INSANITY AND IMBECILITY. 277 



i 



Of the many causes of insanity, alcoholism is 

 perhaps the greatest, while morbid heredity ranks 

 next. Insanity is largely the result of degen- 

 eracy. Most persons who become mentally de- 

 ranged are the offspring of neurotic, drunken, 

 insane, feeble-minded, scrofulitic or consumptive 

 parents. According to the statistics furnished 

 by the Eleventh Federal Census in 10,000 persons 

 from the normal population there are 20 insane. 

 8 blind and 6 deaf ; while in a population of insanity. 

 10,000 composed of families in which there is a 

 trace of insanity there are 300 insane persons, 80 

 blind and 170 deaf. From this it will be seen 

 that while in the entire population the insane 

 represent only two-tenths of i per cent; in a popu- 

 lation composed of families where there is a trace 

 of insanity, j per cent are insane. 



According to Lombroso, insanity is often com- 

 pletely transmitted, and even appears with greater 

 intensity in succeeding generations. Cases of 

 hereditary insanity in children and grand-children Lombroso * 

 in which the form of insanity is the same as in 

 their ancestors are very numerous. All the de- 

 scendants of a Hamburg nobleman, whom history 

 registers as a great soldier, were struck with in- 

 sanity at the age of 40. At the Connecticut Asy- 

 lum 1 1 members of the same family have arrived 

 in succession. 



Criminal insanity is one of the most common 

 of morbid conditions. In New York State one- 

 sixth of all the murderers are found to be insane ; Criminal 

 in England one-third. According to statistics, Insamty * 

 insanity in England is 28 times more prevalent 

 among the prison population than in the general 



