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I''rom tliu official reports of the Coniniissioiiers in Lunacy in (Ircat liritain and Ireland, and the census returns of the United Statis, as well as the census and lunacy returns of Canada, the evidence is irresistible that there is an immense increase in the number of registered lunatics during the last 40 years. This alarming increase in I'Jigland and W.iles, and conseeiuent burden of taxation, suj^gested to the I .o.d ( "hancellor the neci;ssity of a special report from the Commissioners in Luna(-y as to whether this increase was due to real or apparent causes. The result of their researches, as submitted to the l,(jrd Chancellor in a Special report, went to show that whereas, in 185c), the number of lunatics, idiots and persons of unsound mind in England and U'ales reported to their department as resident in asylums and workhouses, or with their relatives or others, was 36,762, the number had increased in 1S96 to 96,446, showing a ratio to every 10,000 of the population of 31. 3S a« compared with 18.67 at the previous period. The ne.xt (|uestion they had to determine was whether this increase was due to insanity producing causes, or to the ampler accommodation provided and conse(|uent increased registration. The Commissioners soon found that the task they had set before them was a very difficult and perplexing one. They started out with the assumption that the keen and restless energy of the age had made such enormous drafts upon the mental resources of the people, that it would be easy to formulate a theory which would account for the rapidly increasing ratio of mental disorder. The result of the investigation com- pletely negatived this assumption, as the following figures show : The increase in pauper lunatics from 1859 to 1896 was from 31,401 to 87,417, while the increase in the private class has only been from 4,679 to 8,265. ^^^^ ratios having risen from 15.95 to 28.44 for paupers, and from 2.38 to 2.69 for private patients per 10,000 of the population. Or making another calculation, the population of ICngland and Wales has increased 56 per cent, from 1859 to 1896, while private lunatics have increased 76 per cent., criminal lunatics 12 per cent,, pauper lunatics 178 per cent., making a total increase of lunatics of 162 per cent. The Com- missioners draw a marked distinction of the -atio of increase between private and pauper lunatics, and report that the number of private lunatics is actually lower in 1896 than in 1879, and is still undergoing an annual diminution. The Commissioners in Scotland report from 1859 to 1896 an increase of 37 per cent, in population, an increase of private lunatics of 97 per cent., criminal 96 per cent., and of pauper 139 per cent., making a total increase of 132 per cent. The Commissioners in Ireland only furnish returns from 1880 to 1885, which show a decrease in population of 12 per cent., while private lunatics increased 20 per cent., criminal decreased 8 per cent., pauper increased 43 per cent.; total increase, 41 per cent. In the United States the only returns available are the census from 1880 to 1890, which show an increase in population of 24 per cent., while the increase of the insane of all classes is 19 per cent. In Canada the census returns of i8gi give the population at 4,833,239, and the number of lunatics of all classes at 13,355, or I to every 361 of the population. There are no comparative returns available. In the Province of Ontario the census and Provincial returns show an increase of population from 187 1 to 1895 of 36 per cent., while the increase of insane for the same period is 245 per cent. CAUSKS OF THE RAIMU INCRKASE OF INSANITY. The English Commissioners in their special report, while admitting the vast increase of the pauper insane, endeavor to explain it on the ground of greater accuracy of registration. They say there are fewer lunatics in workhouses and more of that class in asylums ; that the low recovery and death rates tend to perpetuate their lives and thus form an ever increasing residue of population ; that asylums are now more popular among the people, and that there are more cases of senile mania sent to the asylums than formerly. No doubt there \^ truth in all the reasons set forth, to at least partially account for the vast increase, but to my mind there are other deeper and more potent causes than any set forth, which I shall refer to later on. Take the history of lunacy in Canada, but more especially in 7 the Province of Ontario, the most populous Province in Canada, and wliat do we find? Since 187 1 the increase of lunacy has been at the rate of 245 per cent. We are a conij)aratively young and virile country, with no workhouses containing a l.Tge residue of unregistered lunatics to draw from ; our registration system has been perfect from the l)eginning. We have no very large centres of population to act as breeding grounds of vice and pauperism, the predominant interest is agriculture,, the natural resources are unbounded, our educational syster^i is second to none in the world, our climate is healthful and invigorating ; all the conditions are here for the development of a hardy, vigorous and intellectual race, both mentally and physically. 'I'hen why should there be such a |)henomenal increase of insanity during the past 25 years? That there has been a demand for the accommodation of this large increase no will deny. 'I'he public press, the grand juries, all representative bodies, have been alike urgent in demanding that further provision should be made for this unfortunate class. Since 187 1 there have been practically four new asylums erected in different parts of the Province, with a capacity of 2,700, not to speak of additions that have been made to the two older asylums, all erected and maintained at the expense of the Province. No nobler tribute could be paid to the wisdom, the generosity and the beneficence of the (lovernment than the ample and splendid provision which has been made for the defective classes in this Province. There is little doubt that the recognition of the principle that the insane are the wards of the State has had much to do with the large influx of lunatics seeking admission to our asylums. Many cases that were formerly cared for by friends at home, who had not the means to provide for their care and treatment in public institutions, are now transferred t^o the care of the State, and that there is a desire everywhere on the public to abuse this privilege every medical superintendent has abundant evidence. The evidence accumulates, however, that there are other deep-seated and far-reaching causes at work to account for this rapid increase of mental wreckage. The latter half of the present century has witnessed such a tremendous revolution in moral, social and physical dynamics, that it ma\' l)e truly said "old things have passed away and all things have become new," ;ind tiiat a large section of the public have not yet adjusted themselves to this transitional condition of affairs is not to be wondered at. 'i'he invention of labor saving machinery has thrown millions of people out of employment and left them hopelessly stranded in the struggle for a living. A new king has arisen who knows not the common people, thekingof mechanical force. .Steam and electricity, with the multi- plicity of i)uri)0ses to which they are apj)lied, have so usurped the ranks of labor that multitudes are thrown out of employment, ard many of them unal)le to adjust th.emseUes to the altered conditions of the labor market become a charge on the various charity organizations, whicl: r- the fust stage of physical and mental degeneration. It cannot be denied that a large per centage of the human family is born into the world so weakly endowed mentally as to be wholly unlit for anything but the most primitive form of citizenship. With ([uiel and uneventful surroundings, which do not o\erta\ tlu:ir mental energies, they manage to pass through life in the undisturbed possession of their meagre mental outfit with (comparative ease and comfort, but the moment they are subjected to compKx conditions of life which recp'.ire greater mental and jihysical activity to gain a subsistence, they weaken and falter by tin- way and gravitate into the vagrant and pauper ranks, which are the grt'at recruiting camps from which we draw the great army of pauper insane. There was a time, not very remote, when the man who could handle a |)ick and shovel, or trundle a wheelbarrow, was fairly sure (jf a humble subsistence, even if he had only the prospect of spending his old age in the poor-house. In agriculture a boy with a team of horses nnd a self-binding reaper will go into the harvest fielil and do as much work in a day as it formerly took 15 men to do, and so it is in every branch of industry. Machinery has everywhere driven the workingman to the wall, and the laborer who is not possessed of some technical knowledge is so handicapped in the race of life that the struggle for existence becomes mon- and more precarious. 'i'he common pe()|)le stand a[)palled at the tremendous upheaval of modern times : the whole social and e«onomic fabric I of the past has been overturned, and new conditions have arisen to which they are as yet strangers. 'I 'henries venerable with age are toppHng down about their ears in prodigal profusion ; the scientific Iconoclast is abroad in the land, and scarcely anything has escaped his destructive mandate. Is it any wonder that many weakly vitalised brains should fail to adjust themselves to such an altered environment and succumb to circumstances which they are powerless to control ? The rise of ])lutocracy, with its power of concentrating wealth, has increased the ever-widening breach between capital and labor, and aroused mutterings of discontent among the masses, which are loud, deep and long for the amelioration of their condition, and which seem to justify the couplet — " 111 fares the land lo liaste^iini; ills a jirey, When' wealth .iccumulates and men decay." The |)opular opinion of the day is that the vast increase of insanity is due to the restless spirit of the age, the irter.se compe- tition in business and tiie break-neck struggle for wealth, place and power. It is believed that the conseiiuent exhaustion result- ing from this overtax on the brain is the ciuse of widespread mental disorder. 'I'hat tlierc is an clement of truth in this opin- ion no one will deny, but t(. rank it as the great predisposing or exciting cause of insanity is nothing short of a popular fallacy. The statistical information furnished by the Commissioners in Lunacy for ICngland and Wales proves that while there is an enormous increase of insanity among the pauper classes, there is an actual decline among the private cjasses. I am aware it is hinted that there is a considerable number of the latter class at large who ought to be in asylums, be("ause medical men do not care to accept the risk of defending themselves in the courts on the charge of wrongful certification. ICxperience, however, proves that the educated classes, the busy men of affairs who propel forward at such a rapid pace the great industrial, connncrcial and social forces in the world, do not figure prominently in our asylum statistics, init that the mass of registered lunatics come irom the uneducated lower strata of the people, the raw material, as it were, of society, is abundantly evident. lO The highly organized human brain is a many functioned organ, with a wide range of complex centres, and susceptible of almost unlimited development along physiological lines. The evolution of highly energized brain power among the educattd classes, as exemplified in the tremendous impetus given to every department of science, is the greatest phenomena of the age. In rapid succession a great mind shoots away from its ordin- ary environment, meteor like, to further illuminate the pathway of science and transform the whole conditions of social and eco- nomic life. The veil of ignorance and superstition is being pulled aside and the hidden mysteries of nature and science are l)eing unfolded in such profuse abundance as to make the ordinary unsophisticated mind stand awe-stricken and bewildered. What limit there may be to this development (if there be a limit), no human being can devine. That its influence will percolate and ramify down through every grade of the social structure, and result in a general uplifting of the massc^ to a higher moral and social plane, no one will attempt to deny. In this lies the hope of the future and the arrest of those degenerative conditions which are populating our asylums, gaols and reformatories, and of removing the heavy burden of taxation upon the productive capacity of the people for the support of the degenerative classes. HEREDITY AM) VICK. Heredity and vice account for a large proportion of the men- tal alienation of the present day. The human race of to-day is the expressed sum of all the good, bad and indifferent that have ever existed in the world from the beginning. We cannot ignore the great laws which govern the propagation of species ; degener- ates beget degenerates and criminals beget criminals with inexor- able exactness ; " the sins of the fathers descend upon the children ; " the fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge." The laws of evolution and devolution are ever imminent in our race. In the struggle for existence the weak and degenerate go to the wall, and the strong survive. As the ages roll on we may hope to ascend to higher and higher types of manhood, with an ever-increasing richness of experience and a progressive knowledge of the great laws which govern the II universe, until we may be privileged to sit at the very foot of the throne of God himself. i DRUNKENNESS. The curse of drunkenness has done much to demoralize the human race mentally, morally and physically. Its debasing and degenerating influence has been especially marked among the lower classes, and has had much to do with their moral degrada- tion. The children of drunken parents are born into the world with a defective nervous organization and such weak inhibitory will-power as to make them an easy prey to the trials and tempta- tions which beset them on every hand. With a weakly mental endowment they easily gravitate into the many highways and byways of sin, and early become a charge in one or other of the public institutions. SYPHILIS The scourage of syphilis has been the most deadly enemy to the upward progress of the human race the world has ever seen. Its disintegrating power in destroying human life has been greater than even pestilence or the sword. Millions upon millions of the human family who have never seen the light of day have been sacrificed in utero by embryonic infection to gratify this insatiate Moloch of death. Acquired in one generation it insidiously pro- pagates itself to future generations, until who can tell where its baneful influence begins or ends? It masquerades under so many assumed names and in so many unexpected guises that it often baffles and eludes the skill of the most careful diagnostician to differentiate it. Its peculiar affinity for attacking the brain and ner- vous system is one of the marked features of its history, and yet it was long before neurologists discovered its potency as a factor in pro- ducing insanity. That fatal form of insanity known as general paresis, or as it is now called general paralysis of the insane, is now recognized by high authority as in every case due to this virulent poison. All authorities are agreed that it is the most common cause in producing this and other kindred diseases affecting the brain and nervous system. Fortunately for us we do not see so much of its disentegra- ting power in Canada as in the larger centres of population in 12 Other lands. We are painfully apprised often of its dwarfing influence mentally, morally and physically among the pauper children which are sent to our shores from various charitable organizations in the mother land. We think it high time the (lovernment took active steps tt) prohibit this class of im- migration. KEMliDIKS. . I have no panacea to offer to stem the tide of ever-increasing mental degeneration, except in the operation of the broad general laws for the uplifting of the masses which I have already indi- cated. There is a lamentable amount of ignorance in the world yet as to tlie laws which govern health and the propagation of the race, and all agencies at work for the dissemination of correct knowledge on these subjects among the masses should command our best consideration and support. Many theories have been advanced by sociologists with this end in view, some of them by a peaceful and constitutional process, others by the destruction of law and the reign of anarchy and force. The moralists say that man can only be regenerated and uplifted through the spiritualising force of Christianity. Another school advocates the interference of the State and the enactment of stringent laws for the regulation of marriage ; they would prohibit, under legal penalty, those close of kin, and the whole class of mental degen- erates, from marrying. ( )thers go still further and advocate the asexualization and emasculation of the mentally weak and of the incorrigible criminal as well. 'I'he last and most humane .school of all advocates the erection by the State of sufficient buildings to accommodate the whole of the defective clas.ses, and make their admission compulsory and last during the term of their natural lives. '1 his plan is advocated not only on humane and social grounds, but for economic reasons as well, they claim that it will not only elevate the race mentally and physically, but that it will be ultimately a paying investment for the State by drying up the perennial stream at the fountain, and in time lessen the burden of taxation on the people. While there is a certain amount of reason, as well as novelty, in some of tiie theories advocated by the different schools of thought mentioned, I have to confess that I am not enamoured I \ J3 of any theory based on Icgis'iative enactment or radical surgery as a remedy for the weaknesses and burdens under consideration. Experience proves that there is a strong repugnance against all coercive or repressive legislation, affecting the social customs and habits of society, which is shown by the constant desire to evade it. NATURAF- LAWS. I am convinced that the further elevation of the human race must be on the same lines and through the operation of the same natural laws that have governed the universe in the past. We must not forget that our present boasted civilization is but of yesterday, and that we have attained it by a gradual process of evolution, reaching hack through the long vista of the past. We are constantly reminded of our savage ancestry and nature's tendency of reversion to ancient types, by the human degenerates born into the world in spite of the best breeding and most care- ful training. We are so recently removed (comparatively speaking), from barbarism, that nature is still unstable in transmitting her more recently acciuired types of character, and it is no wonder that once in every two or three hundred births a lunatic, an idiot or a criminal is born into the world. As time rolls on and the [)resent rate of progress continues, nature will show greater stability in transmitting improved types, and thus the race will tend to reach a higher plant; of mental, moral and physical excel- lence. Of course this gradual ascent of the human race "'11 be greatly accelerated or retarded in proportion to the constancy with sviiich these great natural laws are applied or subverted, as the case may be. There are two great forces in operation which regulate the universe — moral and physical —and neither one of them can be violated with impunity. The closer we follow the teachings of both these great laws, the more rapid will be our ascent towards higher ideals of character as well as material progress in life. The discovery of the art of printing witnessed the renaissance of art and literature and the extinction of mediaeval civilization in Europe. It has done more to elevate the masses and extend the rights of the people than al! other agencies combined, and may weli be called the palladium of our liberties. It has rung 14 the death knell of special privilege for the few, and ushered in the reign of Democracy with cnjual rights for all. EDUCATION. Education by the State is the corner stone upon which the social edifice must be built, and should be adapted to meet the wants and recjuirements of all classes of ihe people. Its special and distinctive mission should be the development of mind- power, by a process of mental discipline which will pre^)are every person for the highest duties of citizenship. Technical schools in all the large centres of population should be established for training in the various kinds of handicraft, which will help the common people to rise to the measure of their opportunities. DENATIONALIZATION OF LAND. The large hereditary estates in the old lands should be denationalized and subdivided among the people at a fair valua- tion. Liberal grants of land should be offered in the new land, and every inducement given to leave the over-crowded centres, where health and opportunity are at a minimum, for the (juiet pastoral pursuits of rural life, where health of body and vigor of mind are at a maximum. " I'rinccs and lords ni.iy (lourisli or may fade, A breath can make tliem as a breath has made ; Hut a bold peasantry their country's pride, When once destroyed can never be supplied." There can be no such thing as social equality so long as men are born into the wo.ld with unequal mental gifts. The highly organized brain is born to lead, to dictate and to govern, while the more weakly endowed is born to a life of servitude and sub- mission. The enormous concentration of wealth in the hands of a few is the rock upon which society will yet be split. Wealth flaunts itself in extravagant display while grim clouds of discon- tent are everywhere apparent among the masses. No man is born of such transcendent gifts as to possess sufficient earning power to become a millionaire. It is opposed to both natural and eco- nomic law, and can only be done by a monopoly of opportunity in levying tribute upon his fellowmen. How to level up and level down so that the masses shall enjoy a larger share of the wealth- IS producing power of the world is one of the greatest problems of the age. It is the une(|ual distribution of wealth and the stern struggle with poverty which is the millstone about the neck of the masses that is dragging them down to mental, moral and social degredation. The rapid fluctuation of industrial methods, the shrinkage in values, the depression in trade, are each reflected in the ever- increasing demand for charity and the destruction of true manhood. It blights ambition, destroys aspiration and petrifies all the higher and nobler feelings of humanity, and leaves the hapless victim a candidate for either the asylum, the poorhouse, or the prison. We turn with pleasure from this pessimistic view of the social situation to the development of that splendid altriistic spirit among the classes which is doing so much to ease th.: burdens and succour the distresses of the masses. Wherever the cry of the needy and distressed is heard, whether at home or abroad, the purse-strings of the well-to-do are open, and money is poured out in rich abundance for its relief. No better evidence can be found of our advancing christian civilization than in the many agencies, individual and corporate, for the relief of the poor. Unfortunately it only relieves the symptom, while it intensifies the cau.se. If the money spent in indiscriminate and organized charity, and in the maintenance of public institutions, were expended in adding to the earning power of the poor, it would not only add to the productive capacity of the nation and a more eciual diffusion of wealth, but it would also tend, more than any- thing else, to uplift the social condition of the masses by develop- ing a spirit of self-reliance, instead of a spirit of" helpless dependence which submerges them deeper and deeper into the slough of despond, and into a condition of hopeless mental and physical inertia. As Britons we rightly boast of our free institu*:ions and ecjual rights to every citizen, of government by the [ eople and for the people, but we sigh for the dawn of a richer h' itage yet, viz. — eciuality of opportunity. May we hope to see inaugurated i6 that mythi(;al period in the history of ancient Rome so graphically described by Macaulay : "Then none was for a ]>iirty, Then all were for the Slate, Then the rich man helped the poor, And the poor man loved the {jreat ; Then lands were fairly portioned, Then spoils were fairly sold. The Romans were like brothers n the brave davs of old." )hically