172 .On Insanity. [April, 



shipping. The occurrence of insanity in any of the African races 

 is said to be very rare ; but there is plenty of evidence that the 

 negro slaves suffered considerably from several kinds of insanity, 

 and their offspring also. This is also true for the slaves derived from 

 other dark xlfrican races, who are not true negroes. Idiocy was fre- 

 quent amongst the descendants of the imported negroes, and a low 

 type of perfect intelligence, which was often perverted, was com- 

 mon, but was difficult of distinction on account of the mechanical and 

 automatic action of the life of the slave. Drs. Bucknill and Tuke 

 quote the testimony of Dr. Moreau in reference to insanity in 

 Egypt. He found an asylum for the insane at Cairo,* but at 

 Alexandria, where there was a population of from 80,000 to 90,000 

 inhabitants and many general hospitals, there was not even a ward 

 assigned to the insane. He asserts that, on the authority of Dr. 

 Gregson, surgeon -in-chief and resident in Egypt for nearly ten 

 years, that insanity is very rare. The Doctor only saw one example 

 of the disease in that period. Dr. Moreau says that as the civiliza- 

 tion of Egypt is left behind and the Delta becomes more distant, 

 lofty mountains and desert plains, tents and cattle, successively 

 replace cultivated and fertile fields, habitations and bazaars. AYith 

 the soil man becomes more degraded, his intellectual activity di- 

 minishes, and is at last reduced to a minimum, absorbed as he is 

 in the necessary wants of physical life. Among this population 

 the insane become fewer and fewer in number. I have not met 

 with a single one, not even an idiot, writes Dr. Moreau, in all 

 Nubia. Several of my friends, he continues, who have visited 

 Sennaar, Cordofan, and Abyssinia, have found only here and there 

 a few imbeciles. The same testimony has been adduced with re- 

 spect to the Guinea Coast. Dr. Moreau suggests, however, that 

 many of the Santons are really insane, and recent travellers in 

 Eastern Africa might almost say as much for the brutal chiefs of 

 some tribes. Nevertheless the rarity of insanity amongst the 

 African populations appears to be established. 



Dr. De Forest, of the Syrian Mission,! says "that it is im- 

 possible to obtain accurate statistics of the insane here; but I 

 think the disease far less frequent than in our own land." There 

 would appear to be more insanity amongst the Syrians than 

 amongst the African races, the Syrians being a very mixed race. 

 Insanity is said to be less frequeDt amongst the inhabitants of 

 Bengal and less acute than amongst the civilized races of Europe ; 

 but its admitted increase is accounted for by the introduction of 

 European vices. Polynesia appears to be comparatively free from 

 insanity ; and its natives, with those of the Australian and New 

 Zealand islands, have received accessions of the disease simply 



* Some years since the lunatics in this asylum were treated just like wild 

 beasts. t See Bucknill and Tuke, page 49. 



