During the past year (1870), twenty deaths have occurred in the Carmarthen Asylum; and the following notes have been made regarding the state of the ribs and sternum in each case.

Many people buy things merely because they are cheap. No actual necessity dictated the purchase of the commodity, but “only 3s. 9d.” was irresistible! “If it is not useful now, it may be by-and-bye, besides Mrs. B—— has one,” is a sufficient argument to set off against that of economy, which would have us, as far as possible, gratify the demands of choice, but not create wants by the existence of supply. Now there is a somewhat similar tendency in mental economy. Subjects “made easy” are the snare of our nineteenth century enlightenment. Table-talk is a sign of our times! These are the days of wide spread but thin spread education. We must all know a little of everything. We must be able to converse rationally upon any subject, land tenure or ladies' gloves! and it consequently becomes a matter of some importance to have subjects “made easy.” We wish to get into the bowels of a science as we do into the bowels of a country, by train! Well, just as three and nine, and the fact that Mrs. B—— has one, tempted the purchase of the useless article, so the “made easy” and the small talk of a neighbour at dinner tempt to the acquisition of some very useless knowledge. And as it is true that purchases which are dictated by vanity and not by need do harm in trade, so do acquisitions of useless table-talk facts do harm in science. If a science is to have fair play, it is well for it if it does not become popular. Goethe somewhere says that when a man does a great thing the world seems to enter into a conspiracy to prevent him doing it again. It dines him and cheers him till he dies. He has only time to bow! So a science that is thought to have done some great thing becomes popular, and it is likely enough to die while the cheering lasts. A popular science, one that is “made easy,” is not likely to have much vitality in it. The intension of a science is in the inverse ratio to the extension.

In publishing the following cases, recently under my charge, of mental derangement dependent upon atheromatous deposit in the coats of the larger cerebral arteries, without any apparent disease of the brain substance, I desire, if possible, to define the symptoms of that condition during life, so as to enable them to be distinguished from those of general paralysis, with which I believe them often to be confused.

A very considerable portion of the large and increasing expenditure for the poor in Scotland, which has lately attracted so much public attention, has been incurred on account of pauper lunatics. Thus, while the entire cost of this class to the country in 1858 was &pond;80,652, in 1867 it amounted to &pond;117,186, having reached this point by a constant though irregular growth each intervening year. Possibly, after all the asylums which have been recently erected are in full operation, the annual addition may not be so great in future years; but in the meantime there is no indication of a reduction in the rate of increase. For the report of the General Lunacy Board for 1868 shows that the sum expended by parochial boards on account of the insane, in 1867, was &pond;6,382 more than in 1866; and it appears from the last report of the Board of Supervision for the relief of the poor, that during the year ending 30th June, 1869, the additional cost was &pond;11,136. The explanation of this constant growth of expenditure is not difficult to find, but it would be foreign to my subject to enter into the question. I shall, therefore, at once proceed to consider the measure of relief provided in the Lunacy Act for 1862, by which parochial authorities are empowered to lodge the insane in private houses. In doing so I shall confine myself almost entirely to a simple record of my experience. The propriety of the scheme has already been sufficiently discussed on theoretical considerations; the final appeal must be to facts.

It will be a matter of grave regret to all interested in the success of the Scotch Lunacy system, and a source of grief to a large circle of warmly attached friends, to learn that Dr. W. A. F. Browne has been compelled—while still in the fall vigour of his mental powers—from grave failure of sight, to resign his office of Commissioner in Lunacy.

The frequent occurrence of fracture of the ribs in the inmates of Lunatic Asylums has recently attracted much attention. And the more attention has been called to it, the more frequent does the occurrence seem to have become. This fact alone would make one suspect that the injury was not due to improper violence on the part of the attendants. Without, however, entering into this question, I propose here merely to record the results of my examination of the bones of two patients who lately died in the Sussex County Lunatic Asylum with fractured ribs. Whether or not further observation may justify a wider extension of the conclusion that the bones break so readily because they are diseased, at least I cannot hesitate to adopt it in the present instance.

At the present time, when several deeply to be lamented abuses in asylums for the insane have come to light, and have produced something like a reaction in favour of the old regime, the following unpublished letter, written by the late Godfrey Higgins, Esq., may serve to prove that the moral tone of our asylums was nearly as low then as now! I would especially commend it to the attention of the past-admiring editor of the “Pall Mall Gazette.”

Godfrey Higgins, in his diary, states that he was in Paris, and visited Pinel. He was very politely received by him, and visited the asylum for French lunatics under his management, and was much pleased with it. He did not think there was anything to learn, except in the employment of the patients. He was rather suspicious that he did not see the whole of the establishment. He was convinced there were many persons placed there who were not and never had been insane, but were placed there, and willing to remain, for the good food, beds, and clothing. The number of patients, 900.

The Report of the Commissioners in Lunacy made upon the cases of Santi Nistri, a patient in Hanwell Asylum, and Rees Price, in the Carmarthen Asylum, who recently died from broken ribs and other injuries, has been printed by order of the House of Commons. With regard to the first-named patient, the Commissioners “are sorry to report that they have failed in obtaining any precise information of how or when the poor man received the injuries of which he died, but our inquiry has served to show various defects in the management of the Hanwell Asylum.” The patient died on the 11th of October; the Commissioners' visit and inquiry took place on the 5th of November. No wonder that they were unable to gain any information, and that “they could place no confidence in the statements of the patients, some of whom impressed us with the idea that they had been tutored.” We believe that the only chance of arriving at the true history of these cases is to institute an inquiry as soon as they occur, an inquiry which, from their experience, the Commissioners in Lunacy would be able to carry out much more effectually than the Coroner, who can only take the evidence which is offered to him. The Report reiterates the Commissioners' complaint of the insufficiency of the medical staff. The Committee of the Asylum, however, in an appended communication, decline to appoint a second medical officer. The Commissioners also recommend an increase in the number of attendants, a matter of equal if not greater importance. To this point we shall presently recur.