CAUSE OF INSANITY

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 17917, 22 October 1932, Page 6

CAUSE OF INSANITY

SIR TRUBY KING’S VIEWS

ILL-HEALTH AND IGNORANCE

“I’m no authority on child welfare,” said Sir Truby Xing.in Wellington at the provincial conference of the Plunket Society. “1 did not take it up until 1 was 50 years of age, hut as one m charge of an asylum I always realised that there might l>e one way of dealing with insanity. There is no cure for it. Tin*, late Dr. Hay, when inspector, always agreed with me in that, and lie had said the only thing to do was to prevent it. “Many people say that insanity is hereditary. It is not; it. is due to illhealth, before or after birth ; it is dun to ignorance. If you grow babies with good strong’bodies and minds, the probability is that they will never enter an asylum.

“It is not tbo healthy, vigorous country girl who goes to the sanatorium, but the pale, unhealthy seamstress, who is compelled to work day after day in closo confinement. Those who do not come to the asylums are those who have been well cared for up till seven or eight years of age.”