I have received the following periodicals, of whose contents a résumé is given:—

It will be remembered that a woman called Mrs. Petschler, who had been a patient in the Macclesfield Asylum, got a firm of solicitors in Manchester a few months ago to write a long anonymous letter to some of the principal daily papers, making very serious charges against the management of that institution, and its officials. The Committee of Visitors at once requested the Commissioners in Lunacy to undertake a special inquiry into the whole matter. This has now been done by Mr Cleaton and Mr Howard, and the following are the conclusions of their report:—

At a meeting of the Psychological Section of the British Medical Association held at King's College, August, 1873, Professor Gay called attention to the fact that John Howard was appointed High Sheriff of the County of Bedford exactly one hundred years ago (in 1773), and so obtained the opportunity of making those remarkable inquiries into the state of prisons, and the physical and moral condition of prisoners to which this country and the world in general are so deeply indebted. Dr. Guy also alluded to the controversies which had arisen as to the character of Howard and his treatment of his only son; and as, in his judgment, there is no biography extant which affords such full and trustworthy materials on which to found a psychological inquiry, he offered a prize of £10 to encourage and promote such inquiry.

American Journal of Insanity, Vol. xxviii., January to April, 1872.

This is an interesting memoir, partly from the social position of the chief person concerned, partly from the difficulty of reconciling the symptoms and post-mortem appearances with the different forms of insanity as we know them.