Rensselaer Union and Jasper Republican, Volume 8, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 February 1876 — Insanity in the British Navy. [ARTICLE]

Insanity in the British Navy.

'Yhe extent to which insanity 1 prevails in the royal navy is shown by the tables in the annual statistical report, and in the report of the Naval Lunatic Asylum, by In-spector-Gen. Macleod, M. D., who has for many years been in charge of that institution. The number of new cases returned under the head of insanity out of a total force of 44,580 men and boys in the navy during the year 1874, was 51, and 83 cases were Invalided as unfit for service. The actual admissions into the asylum at Yarmouth during the year were 40, of whom 7 were officers, 10 pensioners aqd the remainder petty officers, seamen, The.

average number of patients' constantly under treatment in Yarmouth apIWS to be about 200, as 198 was the number remaining on the Ist of January, and 207 on the Ist ot December, the admissions during the year being 40, and the deaths and dischargee 81. The general health of the patients is reported as satisfactory, and among other interesting notes upon their treatment Dr. Macleod refers at length to the curative action of the 'Turkish baths in certain forms of mental disease. It was brought into regular use during the year 1874, in the cases of noisy, excited, destructive and wakeful patients, and it was observed that they all became calm during the action of the bath, and that this comparatively good state continued after its use. On some of the officer-pa-tients it had a very marked and well-dpt fined effect, inasmuch as they became quiet and more rational. One Case tn particular is mentioned in which an officer, who had to be pressed to take his food before he used the bath, took it without any pressing afterward, and by the time WMdF hadhis third bath he roused Hine, while this change for the better was man ifest, It also became evident that, ,as he showed more intelligence, hallucinations of hearing manifested themselves ih ST vjery decided form. In other cases the same partially successful results followedthe use of the bath. In the case of wright,who had very exciting delusions and was noisy and destructive, all tifc delusions disappeared after the aupond bath and the man became comparatively quiet and manageable his rest at night being also mneh improved* On thaother hand, crease of nidtou wds lefts noticeable as he became accustomed to the bath. In one case, a subject of chronic tetania, • complete cure followed the use of the bath. The man had suffered from acute spinal pain and had labored under delusion# iff a harmless nature. Great benefit followed the use of the bath; he spou lost the delusions and pains, becoming cheerful and hallucinations of hearing the bath appears to have beta less useful, except as improving the pati&ntts .rtst at night.) Several cases are mentioned where the power and inelinatffsAaMke’Jtai-'TiKre -bttffi fiompletely restored by its use, even in men who were previously fed with the stppr?; ach-pump. Of the twenty-four patients submitted to the action of thabath during the year oaly two made a clear but Dr. Macleod sayi that in all the cake# it induced a temporaiy calm, which was followed byrgoodnightl. Encouraged by this success the Inspector General decided to make a more extended trial of the bath in the year which Jias just closed. Another form of treatment to which special allusion is made'is that of the adminiteatton -fUUte .pytryX bean, Only two, cases, owt of the itresfgt^ln#pi x 4i4prigvement in speech and in power or motion, but not in the mental condition, while jin oho dAse the patient,' after its administration’, became stupid, drowsy *nd heavy. • zT