[The following article was sent to the Editors so far back as the autumn of 1916. Exception was taken by the Censor to certain passages, and as it was felt that it was preferable that it should be published in its entirety or not at all, its publication was withheld in the hope that the objections would eventually be withdrawn. This has now been done, and the Editors are glad to be in a position to present the article as it came from the pen of Dr. Maudsley, and without any mutilation.

An article under the title of “The ætiology of Crime” by Dr. Goring, in the April number of the Journal for 1918, consists to a great extent of criticisms of one by me, entitled “Notes on Mental Defect in Criminals,” which appeared in the January number for 1917, and contained special comments on Dr. Goring's well-known work “The English Convict: a Statistical Study.” As it then seemed to me necessary to consider Dr. Goring's views when writing on this subject, it seems equally necessary now to make some comment on his criticisms. The main reason for the following remarks is the interest and importance of the subject-matter on which he and I differ; but since some of his strictures depend greatly on misrepresentations of what I have written, or on imputations of arguments and opinions that I have not uttered, I am forced to occupy more space in this paper than I could have wished in quoting from Dr. Goring's charges and re-stating my own position.

The question of a combined arts and medical curriculum has long been a source of dissension among the authorities of our universities, and it is my intention in these pages to lay emphasis on the enormous value of a modified arts course to students of medicine. The average student looks on the enforced study of arts askance, and regards the accompanying lectures and examinations as the deliberate attempt of a malevolent professorial hierarchy to wreck his scientific career; but in later life, when he finds himself thrust upon his own resources with education and common-sense to guide him, he unconsciously begins to reap the benefit of his B.A. degree.

At the present time, to investigate fully the psychoses of those in military service would necessitate an inquiry into the mental health of the male moiety of the entire British nation. Admitting the truism that the war has not produced any new form of mental disease, it is nevertheless interesting to bring forward and accentuate the differences and similarities found in psychiatric military and civil institutional practice.