Hospital for the insane, contributes a very interesting article on the legislation for the insane in the Maine. The legislature of the Maine passed, it appears, during the last session, an act for regulating the government and management of the insane, which is highly creditable to the humanity and judgment of that body. The mode of determining the admission of the insane into asylums is very simple, and similar to the plan prescribed by the code in France.

"The act provides, that on the application of any relative of an insane person, or any justice of the peace, the mayor and aldermen of cities, and the select men of towns, shall examine into the case of such insane person, and if satisfied that the person is insane, and that his comfort and safety, or those of others interested, would be promoted by a residence in the insane hospital,' shall send him forthwith to the hospital, where he must stay if the superintendent see fit to keep him, at least six months. If their decision is not satisfactory to any of the parties interested, an appeal is provided to certain justices of the peace, who institute a new and final trial of the case."

The Avocat does the duty in Paris which the justice of the peace, or mayor, is here called upon to perform; and the obvious advantage of the plan is, that the party who adjudicates upon the insanity of the person has no interest whatever in his detention. Another remarkable part of this act of the Maine is, that it provides a change in the ordinary methods of criminal procedure in cases where the accused is alleged to be insane.

"When any person,' says the act, shall be charged with a criminal offence in this state, any judge of the court before which he or she is to be tried, on notice that a plea of insanity will be made, or when such plea is made in court, may, if he deem proper, order such person into the custody of the superintendent of the insane hospital, to be by him detained and observed, until the further order of the court, in order that the truth or falsehood of the plea may be ascertained.' This course, virtually, is pursued in France and most of the German states. It is unknown, however, to the forms of the English common law, and this, we suspect, is the first attempt to incorporate it with those forms. We apprehend no difficulty whatever in the practical working of this provision, and we anticipate as its certain result, that the ends of justice will be more effectually obtained, and the common prejudice against the plea of insanity in criminal cases be removed. We cannot better express our own views on this point than by quoting what we have already said in another place

"A very serious evil in the administration of the criminal law in cases where insanity is pleaded in defence, is the absence of any legal provision for satisfactorily establishing or disproving its existence. The matter is left entirely to the counsel, who use such

means as they please and the law permits. They summon only such witnesses as suit their purposes; and medical men can generally be found-we regret to say it-ready to testify for or against the insanity of the accused, who have had but little practical knowledge of the disease, and have made but a superficial examination of the case in hand. Witnesses summoned in this manner will be liable, in spite of themselves, to testify under a bias, instead of expressing the results of a dispassionate examination of scientific facts. The intention of the prisoner's counsel to plead insanity may not be known to the government-counsel in season to meet the plea with appropriate evidence; and if the prisoner is acquitted, the impression is conveyed, that the ends of justice have been defeated. Indeed, with every disposition to arrive at the truth, it is generally impossible under the present arrangements. In gaols, where prisoners accused of crime are confined, proper opportunities are not afforded for investigating their mental condition. In the few formal interviews to which the observation of the prisoner is confined, it may often happen that the real condition of the mind will not be discovered. If really insane, he will be likely to control his movements, and to discourse and appear very differently from what he would when left to himself and unconscious of being observed. Many insane, as we have already shown, manifest their aberration only under certain circumstances, and on particular occasions, and appear quite correct at all other times. Many, too, whose insanity is recognised by everybody who knows them, never evince it in their discourse, but solely in their ways and habits. If, on the other hand, the prisoner is feigning insanity, he will summon all his powers to produce the requisite impression at these interviews, which being short and few, the difficulty of his task is much lessened. To ascertain satisfactorily the mental condition of a prisoner suspected of being insane, he should be placed where the expert may be able to see him often, and at times when he is not aware of being observed. His words, and acts, and movements, his manners and habits, should be systematically watched; and a single day of such observation would often throw more light on the case than many formal interviews. We see no difficulty in so changing our modes of criminal procedure, that when the court shall be satisfied that there are reasonable doubts of the prisoner's sanity, it may be authorized to postpone the trial, and place him, in the meantime, in the charge of an expert-for which our hospitals for the insane furnish a convenient and suitable opportunity-whose report shall be received in evidence at the trial. This is substantially the course adopted in France, and nothing short of its adoption with us will render the plea of insanity powerless for evil, and remove the suspicions of the community upon this point."-Journal of Insanity, vol. iv., pp. 215, 216.

Another important provision, which does infinite honour, says Dr. Ray, truly, to the humanity and intelligence of the legislature of the

Maine is, that "no insane person shall be committed to, or remain in, any gaol or house of correction;" and that, "when any inmate of the state prison becomes insane, a commissioner shall be appointed by the governor to examine his case, and if he be found insane, he shall be sent to the insane hospital. We hope this noble example will be speedily followed; and that, in New England at least, the confinement of the insane in gaols will be remembered as among the things that are passed."

There is no subject more difficult to speculate upon than the mortality of the insane; because patients who are admitted into lunatic asylums are often the subjects of other diseases which may prove fatal. Organic affections of the heart and lungs, stomach and liver, often co-exist with insanity, and are the ostensible cause of death. Upon this subject, we find in the volume before us the following pertinent observations :

"The mortality of the insane, though an interesting subject, is one difficult to study with the accuracy requisite to satisfactory results. It depends on such varying and local circumstances, that nothing conclusive is learned by comparing the number of deaths at one institution with those of another.

"Some asylums are able to select their cases, and rarely receive any very bad ones; others do not receive the epileptic insane and those disposed to suicide, unless provision is made by their friends for special attendance and care; while some institutions are obliged to receive all that are sent to them. Again, in some asylums, many of the patients are from the immediate neighbourhood, and are supported by their friends, and when likely to die, are removed to their homes, while most of those in other establishments have no friends to take care of them, or are from a distance too remote to be sent home when feeble.

"Pinel, setting aside cases of senile dementia, estimates the mortality of the insane at one to twenty or twenty-three. Raymond found the mortality at Marseilles to be as one to fourteen. Tenon, at Paris, in 1786, fixed it at one to eleven. Esquirol thought it higher, even one to six or eight, and gives the following from his records :

"Mortality in mania, one to twenty-five.

monomania, one to sixteen.

lypemania, or melancholy, one to twelve.
dementia, one to three.

According to the records of the lunatic asylums in the Northern States of this country, for the last five years-viz., in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, the McLean, South Boston, and Worcester, Massachusetts; the Bloomingdale and Utica, New York; the Friends' Asylum, and the Pennsylvania Hospital for the insane, Pennsylvania, and the Ohio, the mortality in none is higher than

one in eleven. Eight thousand seven hundred and twenty-four patients have been treated at these institutions during the last five years, and the deaths have been 687, or about one in thirteen.

"We have not complete returns from the asylums in the Southern States, but judging from those we have, their mortality is greater; but we shall endeavour to procure more full statistics on this subject, and recur to it again."

An article on the paralysis peculiar to the insane (paralysie generale) in the volume before us, also merits attention; but we can only afford space for the following introductory observations:

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"This singular affection has been well described by Esquirol, and more fully by Bayle, Calmeil and Guislain, and more recently by several other writers. It should not be confounded with ordinary paralysis that arises from cerebral hæmorrhage or from ramollisement or tumours of the brain. The paralysie generale seems to have a different cause, and to arise from a kind of chronic inflammation of the membranes of the brain that cover the superior parts of the brain. This form of paralysis is more frequent among insane men than women. Eighteen years ago,' says Esquirol, when charged with the service of the division of the insane at the Bicêtre, during the absence of M. Pariset, who was sent to Cadiz to study the yellow fever which was prevailing there, I was struck in comparing the number of men, insane and paralytic, in the Bicêtre, and the number of paralytic women at the Salpétriere. The same observation may be made in every establishment into which both sexes are admitted. It has not escaped the notice of Dr. Foville, physician-in-chief at St. Yon, Rouen. According to this physician, they amount to one-eleventh at the institution over which he presides. Among 334 insane persons who were examined by him, 31 were paralytic-to wit, 22 men and 9 women. At Charenton, the proportion of paralytics is still more considerable. They constitute one-sixth of the whole number of admissions. In truth, of 619 insane persons who were admitted during the three years-1826, 1827,1828-109 were paralytics. But the proportion of men is enormous compared with that of women. Of 366 insane men admitted into the house, 95 were paralytics; while of 153 women, 14 only were affected with paralysis. This complication is most frequently observed among that class of insane persons who have yielded to venereal excesses, or have been addicted to the use of alcoholic drinks; among those, also, who have made an inordinate use of mercury, as well as those who, exercising the brain too vigorously in mental strife, have, at the same time, abandoned themselves to errors of regimen.'

"These circumstances explain why it is that there are more insane and paralytic men than women, and why this disease is more frequently seen in asylums for the insane that are in the vicinity of large cities and receive the wealthy and dissipated, than in those remote from cities, and that are filled mostly by the poor and industrious. We think, also, it explains, what we believe to be facts,

that there is less of this disease in this country than in Europe, and that it is on the increase. A most striking peculiarity generally noticed in this complaint is, that those affected by it entertain the most extravagant notions of their wealth, grandeur, and power, and do not appear to suffer in body or mind, but continue cheerful and full of hope until they die.

"The first published notice of this disease in this country was given by Dr. Bell, of the McLean Asylum for the insane, in his Annual Report for 1843. He says:-That terrible complication of insanity termed paralysie generale by the French, and of which general paralysis can scarce be deemed a synonyme, since the impairment of the nervo-muscular apparatus forms by no means a prominent symptom as in ordinary paralytic affections, and, indeed, for a period in the progress of the malady, scarcely an appreciable manifestation, is one which presents a large proportion of cases in the insane hospitals of Europe.'"

There are many articles in the volumes before us of a strictly practical nature; the following observations on the effects of the inhalation of sulphuric ether, in cases of insanity, will be read with interest:

"We have administered the vapour of ether to sixteen different patients at the New York State Lunatic Asylum-viz., to fourteen men and to two women.

"Some have taken it but once, several have taken it three or four times, and a few eight or nine times.

"The cases in which we have used it have been various. Some were cases of melancholy and of religious despair, others were affected by various insane delusions and hallucinations, and some belonged to the demented class. To none highly excited or maniacal have we as yet given it.

"Some were not affected at all by it. One man and one woman inhaled it for more than ten minutes without experiencing the slightest change of feelings. Several seemed intoxicated, and said they felt as if drunk. One who had slept but little for several nights, and who usually slept poorly, rested remarkably well the night after taking it, and said he must have taken a large dose of opium.

"Some have appeared better since they commenced taking it, been more active, cheerful, and sociable. One who has taken it nine times seems considerably improved. He was previously dull, inactive, and unsocial, and his pulse but 48 in a minute. Since the use of the ether, his pulse has increased to 66 in a minute. He is now cheerful and sociable, and works some. He says he is better, and thinks the ether has benefited him.

"A few were highly excited by it. One man who was in a state of religious despair, after taking it, awoke as from a terrific dream, and in a most violent rage seized the person who administered the ether. He afterwards said that he at first dreamed he was in hell,