Herr Krohne, a privy councillor and member of the prison board in the Prussian Home Office, has described the hideous administration of the punishment of flogging in his hand-book of prison law. Herr Krohne is an opponent of flogging and of the “bed of lathes,” another form of punishment practised in German prisons, which he rightly considers a survival of barbarism. This last named punishment of the bed of lathes, _lattenarrest_, consists of solitary confinement in a room, of which the floor is laid with three cornered lathes or boards with pointed side uppermost--in Saxony the walls also used to be lined with these lathes--the culprit being stripped to his linen shirt, his underwear and stockings. After a time he suffers pitifully; he can neither stand nor lie down, cannot rest night or day and his body becomes gradually covered with welts in stripes. In the five years from 1894 to 1898, in all of the prisons of Prussia taken together, there were 281 inflictions, and during the same period the bed of lathes was ordered 176 times and in some cases for female prisoners. The first curtailment was in the reign of King Frederick William III, and in 1868 it was altogether abolished for women, although not without violent protest from some prison governors who were much opposed to the reform. It was further reduced in 1879 and might only be administered in correction of the most serious offences, as a rule after a previous offence. It has of late fallen into disrepute and was rarely employed in the Moabit, the Gross Strehlitz or Cologne prisons and the bed of lathes has almost disappeared. It was generally adjudged as the punishment for attempted escape and inflicted after the recapture of a fugitive. Among the German States, Saxony has held a rather exceptional position. A system of classification of prisoners was introduced by a minister named Lindeman as far back as 1840, and ten years later the penitentiary of Zwickau was opened, in which reformation was pursued by individual treatment on humane and careful lines, with education and industrial employment. The dietaries were ample and must be said to have erred on the side of over-indulgence, in that Saxon prisoners had at one time a choice among ninety different dishes for dinner and twenty-eight for breakfast and supper. The discipline enforced was generally mild. Corporal punishment was allowed by the rules and also the bed of lathes, but neither of them has been applied for many years past. Industry was encouraged by the hope of reward, pleasanter labour, and remission of a part of the sentence in the form of leave of absence or conditional release. Many excellent prisons exist similar to Zwickau above mentioned, such as Waldheim, Hubertusburg and others. All of them are kept up to a high standard and improvements are constantly in progress. Separation by night is the general rule while dangerous or incorrigible convicts are completely isolated.