A. B., a prisoner with two or three aliases, aged 40, strongly-built, of short stature, with dark complexion and pockmarked face, was admitted into the observation ward at H.M. gaol, Darlinghurst, early in August, 1884, with the following history. He had served one sentence certainly, and perhaps more, in the neighbouring colony of Victoria, was reported to be an old offender, and was sentenced to seven years for arson in U.S.A., in March, 1884. He was sent at once to undergo the usual nine months' solitary and separate treatment with which all long sentences commence in Berrima—the special gaol set apart for this—and at the beginning of May was reported by the visiting medical officer of that gaol as unfit for this treatment, because he was an epileptic.