The appointments of Dr. Shuttleworth as an examiner under this Board will be generally recognised as the best that could be made. Mrs. Dickinson Berry, M.D., who is appointed, presumably for the examination of the female children, has high qualifications for the post.

The Inebriates Act of 1898 marks a very distinct and important advance in the treatment of habitual drunkards.

The last Report of the General Board of Lunacy for Scotland contains a most important and urgent appeal for legislative measures in relief of the poorer classes of the insane in Scotland. It is a closely reasoned declaration of the opinion of the Commissioners in view of the fact that the Royal Asylums are no longer adequate to meet the requirements of those who are but little removed from the “pauper” class. This has been apparent for some time, and the conviction, which has grown in strength, has found utterance in the suggestion now made, viz., that the powers conferred upon the County Lunacy Authorities of England should be extended to the District Lunacy Boards of Scotland. The existence of tracts of country where no provision has been made for those in narrow circumstances, the want of sufficient accommodation in existing institutions, the unfortunate results of the present condition of affairs have weighed with the Commissioners in urging that a measure of relief should be granted by Parliament.

Those of our members who listened to Dr. Ellis' interesting paper on Latah will be interested to read his report on the lunatic asylum over which he presides.

The retirement of Dr. Norton Manning, to which we draw attention in Notes and News, naturally reminds all who are interested in the care of the insane of the reception houses established during his régime in New South Wales.

The Lunacy Bill of the past session, after passing the Lords, was withdrawn in the House of Commons, owing to the lateness of the session.

In the newspaper reports of a recent action for slander it was stated that the British Medical Association had officially recognised hypnotism as a therapeutic agent. The medical man whose evidence led to this incorrect statement has shown that his remarks had been misapprehended by the journalist. It is of some importance to recall the circumstances, to show how the matter really stands. The committee appointed to report upon the subject included well-known names, and after a considerable interval presented their conclusions. They expressed themselves as satisfied of the genuine nature of the hypnotic state, and were of opinion that, as a therapeutic agent, hypnotism was frequently effective in removing pain, procuring sleep, and alleviating many functional ailments. As to its permanent efficacy in the treatment of habitual drunkenness, the evidence before the committee was encouraging, but not conclusive. They specially indicated that care in the employment of hypnotism was necessary, and suggested important limitations.

The daily Press, or at least a certain section of it, oscillates between two extremes in its views of the treatment of lunatics.

This case before the House of Lords was an appeal from an order of the Court of Appeal affirming an order of the Recorder of Plymouth on a case stated by him. The question in dispute was whether a female pauper lunatic was settled in the appellants' union. The lunatic was born at Plymouth, but had gained no settlement of her own; her mother, a single woman, was born in the defendants' union, and had acquired no settlement.

The special committee appointed to consider whether any measures should be taken on behalf of this Association, in support of the sufferer in this matter, by his desire has taken no action.

Perusing certain remarks made recently by a Mr. Berdoe in a lay paper, anent a therapeutic enquiry by Dr. Berkley at the City Asylum, Baltimore, and weighing these after a consideration of criticisms to be found in the British Medical Journal of September 18th and September 25th last, the thoughtful ratepayer—especially of the Metropolis, where Mr. Berdoe's superfluous energies find a vent—may well pray to be saved from his friends. Everywhere, and especially, probably, in the Metropolis, any painstaking investigation having for its object the determination of means whereby mental disorders may be arrested before they pass into the interminable night of chronic dementia, would be cordially approved of by those who contribute to the maintenance of county asylums, which look to become vast hostelries for the incurable in mind. Dr. Berkley records in the Bulletin of the Johns Hopkins Hospital for July, 1897, the results of the administration of thyroid extract in cases that “had either passed, or were about to pass, the limit of time in which recovery could be confidently expected.” We need not here describe Dr. Berkley's work, of which our readers can judge in the original. We content ourselves with the observation that it is the record of the trial of a medicinal agent, carried out scientifically, and for the benefit of the patient. To Mr. Berdoe, however, it appears that Dr. Berkley's work was “a study of poisoning, as a poison might be tested on an animal.” Viewing the matter in this lurid light, Mr. Berdoe felt forcibly that the interests of the public were in jeopardy, and, thus agitated in mind, was constrained to seek out a sympathetic confidant, whom he found in the Daily Chronicle. The “up-to-date” and democratic organ upon which Mr. Berdoe's choice fell was far too astute to miss the opportunity of heading a letter “Experiments on Lunatics;” and consequently we find his feelings concentrated under that harrowing title in an issue of the above newspaper. Those members of the profession who may have seen his letter, though it may be denied them to gauge the intensity of Mr. Berdoe's feelings, will not fail correctly to estimate his action in this matter. They cannot but regret that he should have condescended, not merely to have addressed his strictures upon a medical colleague to a lay organ, but further—to quote from our medical contemporary above-mentioned—to have made statements which “are not accurate,” and to have given “a very unfair version of the facts.”

Are two medical certificates necessary for a “not a pauper,” lunacy case? The Lancet (July 30th, 1898) draws attention to a statement made by a correspondent that “the justices of his district are in the habit of signing removal orders for lunatics of the working and artisan class on one medical certificate only.”

The recent will case, in which the possibility of undue influence by means of hypnotism was raised, is concluded, and the questions in relation to this possibility can now be considered apart from any reference to that particular case.

But, while we condemn libel on a professional brother, while we protest, alike in the interests of humanity and of our profession, against any stupid effort to excite prejudice against the proper use of new methods, we would denounce any real “experiment” upon lunatics unhesitatingly. It is not too much to say that such a procedure would be cowardly, immoral and infamous. On similar grounds we are inclined to condemn the practice of pressing into the service of science criminals under sentence of death. This has, however, been occasionally carried out. Thus Küchenmeister gave twenty cysticerci cellulosó, on two occasions, to a criminal; and it is recorded that “afterwards” nineteen tapeworms were found in his intestines; and thus the converse of feeding pigs with the proglottides of the tænia was experimentally manifest. It appears to have been reserved for a Viennese specialist to make what is probably the first experiment upon an insane person, and we record the fact with regret and reprobation. Those members of the Association who attended the Moscow Congress, and who heard the discourse of Krafft-Ebing on general paralysis, may be already aware of the circumstances; for we gather from an account of the proceedings of the Congress (as they related to Psychiatry) which appears in our French contemporary, Annales Médico-Psychologiques (Nov.-Dec., 1897), that this address made mention of the experiment alluded to. The announcement, it is stated, caused considerable surprise and emotion, as we can readily believe. It would appear that a certain specialist in Vienna, whose name is not disclosed, being desirous of throwing light upon the question of the relationship between syphilis and general paralysis, conceived the idea of inoculating with the former disease nine general paralytics taken at random from his clinique. Of these six remained free from syphilis, but three contracted it, the conclusion being that syphilis was not the cause of the general paralysis in these latter cases. The moral laxity which permitted this shameful indulgence of scientific curiosity was justly censured by the public Press. The Deutsches Volksblatt of August last has an article upon the subject entitled “Human beings in place of rabbits for experimental purposes.” The enemy have indeed had occasion to blaspheme.

The Handbook has now been thoroughly revised, and is in process of printing. The publishers will probably be enabled to have it ready for distribution soon after this number of the Journal is in the hands of our readers. As their stock has been exhausted for some time, and the demand continues urgent, we make special acknowledgment of the energy and labour bestowed upon the production of the fourth edition by the Committee, and we trust that the improvements made will still further secure that confidence of teachers and nurses which has been so freely bestowed in the past.