∗ The increase of the insane in asylums admits of a more simple explanation than the theory of the alleged increase of lunacy. Of every 100 patients admitted in a given period into an asylum, it is evident that a certain number must remain over to swell the numbers, viz., the difference over the discharges and the deaths. In the decennium 1858 68, not every one of the 90,000 lunatics admitted into the English asylums was removed (recovered or relieved) or died. A certain number remain. In examining the official returns of these years, this remainder is found to be, in round numbers, 10,000, or as near as possible the increase in the numbers of the English asylum population during the same period. The actual numbers are thus:— Google Scholar

Or of every 100 patients admitted during the decennium 57.4 were discharged, 30.8 died, and 11.8 remain in the asylums. The increase in the population of the English asylums during the decennium 1858–68 was 10,421 (table IV.); the difference between the discharges and death is 10,806 and represents, therefore, the whole of the increase. I might almost herewith conclude my remarks, and say, that I had now demonstrated that no increase of insanity, as tested by the numbers in the English asylums, has occurred in this decennium.”—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 28, 1869, by Lockhart Robertson, C., M.D., F.R.C.P. Google Scholar