We have received notice from Cambridge that there is a project for starting an English journal devoted to psychology. The great increase in the number of workers in this department of science has overburdened the pages of Mind, and it is believed that there is now scope for a journal which will permit of the publication of important papers in regard to analytic, genetic, comparative, and experimental observations. The recent founding of new laboratories and the establishment of the Psychological Society justify the expectation of a largely increased volume of work.

The tent-cure of the tuberculous insane, inaugurated in June, 1901, by Dr. A. G. MacDonald at Manhattan, was found so successful that in July of the same year it was tried for filthy and demented patients, also with most strikingly satisfactory results.

At the International Congress, held at Antwerp last September, the proceedings of which were reported in the last number of this Journal, it was resolved that the Congress of 1904 should be held in Edinburgh. A Scottish Committee was elected, and Sir John Sibbald is now arranging to convene a preliminary meeting. It is to be hoped that it will be fully attended by representatives of the various State-supported and charitable agencies for the relief of the poor, every variety of home help, and that measures will be adopted to secure the success of the Congress, which has aroused so great an interest and formulated such important propositions.

A reception pavilion in connection with the General Hospital has been established at Albany (N.Y.), and appears to be doing very satisfactory work.

At the monthly meeting of the Committee of Management of this asylum, as reported in the Sligo Independent of February 21st, we find the opinion expressed by one of the members of that body that “the attendants were perfectly right to use a certain amount of violence in order to keep proper discipline amongst the inmates.” This expression of opinion arose on a discussion on a sworn inquiry, held by a Lunacy Inspector, as to the alleged ill-treatment of an inmate by two attendants. The Inspector stated that the patients “gave evidence under evident fear of the consequences their action might entail.” A letter was read from a number of attendants denying any terrorism, and this was apparently accepted as disproving the Inspector's statement. The Inspector having admitted that the two accused attendants could not, on the evidence obtained, beconvicted in a court of law, the Committee, after declining the invitation of their chairman to ask the opinion of the Medical Superintendent, exonerated the two attendants from all blame.

The “Association of Medical Men receiving Resident Patients” has issued a Guide for Medical Practitioners and a Book of Reference to the Health Resorts and Institutions for Patients of Great Britain. It is printed by Mr. E. J. Frampton, at Bournemouth, and sets forth the information indicated on the title-page at considerable length.

The pages of a spiritualistic contemporary afford a great amount of seriously stated information in regard to existence in the spirit world, which is almost as interesting as that which we are accustomed to receive from our patients.

The Lancet of last year gave details of a great wrong committed in Melbourne, a wrong whereby our respected colleague, Dr. Beattie Smith, has been grossly injured. The result is that he is no longer in the service of the State of Victoria, but after twenty years of notable work in the asylums of that country, within a short step of reaching the highest place, he is cast adrift without pension or compensation. The political record of Victoria is debased still further by this last example of shameless misgovernment. Dr. Beattie Smith has had to give place to an assistant medical officer, who, if the allegations against him reported in the Lancet(1) are to be trusted, was utterly unfit for the post. The “Minister” at the head of the department, however, acted in spite of the Inspector's protest. The callous indecency of the incident, as related by the Australian correspondent of the Lancet, passes belief, were it not that it is of a piece with what has gone before. We trust that the Council of the Association will carefully consider the whole question raised by this act of Victorian maladministration, for it not only affects one of our members, but vitally touches the interests of the insane in those important asylums at the Antipodes.

This Bill, now before Parliament, is practically a repetition of the last English Act. In approaching the subject, however, the authors of the Bill have had to make certain alterations to bring it into conformity with the law of Scotland as already existing. The clauses relative to separation of married people who have become habitual drunkards have been omitted in the Scottish Bill; but the constitution of licensing courts and of licensing law is generally amended. Additional penalties are imposed for offences involving drunkenness, and the black list will be extended north of the Tweed. Much-needed reforms in regard to the registration of clubs are introduced, and it is to be hoped that these will pass into law without delay. There are other matters to which we have repeatedly referred as requiring amendment in connection with drunkards and their doings; and it is to be hoped that amendmentswill be made in the course of the Parliamentary discussions to render this Act still more effective.

The fourteenth International Medical Congress is now a thing of the past. About 7000 members attended it, exclusive of the wives and families accompanying them. For some unknown reason the Madrid authorities included in the Congress not only doctors, but dentists, veterinarians, and pharmacists as well. This was too large a number of persons for the authorities to manage, and consequently a good deal of confusion prevailed. The Spaniard is a polite, courteous gentleman, but his business capacity is decidedly wanting. Moreover, the results of that fatal word mañana (to-morrow) were everywhere in evidence, and arrangements which should have been made weeks before were only just concluded when the Congress opened. An account of the proceedings of the neurological section appears on another page. From it it will be seen that the Association had honours conferred on it by the election of three of its members to the position of Honorary Presidents. The difficulty of understanding what was said by the Spaniards, however, led many men to forsake the Congress and explore Madrid, or go on excursions to the Escurial and Toledo. The reports and papers were too numerous for the time allotted to them, and only about a third of the sixty-six communications were read. On another occasion it will be better to limit their number and allow all of them to be read. Only one resolution was passed by the neurological section—a resolution calling on the Press not to report crimes, in order to avoid the contagion of crime. It is doubtful, however, whether the editors of the Press in any country will consent to omit the most sensational part of the contents of their paper; but that too much prominence is given to the life of the criminal in prison and to accounts of his life-history, in some papers, there is no doubt, and the consequence is that weak-minded individuals commit some homicidal or other criminal act.