To complete the plan I originally projected, there still remains to submit to the notice of the public, “The consideration of insanity in a political view,” enquiring how far human wisdom, properly directed, might become the instrument to diminish this severe and encreasing affliction,—and especially to point out the desiderata for a _bill_ to protect the insane, and regulate the receptacles wherein they may be confined. Notwithstanding the heterogeneous mass which has been authoritatively diffused on this important subject, the necessary materials have not yet been collected. Those who will probably attempt to frame this measure, have much to learn, and more to dismiss. The production of a wise and salutary bill requires ample research and temperate reflection: and therefore can never be the offspring of minds void of information, and saturated with prejudice. As Insanity is a disease, by the unanimous concurrence of physicians, most certainly to be remedied at the commencement of its attack: it ought to be a leading object with those who possess the power to legislate, to afford every facility to the medical attendant, that he may have an early access to the treatment of this malady, for the restoration of the patient, and for the security of the public. But if the practitioner is to be pinioned by threats, or deterred by obloquy—if his skill is to be circumscribed by ignorance, and his experience subjected to wild hypothesis, and baseless conjecture; then, the enactment will be oppressive in its operation, and incompetent to meet the exigences of intellectual calamity—a bill, calculated to confirm and aggravate the horrors of madness—to invite suicide, and multiply murder. JOHN HASLAM. _1st December, 1817, 51, Frith Street, Soho Square._ ON Medical JURISPRUDENCE, _&c. &c._ Medical Jurisprudence has been assiduously cultivated by the different nations of the European Continent; and many works of great value and esteem have been produced by foreign professors of medicine on this important subject. In our own country this department of medical science has been comparatively neglected.[1:A] It is not my intention, in the present tract, to enter generally on the subject of Forensic Medicine: but to confine my investigation to that particular branch which relates to persons of insane mind, and who under the visitation of this dreadful calamity commit acts of violence which subjects them to be arraigned before the tribunal of Justice, or to have their property vested in trust by finding a verdict on a writ de Lunatico inquirendo. [1:A] Vide an Epitome of Juridical or Forensic Medicine, by George Edward Male, M. D. a work of great excellence and scientific discrimination; also Tracts on Medical Jurisprudence, by Drs. Johnson, Bartley, and Farr.