Five cardinal questions on administrative psychiatry / by J. Mundy.

  • Mundy, Jaromir, Freiherr von, 1822-1894.
Date:
1861
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Five cardinal questions on administrative psychiatry / by J. Mundy. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    AYhere are we then to look for the golden medium? A candid “ Non possumus is our only answer. Our extended observations and experience, alas! lead ns to the lamentable conclusion, that the present condition and organization of the asylums of Europe, are at large, and in general, unsatisfactory and bad. Let no one venture to cite exceptions to us as counter-evidences; we know of these only too well, and speak here of what is the general rule; we must stiU more protest against any presumed exaggera,tion in the following descriptions; the more so as we have regarded it as our duty to speak very guardedly. If compelled, we must respond by giving data, which would be disagreeable both to ourselves and others. Propositions of reform we can do no more than aUude to in passing, for such matters do not belong here, but are the subject of the great question of the day, which the radical reform of lunatic asylums has opened up for debate. It is a generally admitted fact, that there are in Europe about 250.000 insane persons. Taking this number in relation to the entire population of Europe, viz., 250,000,000, it appears that the proportion of the insane is as 1000 to 1,000,000 souls ; but this ratio is doubtless much below the fact. Indeed, the official reports of every country coincide in asserting that there are alv^ays many insane persons kept concealed with their famihes, and others indiscriminately scattered as harmless cases, both in town and country, without being officially registered as lunatics. A large number of idiots are referable to this class, and likewise nearly aU cretins, whose number in some countries is very considerable. We cannot by any means accept the official calculation of 250,000 insane in Europe, for in our opinion that statement is quite set aside by the fact, that in many coimtries the per-centage of the insane to the population is shown to be much higher than 1000 in the 1,000,000, and we cannot go far wrong in assuming the round number of 300.000 insane. Eor these 300,000 lunatics in Europe, in the year 1861, there are, according to official data, 1000 asylums. This number does not comprehend all the institutions which bear the name of asylums, but only those where lunatics are received as a rule. It would be a preposterous jiroceeding to take the entire insane population of 300,000, and to divide it equally among the 1000 asylums, and therefrom deduce the statement that there are 300 inmates in each asylum. On this matter, no further proof is requi- site. The s])ecial analysis of the foregoing figures is forbidden, not • only by the limited space of these pages, but still more by the per- ])ctual variation in the number of lunatics, and lastly, by the entne deficiency of data from many ])rivatc asylums.