The Duty of the State to the Insane^ etc. 27 



to discuss this subject by treating it as a function properly belong- 

 ing to tlie state, I may be assuming what will not be readily 

 conceded. To prevent, if possible, these serious misfortunes, is 

 unquestionably the duty of somebody. Or must we admit that 

 man, intelligent and immortal, is such a creature of blind and 

 reckless passion, that he must be permitted to go on through the 

 vast seons of the future as he has done in the past, reproducing 

 himself, depraved and demoralized as he is, transmitting his ana- 

 tomical defects, his physiological idiosyncrasies, his organic imper- 

 fections, in the most marked manner, in order that posterity may 

 have the opportunity to cultivate the moral virtues by taking hu- 

 mane care of the insane, the blind, the deformed and the idiotic. 

 Tt is not too early in the history of man, I more fear it is too late, 

 to ask the question, should a radically defective organization be 

 allowed to perpetuate itself by reproduction ? To this I would 

 answer, that for the good of the race it should not. This must be 

 our conclusion unless we are prepared to adopt the moiern school 

 of Euthanasists, who take the ground, that when a human being 

 cannot live and be happy, he has the right to claim of society the 

 boon of death, legally administered. I would modify the proposi- 

 tion by saying rather, that such an unfortunate had a right not to 

 be born ; yet, having been born, perhaps the Euthanasist may say 

 that he has the right to ask the privilege of an early, painless 

 death. Yet the original question still recurs, What is the duty of 

 the state towards this large and constantly increasing class of in- 

 curables and unfortunates ? 



First, I answer as to those in existence. Let them be taken 

 care of in the most economical and best systematized way which 

 science, art and experience can devise. Let alms-houses, the in- 

 sane hospital, the^deaf and dumb, and blind asylums, still stand as 

 monuments of the generous and humane spirit of the age. Let 

 the crippled and deformed have ready access, if need be, by pub- 

 lic charity, to all sources of relief which the world's best wisdom 

 can supply. It is better that the state pay the expense of patting 

 a man in a condition so that he can take care of himself, than to 

 tax the public through an entire generation for the support of a 

 cripple in the poor house. But secondly, I propose to show a 



