60 WALES AND WESTERN COUNTIES NOTES.-SCOTLAND.-IRELAND.

age periods when they are particularly liable to infection wasundoubtedly responsible for the propagation of epidemicand consequently for a large proportion of preventabledeaths and that it was of the greatest importance to

postpone the period at which young children might beexposed to infection until they were of an age when certaindiseases-e.g., measles-are not so fatal. The resolution ofthe education committee was brought to the notice of theBoard of Education by His Majesty’s inspector and the Boardin a communication to the committee expressed the opinionthat places should be provided in the public elementaryschools for any children over three years of age whose parentsdesire to send them to school and, further, that it was un-desirable for the committee to adopt a regulation excludingall children under four years of age from the schools. In

support of its contention the Board reminds the committeethat Section 1 (1) of the Elementary Education Act, 1891,provides for the payment of grants to local educationauthorities on account of the attendance at school of childrenover three years of age.Death of Mr. Edward Treharne, L.R. C.P., L.R. C. S. Edin.,

L.F.P.S. Glasg.The news of the sudden death from fatty degeneration of

the heart of Mr. Edward Treharne of Barry on Dec. 29th,1904, came as a great shock to the inhabitants of the district.Mr. Treharne was born in 1859 and shortly after taking thediplomas of the Royal Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons ofEdinburgh and of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons ofGlasgow he began to practise in Barry, a town at that timeincreasing with remarkable rapidity. He was on thecommission of the peace for the county of Glamorgan, a

Freemason, and a prominent politician, having for sometime been chairman of the Barry Conservative Association.He was also chairman of the Barry local board of health andlater of the urban district council. He had a fine presence,was a noted athlete, and had played for Wales in inter-national football. A widow and three children are left tomourn their loss.

Plymouth Borough Asylum.Great progress has been made recently with the enlarge-

ment of the Plymouth Borough Asylum at Blackadon. Thenew wing for male patients will be completed within amonth and the new wing for female patients by the end ofMarch. The contract also provides for the addition of astorey to the old block of buildings. The electric light is

being installed in all the buildings and a system of heatingby hot-water pipes is being introduced. There are at present276 patients in the asylum and by the enlargement accommo-dation will be provided for 200 more.Jan. 3rd.

SCOTLAND.(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

Glasgow ParisA Council: Annual -Report on Certification ofLunatics.

Mr. J. Carswell, certifying physician in lunacy to theGlasgow parish council, in his annual report for the

year ending May 15th, 1904, states that there were

886 applications made to the inspector of poor on behalfof persons supposed to be insane. This number is 46more than last year and is the highest in the historyof the parish. But the number of applications bearsno definite relation to the amount of certifiable insanityoccurring in the parish, as is shown by the fact that thenumber of persons certified insane is less than in either ofthe last two years. There were certified insane 544 cases,as against 549 the previous year and 565 the year before.Of the 544 cases certified 164 had suffered from previousattacks of insanity ; the remaining 380 represent the actualnumber of persons who became insane for the first time

during the year. The actual number of first attacks certifiedthis year is seven less than last year and the proportion per100,000 of the population is 63’3, compared with 65.5 lastyear. This is the lowest production rate for four years. Itis right to add that the estimated population upon which therate is calculated is probably slightly higher than the actualpopulation, because the city assessor’s survey this,year hasshown an increase of uninhabited houses and consequentlythe population must be less than that estimated on the usualbasis. Tables given reveal several facts of great signifi-cance, the most important of which are (a) that at all agesunder 45 years insanity affects males and females almost

equally ; (b) that at all ages over 45 years more men

become insane than women and both sexes become insanein larger proportion to the numbers living at these agesas they advance in years; and (c) that there is a rela-

tively larger number of persons’ sent to asylums at agesover 45 years than under. The figures given in connexionwith the last point are worthy of careful attention. Thenumber of persons living in Glasgow parish at ages of 15 to45 years is roughly 300,000 and they yield an annual averageof 238 insane persons, or 8 per 10,000 of population ; thenumber of persons living at ages over 45 years is under 100,000and they yield an annual average of 128 insane persons, orslightly over 12 per 10,000 of population. But the differencein ratio is not only in degree but also in character ; while therate of 8 per 10,000 at the earlier ages is almost uniformlythe same from year to year, the rate for the latter agesvaries from a minimum of 11 to a maximum of 16 per 10,000.Clearly the ages above 45 years are not only more productiveof insanity but there is an important difference in the mannerin which the causes of insanity operate above and below 45years. In his last annual report Mr. Carswell indicated thegrounds upon which he based his opinion that economic andsocial considerations, which have but little to do with thecausation of insanity viewed as a disease, account for therelatively larger number of persons who become pauperlunatics at the later ages in life and for the fluctua-tions in the production rate at those ages. But the

ages from 15 to 45 years are the most important inrelation to the question whether lunacy statistics indicate aprocess of mental deterioration going on in the community.These are the ages of greatest stress and temptation andthey embrace the period of child-bearing. It cannot besaid that a production rate of 8 per 10,000 relating to asection of the population numbering 300.000 is alarming. Ifthe experience of the last four years is normal, as it appearsto be, then we are justified in interpreting the steady pro-duction rate as meaning that so far as the masses of thepeople are concerned there is no evidence of an increasingmental deterioration. It is shown that there is no definiterelation between the amount of lunacy and the death-rates,general and infantile. No doubt both the lunacy-rate andthe death-rates are dependent upon two main factors-viz.,inherent vital capacity and conditions of environment ; butinsanity is much more dependent upon the former than

upon those physical and social conditions that affect thegeneral and infantile death-rate. Speaking generally, itmay be said that the greater the drunkenness of a communitythe greater will be its production of insanity. The figuresgiven confirm that general view but they give no supportto the exaggerated views that have been expressed invarious quarters that lunacy caused by alcohol is seriouslyincreasing in Scotland. The want of definite relationshipbetween the number of public-houses in a district and theamount of lunacy is the counterpart of what evidentlyapplies also to the relationship between the lunacy-ratesand the death-rates and is open to the same explanation-viz., that in the causation of insanity the inherent tendencyis of more importance than the conditions of environment.The number of persons treated in the observation wardsduring the year was 261, of whom 24 were afterwardsremoved to the asylum, 13 died, and 219 were dischargedrecovered or relieved, leaving five under treatment. Thisis the largest number treated and the largest number ofrecoveries. With the opening of the new psychiatric depart-ment at the Eastern District Hospital there will be a

decided increase in the number of patients treated withoutrecourse to the asylum.

Small-poxFrom Dec. 16th to 31st, 1904, inclusive the following 11

cases of small-pox were notified to the Local GovernmentBoard: from the Mull district, one; from the burgh ofDundee, three ; from the burghs of Coatbridge and Glasgowrespectively, one ; from the Eastern district of Stirling, twoand from the burgh of Falkirk, three.Jan. 3rd.

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IRELAND.(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

Irish Povitlation Statistics.THE Irish Registrar-General has issued decennial sum-

maries of the returns of marriages, births, deaths, andcauses of death in Ireland for the years 1891-1900. Theestimated population of Ireland has diminished to the