APPENDIX I 



THE GROWTH OF INSAOTTY IN ENGLAND 



In connection -with the chapter on insanity as a social factor, we have 

 recently observed in the Times of April 14, 1906, the first of a series of 

 articles on The Growth of Insanity, which fuUy confirms the statements we 

 made as to the increase in the insanity-rate. We have cited Paris as an 

 example ; the article in the Times deals with England and Wales. That 

 the result is identical will be seen from the following statement : 



" In 1844 the total number of insane persons of all ranks, discovered in 

 England and Wales by a careful of&cial inquiry, was 21,788, or, roughly, 

 1 in 761 of the then existing population. 



" On January 1, 1905, the number of insane persons actually under the 

 control of the Commissioners was 119,829, or, roughly, 1 in 272 of the 

 population as determined by the census of 1901 ; and throughout the 

 whole of the intervening time the increase has been steadily progressive." 



With regard to the physiological cause of insanity, the same article 

 proceeds further on : 



" We may therefore assume, at all events, as a hy^Dothesis calling for 

 inquiry, that the existing cause of insanity is analogous to the existing 

 cause of drunkenness ; or, in other words, that it is the presence in the 

 blood, by which the brain is stimulated to activity, of some noxious 

 agent by which the stim\dation is rendered faulty in its character, so as 

 to produce perversion of function, and by which, if it be present in a 

 sufficient quantity or for a sufficient time, the structure of the brain tissue 

 will ultimately be impaired." 



We see that this h3rpothesis as to the toxic nature of insanity is entirely 

 in harmony with the view that alcohol is one of the leading factors in the 

 production of the disease. With regard to general paralysis, the article 

 referred to states that the researches of Dr. Ford Robertson have led him 

 to the conclusion that this affection is toxic, and that the toxin concerned 

 is the product of a definite microbe which has been discovered in the 

 fluids of the nervous system. This particular microbe, we may add, is 

 very generally held to be, not a specific microbe of general paralysis alone, 

 but the microbe of syphilis {Spirochceta pallida). 



415 



