Insanity in immigrants / by Peter H. Bryce ; being a paper read before the American Public Health Association, at Richmond, Va., October, 1909.

  • Bryce, P. H. (Peter Henderson), 1853-1932.
Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Insanity in immigrants / by Peter H. Bryce ; being a paper read before the American Public Health Association, at Richmond, Va., October, 1909. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    women 40,359, and children 41,090, or an average of 21-91 per eent^of children of 14 years and under, as compared with that in a normal population of 34 per cent. This variation in the number of children is even more marked in the immigration from Europe, &c, to the United States, which was for 1904-1908 but 121 per cent in a total of over 4,000,000. Having these primary facts before me, it became essential that in any study of insanity in a given population the number of immigrants in each age period be care- fully compared with its relative population, and as up to the end of 1908 the total immigration returns to Canada were available, I attempted to study the effect of this immigration to the three Northwest Provinces of Canada, whose population had increased by almost 150 per cent between 1900 and December, 1908. It was especially difficult to determine the true population of Canadians and Americans in these provinces .because a very notable proportion of the immigrants had been from Eastern Canada, and of those from the United States many were returned in the census of 1906 as 'returned' Canadians, although in the immigration returns many of these were given as Americans. Estimate had also to be made of the natural increase both in the population of 1901 and that of the immigrants of each successive year. With the errors so far as possible eliminated in estimating population by nation- alities, T was fortunate in being able to obtain a yearly return of the admissions into the several insane asylums from 1901 to 1908. Admissions to Asylums in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, 1900-1908. Total for Total of Total of 9 Years. 1st 5 Years. 2nd 4 Years. Canadian 759 English 353 Irish 80 Scotch 106 United States 149 Germany 56 France 53 British possessions 13 Norway and Sweden 133 Austria 145 Russian 95 Italy 3 China and Japan 6 Total.. 1,982 840 1,142 Comparing the admissions at the end of 1900 with those at the end of December, 1908, the fact is found that in one of the two asylums 40 per cent of those present in 1900 were still inmates in 1908. and in the other 61 per cent, indicating not only the probably young age at which such were admitted, but also how without any per 1,000 increase of insane, asylums do rapidly fill up. That is. with a total of 407 in the asylums in 1900 there were, including those, to the end of 1908, 1,982 admissions; but with a population increased by 150 per cent in 1908 as compared with that in 1900, the admissions were 358, as compared with 142, or estimated per thousand population the admissions in 1908 were -335, while those admitted in 1901 were -339 per 1,000. It is of importance as regards the number of immigrant insane that the Canadians in the population of 1901 were 62 per cent of the total population, and in 1908 but 54 per cent. If a larger group be taken, as the first five years compared with the latter four years, which, with a population of just 1-7 more persons had 1.142 admissions as compared with 840 or with 961 if the population be made of the same ratio, it appears that there is a slight increase; but it will be observed that the movement of a portion of the 38 per cent of the total population from below the 15-year age period to that between 15 and 24, which was 8 per pent nf the total admissions in any year, and of 353 397 146 207 29 51 53 53 42 107 23 33 24 29 4 9 54 79 55 90 43 52 1 2 1 5