The Rise of Cats and Madness: III. The Nineteenth Century

Nineteenth-century England saw a marked increase in both the status and the number of cats as pets. All classes of society welcomed cats to their households, and a picture of a cat by the fireside became an image for the ideal English home. During the same years, the number of insane persons in England increased dramatically. In 1829, the first reliable national census counted 8,941 insane persons or 0.79 per 1,000 population. In 1915 the census counted 140,461 insane persons or 3.98 per 1,000 population, a fivefold increase in 86 years.