The extension of the scope of the Royal Commission on the Feeble-minded has unexpectedly brought the desirability of an increase in the strength of the Lunacy Commission under consideration. The Report of a Royal Commission is not soon issued, and its recommendations are not usually acted on with precipitation, so that the hoped-for change may still be far distant.

With the view of testing to what extent an interchange took place between the perpetrators of the four major crimes I have prepared a return of 370 convicts and long-term prisoners in Scotland, convicted of (i) homicides, assaults, etc.; (2) crimes against property with violence; and (3) vjitliout violence; and (4) crimes against chastity. The result, an interesting one, finds expression in the following figures.

The Inland Revenue returns show a steadily progressive decrease in the consumption of beer and spirits in the United Kingdom since 1899; that is in encouraging contrast with the equally steady but more rapid increase up to that date.

In previous papers (i) we have recorded observations on the ground of which we have contended that a diphtheroid bacillus, having cultural and morphological characters resembling those of the Klebs-Löffler bacillus, plays the chief part in the production of the toxaemia of general paralysis. We have at the same time insisted upon the importance of weakening of the local and general defences against bacteria, and have attri buted the chief part in the production of this impairment to syphilis, chronic alcoholic intoxication and the excessive use of nitrogenous foods. A little more than a year ago we thus summarised the case in support of the diphtheroid hypothesis.

It is agreed that all statistics require careful reading, but those relating to insanity are more exposed to misreading than are most others. The following abuse of statistics is so grotesque that it would not be worth criticism had it not tended to cause unnecessary alarm and mischief.