I wish it were possible to state, that all the French physicians are as judicious and humane in their prescription of the douche bath, as M. Leuret appears to be, but they certainly order it too frequently as a means of compelling their patients to work, or with the hope and intention of producing a moral effect, which forcibly remind us of the attempt to wash the black man white, of our early fables. In England the douche would not be recognised as a part of ‘moral treatment.’ We are at the present day agreed in thinking that intimidation and coercion may make or modify the symptoms of insanity, but can seldom produce permanently good effects; and I think the douche bath is rightly considered to be legitimately employed only for its physical effect as a revulsive, a refrigerant, or a stimulant. There is one other effect of the douche bath, the ‘shock’ for which it is still sometimes ordered; but I think it a remedy of very questionable utility. I have never tried its efficacy, or seen its effects, but a very well known and esteemed physician states decidedly, that the “physical shock” has been known to produce a good moral impression; and although it is doubtful whether he intends by the expression “physical shock,” the meaning that his words may be taken to convey, they lead us to the consideration of the direct effect of the “shock” upon the nervous system, and the probability of its curative power in cases of its derangement. Dr. Copland in his marvellous work, just completed, the “Medical Dictionary,” thus describes the effect of a sudden douche: “When the stream is considerable, and falls from any height upon the head, its action on the nervous system is often very remarkable, and approaches more nearly than any phenomenon with which I am acquainted, to electro-motive or galvanic agency.