From the following statement it will be seen, that insane persons recover in proportion to their youth, and that as they advance in years, the disease is less frequently cured. It comprizes a period of about ten years, viz. from 1784 to 1794. In the first column the age is noticed; in the second, the number of patients admitted; the third contains the number cured; the fourth, those who were discharged not cured. _Number _Number _Number _Age between_ admitted._ discharged discharged cured._ uncured._ 10 and 20 113 78 35 20 and 30 488 200 288 30 and 40 527 180 347 40 and 50 362 87 275 50 and 60 143 25 118 60 and 70 31 4 27 ------- ------- ------- Total 1664 Total 574 Total 1090 ------- ------- ------- From this table it will be seen, that when the disease attacks persons advanced in life, the prospect of recovery is but small. I am led to conclude, from the very rare instances of complete cure, or durable amendment, among the class of patients deemed incurable, as well as from the infrequent recovery of those who have been admitted, after the disorder has been of more than twelve months standing, that the chance of cure is less, in proportion to the length of time which the disorder shall have continued. Although patients, who have been affected with insanity more than a year, are not admissible into the hospital, to continue there for the usual time of trial for cure, namely, a twelvemonth, yet, at the discretion of the committee, they may be received into it, from Lady-day to Michaelmas, at which latter period they are removed. In the course of the last twenty years seventy-eight patients of this description have been received, of whom only one has been discharged cured: this patient, who was a woman, has since relapsed twice, and was ultimately sent from the hospital uncured. When the reader contrasts the preceding statement with the account recorded in the report of the Committee, appointed to examine the Physicians who have attended His Majesty, &c. he will either be inclined to deplore the unskilfulness or mismanagement which has prevailed among those medical persons who have directed the treatment of mania in the largest public institution in this kingdom, of its kind, compared with the success which has attended the private practice of an individual; _or to require some other evidence, than the bare assertion of the man pretending to have performed such cures_.[19]