SCOTLAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 2722, 16 May 1906, Page 81

SCOTLAND.

CAUSES OF INSANITY. 1 (Faoii Oca Own Coeeespondknt.) EDINBURGH, March 3. The annual meeting of the Royal Edinburgh Corporation for the Insane was held , last week, when it was reported that the | average daily number of patients in the asylum during the year had bean 870. Tho report of Dr Thomas S. Clouston, tko physician-superintendent, as usual, contained some interesting and instructive matter. He said that during the year they | had had 61- admiss : ons for general paralysis ' —the largest number they had ever had. , More striking stiil was the fact" that 38 of these cases were tho"e of women, u'i 1 but one of whom belonged to the pauper class. Forty years ago, if a woman ins admitted suffering from this disease, the , whole medical staff would go to see it, us ', 313 1 was such a rare occurrenca. This year the number of female general paralytics admitted exceeded that of the men sinn- ■ larly afflicted. This was a bad sign I morally, and was a sidelight of a very depressing -character on our social life. Grcjat cities. Tioe, dissipation. ail 3 uriViuc. , -excitententT ware the breeders of that * ( disease. In. all Ireland only 52 saich eases 1 were '.sent to the asylums." Dr Clouston 1 expressed himself convinced that the caus<> ■ of genera! paralysis had been discovered by Drs Ford Robertson and M'Rae, as iecently described by the former g*>utlenjsu in a cquiso of lectures. Hei "stated that the '• immediate canso was a microbe, vhieh | act-od spec rily on brains that had pic\ij ou-sly boen weakened by dissipation and I poisoning. Of their 312 rate-pa :d admisj s^cks general paralysis claimed j8 5 per j cent, while of the 116 private patients only 5 per cent, suffered from that disease. Dr Clouston again sounded a warning as to the intimate connection of alcoholism with insanity. This year, hs added, the melancholy phase of menial disease greatly preI vailed as compared with the elevated. Thire verse of that was their experience 20 1 years ago. He had always held that tho great epidemic of influenza in 18S9-90, and | the subsequent later epidemics, not only I caused many deaths, but left much lower- ! ing of nervous tone, as well as ksseno-i - power of defence against many other diseases as^ its evil legacy; and that, in consequence, the melancholy phase of insanity throughout the country had been much more common than before. Dr j Clouston also mentioned that the propor- '• tion of deaths from consumption in Scot1 tish asylums was 16.4. while in England it i was 17.5 per "cent., and in Ireland 32 per cant. It was an unique fact in the history ,of mental hospitals that in tho 11 Tears ; during which - Csaig House (a separate I building for the higher class of patients at j Morningside Asylum) had been open not a j single case of consumption had occurred within it. ! HIGH PRICES FOR SHORTHORN ; j , • BULLS. At an. auction sale of pedigree shorthorn bulls, held at Perth on February 21. some ' very high prices were obtained. The top price was 1500 guineas for a first-prize bull from Beaufort Castle, belonging to Lord Lovat. This splendid animal was secured , for Argentina, from which ecuutry there were a good many buyers present. Two other bulls fetched 700 guineas each, five ranged between 430 and 560 guineas. 10 brought from 20p to 3*o guineas, and 30 • were gold at prices between 100 and 200 I auineas. The cream of the lot was taken ,by the Argentine buyers, though there ■ were buyers present from all parts of the , United Kingdom. From the detailed list I observe that all the Argentine buyers have Scottish names : while it seems* to i contain no mention of any of the animals | hatinjr been bought for either Australia or Ne\r Zealand. Two hundred and fifty-one | Lulls in all were sold. " '