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Forty cases, twelve males and twenty-six females, are recorded as having originated from disappointed affection.

Home-sickness, the maladie du pays, or technically, nostalgia, is assigned as the cause in three cases-two males and one female. The latter was a Swiss girl who had been but a short time in this country, and could not speak English. Separated from her friends, and surrounded by strangers, her spirits were most oppressively borne down by that disease, if disease it may be termed, so proverbial among her countrymen when removed be-yond the sight of their native mountains arid valleys, and beyond the hearing of the Rauz des baches. After a residence at the Asylum, a victim at once to the delusion of insanity, and to the harrowing emotions from which that disease originated, she ended her temporal sufferings by suicide.

Fear is at all times a depressing emotion, whether it be constant and prolonged, or sudden and transient, as more particularly implied by the term "fright." In the latter case it is powerfully so, even to the production, in some instances, of immediate death. Its natural effect, and the power of its action, particularly qualify it as a source of mental disturbance, and hence it should at all times, if possible, be avoided. The tales of horror conjured up to amuse or to subjugate children in the nursery, have not unfrequently been attended with the most deleterious consequences; and persons who, for amusement, attempt to frighten or startle their friends, incur the risk of doing the latter an injury beyond their power of reparation.

During the prevalence of an epidemic, the fatality of the disease is greatly augmented by the panic which seizes upon the mass of the community, the depressing influence of which upon the energies, both physical and mental, prepares the way for an easy invasion of the disease. This influence may also affect the healthy action of the mind. Thus, of the nineteen cases alleged to have been produced by the cause in question, two are attributed to fear of the Asiatic cholera.

In students, whether young or of middle age, if a, proper equilibrium be maintained between the physical powers and the intellectual faculties, the developement and energies of other portions of the body being so promoted and sustained by exercise, that they may preserve their due relations with an enlarging brain, there need be no fear that mental alienation will result from application to study, but unless this precaution be taken, the midnight oil consumed by the student as a beacon light to guide him towards the temple of fame, may become an ignis fatuus leading his mind into the labyrinth of insanity. Even in persons of strong constitution, and of great physical strength, severe and prolonged study exhausts the nervous energy and impairs the functions of the brain. How much greater must be these effects in a frame naturally delicate, and how much more alarming still if the body be debilitated by the want of exercise!

In the table of causes, thirty cases are set down as supposed to have been induced by mental application.

Of the two cases placed against the term, "mental shock," one is represented to have been produced by the hearing of good news.

Domestic trouble ranks high among the moral causes. It includes forty-two men, and twenty-three women; a total of sixty-five.

Under the general and somewhat indefinite term "anxiety," there are twenty two cases, twelve of men, and ten of women. In two of the men the anxiety was on account of a false accusation of seduction, and in five others it was in reference to annoying lawsuits in which they were engaged.

Eight cases are attributed to faulty education and parental indulgence. These are subjects which, during the past few years, have been fully discussed by several able writers on insanity, and hence require no extended comments on the present occasion. Sympathising deeply as we do in the feelings of the young, and entertaining a pleasing and affectionate emotion for all that cross our path who as yet tread but the vestibule of the temple of life, and ardently wishing to promote, by every judicious measure, their welfare, yet we must, and even for those very reasons, subscribe to the doctrine of the prophet of olden time, "It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth." Let not that yoke, however, be placed upon them with despotic hands, but with that prudent combination of kindness and firmness which will render its burden light.

Three cases are attributed to undue indulgence in the reading of novels. Inasmuch as this subject has heretofore often claimed, and undoubtedly will continue to receive the attention of men who "stand in wisdom's sacred stole," we dismiss it without comment.

There are several heads included in the tables, to which especial reference has not been made, but they are either so unimportant or so similar to others which have been noticed, that they do not appear to call for any specific remarks.