The more general adoption of the “Cottage System” for the boarding out of harmless and incurable lunatics is regarded by many as the only remedy for the increased demand for Asylum accommodation, for the reduction of expenditure, and for the prevention of the overgrowth of Asylums. In Scotland the suggestion meets with the approbation of high authority—in England it does not. I have experienced no small reluctance in coming forward now to express my opinion of the working of the system as it now exists in Scotland, and to narrate my experience of it derived from actual inspection; but conceiving it to be a fair field for discussion, I enter upon it in the full hope that, however much my views may militate against the opinion of the advocates of the “Cottage System,” they will be accepted as unbiassed by aught but a desire to promote the welfare of the lunatic and the public at large.