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The National Geographic Magazine 



tion of intellectual capacity. I can in 

 no better way illustrate the severity of- 

 this struggle than by calling your atten- 

 tion to the fact that it takes twenty-five 

 years of preparation nowadays before a 

 young man is considered equipped to 

 cope with his fellows. 



The brain* then becomes, as it were, 

 the storm center in the organism. Here, 

 in the habitation of the mind, do all the 

 problems of subsistence meet their solu- 

 tion, and here also do all those might} 7 

 emotions which ever and anon stir the 

 soul take their origin. It is here in the 

 brain that vaunted ambition has itssway , 

 and here that the sweet pains of love 

 tune one soul in harmony with another. 



The mind, delicately adjusted as it is 

 to its environment, responding as it does 

 to the slightest changes therein, occu- 

 pies a dangerous position and becomes 

 at once' liable to great stress and to 

 the multiplicity of disorders that result 

 therefrom. The savage in his simplicity 

 does not know what it is to suffer from 

 the cares and worries which are the 

 daily portion of the average European, 

 and it is little wonder that the latter, 

 beset by all manner of disappointments 

 and vexations, should more frequently 

 break down in mind than his less-gifted 

 brother. 



If you have followed me thus far, 

 3'ou will note that in my attempt to ac- 

 count for the geographical distribution 

 of insanity in the United States I have 

 discarded the influences of the physical 

 environment as being efficient causes 

 because of their indirectness, and have 

 appealed to the immediate results of 

 mental stress, the results of the contact 

 of man with man in the struggle for ex- 

 istence; in short, the results of that 

 struggle itself as exemplified in civili- 

 zation. 



If my contention is true, that insanity 

 is the result of the stresses incident to 

 the progressive civilized state, it must 

 be possible to educe further proof of this 

 by a study of some of the phenomena 



that accompany civilization. We would 

 thus expect to find that in those locali- 

 ties where civilization was furthest ad- 

 vanced, where the social institutions 

 were stable, where class distinctions had 

 crystallized — in short, where the stresses 

 of intellectual life were greatest — the 

 proportion of insanity was highest. Let 

 us see if this is so. 



One of the most marked results of 

 civilization is the concentration of popu- 

 lation in certain areas. Let us study 

 this condition in the United States with 

 reference to the distribution of insanity. 

 The census for 1890 shows that for the 

 different regions of the United States 

 the population per square mile is as 

 follows : 



North Atlantic Division IQ7-37 



South Atlantic Division . : 32. gS 



North Central Division 29. 6S 



South Central Division iS 94 



Western Division : . . . 2.58 



The North Atlantic Division, com- 

 prising the New England States, with 

 New York, New Jersey, and Pennsyl- 

 vania, has more than three times the 

 number of inhabitants per square mile 

 of any of the other divisions — in fact, 

 more than all the rest put together. Of 

 these states, Rhode Island, the smallest, 

 has the greatest density of population, 

 with 318.44 to the square mile; then 

 comes Massachusetts with 278.48, Con- 

 necticut with 154.03, and down the 

 coast, New York with 125.95, New Jer- 

 sey with 193.82, and Pennsylvania with 

 1 16.88. From this center of density the 

 proportion of inhabitants to the square 

 mile diminishes regularly in ever} 7 direc- 

 tion. If we go south, we find Maryland 

 with 105 and Delaware with 86 per 

 square mile, until in the extreme south 

 we find but 30 or 40. Westward from 

 Pennsylvania, however, we find a belt 

 bordering the Ohio River, containing 

 Ohio with 90, Indiana with 61, and Illi- 

 nois with 68 per square mile, and from 

 here the diminution is rapid to Louisi- 

 ana with but 24, Minnesota with only 



