16 Proceedings of the Royal Society 
was appointed in 1855 Member of a Royal Commission to inquire 
into the management of the insane in Scotland. The writing of 
the Report fell chiefly to Sir James, and it disclosed such a chaotic 
condition of the arrangements for the care of the insane, and such 
an amount of neglect and cruelty, as shocked and surprised Parlia- 
ment and the country. To the ability with which this Report was 
drawn up may be attributed Sir James’s ultimate position in his 
profession. The Report was presented to Parliament in 1857, and it 
led in the same year to the passing of Lord Moncreiffs Lunacy Act. 
Under this Act Sir James became one of the paid Commissioners, 
which appointment he held till his death, giving to the discharge 
of his duties the most earnest and conscientious attention.* The 
first fifteen of the Reports of the Commissioners were entirely written 
by Sir James, and they prove incontestably that he was a man pre- 
eminently fitted for the post, not only by his early education and 
his acquired tastes, but by his power of concentration, which led him 
to throw his whole life into the work. He visited English and 
Continental establishments for the care of the insane, and made 
himself master of their methods of treatment. He thus became 
strong in his efforts to improve the state of things at home. At 
his suggestion amendments were made in the Act of 1857, in 1862, 
and again in 1866, and these have given it a character so special 
as to attract the attention of Continental and Colonial Governments. 
Sir James was fortunate in having Dr Arthur Mitchell as a colleague, 
as the successor to Dr Browne, when he was unfortunately laid 
aside by blindness. Dr Mitchell not only stood with him in carry- 
ing out his views during his life, but is in a position to keep up 
their efficient working now that he is gone. Sir James was 
examined before the Parliamentary Committee on Lunacy in 1877, 
and his evidence was reckoned the most valuable given on that 
occasion. 
As a literary man, he devoted his time mainly to assisting his 
uncles in their labours, and during the last two or three years of his 
life he gave much of his spare time to the superintendence of the 
* He was ably supported by his co-commissioner Dr W. A. F. Browne, one 
of the most eminent of British psychologists, who was instrumental in intro- 
ducing the modern system of treatment of the insane in the Montrose Asylum 
and the Crichton Royal Institution, Dumfries. 
