INCREASE OF INSANITY.--I have repeatedly referred to the increase of insanity and crime under our heartless system of education. It is illustrated by every collection of statistics. The increase between 1872 and 1885 was, in Maine, with five per cent. increase in population, in ten years, 23 per cent. increase in insanity. In New Hampshire, 13 per cent. in population, 55 in insanity. In these two States insanity increases four times as fast as population. In Massachusetts, population 33 per cent., insanity 91 per cent. In Rhode Island, population 40 per cent., insanity 94 per cent. In Connecticut, population 23 per cent., insanity 194 per cent. The total number of insane in New England has increased from 4,033, in 1872, to 7,232, in 1885,--an increase of 3,199 in 13 years. Such are the estimates prepared from official reports by E. P. Augur, of Middletown, Conn. Is it possible by the repetition of such statements as these to rouse the torpid conscience of the leaders of public opinion to the necessity of a NEW EDUCATION?
TEMPERANCE.--According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the annual consumption of liquors per capita in the United States, from 1840 to 1886, shows a reduction in the consumption of distilled spirits to less than one-half of the average between 1840 and 1870. The most marked decrease was between 1870 and 1872. The consumption of wine has averaged, from 1840 to 1870, about one-eighth as much--since 1870, from 30 to 40 per cent. as much, but the consumption of malt liquors, which in 1840 and 1850 was little over half that of spirits, has rapidly risen until, in 1886, it was nine times as great, the number of gallons per capita being of spirits, 1.24; wines, 0.38; malt liquors, 11.18. The total consumption of liquors of all sorts has risen from 4.17 gallons per capita in 1840, to 12.62 in 1886. The consumption of malt liquors per capita has increased fifty per cent. in the last seven years.
The tax collected on whiskey for 1886-87 was $3,262,945 less than for the previous year, and the tax on beer was $2,245,456 more than for the previous year.
"Chevalier Max Proskowetz de Proskow Marstorn states that in Austria inebriety is increasing everywhere on a dangerous scale. The consumption of alcohol (taken as at 10 per cent.) was 6.7 litres a head in a population of 39,000,000; but in some districts 15-1/2 litres was the average (4-1/2 litres go to a gallon). In all Austro-Hungary there was an increase of nearly 4,000,000 florins in the cost of alcohol in 1884-85 over 1883-84. In 1885 there were 195,665 different places (stations, gin-shops, and subordinate retails) where liquors were sold. In districts where the most spirits are used there were fewer fit recruits."