Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 9.djvu/85

 INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY 7 1

In 1862 - - 55,525 for 29,197,737 inhabitants

1872 - 77,oi3 " 31.842,522

1882 - - 98,871 " 34,788,814

1892 - - 120,004 " 37,732,922 " Or

In 1862 - i. 8 1 per 1,000

1872 - 2.17 "

1882 2.89 "

1892 - 3.18 "

According to the official statistics of 1902, there was in Eng- land and Wales in 1859 only I lunatic for 536 inhabitants; in 1902, i for 298. In 1902, 110,713 insane were placed in asylums. According to the Blue Book, the factors causing this startling development were the following:

Excessive business cares - 23 per cent.

Alcoholism 19.8 " "

Heredity 18.9 " "

These are the most general causes. Sex, age, occupation, and sexual passions constitute other factors some biological, others psychic and in part social :

Disappointment in love, females - -1.9 per 10,000 Disappointment in love, males - 0.6 " "

The same statistics show that of 10,000 laborers in the cities, females show the highest proportion of insanity:

Female laborers - - 36.9 in 10,000

Male laborers - 26.9 ""

Domestics in hotels - 20.1 ""

Domestics in private homes - 12.2 " "

Clergymen of the established church 12.0 " "

Catholic and dissenting clergymen 5.0 " "

Farmers and agricultural laborers 5. 1 " "

Quetelet, in his Physique sociale, began to distinguish insanity from idiocy. In the former the overexcited brain goes beyond its physiological power; in the latter the arrest in the develop- ment of the organ has carried with it that of the intellect. For Quetelet, as for Esquivol, "the progress of civilization increases insanity." This thesis is only relatively true. Progress implies, in addition to social development, a very great differentiation