176 On Insanity. [April, 



21,869,607. That is to say, with an increase of population of 

 2,182,906, there were no less than 15,114 pauper lunatics. In the 

 corresponding time, and with the same increase of the general popu- 

 lation, there was a gross increase of 840 cases amongst those who 

 came under the notice of the Commissioners as private patients in 

 asylums and at home with their friends and committees. 



Doubtless many a lunatic whose friends are above the pauper 

 class is kept at home and escapes the notice of the Commissioners, 

 but any increase in the numbers of the "private " class which might 

 accrue in this manner is compensated for, when the relative numbers 

 of the insane are considered, by the number of pauper lunatics who 

 are aged and simply demented, and who are not under supervision. 

 There appears to be a reasonable foundation, then, that there is a 

 decided increase in the lunacy of the pauper class, and that it is 

 slight among the non-pauper class. 



This assertion has been most ably and temperately contradicted 

 by one of the ]ate presidents of the Medico-Psychological Asso- 

 ciation, and in 1861 by the Commissioners in Lunacy. They then 

 wrote the following sentence, which very properly heads Dr. C. 

 Lochart Eobertson's essay on the subject : — " We have not found 

 any reasons supporting the opinion generally entertained that the 

 community are more subject than formerly to attacks of insanity."* 

 In 1869, Dr. L. Eobertson wrote, "that the alleged increase of 

 lunacy is a popular fallacy, unsupported by recent statistics." He 

 quotes the words of the President's address, read July 31, 1867 : — 

 "During this period (1847-1867) the total number of pauper 

 lunatics and idiots has increased from 17,952 to 42,943. While in 

 1847 one in every 880 of the whole population was a pauper 

 lunatic, this proportion is now, in 1867, one in 494. I do not attri- 

 bute these numbers to any actual increase in insanity, but rather to 

 the fact of the more accurate returns which are now made of the 

 pauper lunacy of the country, and also in some degree to a number 

 of persons in the lower middle class successfully contriving to evade 

 the restrictions of the poor law, in order to procure for their insane 

 relatives treatment in the county lunatic asylums. This opinion of 

 the absence of any positive increase in the lunacy of the country 

 is further supported by the relative proportion of private patients 

 to the population in the same period." 



Popular fallacies and general impressions are very obnoxious to 

 the dogmatic under any circumstances, and they become exasperating 

 when they receive support from the most recent and official statistics. 

 The following Table from the Commissioners' Pteport for 1868, 

 published July, 1869, gives support to the "popular fallacy," if 

 figures are of the least value, and unless the Commissioners wish to 

 throw dust in our eyes. 



* Report, 1861. 



