404 =. PROCEEDINGS OF THE SECTIONS. 
~ 
ae i 
and second—that the mild ae tends to lengthen the lives tad 
asylum inmates, who, in Great Britain, unwittingly expose 
selves to cold, and die of shine bronchial and other affec- 
tions. a 
3. The improved management of asylums 
Formerly they were objects of -dread, in which persons would 
not and did not place the insane of their families, whereas now 
these prejudices have for the most part vanished, and asylums 
hei e very increase in the number of asylums has served to 
_ ignorance hing vides from those more aoe situated. 
Since the establishment of the Newcastle Asylum, in this Colony, 
in 1871, the number of idiots under care has pr doub. 
and % 
institutions have been sent thither. On one occasion 18 patients 
were sent at once from the Sydney heen Jnstitution, some 
of whom had been for a long time inmate 
4, An alteration’ has take en place in aes standard of what. 
constitutes insanity. 
' It has been said that modern science has dinoaverad % ew 
realms 
of lunacy, and there is certainly a growing conviction that the Ghee 
disease should be dealt with i ina special manner. Former ct PEe et 
ly isti ang - 
aly 
eens tow 
laos ‘boundaries of reason and’ madness. Unless “a man took to 
crowning himself with straw, or declaring himself an mperor OF . se 
_ @ teapot, they held him to eiinas enough for practical purposes, 
“books ° if his mania took a literary instea 
