In the department of mental diseases some men have won distinction by their writings, such as Pinel, Esquirol, Guislain and Morel on the Continent, or like Laycock, W. A. F. Browne, Winslow, Maudsley, Bucknill, Skae and Clouston in our own country, but the subject of this obituary gained the respect and esteem of his medical brethren and the public by his unfailing courtesy, his resolute devotion to duty, his kindly disposition toward the officials of mental hospitals and his generous personal interest and sympathy with the patients, whose welfare he ever strove to ameliorate. Moreover these were qualities which found ample scope throughout the length and breadth of Scotland in his long official connection with the General Board of Lunacy as Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner.

For some time past there has been an increasing use of laboratory methods in the diagnosis of mental disorders. The following aims at offering further proof of the undoubted value of this method of approach in such cases. There seems, however, to be a growing tendency, not devoid of danger, to ascribe diagnostic specificity to one or other of the many tests in use for such examinations. Although it is undoubtedly true that an exhaustive analysis of a spinal fluid may in many cases lead to a correct diagnosis of the clinical condition of the patient from whom the specimen has been taken, it only requires a study of the literature to show that none of the reactions or group of reactions obtained from the spinal fluid can be regarded as pathognomonic of any disease of the central nervous system.

So much has been written on the nervous and mental troubles induced by the conditionsof servicein the Great War that the subject seems almost threadbare at this time of day. But as no special account has appeared, so far as I am aware, of the measures taken in Ireland for the treatment of those whose reason had become impaired in the course of war service, I venture to think that a short contribution to the subject, dealing more particularly with what was done locally, will not be inappropriate either to the place or the occasion.

Encephalitis, a disease to be defined as any non-suppurative inflammation of the brain, has been recognized for many years. Crookshank (I) points out that clinical occurrences of the nature of what we now ascribe to encephalo-myelitis and encephalo meningitis have been recorded for the last 450 years.

Within the last two or three years a considerable amount of work has been done in this country in the treatment of general paralysis by malarial inoculation. While it is yet too soon to form a final opinion on the results of the experiment, the present seems to be an opportune moment for reviewing what has been done, and for reaching at least some tentative conclusions. In this connection it is important to remember that the method is not altogether new, as it has been in use on the continent for the last seven years with but short interludes.

It seems a long time ago since I spent days, even nights, observing and examining cases of epilepsy in the epileptic wards of Hanwell Mental Hospital. I had always felt drawn to the epileptic, and epilepsy was ever a fascinating subject to me.

Any paper on the “boarding-out system” in Scotland would be entirely incomplete without a reference to the recent death of its distinguished advocate and supporter, Dr. John Fraser. For seventeen years as a Deputy Commissioner Dr. Fraser visited patients throughout the length and breadth of Scotland, and his interest and enthusiasm in the method lasted to the end of a long life. His devotion to duty and the high standard he always set are fully appreciated by one who, as a Deputy Commissioner, is privileged to come after him, and finds a daily difficulty in adequately following in his footsteps. It is matter of real regret that he is not with us here to-day.

The term “moral imbecile” used in the Mental Deficiency Act is generally recognized as an unhappy one. It is responsible for much difference of opinion as to the class of case which can be properly so described. There is a view widely held and often ex pressed that the number of such cases is very small; that to certify them is an unsafe procedure, and that consequently, their inclusion within the Act is of little or no practical value.