CENSUS OF IDIOTS IN ILLINOIS. TAKEN FROM THE FIRST BIENNIAL REPORT OF THE STATE BOARD OF PUBLIC CHARITIES, DECEMBER, 1870. At the request of Governor Palmer, the Board of Public Charities, upon its organization, decided to pay attention first to the subject of insanity and idiocy. The proportion of idiots in Illinois, according to the United States census of 1860, was stated at 588: 1,711,951, or, 1 : 2,911. The Board felt sure that this number fell far short of the true number. The result of an investigation, made under their authority, more than confirms this impression. A blank was prepared, with spaces for names and other facts, and a copy of this blank was sent to every physician in the State of Illinois, whose name and residence could be obtained. The number of idiots, reported by name (all duplicates having been carefully sifted out), is 1,738; or taking the population reported in the census of 1870 as the basis of calculation, 1 : 1,461 instead of 1: 2,911— the result given in the census of 1860. But even this number and proportion are too small, for in the first place many cases are, without doubt, unreported, as will be hereafter shown; and then, further, idiocy in the person of infants is undistinguishable. In Table II, the total number given is manifestly much too small, owing to the absence of complete returns. Of 4,773 physicians addressed, only 1,728 replied. Cook county, with a population of 350,236, reports no more idiots than Morgan county, with a population of only 28,501. The same proportion in Cook as in Morgan would raise the total number of idiots in the State to 2,302. Similar corrections in other counties would raise it still more. The most cursory inspection of Table No. III, makes it apparent that nearly or quite one-half of the idiots below the age of eleven are unreported, being either unknown to the physicians, or not yet recognized as idiots. Assuming the number 652 between the ages of eleyen and twenty, inclusive, to be correct, and supposing it to constitute twenty-two and a half per cent. of the total number, as the census would indicate it to be in fact, the actual number of idiots in Illinois is 2,900, or 1: 867 of the entire population, which is a larger proportion even than that of the insane. It is safe to say that the proportion of idiots in Illinois (and probably in other communities), is at least as large as that of the insane. In Table No. IV, nearly all of those stated as born in the Northwestern States, are natives of Indiana. In Table No. V, by "dependent," are meant not only those who are a county charge, but those who are properly objects of charity, public or private. Of 1,351 idiots whose pecuniary circumstances are stated, there were: Dependent Independent.. ..692 .659 Of the 659 independent idiots, 78 are reported to be wealthy. Thus it appears that idiocy is a cause of poverty, but wealth and social station do not exempt their possessors from the liability to idiotic offspring. |