A question that has been prominently before the public for the past few years, and which has not always been discussed with the cool reason so weighty a subject demands, is the control, custody, and treatment of the insane community known as private patients; and for the purpose of present argument I class those patients as private patients whose cost is defrayed without aid from the State—either in the matter of board, lodging, or attendance; for though private patients who reside in hospitals for the insane receive this aid, the building in which they reside is provided from special funds (and most hospitals have a small income from invested funds or annual subscriptions), it amounts to very little, and is absorbed in the free cost, or mitigation in the cost of maintenance, of a few patients. In speaking of lunatic hospitals, I leave out of the question the great Hospital of Bethlem, where the maintenance of the patients is entirely defrayed from the funds of the charity.