Thurnam's statistics, that one-half of the recent cases of insanity treated in asylums recover, and that of the recovered only two-fifths remain so, receive constant confirmation. There is a considerable proportion of the inmates of asylums whose brain-condition is so unstable that they come in and go out frequently. Their brains are unstable, too, in the little affairs of life, and many of the nominally cured remain comfortable only by being shielded from sources of physical wear and mental worry. It is impossible to get statistics of the curability of mental diseases properly treated outside of asylums, but the results would probably be more favorable than those just quoted, partly from the greater chances of cure in the mild cases and in those acute cases which can be kept at home, or at least do not require hospital treatment. It is difficult to form an opinion as to the probability of subsequent attacks in those who have recovered from any of the curable forms of mental disease. The same constitution, of course, remains as that which predisposed the individual to the first attack, and no one can look far enough into the future to predict the influences which will be brought to bear upon any given person for a considerable period of time. If they are favorable for preserving mental health, the chances of escaping mental disorder in the future are very much greater than if the occupation which must be pursued and the life which must be led predispose to bodily exhaustion, anxiety, and brain-worry. If the disease first appeared under slight exciting causes, it will not often be possible to {127} avoid similar conditions again, and some forms of insanity are characterized by relapses and recurrent attacks. Of the persons reported recovered from mental disease, a large proportion fail to recover in the sense of being fully themselves again. There is left some change of character, no matter how slight, some moral perversion, irritability, instability, impaired will, lessened power of self-control, diminished mental capacity—some lowering of the intellectual or moral standard, some deterioration of some kind.