Since public attention was directed to the mode of treating the insane practised at Gheel, much controversy has taken place both in this country and on the continent as to the value to be attached to the system. Alienists from all parts of the civilised world have visited the locality, and have recorded their opinions of its merits. These opinions have been almost as various as their authors are numerous, and have contained the most enthusiastic praise and the most emphatic condemnation. But the discussion seems now to have reached a point at which a reliable estimate of the chief peculiarities of the system, such as will be concurred in by the majority of those who have studied the subject, may be formed. A letter conveying a very favorable impression of the colony has been addressed to the editors of this Journal by Dr. Edmund Neuschler, of the Royal Lunatic Asylum at Zwiefalten in Wurtemberg, of which I present the following ranslation. I shall afterwards endeavour to indicate what appears to me to be the true view of the question.