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very useful work has been performed by them in the female airing court, i.e., in removing scores of tons of scoria and other debris which had been left scattered over the court by the contractors, and filling it in with earth, and laying it out in grass plots, thus conferring a very great boon upon their female friends. All of the females who are willing are kept employed in sewing and repairing the clothing of the establishment under the supervision of the matron.

Discharges.—The number of discharges in the table is 17, three of whom have been re-admitted. I can only account for these re-admissions as those persons when discharged were quiet, and worked willingly and well both before and after admission, by the existing scarcity of employment in Auckland, and more than all to the want of a sympathising guardian to take them by the hand upon their re-appearance in public. One of our re-admissions was that of an old maiden lady who was cured of melancholia here and afterwards taken by her relations to the country, but being greatly shocked at their reduced circumstances was attacked with acute mania, under which she is still suffering.

Some very satisfactory cases of recovery took place, among whom was that of a married female from primary dementia, and a young female from melancholia. Another married female upon her recovery, who had been deserted by her husband, and had left her children in the Sydney workhouse, expressed so longing a desire to see them that she was sent thither. Government contributed £2, His Lordship the Bishop of New Zealand £2, and Asylum Offertory £2.

Deaths. (1.)—John McGregor, a labourer, and of sober habits, lived with his family on the Nova Scotian settlement of Wangarei. Some months previous to his reception into the Asylum on 26th March, 1864, he was attacked with pain and other symptoms of inflammation within the head, for which he was treated in the Provincial Hospital, and recovered so far as to be discharged and return to his friends. He did not remain long at home after his return, when symptoms of aberration of mind exhibited themselves, for which he was placed in the Lunatic Asylum. The stage of excitement soon lapsed into that of dementia, when disease of his lungs took place, causing him to cough and expectorate a great deal, and finally producing death.

(2.) The second fatal case is that of Sarah Gledhill, who was received into the asylum on 13th September, 1859. She was one of the first shipments of needlewomen who arrived in the Province, but having the misfortune to marry a drunken and cruel husband, she became insane, it is said through hardship and ill-usage. She suffered long from cough with heavy expectoration which finally caused death. It was really humiliating to behold this poor creature as she sat in a crouching posture in a corner of her room with no other covering on her but a blanket, and when spoken kindly to replying with hideous grimaces. Notwithstanding her long illness there was not a sore upon her body, which was due to the careful nursing she received from the matron. Her habits were very dirty and mischievous.

(3.) The last, and I regret suicidal case, was that of Thomas Lynch, who had been an inmate of the asylum since 31st January, 1866. He was a tall and powerful man, and had been formerly a soldier, but was discharged from the army owing to epilepsy. Some months prior to his demise, he became the subject of recurrent furious mania, a most dangerous complication. I always considered him a dangerous patient, but never had any reason to suspect him of entertaining any design upon his own life. Strange to say, he committed the dreadful act shortly after breakfast on 12th August, when the keepers were all around cleaning out the wards, which would lead us to suppose that the act was not premeditated, but the sudden impulse of an uncontrollable power. As the facts have been all elicited before a coroner's jury, and the keepers acquitted of all blame, I need not recapitulate them here.

R. E. FISHER, M.R.C.S., Edin.,
Resident Medical Officer,
Lunatic Asylum,
January, 1868.