In support of the position that small asylums are, even from an economic point of view, better than very large ones, Dr. Hack Tuke, in his recent work on the “History of the Insane,” cites the opinions of the Lunacy Commissioners, as given in their Report for 1857. He also gives in the appendix some figures which the Commissioners prepared in regard to the weekly cost of patients in large and small asylums, and which were adduced by them to support the same view. He found, however, that on taking an average of the six largest and six smallest asylums in the list, the weekly expenses per head in the latter appeared to be really greater than in the former—a result different from that for which he had cited them from the Blue-book.

I have been incited by Dr. Rayner's paper in the “Lancet” of Dec. 80, 1882, to look up various old calculations of mine, bearing on the relation of size of asylums to efficiency and economy, and think it may be worth while to throw them together, that any lesson they may contain may be elicited. I find I have various tables of the relation of cost of maintenance in asylums to their size, and also several relating to the relative rates of recoveries and deaths in asylums of different sizes.

Joan's glory reached its highest point when she led the Dauphin to be crowned at Rheims. Up to this time every thing had gone on as she desired, and as she had predicted. The caution of experienced generals had again and again been overruled by her impetuous call for action. One blow after another had been struck, and every blow told. Fortifications, apparently too strong for the force brought against them, had been stormed; seven cities had been taken; and at Patay an English army had been scattered and slaughtered like a herd of deer. The newly-crowned King was urged unwillingly to St. Denis, and a furious assault made upon Paris from noon to sunset.

Is Miliary Sclerosis a fore-death change? Most of us have believed it so: many of us doubt, myself amongst the many. As to the grounds of my unbelief, they are briefly these:—

The study of the Laws of Heredity, as conducted in the preceding papers, has resulted in a definite conclusion, it is true, but in a conclusion as to tendencies only; and whatever facts we may ascertain in the family history of a patient, however numerous and however damning they may be, they can never warrant us in inferring anything whatever with respect to that patient, beyond the existence of a tendency in one direction or another. To ascertain how far, and in what proportion, these tendencies, in so far as they concern the Structure of the Organism, have become actualities, recourse must be had to the study of the Physique, which is the outcome of the combinations, and conflicts of the laws of inheritance. Or, in other words, the Physique is the form which the organism has assumed under the action of the developmental forces.

I trust that my subject will be definite enough, and of sufficient interest to create a good discussion. It is one of such vital importance to society that we should endeavour to form very well defined opinions on it.

Some of the members now present were in this room a few weeks ago when Carl Hansen, a noted hypnotist from Denmark, induced in several persons a more or less marked degree of that condition known as hypnotism or Braidism, and we had the opportunity of making some experiments upon the subjects while in this state. Although the hypnotic phenomena were by no means so striking as is often the case, there were some interesting points elicited which, taken along with other experiments of a similar nature which I have witnessed before and since, will, I hope, form sufficient material for some considerations on the nature of the condition which is thus induced psychologically and physiologically, though I bring forward these remarks expecting to be enlightened myself in a delicate and difficult problem rather than hoping to enlighten those whom I have the honour to address to-night.

In the “Journal” for October, 1881, I recorded a case of feigned insanity in a prisoner who was charged with the crime of murder. The form of mental disorder assumed in that case was acute mania; and the pourtrayment was so good that even the experienced prison officials, who are accustomed with attempts at imposture in all its varieties, were deceived by his histrionic skill. The following case differs in many of its aspects from that one, but it resembles it in respect that the prisoner ultimately confessed his imposition; though, as in the former case, not till after the distinct expression of medical opinion that he was malingering.

In describing the accompanying case, it will be seen that the loss of memory has been more sudden and more extreme than generally happens. This case suggests the difficult question as to whether loss of memory is to be considered as unsoundness of mind. Legally, one has no doubt but that persons who have extreme losses of memory would be considered as unfit to transact business. In noticing the development of the higher nervous organisms, one has to place memory as the great builder of nerve power. The mere fact that impressions are received goes for little in the construction of a mind, but the fact that these impressions can be stored and compared, points to the commencement of a highly-organised power. If, then, we meet with cases in which the perceptions remain, but the storage is wanting, the patient must be looked upon in very much the same way as the undeveloped. Those of us who are used to mix much with the insane, are aware of the persistence of memory in the majority of persons suffering from ordinary insanities, but we are also used to cases in which the memory is affected in various ways and in various degrees, so that in one patient suffering from acute delirious mania we learn, after recovery, that there has been a blank in his recollection—a blank that was represented by the period of extreme delirious excitement, the time in which the incoherence and inconsequence of ideas were most marked—when perception seemed clear, but appeared to be associated with a peculiar reflection, so that when a word was said or an action done, it was repeated or mimicked by the insane person; or else the memory was so affected that groupings and verbal associations of words existed, but the memory of them afterwards was not retained. Again, we have patients in whom the memory is lost after a severe convulsive seizure, whether epileptic, apoplectic, or general paralytic. In these the memory may be only temporarily affected, or may be permanently affected. In epilepsy the memory is generally but temporarily affected, the patient having no recollection of what has happened during the attack, so that either with the petit mal or grand mal the patient is unconscious of what takes place. This was seen by me the other day in a little girl of 11, who had neurotic inheritance, which was exhibited by falls which were incomprehensible to her mother. The child, without any cry or change of appearance, suddenly fell, wherever she happened to be, or whatever she had in her hand, frequently caused injury to herself and destruction of property, but without the slightest knowledge that there had been a lapse in her life. This case was treated as due to epilepsy with the greatest advantage. Epilepsy, sooner or later does affect the memory, and it is said that the loss of memory depends directly upon the number of the fits, and not upon their severity. In apoplexy one is quite used to meet with cases in which the progressive dementia is most marked by the progressive loss of memory; and again, in general paralysis, of whatever nature the fits may be, the loss of memory is progressive, increasing after each fit, then for a time improving, to become again still more marked after the next convulsive seizure. The case that I have to report differs from all the classes I have already mentioned, and I find it difficult to fix on a definite diagnosis. If forced to give one, I should say that my opinion is that the case will prove to be one of general paralysis. But if this is to be the case there are sufficient points of interest still left to make it worth while recording.

In an asylum one not uncommonly sees cases of weak-mindedness consequent on apoplectic fits, but it is not very common for one to have an opportunity of watching the effects of mental disorganization associated with changes which ultimately lead to apoplexy. In the subjoined case I had an opportunity of seeing constantly for some months a gentleman who finally died with severe apoplectic fits. He was a man whom I had known for years, and therefore I was better able to judge of any intellectual and other change which occurred in him. He was married, and 55 years of age, of a gouty habit, one who had lived well, eaten largely, and enjoyed life, but had never been intemperate. He had never suffered from any severe constitutional disease, and up to the last year of his life had been remarkable for his constant work and general ability—a man of considerably more than the usual amount of intellectual force and inventiveness. When first called to see him he was suffering from sleeplessness, and some neuralgic pains, fixing themselves chiefly in his eye-balls, so that he tried various kinds of spectacles, and consulted many medical men, because he thought there was some trouble associated with his eyes. I was unable to make out any hallucinations of any kind at that time, his one complaint being that of persistent sleeplessness. About the same time he became irritable, and his servants were constantly being changed. He was unable to keep his coachman, and therefore suppressed his carriage. He became emotional, and his memory failed. After these symptoms had existed for some weeks, the sleeplessness continuing, hallucinations of hearing became marked, so that on several occasions he got up at night, believing a bell had rung, and his wife was unable to persuade him that no bell had sounded at all. He became troublesome in consequence of these hallucinations, which troubled him most at night in the way of bell-ringing; but during the day he had other annoyances, which he said were due to his unusual keenness of hearing, so that he declared that he could hear his servants in the kitchen talking, this being impossible. He was recommended for these symptoms to try a change, and he went down to the Isle of Wight, where for a time he seemed better. He always seemed benefited during a change, but very rapidly relapsed on his return home. On one or two railway journeys he caused annoyance and trouble to his travelling companion by the worry he made because he fancied he heard a Westinghouse break attached to the railway carriage. He stopped at each of the stations on the line, and demanded to see the station-master, whom he told that he would not have the Westinghouse break fixed on to the wheel of his carriage while it was in rapid motion. Nothing would persuade him but that some break was attached to his carriage, and was causing a most unpleasant jarring sound. When his companion told him that no such sound was audible, he became angered at contradiction, and prostrated himself on the floor to listen to it the more readily. Change, with some rest, and talks about the possibility of its being due to hallucination, did him good for a time. He had a change to the sea-side, but after this, the sleep being rather better, and he rather less emotional and irritable, he became loquacious, and excessively fond of talking of his own worries and ailments, his memory remaining weak. He now developed hallucinations of smell, and became a complete nuisance to all his family and friends; he would accept none of their statements that these stinks were subjective, but said that there was always some smell of smoke, and that he believed that in his household they were constantly cooking and burning what they were cooking, and it was a disgrace that this should be allowed to take place. He said it was not only his nose that was affected, but also his eyes, and that his eyes smarted and were uneasy in consequence of this smell. At one time he was so convinced about these smells being real, that he even abused friends into whose houses he went for having the same want of method in cooking that he found in his own house, and had almost got the idea that there was a general conspiracy to annoy and worry him. At times these sensations varied, so that besides those of smoke and cooking, he also had smells as from drains. During the whole of this time he was losing flesh, and becoming weaker. The symptoms kept very much in the condition which I have last described, till one day he had an apoplectic fit, affecting the left side. The convulsions were extremely severe. He never regained consciousness, but died within a week.

Punishment is the positive infliction of suffering as a righteous result of wrong-doing, and as a deterrent from its repetition. But the wrong-doing of the insane is the result of their malady, which produces it either directly through delusion, or indirectly by perverting their moral sense and relaxing their self-control.

We direct the attention of our readers to the Correspondence of the Parliamentary and Pensions Committee of the Association with the First Lord of the Treasury, the Commissioners in Lunacy, and the President of the Local Government Board, which will be found in “Notes and News.”

During the long period embraced in the present Retrospect, the most important incident that has happened in the philosophical circles of this country is the death of Professor T. H. Green, of Oxford—a man who for many years had been silently acquiring, not only by his power of thinking but by his strong and blameless personal character, a marked position and a unique influence among the leaders of thought in England. His philosophical position would perhaps best be defined by saying that he became the chief of that small, but notable, band of speculative students, centred mainly in Oxford, Glasgow, and Edinburgh, who are reviving the spirit of the systems of Kant and Hegel, in its application to the new scientific, political, and religious problems of the day. His distinguishing characteristics were his modesty and his earnest sense of duty—qualities perhaps not so conspicuous as they might be amongst the better known of modern psychologists. His modesty was such that he never assumed that he had mastered the secret of any writer, until he had bestowed the most extravagant labour and thought in exploring difficulties and obscurities on which the man himself had probably never bestowed a second thought. His earnestness was so thorough that he believed it to be merely his duty to struggle with the fundamental questions of the Sphinx of modern criticism, and find for himself and others not a negative but a constructive answer, no matter what toil and trouble it might cost. For he held that those who contribute, as we all in some way do, to the formation of public opinion upon the vital subjects of life and conduct, are under a terrible responsibility if they mislead their neighbours, or even if they refuse by sloth or vanity or cynicism that healthy guidance which their own attainments would enable them to give. These remarks are suggested by the fact that the first article of the April number of “Mind” is from Prof. Green's pen. Indeed it is one of the last pieces of work he ever personally sent to press; although we are glad to know that the groat Ethical work on which he had long been engaged is left with his philosophical friends in so complete a form that it will be published immediately. The April article is the second of three essays on the question, “Can there be a natural science of man?” of which the third holds the leading place in the July number. The scope of the essays, as well as of the “Prolegomena to Ethics,” to which they were in a sense introductory, will be best indicated if we quote a note added in the July number by Prof. Green's literary executor, Mr. A. C. Bradley.

Johann Ranke, of Munich (cited in the “Centralblatt für Nerven-heilkunde,” 1 Juni, 1882), has studied the relative size of the crania of the inhabitants of the town and country, upon a hundred males and a hundred females from villages, and two hundred skulls from the city of Munich. He finds that, though the size and stature of the country people are greater, the cranial capacity is less in both sexes. The mean capacity of 200 skulls of both sexes was