In some cases, people who actually show some form of
insanity may slip past the examiners; in the bulk of cases, probably, an
individual is adapted to leading a normal life in his native
environment, but transfer to the more strenuous environment of an
American city proves to be too much for his nervous organization. The
general flow of population from the country to large cities has a
similar effect in increasing the number of insane.
But when all is said, the fact remains that there are several hundred
thousand insane persons in the United States, many of whom are not
prevented from reproducing their kind, and that by this failure to
restrain them society is putting a heavy burden of expense, unhappiness
and a fearful dysgenic drag on coming generations.
The word "insanity," as is frequently objected, means little or nothing
from a biological point of view--it is a sort of catch-all to describe
many different kinds of nervous disturbance. No one can properly be made
the subject of restrictive measures for eugenic reasons, merely because
he is said to be "insane." It would be wholly immoral so to treat, for
example, a man or woman who was suffering from the form of insanity
which sometimes follows typhoid fever.
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