Are We a Declining Race ? 



or to the professional world. If it were possible 

 to trace the pedigrees of these unfortunate in- 

 dividuals, it would be a great surprise to many 

 who seek to wash their hands of their responsi- 

 bility for them. It would be found that no 

 professions or classes were unrepresented among 

 them ; and it is a disgrace to the country that 

 the poor should have to bear the burdens of the 

 very poor, or that the unemployed should be 

 saddled with the unemployable. 



By unemployable, I mean, not the incorrigibly 

 lazy, but people who are really incapable : who, 

 at the second or third day's work, would break 

 down, who go to crowd the casual wards of our 

 workhouses, and fill our hospitals and lunatic 

 asylums. Their numbers are steadily one 

 might almost say rapidly increasing. 



One of the most alarming features of this 

 problem is the marvellous increase in lunacy. 

 Statistics issued by the London County Council 

 for the ten years ending March 3ist, 1901, show 

 an increase of nearly 50 per cent. ! With regard 

 to lunacy, the number of lunatics for which the 

 County Council is required to find accommoda- 

 tion, has increased from 10,326 in 1891, to 15,511 

 in 1901, or about 50 per cent, in ten years. The 

 total number of lunatics belonging to the County 

 of London, including imbeciles in the work- 

 houses on January ist, 1901, was 21,369. 



The census for the same period showed an 

 increase of population of about 7^- per cent., so 

 that the spread of insanity is out of all propor- 

 tion to the growth of population. Hereditary 

 influences and old age are reported to be by far 

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