∗ The Alleged Increase of Lunacy : being a paper read at the Second Quarterly Meeting of the Medico-Psychological Association, held at the Royal Medico-Chirurgical Society, January 28th, 18G9,by G. Lockhart-Robertson, M.D., Cantab., F.R.C.P.; Ex-President of the Medico-Psychological Association; Medical Super intendent of the Sussex Lunatic Asylum, Hayward's Heath; Membre Associ Etranger de la Socitmdico-Psychologiquede Paris, etc., etc. Journal of Mental Science, April, 1869. Google Scholar

∗ In illustration of this assertion I would refer to the numerous facts detailed in the Report of the Metropolitan Commissionersin Lunacy to the Lord Chan cellor. 1844. Those who have not access to this report may consult the speech on the Regulation of Lunatic Asylums, delivered by Lord Ashley, in the House of Commons, June 6th, 1845, and which is reprinted in a volume recently pub lished, “Speeches of the Earl of Shaftesbury, E.G., upon subjects having relation chiefly to the claims and interests of the labouring classes, with a Preface.” London : Chapman and Hall, 18G8. (For a notice of this volume, see Journal of Mental Science, January, 1869. Part IV., Psychological News, “Lord Shaftesbury'u Speeches.”) Google Scholar

∗ “I would, however, remind you that Table VIII. showed an actual increase in the number of admissions into asylums in 18G7of 1,091 as contrasted with the admissions of 1857. This increase is solely in the number of pauper patients, and is dependent on the causes to which I have already, in the first part of thia paper, referred, as influencing the more accurate registration of the insane poor in recent years. Every medical superintendent knows how increasing the practice is of filling up the wards of the county asylums with imbeciles and idiots from the union houses.”—The Alleged Increase of Lunacy. Google Scholar

∗ Thus the following extracts from the British Medical Journal and the Pall Mall Gazette, may tend to show the interest taken by the press in the solution of this important question of the alleged increase in lunacy :— Google Scholar

The Alleged Increase of Lunacy.—Dr. Lockhart Robertson, in a paper read lately before the Medico-Psychological Association, states that in 1844there were 20,011 lunatics in England and Wales, or 1 in 802 of the population. In 1868 this number had risen to 50,118, or 1 in 432 of the population. The statis tics of lunacy in France showed a similar increase in the total number of the in sane, having risen from 1 in 790 of the population to 1 in 444 between 1851 and 1861. Dr. Robertson argued that this apparent increase was simply the result of more accurate registration of the insane, and the consequence of the opening of the county asylums; and that all recent lunacy legislation tended directly to increase their recorded numbers. In examining the question at issue statistically, Dr. Robertson confined his observations chiefly to the numbers of the insane in asylums, and showed that the yearly increase observed had been in a decreasing ratio, passing in quinquennial periods, since 1844,from an annual rate of increase of 5'6 per cent to one of 3'8 per cent, in 1807. He showed that the same result followed in France; and he argued that this increase only represented the differ ence between the yearly admissions and the discharges and deaths. Among the private lunatics there is a decrease during the decenuium 1857-67, despite the increasing population of the country. The proportion of pauper lunatics to the population also remained nearly stationary being -016m 1857, and -019m 1867. Tested by the admissions into the asylums during the same period (18o7-67), the rate of increase is also in a yearly decreasing ratio, falling from 11.7 per cent, to an annual average of 3 per cent. From these facts which were enforced by many elaborate statistical tables, Dr. Robertson deduced that the alleged increase of lunacy is a fallacy, and not borne out by the experience of the last decennium Medical Journal, February G, 1869. Is Lunacy Increasing-Statistics show that the number of known lunatics in this country now is, relatively to the population, nearly double what it was in 1844 Similar results appear on the face of registration statistics m 1 ranee. Dr. Lockhart Eobertson, however, a competent authority, has, in an elaborate paper read before the Medico-Psychological Association, endeavoured to prove that this aoarentincrease is only the result of more accurate registration and the opening of county asylums. He shows that the yearly rate of increase observed has been in a decreasing ratio, passing in quinquennial periods since 1844 from an annual rate of increase of 5.6 per cent, to one of 3.8 per cent, m 1807. He areues that this increase represents only the difference between the yearly admis sions and the discharges and deaths. In the private lunatics there is a decrease, and the pauper lunatics have been stationary during the years 1857-67, despite the increasing population of the country. Taking the admissions only into asylums during the same period there is a yearly decreasing ratio falling from 11-7 percent, to an annual average of 3 per cent.-Pa Mall Gazette, February 6, 1869. Google Scholar

∗ Report, 1861 Google Scholar

∗ Yorkshire being divided into three parts. Google Scholar

† See Thurnam, Statistics of Insanity, p. 171. arr. Statistical Journal, 1841, iv. 20. Google Scholar

∗ The average wages of the agricultural labourer in Wiltshire is 9s. per week; shepherds, 10s.; and carters, 11s.; there are a few extras in harvest time, &c. The condition of the Wiltshire labourer and that of the “Dorsetshire hind “are nearly the same. Both, there can be little doubt, are “under-fed.” See the interesting paper in “Good Words” for February, 1870, p. 94,—“Our Working People, and How they Live,” Google Scholar