1. In this inquiry all the asylums of Scotland are regarded as one asylum, and the different institutions merely as different wards of the asylum. A patient transferred from one institution to another is thus regarded as never leaving the asylum, but merely as passing from one ward to another. The words—the asylum—therefore, in this paper, mean an asylum made up of all the asylums of Scotland.

Passing from the Egyptians to the Greeks and Romans, we proceed to pursue, in regard to these, the same line of enquiry as that which we have already attempted in regard to other nations. Were their habits, their social life, the character of their civilization, such as to lead us to expect that there must have existed among them, in any well marked degree, the clearly recognised causes of insanity ? In this investigation we must carefully distinguish between their early and heroic age and the period of their highest culture and refinement, otherwise we shall fall into the error of comprising under the same term widely different conditions of society, and in the endeavour to compare them with our own—that is to say, modern civilized life—shall draw a totally false inference. The seeds of insanity may have been widely sown among the people of one age, and but sparsely among those of another. We have abundant evidence in the immortal verse of Homer of the general character of the civilization of the Greeks at the period to which he refers—the legendary and heroic age of Greece; not as a state of barbarism, assuredly, but one which we feel differs widely from our own. They were far removed, doubtless, from the savage condition of certain early Greeks, described by Thucydides, marked, as he represents it to have been, by piracy—men falling upon towns which were unfortified and like straggling villages, and rifling them without disgrace, but rather with glory. He adds that in many other respects it might be shown that the Greeks, at the period of which he is speaking, lived in a manner similar to “the barbarians of the present age,” implying by this that their food consisted of milk and what the chase afforded, uncooked, and that they were clothed in undressed hides. To the people who were in this rude condition the remarks we have already made on barbarous tribes would apply; and we can have no doubt that the causes of insanity were then prevalent in only a limited degree.

About this time an attack was made by the Academy della Crusca in Florence on his “Jerusalem.” To violent abuse of himself, of his poem, and of his father and his father's poems, Tasso replied more for his father's sake than for his own, for his heart was filled with one desire, and his chief energies were constantly employed in appealing to everyone of influence or power, to obtain his release from confinement. He wrote to Bergamo a touching appeal, which it is said moved the Council to tears, and they despatched an embassy to Alfonso, petitioning for their compatriot's release and sending Alfonso a present of an inscription relating to the antiquity of the d'Este family, which he was very desirous of possessing. The Duke promised before long to comply with their request, and declared that he only kept Tasso in confinement to try to cure him of his disorder. Perhaps he was influenced too, in some degree, by a fear of Tasso's renewal of language against him at other Courts in the event of his release. At all events Serassi confesses “He would have granted the urgent prayers of so many noble patrons, and set him at liberty with pleasure, but reflecting that poets are naturally ‘genus irritabile,’ and fearing that Tasso once free would revenge himself for his long confinement and his ill-treatment in the Ferrarese Court with that formidable weapon, his pen, he could not bring himself to the resolution of suffering him to escape from his States, without being first assured that he would make no attempt on the honour and reverence due to so great a Prince.” Two years more thus passed—Tasso in constant hopes of being free, able at times to write sonnets gracefully and with his old power; at times mixing more in the world, then apparently withdrawn again from it; weak and suffering in body, and his terrible apparitions and images increasing upon him, his cell appearing full of them. Flames wreathed and twined themselves in it; rats and other animals seemed to him to crawl across the vault of the room. His ears were filled with noises—ringings of bells, clocks striking; in his sleep and even when waking he thought himself engaged in strife with the spectres around him, and asserted that when no person had been in his prison his closets were broken open, his clothes taken from him, his books pulled down and flung about his room, his gloves or letters drawn out from locked boxes at night and scattered over the floor in the morning. In the midst of this distress both of body and mind he believed that “there appeared in the air the form of the glorious Virgin with her Son in her arms, in the centre of bright and glittering clouds.”

The importance of microscopical observation as an adjunct to the study of disease is so very obvious that few can possibly deny its value. The great advancement that has been made in pathology, by the aid of the microscope, during the last few years, has almost completely changed most of the ideas that were formerly held as to the nature, prognosis, diagnosis, and treatment of many diseases. Diseases which were formerly shrouded in obscurity as to their real nature, are now clearly defined; we are enabled to trace the fons et origo of the causes which have been at work insidiously undermining the constitution, destroying gradually and surely important organs. We are enabled to employ a more certain means of diagnosis by discriminating structures from one another, which, to the unaided eye, seem alike—thus forming a more sure prognosis. Pathology has, in fact, become a new science by the aid of the microscope. And as microscopical observation becomes more complete, as better means of differentiating structures are discovered, while microscopic objectives are made of more perfect definition, so will the study of histology, and consequently pathology, rank higher and higher, till at last its place may almost, if not entirely, be raised to that of one of the exact sciences. The microscopist does not deal in hypothetical abstractions, but in demonstrable facts; truths which it is impossible to dispute, except from errors of observation. These errors are, however, in some cases formidable, for so many circumstances arise tending to obscure observation. Hence, there is a great necessity for co-operation in the work of histology and pathology, in order that these errors may be seen and understood, then grappled with and overcome. Observers must be willing to work more in unison, to compare results, to submit their work to the severest criticism possible: until they do so the science of histology will only slowly progress towards exactitude. More labourers, too, are needed; the field is so vast, time is so short, that the few earnest ones at present at work are not sufficient.

Having had the opportunity of attending the International Medical Congress at Philadelphia in the capacity of a delegate, by the kind invitation of the Committee of the Congress, it has occurred to me that a short account of the proceedings in the Mental Diseases Section may perhaps be interesting to members of this Association.