In the absence of all medical testimony, opinion respecting the man's mental condition during the period in question must be based upon the ordinary evidence brought forward at the inquest. And it so happens that, notwithstanding the remarkable finding of the jury, the conclusion at which most people would arrive, after perusing the evidence and the in coherent statement found in the handwriting of the deceased, insonsi-mprpolfeesseionnoaulgh, opiannidon.quitTehuws, iththine “the DeailsycoTpeeleogfrapohrd,” inaryin reference to the case, relates the circumstances and the evi dence, and then says : “After all this, it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that the assailant of Mr. Hamburger was not altogether responsible for his actions. We may even go further, and say, although the jury were of the opinion tmhiantd, thethreat wtahse nodeceevaisdeedncewatos sdheocwidedwlyhat inwsaanse” his wshtaetne hoef attempted to murder Mr. Hamburger. It is sufficient for my present purpose to affirm the correctness of the opinion here qiioted from a lay paper, without entering into such details of the evidence as might be taken either for or against that opinion.

Somnambulism and the conditions allied to it have always attracted peculiar interest, probably because most men have felt that common sleep, although so familiar, is yet a wondrous and solemn thing, and full of mysterious possibilities for each of us. Cases of somnambulism have naturally lost nothing when reported, the observer and the recorder being alike liable to enhance rather than lessen the mystery. The wholesome scepticism which now prevails as to the truly involuntary character of many nervous disorders was formerly less common. We know that some patients will subject themselves to constant suffering and discomfort, or will practise the most patient and painful imposture, for no conceivable object save to be exceptional or to attract attention; and there is no want of charity in suspecting that in some cases the somnambulism was but hysterical simulation or morbid malingering.

This Bill, for the establishment of County Boards in England, contains several provisions affecting the care of the pauper insane, which renders it incumbent on us to examine carefully what will be the probable effect of the changes it produces, and its general tendency as bearing on the interests of lunacy. The principal enactment of the Bill is to take from Quarter Sessions, as now established, all administrative as distinguished from judicial business, the latter remaining with the Quarter Sessions, the former to be transacted by a new body, the County Board, constituted by equal moieties, appointed and elective members; the former to be Justices appointed by the Justices in Quarter Sessions, two for each Petty Sessional Division of the County, the latter to be elected by the Guardians not of each Union, but of each Petty Sessional Division, two in each such division; and the qualification is that they shall be guardians of that division or qualified to be guardians. The elective members of the Board to be ipso facto magistrates in all that regards administrative business.

Having availed myself, when recently in Paris, of the opportunity afforded of visiting the Salpêtrière, I have made a few notes of what I witnessed in the service of M. Charcot, although, from the shortness of my visit, I was not in a position to do justice to the subject which has recently attracted so much attention—the influence of metals in anæsthesia, hystero-epilepsy, &c. I can do little more than record facts, and suspend my judgment as to their nature and the explanation which further investigation will give of them.

Our readers are already fully acquainted with the evidence given before this Committee (See Jan. No., 1878, Vol. xxiii., p. 457). Its report has now been issued, and as it is very short, we reprint it in extenso. Its purport is mild, and, on the whole, those engaged in the administration of the Lunacy Laws of the kingdom, the physicians to asylums, and the British public have reason to be satisfied. The recommendations of the Committee closely coincide with the points on which, in the article referred to (p. 520), we stated there had been a fairly good case made out for alterations in the law. of the 22 recommendations made by this Committee, 17 were advocated by us. In our opinion the chief omission in the report is a recommendation that the whole mode of administering the property of the insane in England should be reformed. We showed most conclusively, from the evidence of those persons best acquainted with its working, that the English law is, in this respect, cumbrous, inefficient, and unjust. The deficiencies of the Irish and Scotch Lunacy Laws, and their administration, pointed out by us, are ignored by the Committee. The subject of Criminal Lunacy, and the clear call that has been made out for a revision of the existing statutes in regard to it, has also been left unnoticed.

We make the following extracts from a pamphlet published by the late Sir James Coxe just before his death, called “Lunacy in its Relations to the State,” which is chiefly a digest of the evidence given before the Dillwyn Committee, going over much the same ground as our article on Lunacy Law in the No. of this Journal for Jan., 1878, the author stating his views in regard to many important points connected with insanity.

It is now almost thirty years since Dr. Burq first observed the favourable effect produced by the external application of different metals on patients suffering from various forms of anæsthesia. Burq remarked that the same effect was not produced by the same metal in all cases, but that the therapeutic success was due in one case to gold and in another to iron. This fact led him to assume that, in cases where one metal proved beneficial when applied to the skin, still better results might be obtained by giving this patient a preparation of the metal that suited him for internal use, and thus promoting a constitutional action. But even his first assertions met with a cold reception, and his later assertions of the success obtained by internal use of the metals received quite emphatic denial from the profession, so that the whole question fell into discredit. Nothing daunted by this, and fully convinced of the accuracy of his observations, Burq applied to the Société de Biologie in Paris, to appoint a committee to test his assertions impartially, and report on the results of their investigations. A committee, consisting of MM. Charcot, Luys and Dumontpallier, was appointed, and on the 14th of April, 1877, M. Dumontpallier, as speaker, delivered the following report:—