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MEDICAL S UPEMNTENDENTS'^KEPORTS. AUCKLAND MENTAL HOSPITAL. Sm, — Mental Hospital, Auckland. 1 have the honour to submit my report for the year ending 31st December, 1907. The total number of new patients admitted was 144, of whom H5 were males and 59 females. This represents the smallest number since IUO4. The chiei' causes were, as usual, heredity and alcoholism. Seventy-seven, ur more than o'6 per cent., were between the ages of twenty and forty years, whilst 11 were over seventy years of age. Several of those admitted were former inmates, and some of these will be readmitted over and over again. One has already been admitted eight times, and can look, forward only to a see-saw existence between the Mental Hospital and the outside world during her lifetime. A sad case is that of a girl under twenty years of age and married, whose father committed suicide, who has one sister in the Te Oranga Home and another who was twice an inmate here, and who a few months after her last release married a gum-digger, and has since given birth to twins. The present inmate will recover, and as she is married it is an easy task to forecast the future. If sterilisation is not the rational remedy in such a case, 1 know of no other. lam fully aware that such a course of action is in opposition to present humanitarianism, and is an interference with the liberty of the individual; but humauitarianisni is sometimes sickly sentimentalism, and the liberty of the individual too often means the liberty to work irreparable mischief. I trust that something may be done ultimately—short of radical measures —to lessen the inflow of hereditary cases by the association, with that object in view, of the Mental Hospital Medical Superintendents and the Medical School Inspectors. When medical school-inspection becomes fully established, the children of insane and highly neurotic parents must receive special consideration. In my last annual report 1 drew attention to the fact that our female accommodation was then more than exhausted, and that special arrangements would have to be made during the year to meet new admissions. It is very fortunate that our female population increased by only one during 1907. liut it is not to be expected that the increase will be so small during the coming year, and further accommodation is therefore urgently required. It cannot be too forcibly pointed out that the accommodation needed is mostly for the refractory patients. Jb'or some years past we have had the largest udmission-rate in the Dominion, and, as it is only reasonable to assume that the insanerate will increase pari passu with the population of the province, we must make provision for probable contingencies. In the public imagination a stigma is still, unfortunately, suspended over our mental hospitals, and as a consequence patients are kept in their own or other homes until they become dangerous or refractory or very objectionable in their habits, and the greater number of our new admissions are therefore placed in the refractory wards. Here our accommodation is totally inadequate, for here are placed also the destructive and chronically maniacal patients — the accumulated derelicts of more than a quarter of a century. There can be no doubt that the refractory accommodation should be ample, and that these patients should be separately housed. Our total population is now 685 (males, 415; females, 270). Recoveries. —The total of our recoveries was 53"47 per cent, (m., 45"8 per cent.; f., 64"40 per cent.), calculation being made on the admissions. This must be considered satisfactory, as it is much above the average. I keep more or less in touch with a large number of my ex-patients, and when I see their apparent perfect restoration to health extending over a period of years, and note the comparatively small number of return cases (the statistics do not give an accurate estimate), my experience leads me, 1 think, to a justifiable optimism regarding the future of the great majority of the recovered insane. Deaths. —The death-rate, on the average number resident, was B'l4 per cent, (m., 8"84 per cent.; f., 7"11 per cent.). Of the 55 deaths, 14 were due to senile decay, 9to some form of tubercular disease, sto epilepsy, and 4to general paralysis. We had no cases of typhoid fever, and no serious accidents. A large amount of inside and outside work has been done. The male-park is completed, and is much appreciated. We are the only large mental hospital in the Dominion without any laundry machinery; our heavy washing is very imperfectly done. The usual lectures were given with good results. Religious services and the customary entertainments are regularly provided. The general work of the staff has been satisfactory. On the female side the Matron specially and the nurses cannot be too highly commended for their loyalty and devotion to duty. Many of the male staff deserve every praise, but numbers of probationers appointed during the year were obviously unsuitable from the beginning. Suitable candidates did not present themselves, and the whole work was thus rendered anxious and difficult. To the Deputy Inspectors and the Official Visitors for their help and continued interest, to Dr. McKelvey for his loyal service, to the Herald proprietors for daily papers, and to Mr. D. McPherson for conducting the religious services, I desire to offer my sincere thanks. I have, &c, The Inspector-General, Mental Hospitals, Wellington. R. M. Bbattib.