CHAPTER II.

INCREASE OF INSANITY.

Indications which point to the probability of its increase in a greater ratio than that of the population: (1) in relation to the general conditions of society; (2) in occupations; (3) in the character or tendency of disease--Increased demand for hospitals for the insane not a conclusive evidence of increase of insanity; other reasons exist for this--Improvements in hospitals--The chronic as well as the acute insane now provided for more generally than formerly--Accumulations in asylums-- Statistics--Those of England and Scotland--Their character and import as presented in the yearly reports of the Boards of Lunacy Commissioners 11