[The subject discussed in this article, and the facts stated in regard to the actual practice of the French Courts in reference to the claims of the insane under restraint, with a view to recover their liberty, are of such vital importance at the present time in our own country, that we have thought it well to reproduce Dr. Foville's paper, which was read before the Congress of Psychiatry and Neuro-pathology held at Antwerp, September 7, 1885. The deliberate opinion of so great an authority cannot fail to be of much practical value, in view of the changes in Lunacy Law which seem imminent.—Eds.]

In bringing before you the subject of the dietary in use in public asylums in this country, I have, in the first instance, to apologise for my inability to treat so great a subject in a manner in any way commensurate with its importance. I omit altogether touching on those fields for research as to the nature, quality, and quantity of food best suited in the treatment of acute insanity for the support of bodily strength, allaying excitement and producing sleep, as to the arguments for and against artificial alimentation, and as to the use and abuse of stimulants.

Till recently we believed that, however much, the members of the legal and medical professions might differ in regard to the definition of insanity, and to its relations to responsibility, they agreed in the main as to the question of drunkenness and its responsibilities.

The questions set at the recent Matriculation Examination of the London University afford food for the student of mental science. The whole system of competitive examinations, as understood by our universities, is so much at variance with the true principles of mental development that it is somewhat difficult to judge the papers by the standard of the metaphysician. When the present system is tending to make of education an art rather than a science, when the test of a man's capabilities is rather to see how many pages of carefully prepared “Guides to University Students” he can assimilate rather than how much he has had called into play his powers of personal observation, and how much experience he has really mastered; when, in short, an undue importance is given to book knowledge to the detriment of mental wisdom, it is not to be wondered that we find the questions of the Matriculation Examination of the London University falling below the standard that we should like to see our universities set before them. If there is to be any reform in our educational systems (and it is sorely needed) one would naturally look to our universities for its genesis; but for the most part we look in vain. Perhaps the temptation to extol mere book learning, and to lose sight of the aims of education, beyond those merely of acquiring knowledge, is more likely to be experienced by the examiners of the London University than by any others. For in a university where residence for a certain academic course is not a sine qua non of becoming a graduate, and where elaborate crams and “examination papers worked out in full” are ready a few days after the conclusion of the examination, it may be a difficult matter for an examiner to avoid falling into the errors to which we have referred. On the other hand, no body of people in the whole country-have more opportunities for good or more facilities for raising the intellectual status of our teachers, and so of our educational systems, than have those gentlemen who draw up the questions of the London University Examinations. And let us say, at the outset, that we are fairly well pleased, on the whole, with the result of their efforts in the January matriculation questions. We shall have to point out errors and failings, but many of the questions strike us as a decided improvement on the general run of such questions, and may assist in opposing the vicious system of cramming that is decimating the ranks of the teaching profession of its best—because most independent and original—men.