Are We a Declining Race ? 



large number of cases, in all public asylums, the 

 disease may be attributed to that cause." 



The vice alluded to has been recognised, by 

 the profession, as a cause of insanity, and when 

 cases are brought under its notice medical men 

 do all in their power to restrain the victims ; 

 but such treatment is like " locking the stable 

 door when the steed is stolen." Knowledge on 

 a matter of such vital importance should not 

 remain with medical men alone ; it should be 

 public property. All parents should be able to 

 instruct their children on such subjects, so that 

 they may not rush blindly into the terrible pit- 

 falls awaiting them on every hand. 



Dr. R. P. Ritchie, resident surgeon at Bethnal 

 House Asylum, published in 1861 a very instruc- 

 tive work on " Frequent Causes of Insanity 

 amongst Young Men." Dr. Copland and several 

 others have written on the subject, but these works 

 have been written for medical reference chiefly, 

 so that the general public has not profited much 

 by them. This is, perhaps, where medical men are 

 mostly to blame ; they do not give us " the 

 straight tip " on these questions ; " hereditary 

 influences and old age," are given us as being 

 by far the most prevalent predisposing causes. 



It seems strange that either of these causes 

 should be given as very prevalent. Take old 

 age for instance. The very fact of the average of 

 life being lowered to about thirty-four years, 

 indicates that we do not live to a great age ; 

 this, in itself, is evidence of decline in the race. 



If any reliance is to be placed on statistics, we 

 find that during the seventeenth and eighteenth 



