In the spring of 1878, while travelling in Spain in company with two friends, I took the opportunity of visiting several asylums. Having entered Spain by the north, I made known my desire to see some Spanish asylums, to an influential citizen of San Sebastian, who gave me to understand that I would find them in much the same condition that English ones were in about 40 or 50 years ago.* He furnished me with letters of introduction to friends in Madrid, through whom I became acquainted with an accomplished and enthusiastic alienist, Dr. J. M. Esquerdo, Lecturer on General Pathology in the General Hospital of Madrid, and director and proprietor of a private asylum in the neighbourhood of that city.