Never mind that the average lifespan in North America in 1900 was
still only mid to later 40's, so a lot fewer people lived long enough
to be at high risk for entering what they used to call their "second
childhood".

When someone did become "senile" they were cared for at home on the
farm by family, and thus were invisible to the community - plus as
they became frail due to the dementia, they didn't survive long, since
other health issues would pick them off early in very short order. In
the world before antibiotics etc. I'm sure the vunerable elderly were
routinely carried off in droves by minor infections.

Can you imagine anyone 100 years ago surviving to the very end stages
of AD? Even with the best care they had, the person would have ended
up spending the last years of their life bedridden.

My husband's grandfather broke a hip about 50 years ago in his late
70's, and it was never repaired as they felt a man his age couldn't
"take" being in traction for an extended period - which is the best
they had back then as a treatment. He lived another 7 or 8 years,
totally bedridden.

Mary G.

<snip of theory>

All the world ?s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players. 1
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse?s arms...

... Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

William Shakespeare, describing senile dementia in 'The Seven Ages of Man',
in 'As You Like It', act ii, scene 7.

--
Robert

I love it Robert!!!

I work for an electrical utility, and at the peak of the hysteria
about potential health effects from electric and magnetic fields from
household electricity use (about 6 or 7 years back), I used to answer
the 1-800 call line from customers with questions.

Most of the calls were from people with very reasonable questions and
concerns, but every now and then I would get calls from someone
totally off their lid who had decided the root cause of their illness
must be related to electricity - i.e. people who thought mind control
emissions were coming into their fridge via the wiring and polluting
their food, that there was a government or alien conspiracy to destroy
their health and they couldn't tell their doctor about their symptoms
because he was part of it, etc. etc. Many of them had genuine physical
symptoms - but what they were convinced they were from made no sense -
such as the lady who thought poisons from fire fighting foams at
nuclear stations located hundreds of miles away were travelling into
her house via the wiring.

The really scary part about many of these people was that they were
clearly living on their own and able to function relatively
independently and they did sound normal initially - it was only after
you talked to them for a while that you realized they were really in
need of professional help. What it brought home to me was there really
is a big chunk of mentally ill people out there who will seize on
whatever is closest as the cause of their issues (i.e. its magnetic
fields, its radioactive dust, its whatever).

Mary G.