The subject of marriage and insanity is one which is at present beyond practical legislation in this country, but is of immense importance for the social stability and for individual welfare. Though we cannot legislate we have to advise, and our advice is sometimes taken. The lay public as a whole, and the majority of medical men, would at once reply to the question as to the insane ever being allowed to marry in the negative, but I shall contend that a dogmatic statement of this kind is unscientific and unpractical. Such a declaration is taking it for granted that all insanity is alike and is to be treated as of equal value. I shall begin, then, by saying that in my belief certain persons who have suffered from a degree of mental disorder which may be classed as insanity may yet recover and marry with no real increase of risk to their partner or to their children. If I say this, you will next expect me to give examples of the forms of insanity which I should consider as not being of vital importance.

M. D—, æt. 30, servant, was admitted to the Limerick Asylum on April 28th, 1910, from the Limerick Prison, suffering from recurrent mania with delusions. This woman was tried at the Connaught Winter Assizes, held in Limerick in December, 1909, for the manslaughter of her illegitimate infant by throwing it into the fire, and was sentenced to nine calendar months' imprisonment with hard labour.

One of the subjects of the following remarks, J. R—, was shown at the Spring Meeting of the Scottish Branch of the Medico-Psychological Association, held at Gartloch Asylum in March, 1910. This case is reported in the Journal of Mental Science for July of that year. The other patient, J. S—, came under my care in May, 1910, and his history is so far unrecorded. As there are many points of similarity in the two cases, it will save time to describe them together in so far as they resemble one another, and then later to indicate the differences between the two.

The following are a few notes of an interesting case of a male patient, who was admitted here in July, 1910, after giving himself up to the police, because he had an uncontrollable desire to set fire to haystacks: