قراءة كتاب Insanity: Its Causes and Prevention

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Insanity: Its Causes and Prevention

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المؤلف:

Stearns Henry Putnam

دار النشر: Project Gutenberg

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INSANITY:

ITS CAUSES AND PREVENTION

BY
HENRY PUTNAM STEARNS, M.D.
SUPERINTENDENT OF THE RETREAT FOR THE INSANE, HARTFORD, CONN.; LECTURER
ON INSANITY IN THE MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OF YALE COLLEGE,
ETC., ETC.

“It is the mynde that makes good or ill,
That maketh wretch or happie, rich or poore.”
Spenser—Faerie Queene, Book XI, Canto IX.

NEW YORK
G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS
27 & 29 WEST 23D STREET
1883

Press of
G. P. Putnam’s Sons
New York

TO
JOHN SIBBALD, M.D., F.R.S.E.,
COMMISSIONER IN LUNACY FOR SCOTLAND, IN PLEASANT
REMEMBRANCE OF A PORTION OF OUR STUDENT-LIFE
PASSED TOGETHER, THIS BOOK IS INSCRIBED
WITH SINCERE REGARD BY HIS FRIEND,
THE AUTHOR.

PREFACE.

It is something more than two years since I read a paper, entitled “The Insane Diathesis,” at a meeting of the Connecticut Medical Society. The numerous requests received for copies of that article have led me to think that something more in detail in relation to the prevention of insanity might be desired by the reading public both lay and professional. Hence this little book. It has not been written for specialists exclusively, though it is hoped it will not prove wholly uninteresting to them, but rather for those in the general practice of medicine, educators, and the more intelligent lay members of society.

It has been written during odd snatches of time and with many interruptions, so that there exists less uniformity of style than there would otherwise be. Moreover, some of the subjects presented have been discussed by me in papers which have already been published. These papers, however, so far as they have been introduced into this work, have been rewritten, and, it is thought, improved.

H. P. S.

Hartford, Dec., 1882.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.
PRELIMINARY.
	PAGE.
Increase of interest in the subject of insanity, resulting from, first, more intelligent views concerning its nature; and, second, the obligation to make provision for the care of the insane in a larger measure than for other unfortunate classes—Results in the way of hospitals—Asylum attendants—Change in the modes of management, and care of the insane	3

CHAPTER II.
INCREASE OF INSANITY.
Indications which point to the probability of its increase in a greater ratio than that of the population: (1) in relation to the general conditions of society; (2) in occupations; (3) in the character or tendency of disease—Increased demand for hospitals for the insane not a conclusive evidence of increase of insanity; other reasons exist for this—Improvements in hospitals—The chronic as well as the acute insane now provided for more generally than formerly—Accumulations in asylums—Statistics—Those of England and Scotland—Their character and import as presented in the yearly reports of the Boards of Lunacy Commissioners	11

CHAPTER III.
INSANITY AND CIVILIZATION.
Prevalence of disease among savage nations—Conditions of life not such as to produce insanity—Definitions of civilization—Several conditions attending civilization combine to increase diseases of the brain—Increase of brain activity—Over-stimulation of the brain in schools and by the use of alcoholic beverages—A community of interests exists in savage life which is lost in civilized life—In the latter the strong thrive at the expense of the weak—Monopolies in land and other forms of property—Inference to be drawn from the tendency of insanity to increase—The primary condition of insanity one of the brain—Investigations should relate to the nature and causes of this condition	33

CHAPTER IV.
THE INSANE DIATHESIS.
The ideal human system—The actual human system—Physical and mental differences among persons in health—Periods during which there exist considerable changes in the character of mental action in the case of many persons while in a state of health—Excitement and depression of mental activity—This tendency to unstable activity of the nervous system may be inherited or acquired—Illustrations from the effects of over-exertion, “writer’s cramp,” chorea—A similar condition of that portion of the brain which is concerned in mental operations may exist—Illustrations—The effects of sudden mental shocks and long-continued mental application—Recapitulation—The condition which we term the Insane Diathesis is the prime factor in the causation of insanity	53

CHAPTER V.
THE INFLUENCE OF EDUCATION.
The higher conception of education—The ordinary course pursued in schools—Too many subjects studied at one time, and too large a number of scholars under the supervision of one teacher—Little opportunity to study individual characters and

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