Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive.) INSANITY: ITS CAUSES AND PREVENTION BY HENRY PUTNAM STEARNS, M.D. SUPERINTENDENT OF THE RETREAT FOR THE INSANE, HARTFORD, CONN.; LECTURER ON INSANITY IN THE MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OF YALE COLLEGE, ETC., ETC. "It is the mynde that makes good or ill, That maketh wretch or happie, rich or poore." SPENSER--_Faerie Queene_, Book XI, Canto IX. NEW YORK G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 27 & 29 WEST 23D STREET 1883 COPYRIGHT BY G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 1883 _Press of G. P. Putnam's Sons New York_ TO JOHN SIBBALD, M.D., F.R.S.E., COMMISSIONER IN LUNACY FOR SCOTLAND, IN PLEASANT REMEMBRANCE OF A PORTION OF OUR STUDENT-LIFE PASSED TOGETHER, THIS BOOK IS INSCRIBED WITH SINCERE REGARD BY HIS FRIEND, THE AUTHOR. PREFACE. It is something more than two years since I read a paper, entitled "The Insane Diathesis," at a meeting of the Connecticut Medical Society. The numerous requests received for copies of that article have led me to think that something more in detail in relation to the prevention of insanity might be desired by the reading public both lay and professional. Hence this little book. It has not been written for specialists exclusively, though it is hoped it will not prove wholly uninteresting to them, but rather for those in the general practice of medicine, educators, and the more intelligent lay members of society. It has been written during odd snatches of time and with many interruptions, so that there exists less uniformity of style than there would otherwise be. Moreover, some of the subjects presented have been discussed by me in papers which have already been published. These papers, however, so far as they have been introduced into this work, have been rewritten, and, it is thought, improved. H. P. S. HARTFORD, _Dec., 1882_. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PRELIMINARY. PAGE. Increase of interest in the subject of insanity, resulting from, first, more intelligent views concerning its nature; and, second, the obligation to make provision for the care of the insane in a larger measure than for other unfortunate classes-- Results in the way of hospitals--Asylum attendants--Change in the modes of management, and care of the insane 3 CHAPTER II. INCREASE OF INSANITY.