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Institution Statistics According to Official Figures
On January 1, 1923, patients in public institutions of the United States
numbered: insane hospitals, 290,457; psychopathic wards of general
hospitals, 1,842; institutions for feeble minded, 46,722; institutions for
epileptics, 9,153. In addition there were confined in federal
penitentiaries, 2,010; in state prisons, reformatories, etc., 19,518; in
county and city jails, workhouses, etc., 147,489; in institutions for
juvenile delinquents, 29,385.
Rather disconcerting figures have been assembled by H. M. Pollock,
statistician to the New York State Hospital Commission. From
1880
to 1920
the number of insane patients of institutions in the whole country has
increased from 40,942 to 232,680 and the ratio of patients in institutions
to 100,000 of populations from 81.6 to 220.1. This, of course, does not
mean a proportionate increase in insanity as a much larger percentage of
insane patients now is confined in institutions...
One important principle is that the rate of mental disease is greater among
inferior stocks than among superior stocks. This is difficult to
demonstrate by census statistics which take no account of the quality of
family stock. The general birth rate in late years has markedly declined
and it is generally believed that the decline has been greatest among
superior stocks. If this trend continues, the people of the future will
become more and more susceptible to mental disease...
The rates of dementia praecox and manic-depressive psychosis are both
increasing, and if nothing is discovered to curb these diseases, while new
discoveries continue to be made in the realm of bodily disease, then mental
disease will supersede physical disease as the
paramount social problem in the not distant future.
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