5 88 
Madmen and Madness at Rome . [OCtobei, 
The journalist, the preacher, and the statesman cannot 
afford to negleCt a phenomenon so menacing. » ., ^ 
of all the advantages which we enjoy as compared with 
forefathers some centuries ago, insanity is increasing amo g 
us and among all so-called civilised nations. . 
In seeking for the cause of this alarming chang 
worse the induCtive logic bids us fix 0U ,7 tten / 10 q n . fi 7 d 0 Vu h dn- 
social factors which have been notably intensified dur b 
the last century or half century. Such fadtors i are not e 
nor trifling, as a comparison between the years 1785 01 even 
1835 and the present 1885 will at once show. But u£on 
which of these must the blame chiefly rest ? In consider g 
these questions it may be not uninteresting to ex ai min Ac 
report published not long ago by Dr. Fiordispini, Diredto 
of the Manicomio, the great asylum of Rome. J hlS „ 
search comprises the seven years from 1874 to 1880. He 
insists at the outset that insanity is a disease winch from 
day to day demands more numerous vidtims. It was once 
proposed to Pius IX. to build new barracks m order to keep 
Town the Roman populace. The Pope replied in words, 
the truth of which becomes daily more strik g . 
Romans do not need new barracks, but a new lunatic asylum. 
Dr Fiordispini adds that if things continue as at present it 
will not require a prophet to foretell that a new Manicomio 
will soon become necessary. nn . ,, 
According to the official statistics of 1880, in the three 
years from 1877 to 1880 the number of the insane increased 
fn Liguria by 23*15 per cent, in Umbria by 24*12 per cent, 
in Venice by 28 73 , m Sicily by 43-88, and in Rome by 3271- 
If we take into account the increase of population introduced 
into Rome by its being made the capital of united Italy we 
find that whilst there were in 1874 out of ever y I0 ’°°° * ' 
habitants 2*06 insane persons, and in 1877 3 35 , m l8 8o, 
from the cessation of certain temporary causes, the propor- 
tl0 What are the causes of an increase of which modern civili- 
sation cannot be very proud, and which are certainly a grave 
set-off against whatever benefits there may have accrued 
the Italian nation from its unity and its “ redemption ? 
Dr. Fiordispini distinguishes firstly the general causes, com 
mon more or less to all Europe, and the local causes, pecu- 
liar to Rome, or at least to Italy. 
As regards the former, he denounces what Bossuet calls 
the tendencies and the spirit of the age. He P oint f. 
demand for unchecked liberty in everything and for all, with, 
out distinction of age, sex, or condition ; to the feveusl 
