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Indiam University Studies 



mate of |175 per capita of insane in institutions in 1910, would 

 amount to 132,863,425 in all the states of the Union."^ This 

 financial statement, however impressive^ cannot compare with 

 the cost of the loss of human efficiency, its attendant crime, 

 pauperism, and immorality. Prevention is the slogan of the social 

 worker. Often, in her visits to patients' homes, she will recognize 

 cases of mental disorder which have never had medical care and 

 advice and may secure it for them. 



I firmly believe that any well organized system of social service, having 

 for its chief object the prevention of nervous and mental disorders in the 

 community, cannot fail in time to prevent the occurrence of a majority 

 of the preventable cases which develop each year, but which, today, 

 through ignorance or neglect, are permitted to reach a stage where com- 

 mitment is necessary and cure so difficult or impossible.* 



True insanity is due to organic disease, which brings about 

 a breaking down of the nerve cells. In some forms the disease 

 which is the cause has been determined, while in others, the dis- 

 ease, altho believed to be present, has not been demonstrated. 

 Insanity is not directly inherited, yet the instability of the nerv- 

 ous system, the predisposition to mental disorders, seems to be 

 hereditary. If it is believed that the body is the instrument of the 

 mind, then health of the body is the prerequisite for mental health. 



''The writers of the Bible evidently considered that a healthy 

 body is an important asset, not only in itself, but for the relation 

 it bears to mind and spirit or as the foundation of the whole 

 personality. "° Some of the diseases resulting in insanity may 

 attack the body in spite of careful living, but usually broken rules 

 of hygiene are the cause. Dr. H. C. Eyman says : ''The two over- 

 whelming factors are heredity and dissipation, the latter includ- 

 ing intemperance in drinks or drugs, and venereal disease. If 

 these two great causes could be removed insanity would be rare 

 indeed."^ Surely, if this were generally known and its truth 

 fully appreciated, the work of prevention would be partially 

 accomplished. A more general adoption of the eugenic program, 

 together with abstinence from dissipating indulgences, would 

 serve to check the preventable forms of insanity. 



* Owen Copp, M.D., "Mental Disease and Mental Defect, A State and National 

 Problem", Fechle-mindedness and Insanity, p. 268. 



* Clifford W. Beers, The Value of Social Service as an Agency in the Prevention 

 of Nervous and Mental Disorders, p. 3. 



5 Dr. H. C. Eyman, Superintendent of the Masillon (Ohio) State Hospital, The 

 Greatest Problem of the Race — Its Oicn Conservation, chap. viii. p. 113. 



« Professor Rudolph M. Binder, Ph.D., "The Significance of Health", Studies in 

 Social Progress, Vol. X, No. 9, June, 1918, p. 129. 



