, but a will 

 may be declared valid. 



Insane Asylums. Formerly the term insane 

 asylum was applied almost universally to in- 

 stitutions for the treatment of the insane. At 

 the present time asylum is giving way to the 

 more appropriate word hospital, for the modern 



idea is to cure, not to imprison. Humane and 

 enlightened methods of caring^ for those of 

 unbalanced mind date only from the beginning 

 of the nineteenth century. Instead of the 

 unsightly and comfortless prison-house of for- 

 mer times, with its cells and strait-jackets, 

 its chains and instruments of torture, may now 

 be seen the tasteful and comfortable home, 

 with neat sleeping apartments, cosy dining 

 rooms, curtained windows and attractive rugs 

 and pictures, while sewing rooms, schools, shops 

 and gardens provide healthful and interesting 

 forms of occupation. 



The beneficial effects of rest and work, exer- 

 cise and recreation, and contact with nurses 

 and physicians who are hopeful and cheerful, 

 are fully recognized in the modern treatment 

 of the mentally afflicted. In some cases physi- 

 cal disorders must be treated before the mental 

 condition can be improved. Attention to diet, 

 massage, baths and soothing drugs for pa- 

 tients suffering from sleeplessness and nervous 

 excitement 'are familiar measures of relief. 

 Germany has developed the most nearly ideal 

 method of caring for the insane in its colony 

 system. By this is meant a number of cottage 

 homes grouped about industrial centers, those 

 patients who are able to do farm work living 

 near the fields, meadows and gardens; others, 

 brickmakers and generally skilled workmen, 

 are settled near their scenes of labor. The 

 colony is really a small village, where the able- 

 bodied are provided with a suitable occupation 

 and the sick and crippled are cared for in a 

 hospital or infirmary. 



In America, where there are nearly 190,000 

 patients in hospitals for the insane, the ma- 

 jority of institutions are under state control. 

 Some of the states maintain county insane 

 asylums or insane departments of county alms- 

 houses, as well as state institutions. The 

 states also vary in their rules for admitting 

 patients. In some, for example, feeble-minded 

 and idiotic persons are admitted to insane 

 asylums and in some they are provided for in 

 special homes. In some states the hospitals 

 for the insane receive epileptics, whether insane 

 or not; in others, confirmed drunkards are 

 treated in institutions for those of unsound 

 mind. Each of the Canadian provinces cares 

 for its own insane. There are in the Dominion 

 about 21,000 persons who are mentally unbal- 

 anced. B.M.W. 



Consult Ramaley's Insanity, Its Nature, Causes 

 and Prevention; Brower and Banister's Practical 

 Manual of Insanity. 



