In the observations which I am about to address to you, I purpose to setforth by illustrations the character and course of a form of mentalderangement which has its special cause, certain characteristic features,and a definite course, almost invariably from bad to worse. I speak of thatkind of insanity which is brought on by self-abuse. In doing this, however,I have another object in view; I am anxious to use my exposition in order toexemplify a new and practical classification of insanity which has beenproposed and sketched out by Dr. Skae.

Medical Psychologists have long been familiar with a peculiar form ofdisease which is characterised by a combination of disorders of theintellectual and motor faculties. The French physicians, to whom is due thehonour of having first minutely described it, have given to it variousnames, according to the views then generally held and the special opinionsof the individual observers: General incomplete paralysis (Delaye); generalparalysis of the insane (Calmeil); general progressive paralysis (Requin,Sandras); paralytic insanity (Parchappe), &c. In Germany the termsgeneral paralysis, paralysis of the insane, and most recently paralyticdementia have been generally employed. Familiar though this disease hasbecome to medical psychologists, and though much discussion has taken placeregarding it, within a narrow sphere, still slight has been the interesthitherto taken in extending that sphere. These poor patients, whosetreatment either cannot or can only with great difficulty be pursued in theordinary relations of life, who from henceforth appear hopeless, are gladlyhanded over to physicians to the insane, and with the entrance of thepatient into the asylum all interest in the disease ceases. The time is, Ibelieve, at hand when in regard to this, as well as to many other matters,the veil of the asylum will be removed, when once for all the barriers willbe thrown down which divide mental pathology, as we must still call it, fromthat of the remainder of the nervous system. Each has a series of facts tooppose to the other, and it is certainly surprising how many points ofconnection there are between them. The question is merely one ofcomprehension: mental pathology often manifests itself in a manner whichoutwardly is not easily understood, though it must be admitted sufficientpains have not always been taken to understand these manifestations.

The Hospital de los Locos at Granada is the oldest lunaticasylum in Europe, having been founded by Ferdinand and Isabella shortlyafter the conquest in 1492. It was therefore opened some fifty years beforethe first Bethlehem Hospital, which stood in the present Bethlem Court, offBishopsgate Street. It has apparently been carried on these two hundred andfifty years without any alteration in the original structure or any advanceon the method of the original treatment. I induced to visit it last April,from a notice of it in Ford's Handbook. “At the corner ofthe Plaza del Triunfo (he writes) is the Hospital de los Locos, founded by Ferdinand and Isabella, and one of theearliest of all lunatic asylums. It is built in the transition style, fromthe Gothic to the Picturesque, having been finished by Charles V. Theinitials and badges of all parties are blended. Observe the patio and light lofty pillars. The filth and want ofmanagement of the interior is scandalous, and yet this is one of the lionswhich Granadians almost force an Englishman to visit; possibly from thinkingall of us Locos, they imagine that the stranger will bequite at home among the inmates.” The asylum is a two storey squarebuilding, with enclosed courts, which form the patients' airing courts. Theyare of small extent, and excluded from all view by the buildings, which,however, shade from the sun. In one of the courts I noticed a large summerhouse, over which a vine was trained. The dormitories contained twenty-fivebeds each, and were large and well ventilated. Single rooms opened off them,with rather unpleasant arrangements (to English ideas) for night stools; butthen all these arrangements in the best hotels in Spain are nasty to adegree, and at the railway stations, if possible, worse. What a boon theearth closet system would confer on travellers in Spain! The patients, about250 in number, were on the whole quiet and orderly in their conduct, andfairly clothed and tolerably clean, when contrasted with the population atlarge. So quiet was the whole system that I did not hear one sound in all myvisit, but then the Spanish people are a quiet, phlegmatic race, patient ofsuffering, and who stupify themselves with the constant and excessive use oftobacco. I saw one man in permanent restraint, with formidable leg locks andchains, but he could walk freely, and had the use of his arms. There was, Iwas told, no straight jacket in use at the time of my visit, but I was shewna strong implement of the sort, with a lot of leather and straps about it,and which was said to be frequently required.