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  CHAPTER XIII. POVERTY. Physical labor one of the largest promoters of health—Sudden increase of wealth often results most unfavorably—Too constant application to labor and household cares—A case illustrative—In the contests of life the weaker go to the wall—They are often surrounded by most unfavorable sanitary surroundings, impure air, poor tenements—They become the psychological windfalls of society—Have been and will continue to be dependent when stricken down by disease 199   CHAPTER XIV. RELIGION. Influence of religious belief upon man—Not a cause of insanity—Religious belief natural to man—It is found in all nations—Man instinctively looks up to a Superior Power in hours of suffering and need—He needs such a belief to sustain and give hope—The laws of health and a religious life are in harmony—A religious belief tends toward health—So long as the present conditions of life exist, man will require its sustaining influence 211   CHAPTER XV. INSUFFICIENT SLEEP. Conditions of the brain which are supposed to produce sleep—Congested state of the blood-vessels—An anæmic state—Suffering when a person is for any cause deprived of sleep—Persons usually sleep too little rather than too much—Physiological reasons why children require more sleep than adults—They generally sleep too little, especially when living in cities—The importance of sleep for the brain learned from its universality in nature and especially from the functions of other portions of the body—In this state it recuperates its exhausted energies and stores them up for use when in a state of activity—Inability to sleep a precursor of insanity 223   CHAPTER XVI. CONCLUSION. The primary causes of few diseases are fully understood—Prevention of insanity must come mainly from education received at home and in the school—Difficulties in the way of securing any efficient preventive measures—Educational processes may be improved in several ways: (1) by securing a larger degree of individuality; (2) more attention to industrial education; (3) more efficient home education—Changes in certain habits; (1) in reference to the use of alcoholic beverages; (2) in the use of tobacco; (3) the importance of longer periods of rest and recreation; (4) improved sanitary surroundings in those portions of cities occupied by the poor and laboring classes of society—The importance of systematic measures toward the prevention of insanity 237

 

 

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PRELIMINARY.

 

 

CHAPTER I.

PRELIMINARY.

 

The subject of insanity, in its relation to both individuals and society, is becoming of greater importance every year. A larger measure of interest in relation to it has been manifest, not only in the writings of specialists, who have made it a study, and the care of its subjects a profession, but also in those of general practitioners of medicine and philanthropists, who are ever seeking to improve the conditions of society.

This results from two causes: 1, the change which has taken place in the public mind in relation to the nature of the disease, it no longer being regarded as something for which an individual is responsible in a larger measure than for other diseases, or as entailing a stigma upon those who are so unfortunate as to have experienced it, but rather a disease which invades the brain in the same way that diseases of another character affect other portions of the system, bearing with it neither more nor less of responsibility or disgrace; 2, and, as a result in part from this change, a more clear realization on the part of the public, that there exists an obligation to make provision for care and treatment of those who are deprived of reason, and consequently unable to care for themselves, to a larger extent than for any other unfortunate class in the community.

The obligation resting upon the strong to provide for those who become helpless from the effects of other forms of disease has long been acknowledged, but it is only within recent times that this obligation concerning those who become helpless from the effects of insanity has come into general recognition. Now, however, it is readily conceded that this unfortunate class appeals even more strongly for sympathy and aid than any other, more especially by reason of the consequences which result to the individual himself, as well as to his family, and the community in which he resides.

The lower we descend in the scale of existence, the less importance does the nervous system sustain in its relation to other systems of the entire body; and conversely, the higher we rise in the scale, the larger importance does it hold, until, in man, it reaches its highest relation, crowning all the others, and making its possessor supreme in the world of animal-life. When, however, disease invades the brain, and the individual no longer holds sway over the purposes evolved from his mental operations, he becomes the most helpless of creatures. Thought no longer follows the dictation of the will; designs or plans, for the present and future, are no longer possible. That intellectual power on which he so much prided himself, and on which his highest happiness and usefulness depended, has passed into darkness and confusion. Henceforth, if he is to be cared for at all, or treated for the amelioration of disease, or for recovery, it must be by friends on the ground of obligation, or by the public, in virtue of that charity which is the growth of