The place to which such a patient should be able to go is obviously one which is exempt from any stigma; one in which of his own free will he may stay for a time under care, or if this be unnecessary, as is very frequently the case, which he may visit at frequent intervals for advice and treatment. It should be staffed by skilled specialists who are familiar with the diagnosis and treatment of _early_ and _incipient_ mental disorder, not only with that of advanced insanity. For years such institutions have existed in other countries and form an important part of their contribution towards the alleviation of human suffering. The chief functions of such a psychiatric clinic would be:— (1) Attendance on the mentally sick. (2) The provision of opportunities for personal intercourse between patients and the psychiatrists in training. (3) The theoretical and practical instruction of students. (4) Advising general practitioners and others who are faced with difficult problems arising in their daily work. (5) To serve as a connecting link between investigation in the large asylums and that in the anatomical, pathological, bacteriological, bio-chemical, psychological and other laboratories of the universities. (6) The scientific investigation of the mental and bodily factors concerned in mental disease. (7) The furtherance of international exchange of scientific knowledge concerning mental disorder, by the welcome accorded to visitors from other countries. (8) The dissemination of medical views on certain important social questions and the correction of existing prejudices concerning insanity. (9) When necessary, the after-care of the discharged patient. We have already given some details of the activities of a few of the clinics abroad[87] and have pointed out their valuable function in saving a high percentage of patients from the fate of an asylum, while at the same time relieving the community of the serious expense of keeping these patients for life as pauper lunatics. We may quote from an article by Dr. R. G. Rows[88] describing the psychiatric clinics at Munich and Giessen: “They are carried on upon the lines of ‘freely come, freely go,’ as far as is consistent with the safety of the patient and of the public. In neither of these clinics is any legal document necessary for the admission or discharge of patients. But where the character and severity of the mental disturbance require the longer detention of the patient in the clinic or in an asylum, such detention can be exercised only under a legal procedure which carefully safeguards the rights of the patients.