In the foregoing paragraphs we have pointed out the vital importance of research in relation to mental disease. All properly conducted clinical work is of the nature of original investigation; and in the examination of patients suffering from mental disturbance this is particularly the case. But a vast amount of research work must be carried out in properly equipped hospitals and laboratories if we are to deal with the problems of lunacy in the same efficient manner as we have learnt to treat tuberculosis. In this connection it is important to emphasise the lack of an adequate knowledge of normal psychology among many of the medical officers and the absence of psycho-pathological research in so many of our asylums. It must not, however, be inferred that the only reform needed is an increase and improvement of the _mental_ treatment of mental disease. It is not merely the psychological side that is neglected. The most depressing aspect of the present state of affairs _is the comparative absence of all research_. Investigations into the material basis of mental disease, while certainly more numerous than psychological investigations, are at present few in number. Hosts of problems concerned with the nervous system are awaiting investigation, and the admirable results obtained by the small band of energetic workers in our country serve to show how sadly our nation is neglecting its golden opportunities for accomplishing much more in this respect. Important problems in connection with the normal and morbid anatomy of the nervous system, its pathology and its bio-chemistry, suggest themselves to the worker at every step. The physiological and psychological effects of different diets, of drugs like the hypnotics, _et cetera_, how little we know of them! Are we to rest content in leaving this vast unknown land to be charted by other nations? Original research is thus urgently needed in all those departments which should be included in asylum work. But it is also necessary for the researches to be co-ordinated. Not a few individual doctors in our asylums, usually members of the junior staffs, are endeavouring to carry on original investigations; but in the majority of cases the absence of any prospect of direct or indirect personal benefit from this work damps their enthusiasm, if it does not make such work wholly impossible. And, of course, without the willing co-operation of the asylum authorities co-ordinated researches cannot be carried out. We shall again quote from the report of the Medico-Psychological Association in justification of our statement:—