In introducing the subject upon which I have the honour to address you, I am actuated rather by a desire to raise a discussion than to state any new theory or fact. It is some time since the “Care and Treatment of the Epileptic” was discussed at a meeting of this Association. Since then, and more particularly recently, there has been a further broadening of our ideas as to the sphere of work of alienists, and attention directed to the conditions of life of classes of people with whom we are not in touch in our routine daily labours. This has followed upon, and in some degree been associated with, the widening of our ideas as to the mental states we include under the term “insane,” and certifiable as such, a consideration which is in part answerable for the so-called increase of lunacy.