The Irish Blue Book for 1872—the twenty-second Report of the Inspectors and Commissioners of Control of Asylums for the Insane in Ireland—did not appear in time to be reviewed in our issue for last October along with the Reports (for the same period) of the English and Scotch Commissioners. We now, however, take the first opportunity of noticing its contents, and only regret that our space is too limited to enable us to do them justice. The report is a most interesting one, and the appendices, which are very full and complete, bear evidence of the bestowal of much labour on their compilation.

Influence of the Events of 1870-71 upon the Development of Mental Disease in France.

A quarterly meeting of the Medico-Psychological Association was held in the hall of the Royal College of Physicans, Edinburgh, on Thursday, 27th November. Professor Laycock presided. There were present:—Professor Laycock, Drs. Smith, Fairless, Fraser, Campbell, Thomas Howden, Batty Take, Ireland, Grierson, Lyall, Clouston, H. Hayes Newington, Smith, Sibbald, McBean (R.N.), and Rorie.

Among the Reports that were published too late for notice in the last number of the Journal, that of the Argyle and Bute Asylum deserves notice for the views expressed by Dr. Rutherford in regard to farm work and its effect on the patients. The Asylum is well situated for the success of the experiment of having a very large farm attached to it, and of letting the patients work or wander about over it. There were 196 patients in the end of 1872, and the farm extends to about 400 acres, the greater part of which is rented by the Institution, and which is, therefore, in the position of an ordinary tenant farmer. Dr. Rutherford says:—