The century that has passed since the inspiration of a few men of the Society of the New York Hospital to provide for the mentally sick has cleared the atmosphere a great deal. We can start the second century freer and unhampered in many ways. Much has been added, and more than ever do we appreciate the position of just such a hospital as that of Bloomingdale as a centre of healing and as a leader of public opinion and as a contributor to progress. The Bloomingdale Hospital has a remarkable function. It is a more or less privileged forerunner in standards and policies. Without having to carry the burdens of the whole State with its sweeping and sometimes distant power and its forced economy, a semiprivate hospital like Bloomingdale aims to minister to a slightly select group, especially those who are in the difficult position of greater sensitiveness but moderate means in days of sickness. It serves the part of our community which more than any other sets the pace of the civilization about us--the intelligent aspiring workers who may not have reached the goal of absolute financial independence. It creates the standard of which we may dream that it might become the standard of the whole State. When we review the roster of Superintendents--from John Neilson to Pliny Earle and from Charles Nichols, Tilden Brown, and Samuel Lyon down to the present head, our highly esteemed friend and coworker William L. Russell--and the names of the members of the staff, many of whom have reached the highest places in the profession, and last, but not least, the names of the Governors of The Society of the New York Hospital, we cannot help being impressed by the forceful representation of both the profession and the public, and we recognize the wide range of influence.