crease; and multiply tenfold with each succeeding generation."

According to Dr Robert Hull, a somewhat eccentric writer, whose "Essays on Determination of Blood to the Head" are noticed at page 466, "the marvel is, that everybody who has time to think, does not run mad! In this unfathomable universe, whether viewed with the eye astronomical or microscopic, the awful so predominates, that not to be mad seems a special proof of the grace of God; or of a natural hebetude of soul.” To this the doctor adds the "dogmata of the Calvinistic school," which inculcates that a few are selected, "for no virtues, but to shew the irresistibility of their Maker," and the rest are to be damned, whether virtuous or wicked, for the same purpose of shewing the absolute power of the Deity! "There is no doubt," adds the reviewer, "that these gloomy, not to say impious, tenets drive many weak minds mad every day. It is only astonishing that people of any intellect or reflection could entertain such degrading ideas of the Omniscient, the Omnipotent Author of our existence and Governor of the universe!"

No. LXXVII. of this Review (July 1843), we already noticed to some extent in our last Number, so that little remains to be gleaned from it at present. In an excellent article on the Treatment of Children, it is mentioned as having been very generally observed with respect to children recovering from cholera infantum, that they "crave much for salted meat and fish; and the most experienced physicians, including Drs Rush, Parrish, and Hosack, have remarked that this instinct may be indulged not only with perfect safety, but with positive advantage to the health." P. 93. Here is an additional example of that discriminating power, which, as we noticed in a former paper (vol. x. p. 262.), Alimentiveness seems frequently to possess when the body is in a state of disease.

Our only other extract from the July No. of the MedicoChirurgical Review, shall be a lively sally against the lawyers for presuming to despise medical wisdom as a light to guide them in cases of insanity:

"It is of paramount importance at the present moment to disseminate correct notions on the nature of insanity. The Judges are deliberating at the summons of the Chancellor, who, backed by an ex-Chancellor, himself a representative of panto-mania, seems far from disinclined to render the law of insanity stringent, and to hold all cheap but the judicial ipse dixit. That a set of men, whether clothed in red or black, who practically know nothing of the malady they pronounce upon, should settle, ex cathedra, what are its symptoms and its nature, is certainly absurd enough. That these same men should affect

to look down on the opinions of those who make its investigation their business, and who, in all that relates to an acquaintance with the bodily and mental constitution, must be immeasurably their superiors, goes even beyond absurdity. But when the sum of their ignorance is to constitute the law, and become the Procrustian bed into which the wretched madman is in future to be forced, it is the duty of the humane and the enlightened, to oppose to the brutality of political rancour, and the assumptions of incompetent authority, the mild and steady dictates of science and of truth. Our course is clear. It is for us to state the facts as they are-to shew when and where, and in what degree, the mental powers are impairedto disabuse the world of its vague notions of the mind-to point out the connection between mental and corporeal ailments to explain the dependence of the former on the latter -and to establish the axiom that, as the brain is the instrument of the intellectual acts, it is to its alterations that we must look for the causes and the explanation of their aberrations. To whatever result the pursuit of truth may lead, it is immaterial to inquire. Fiat justitia, ruat cœlum. That pursuit is the noblest accorded by Heaven to man, and it is a sort of blasphemy on Providence to pretend that the discovery of truth can be baneful. Society must be rotten when its parts are cemented by falsehood, and upheld by error. We trust that our brethren will not be intimidated by the blustering of any party, nor sink from the fearless expression of what they think and know, in the Courts of Justice. A bold front and a calm disregard of bigoted or of interested clamour befits those upon whose evidence the life of the unfortunate maniac hangs. And whatever opposition may be made to the reception of truth, we may rest in the perfect confidence of its final triumph."-P. 160.

In No. LXXVIII. (October 1843), our readers will find (p. 291), an interesting abstract of a paper on "The Temperaments considered in their relation to Health, by M. RoyerCollard," published in the tenth volume of the "Mémoires de l'Académie Royale de la Médecine.” In the opinion of that writer, the ordinary descriptions of the temperaments are founded upon mere conjecture. He thinks it is to the composition of the blood that we are to look, not for the cause, but for the characters of the temperaments. He declines offering any arrangement or nomenclature of the temperaments, satisfied with having pointed out what he considers to be erroneous ideas prevailing upon the subject, and shewn the mode in which future investigation should be conducted.

From an article on Dr Francis Willis's "Treatise on Mental Derangement" (p. 472), it appears that the Doctor is firmly convinced, not only of the efficacy, but also of the necessity, of the restraint of insane persons. Notwithstanding the outcry raised against restraint, and more particularly against "those beneficial auxiliaries, the waistcoat, the chair, and the belt and gloves," he does not shrink from upholding them, believing it is the abuse of these, and not the use, which ought to be condemned. With regard to the introduction of a system of religious instruction and discipline into lunatic asylums, the Doctor is of opinion that it is a strange anomaly that it should be deemed useful to introduce into an asylum, for the daily attention of insane persons, a subject which is itself a very common cause of insanity. 'However desirable it may be, either for the sake of example or for the sake of preserving an orderly behaviour among the insane, that they should attend Divine worship, I am of opinion that the system of religious discipline should cease with that attendance. I think that all attempts at religious instruction are not only useless, but often injurious; and this opinion is fully corroborated by experiments which have been made on the subject." Of course, much will depend on the character of what is given under the very comprehensive title of religious in

struction.

66

2. The Lancet.

At a meeting of the Governors of Bethlem Hospital in June last, the report of a special committee, recommending various alterations and ameliorations in the treatment of the patients, was taken into consideration. Much debate, says the Morning Post, ensued on the proposition of the committee, "That a billiard-table should be hired in order to promote the exercise and amusement of the inmates." Mr Anderton expressed his surprise at such a recommendation, because, first of all, lunatics could not play at games, and in the next place for as much as that a person who was capable of playing at games of chance was not fit to remain in a lunatic asylum; and if it were intended to introduce all those comforts and luxuries the patients would never wish to leave! He thought that billiards would lead to excitement, and, by promoting a system of gambling, have an injurious effect, and therefore moved that the paragraph recommending the billiard-tables be expunged from the report. Mr T. B. Herring told Mr Anderton that cards, draughts, and chess, had been the amusement of the patients in Bethlem Hospital for these twenty years. Mr Alderman Farebrother added that he, too, thought the in

troduction of a billiard-table calculated to encourage gambling, and would so taint the patients, that when they left the hospital they might have recourse to such practices, which would probably lead them to ruin. For these reasons, and there being no recommendation from the physicians before the court, he seconded Mr Anderton's motion. 66 Very admirably,' says the Lancet of 8th July, "did Mr Laurie jun. answer these ill-informed gentlemen. He stated to them the fact, that the recommendation of the committee had been unanimously agreed to at the largest committee at which he had ever been present; and in reply to Mr Anderton's remarks that insane patients could not play at games of chance, he begged to say that cards were originally introduced for an insane king. He thought that refusing to allow amusements in the hospital, for fear of encouraging dissipated habits when the patients went out, was about as rational as it would be to refuse administering wine and spirits to sick persons, lest it should encourage them to resort to dram-drinking on their recovery. He considered a billiard-table would be of great service, particularly in the winter time, or in bad weather, when the inmates could not go into the grounds, or be induced to take any other exercise; and although the physicians had not appended their recommendation to the report, he had received a letter from Dr Monro, the senior physician, stating that there could be no objection to the introduction of billiards and bagatelle. The learned gentleman quoted several lunatic asylums where, amusements and occupation being carried out to the greatest extent, cures were effected in far greater proportion than at Bethlem. He called upon the governors to avail themselves of the improvements adopted in other asylums, and place the Royal Hospital where it ought to be, in the front rank of all, instead of dragging in the rear of pauper lunatic asylums. Dr Webster, the Earl of Shaftesbury, and the Common Sergeant, supported the views of Mr Laurie; the Common Sergeant honourably and sensibly stating that he was at first disposed to treat the proposition as most absurd, but that subsequent inquiry, and the rational arguments adduced that day, had altered his impressions.' The report in the newspaper adds, that, after some farther discussion, the President put the question, and on a division the numbers were:-For introducing billiards, &c. 20; against it, 30; it was consequently lost by a majority of 10. Yet, after another long discussion, a proposition for purchasing a pianoforte, and other musical instruments, for the use of the patients, was carried, the numbers being 25 for, and 23 against it. To parody the Duke of Wellington's hint, we say to the thirty

governors, Pray, gentlemen, place yourselves in the category of men who do not meddle with questions of which they are wholly ignorant.' We could place on the table of the governors at least fifty pamphlets and reports containing accounts of amusements introduced into lunatic asylums, in every instance with great advantage to the inmates. But Mr Laurie has already found the valuable evidence of experience useless in the court."

Dr J. R. Smyth, in an article on rickets, published in the Lancet of 22d July, says—“ The development of the mental faculties of rickety children is irregular, and a thing of uncertainty. Sometimes we find precocity of intellect and premature quickness of the power of observation and remark; at other times, just the reverse obtains-the intellectual faculties of the rickety child are plunged in abstraction and stupor. A great many rickety children are, in fact, more stupid than intelligent, and they all appear to be rather stunted and weak in their feelings and affections." The same Number contains (p. 598) a somewhat jocular notice of one or two meetings of the Phrenological Society of Paris. We extract the concluding passage:" At a late meeting of the society, M. Fossati opined that his phrenological collaborateurs would do well not to pay too rigid attention to the development of the heads of criminals, with the view of finding organizations adequate to impel to the commission of crime; for that crimes were as much, if not more, the results of defective education and other circumstances, as of congenital organization. Phrenologists should go where the force of external circumstances did not, or ought not, to operate so strongly, namely, they should examine the heads of the upper classes, and see how far their acts and their tendencies coincided.

Oh, Mrs Fry, why go to Newgate? why

Preach to poor rogues? and wherefore not begin

With Carlton, and with other houses?'-Don Juan."

There is a considerable degree of truth in this opinion of Dr Fossati. It is quite unphilosophical to look for an uncommonly bad head in every criminal, and not less so to be astounded by meeting an indifferent one upon the shoulders of a person who, with no strong temptations to crime, has been prudent enough to refrain from breaking the law.

3. The Medical Times.

No. 197 (1st July 1843, p. 218) contains a good editorial article on the answers given by the English judges to the questions on the law of insanity in criminal cases, laid before