Let me first explain or define the terms used in the title of this paper. By “hospital treatment” I mean treatment in any institution where patients have to be treated in numbers together, and where it is possible to have efficient nursing. My remarks, however, will have special reference to county and borough asylums as they exist at present. By the “acutely insane” I mean those patients who are suffering from insanity which has begun at a recent date, and which we may hope to relieve.