In their fourth Annual Report, published in 1918, the Board of Control drew attention—not for the first time, but in more extended form than hitherto—to deficiencies in the arrangements, as at present organised, for the treatment of persons suffering from mental disorder, especially in its incipient and early stages; to the insufficiency of attention paid at medical schools to this important branch of medical science with its consequent ill-effects both to patients and to the medical profession; and to the absence of any special qualification in psychiatry, as a requirement for the higher medical posts in public institutions for the insane, such as is demanded in public health of medical officers of health of areas of above a stated size.