This paper contains not only an account of some of the Dutch asylums, but a short résumé of the system of management and inspection. Their condition and arrangements appear to be good, and are very favourably spoken of by Dr. Billod. None of his remarks, however, call for special notice here, except one, which is an amusing commentary on the opinions of those who see in Gheel and similar colonies the perfection of asylum treatment. When at the Utrecht Asylum he saw two private patients who had escaped from Gheel in order to return to Utrecht, where they had formerly been under treatment.

The contributions of Dr. Mierzejewski, Professor in the Medico-Chirurgical Academy of St. Petersburg, to our knowledge of the structure and pathology of the nervous system have earned for him a high reputation. His observations on the histology of the brains of idiots are of much scientific value, and as the field is wide and in a great degree unexplored, it is to be hoped that he will steadily prosecute his researches. The distinguished Professor has gathered round him a group of medical men devoted to the study of neurology who not only record the results of their observations on the cases presented by the asylums and hospitals of St. Petersburg, but also prosecute original researches in his laboratory with a view to filling up any “leak” which presents itself in our acquired knowledge of the physiology and pathology of the nervous system. Instead of taking up further time with praise, however well deserved, it will be better for our readers if we recapitulate some of the results arrived at by this ardent and industrious band of observers. With the exception of Dr. Mierzejewski's own memoir, all these contributions, or at least all these in our hands, have been published in the “St. Petersburger Medicinische Wochenschrift.”

In a review of the many issues that have appeared since our last retrospect, it will not be possible to do much more than indicate the main topics of interest to our readers in the various numbers of “Mind.” No. XX. (October, 1880) was in reality a more than usually interesting one. Besides the conclusion of a curious but valuable series of papers on the cell-theory and the “Unity of the Organic Individual,” to which we have referred before, it contained also an elaborate essay on “æsthetic Evolution in Man,” from the prolific pen of Mr. Grant Allen. It is sufficient to say of this that the theory propounded is one of “apanthropinisation;” or, in more intelligible language, the widening out of associations of beauty concentrically from the assumed starting-point in the sexual selection of the most ornamented mate. There is an unimportant essay by W. Davidson on “Botanical Classification”—a subject which has yet to be philosophically treated—and a very important one on Kant, by Professor John Watson, of Canada. Among the Notes are some remarks by Mr. Bain on Mr. Galton's very interesting scheme of mental statistics (previously noticed here), a discussion of “Brute Reason,” and a noteworthy summary of the views lately stated with great clearness by Professor James, of Harvard, as to Muscular Sense and the feeling of effort, hitherto a subject for much loose theorising.

Royal Edinburgh Asylum.—Many passages of interest occur in Dr. Clouston's report. One refers to feeding in cases of maniacal exhaustion, and he insists on the value of milk. “The greater my experience becomes I tend more to substitute milk for stimulants. I don't undervalue the latter in suitable cases; but in the very acute cases, both of depression and maniacal exaltation, where the disordered working of the brain tends rapidly to exhaust the strength, I rely more and more on milk and eggs made into custards. One such case this year got eight pints of milk and sixteen eggs every day for three months, and under this treatment recovered. I question whether he would have done so under any other. He was almost dead on admission, acutely delirious, absolutely sleepless, and very nearly pulseless.” The following passage bears out Dr. Urquhart's paper in the present number of the Journal:—“I am a great believer in the good effects of bright colours on the mentally depressed in this dull Scotch climate of ours [we hope this does not apply to the month in which the Association is to meet in Glasgow], and look on the present high art craze for dull olive greens as being a simple device of the Evil One, who loves darkness rather than light.” Dr. Clouston has an interesting reference to the International Medical Congress, and thinks its influence on the treatment of the insane will do good. He repels the notion that Scotch lunatics are of a milder type than those of other countries, and hence any success obtained in calming the excited is attributed to the course pursued. The best proof of this is the contrast between the refractory wards at Morningside twenty years ago and now. Limited space prevents our making further extracts. Dr. Clouston's reports are always pleasant and instructive reading.

The following translation of a letter in the “Progrès Medical” of the 2nd July, 1881, seems to me of considerable interest as showing, among other things, the powerful effect of the force of imitation in that Protean disease hysteria, and also the result of bad moral treatment. A series of somewhat similar cases, illustrating what has been well called the contagion of nervous affections in these leading to undoubted insanity with distinct delusions, is well described, and typical cases noted, by Dr. M. de Montgel, of the Marseilles Public Asylum, in the January number of the “Annales-Medico-Psychologiques.” But in almost all the cases there cited hereditary taint was distinctly made out, the weak mind being crushed by continued contact with the insane one. This folie-à-deux deserves serious attention; it may, from a medico-legal point of view, assume considerable importance; for instance, a person accused of crime may be under the domination of another's delusions. Many of the ecstatic outbreaks of seeming religion exemplify this form of insanity, often observed although seldom treated according to their deserts.