Gentlemen,—I have chosen as the subject of this address a question which, though it is almost as old as the present system of treating the insane, has been revivified with so much vigour as to demand at our hands the close attention which we should feel bound to give to it had it been entirely new. I am about to offer you some remarks on what is called “Hospital treatment for recent and curable cases of insanity.” The reintroduction of this question is undoubtedly due to the necessity for the consideration of the great increase of the insane population; and it is appropriate in point of time; indeed, the time has been determined by the change in the composition of those bodies whose sanction and help are required for any new departure in this direction.

Should the future provision for the insane poor in Yorkshire, and not in this county only, but in other counties of England, be conducted on the same lines as the past provision has been?

This paper aims at being something more than historical, and faces the practical questions which naturally arise from the survey which I have just made.

The following pages contain the account of some analyses of the urine in general paralysis, together with observations on the temperature in this disease in relation to the nitrogenous excretion.

My present purpose is to show the importance of acquiring further knowledge as to the conditions of development, and as to the physical and mental brain-powers of children, and the desirability of diffusing a knowledge of scientific methods of study among those whose profession it is to train children.

The manifestation of vital activity demands the consumption of material, and the diminution or absence of this material, of a necessity, and proportionately, compels the diminution of absence of the power of manifestation of vital activity. Take, for instance, the comparatively crude example of starvation.