If, however, we consider the attitude of the general public in this country towards the malady of insanity we find a mixture of ignorant superstition and exaggerated fear. From these there springs a tendency to ignore the painful subject until a case occurring too near home makes this ostrich-like policy untenable. The sufferer is removed to a “lunatic” asylum, neither himself nor his relatives being spared the gratuitous extra wrench to their feelings aroused by this name, which has long struck terror into the uneducated mind. He is taken away by the relieving officer of the district, often under the pretence of being given “a few weeks in a convalescent home at the sea-side,” and eventually finds himself under lock and key. Here, as is well known, he is treated with great kindness. Neither public money nor the exertions of the staff are stinted in the effort to render his lot as pleasant as possible—“the asylum to-day has become a model of comfort and orderliness.”[50] But the proportion of doctors to patients is on the average, one to 400, and it is exceedingly difficult to ensure that all patients, once inside the “lunatic” asylums, shall be regularly visited by friends from the outside world.[51] The attitude of the general public is not deliberately cruel, but it appears to be far more benevolent than it really is. The community treats the sufferer well, when, _but not before_, he has become a “lunatic.” It allows his delusions to become fixed, his eccentricities and undesirable acts to harden into habits, his moods of depression to permeate and cement together the whole of his life—and then interns him and treats him kindly for the rest of his life, but does not give him facilities for gratuitous treatment while he is still sane. _That is the British procedure to-day._ Lest we should be accused of exaggeration, or worse, we will quote here from published articles and reports. Dr. Bedford Pierce says:— “Let me state in a few words the defects of our present system. At present, broadly speaking, no person unable to pay its cost can receive adequate treatment until he is certified as of unsound mind. This practically means that no special treatment is possible until he has utterly broken down, and is so seriously affected as to convince a magistrate that he is decidedly insane. No general hospital will receive such a patient; the public asylums are all closed to any one who begs for protection or treatment, for county asylums cannot receive voluntary boarders even when the cost of their maintenance is forthcoming.