Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 9.djvu/88

 74 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

In Italy, pellagra accentuates the mental derangement brought on by the general misery which is regularly manifested in the most lamentable social convulsions. The number of insane in the asylums of Italy was :

Men. Women.

December 31, 1880 - 9,000 8,471

December 31, 1885 - 10,443 9.839

December 31, 1888 11,895 10,529

The proportion of insane in asylums for each 10,000 inhabit- ants was in 1883, 6.40, in 1884, 6.68, in 1885, 6.62. In France during the same year it was 13.11, 13.38, and 13.66; in Ger- many, 8.27, 8.42, and 8.35 ; in Cisleithan Austria, 2.89, 3.06, and 3.20. But it must be taken into consideration that the establish- ment of hospitals was not equally extended in 1885; while in Austria there were 26 and in Italy 77, in France there were 103 and in the German empire 244.

The following are the statistics for France, per 1,000 inhabi- tants :

Idiocy. Insanity. 1851 2 1.23

1861 I. II 1.14

1866 1.05 1.33

1872 - 1.14 ?

1876 - 1.20 1.22

M. Levasseur thinks that these figures are too low. He shows that the number of insane is higher in the agricultural districts. Although, from the point of view of the extension of insanity, one cannot base his conclusions solely upon the number of indi- viduals in institutions, the number of private and public asylums having increased, yet the progression can be considered as con- stant, and M. Levasseur thinks that the cases of insanity are much more frequent today than formerly, because of the passion for politics and of the fluctuations of riches. The following table gives the number of insane in hospitals in France per 10,000 inhabitants :

!835-39 3-4 1861-64 8.4

1840-44 4.3 1865-69 - 9.5

1845-49 5.3 1870-74 10.5

1850-54 6.3 1875-79 - - 12.0

1855-60 - 7.2 1880-84 - 12.9