CA USES. The causes of insanity are divided into two classes: (1) Predisposing eauses, in eluding stress and strain. nouropathie constitu tion, and heredity (of alcoholism, epilepsy, in sanity, or other nervous tlisea•e). 12) Exeiting eauses, including sho•k, intense emotion, worry, ant] intellectual overwork, exhausting diseases, excesses t alcoholic or . the childbirth, sunstroke, In the report of the New York State Commission in Lumley for the ?cair ending :september Inuit, the folltming Mere the causes assigned for insanity in Isl..) ewes admitted to the New York State Hospitals for the Insane in the preceding twehe months: Mora l rousts: Adverse eon,' t ions. Liss (4 friends, business troubles, Ile., :154; mental strain. overwork. worry, 341: religious eNejte. went. 65: love affairs, including seduction, 32; fright and nervous slitiek. ti,i, Physieta causes: Alcoholism. •76; sexual excess, t ; venereal di.• raSt.A. 94: 111:1Sillrhati011, Iiii; sunstroke, 50; avei• dent or injury. S7; pregnancy, tl; parturition and puerperium. 136; 15; change of lit', lull; levers, 23: privation and overwork, Sit epilepsy, IS:I; other convulsive disorders. ; of skull and brain. 711; old age. 2.3It: exophthalmic goitre. 1; epidemic influenza. •0; abuse of drugs, 44: loss of special sense, fi ; 111%1•111k poisoning, 2; other atito•infeetion. I ; all other bodily disorders and ill health. 204; heredity, 357; congenital defect, 44: unascer• tallied, 1113. It may be added that 43 persons found not to he insane were committed durim: the year. Of the 009 new eases admitted, Info had inherited predisposition.
NA•l It t; AND AMEN 1 N sA N Tile matter of the alien insane has attracted the attention of a strtt ist icia n Who finds that t here a re con tined and supported in this country a number of alien insane far in excess of the proportion which the foreign•born population bears to the native born. The proportion of native-born to foreign
born in 1900 was st1 to 14. In 1901 the propor tion of native-born insane to foreign-born insane was I1,i to 35. This excess of foreiLrn torn insane imposes an CX1WIlse 1110011 the for it is estimated that their maintenance etists not less than $10.000.(100 a year. The foreign born insane cost New York State abtait 000 annually. 'flue danger to the population from absorbing a deteriorated and degenerate foreign stock is apparent. The presinit law (19031 provides that an immigrant cony be re turned to his native eolintry if he becomes insane within one year. are calling atten tion to the necessity of making the time of probation at least two years. and of eondlteting a searching examination into the history and antecedents of all immigrants.
Pluroxusis. About 60 per cent. of the eases of tuelaneholia and mania recover. dements, paraT10 hies, senile dements, syphilitic dements. and pareties never recover. of partial degenerative insanity rarely recover. The average number of recoveries of all kinds of eases. excepting the hopeless, is over 40 per cent. Most recoverable eases emerge during the first of their illness; few recover after two years have passed. Early eonftision of ideas, inde epney, persistence of delusions, and obesity are unfavorable symptoms. Recurrence occurs in about 25 per cent, of ordinary asylum patients. The offspring of insane parents are defective; therefore no one who has ever been insane should propagate ehildren. .