1870.] On Insanity. 173 



through their contact with the worst parts of our civilization. The 

 Chinese and the races associated under that name, and which con- 

 stitute so large a proportion of the population of the world, are 

 said to be remarkably free from mental diseases, if the prejudicial 

 effects of opium be not considered. The majority of the cases of 

 insanity observed by European physicians in China had their origin 

 in opium smoking; and it is generally admitted, although the 

 opportunities for a close examination of the question have been very 

 slight, that mania and dementia are rare there. No country has 

 passed through more exciting, scenes during the last twenty years 

 than China ; and rebellion, wholesale massacres, wars with Euro- 

 peans, and great social changes must have produced their exciting 

 and depressing effects upon a race which is singularly domestic in 

 its affections, much more industrious and saving, and more learned 

 than any other of the Asiatics. The amount of insanity in this 

 great empire can really not be estimated even approximately. In 

 considering the question, some of the peculiarities of the race must 

 be remembered. The ready disposition to commit suicide which is 

 common to the races on the mainland and to those of the islands, 

 including Japan, the sale by men of their own lives for compara- 

 tively trifling sums of money, and the suicidal despair which readily 

 affects Chinamen under severe disappointments and hardships when 

 working in distant countries, indicate that the insanity of the 

 people may take on very different phenomena to those observed 

 amongst European nations. The sudden outbursts of murdering 

 passion observed in the Malay race may be taken as an evidence 

 that the great peculiarity of insanity amongst its members is 

 violence, and that ordinary monomania is hardly to be expected. 



There is some amount of insanity amongst the rapidly decreasing 

 New Zealanders ; but here, again, the effects of European vices are 

 evident. The history of the race is one continued warfare, and it 

 may be conceded that in this instance, as in all others of the same 

 kind, this constant pugnacity must hide a good deal of unreason. 

 A chief whose insanity assumed the ordinary type observed amongst 

 warlike savages, and was persevering in his enmity, cautious before 

 the fight, and furious during and immediately after bloodshed, 

 would not be deemed a madman. Doubtless there have been many 

 such heroes in the world's history. These remarks will apply to 

 the native tribes of the American continent and to the compara- 

 tively unknown races of Central and Western Asia ; but it should 

 be remembered that amongst the more nomadic nations the con- 

 stant migrations and the frequent absence of a settled home must 

 give any 'of the mentally afflicted a poor chance of keeping up 

 with their fellows in the struggle for existence. The amount of 

 insanity amongst the Mahommedan nations is probably much greater 

 than is ordinarily believed, and there is no doubt that those religion- 



