36 



Indiana University Studies 



TABLE XI. ACCOMPANYING DISORDERS 



MALE 



FEMALE 



TOTAL 



Venereal disease 

 Feeble-minded . 



Alcoholism 



Tuberculosis . . . 



3 

 4 



1 



6 

 3 



1 



9 

 7 

 7 



2 



Henry H., age thirty, is said to have developed epilepsy follow- 

 ing an attack of scarlet fever at twelve years. He became very 

 melancholy and began to drink. Seizures always followed intoxi- 

 cation. He was an inmate of Central Hospital for Insane three 

 times, where he was reported destructive and profane. The 

 family history shows insanity on the maternal side. 



A questionnaire was sent out to each of the state institutions 

 for the care of epileptics and in every case heredity was assigned 

 as the greatest cause of the disease, and epilepsy with its natural 

 sequelae as the greatest cause of death among the patients. The 

 average age of death of epileptics is given as thirty years. Altho 

 medically, the cure for epilepsy may not be found, socially, pre- 

 vention seems to be the cure. A few suggestions as to how to 

 prevent epilepsy follow: (1) better parents (clean heredity, 

 clean people), (2) better obstetrics, (3) hygienic environment 

 (in childhood), (4) control of common infectious diseases, 

 (5) restriction of alcohol and venereal disease, (6) prevention 

 of accidents. 



Surely such a program would be endorsed by all socially- 

 minded individuals. A special appeal is made to the trained 

 social worker. 



The importance of having available at all times a trained person who 

 could go into various parts of the state to ascertain facts relative to the 

 family and personal history of our patients vv^ould be of the utmost value 

 from a scientific standpoint. Such a person could also be of much assist- 

 ance in disseminating in various communities proper ideas regarding 

 defectiveness and common-sense means of endeavoring to control its 

 increase.^ 



Statistics from Craig Colony for Epileptics, Sonyea, N.Y. 

 s Twenty-second Annual Report of the Craig Colony for Epileptics, Sonyea, N.Y., 

 1916, p. 79. 



