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members of the Society of Friends, in 1792, and was opened for patients in 1796, the first physician heing Dr Fowler. The first superintendent having died at the end of two months, William Tuke, though not a member of the medical j)rofession, undertook the office for nearly twelve months, until a suitable successor could be found. George Jepson, who was then appointed to be resident apothecary and superintendent, contributed much to the success of the gentle treatment. (See The Description of the Retreat. By Samuel Tuke. 1813.) There are reasons for believing that the chief public asylums of England were in a better state than those of France prior to Pinel's reform at Bicetre and La Salpetriere. Tenon in his Memoires sur les Hopitaux de Paris, 1788, says (p. 393): " Les deux hopitaux de fous les mieux con9us que nous connaissions sont ceux de Bethleem et de S. Luc a Londres, &c." And again, in his Preface, p. xxv. : " Le premier remede est d' offrir au fou une certaine liberte, de faire qu'il piiisse se livrer mesurement aux impulsions que la nature lui commando ; ce qu'on a tres bien compris et Execute aux H6pitaux de Bethleem et de Saint-Luc a Londres." Daquin, in his Essay already referred to, when treating of the construction of Asylums, adds in a note : "II y a ^ Londres I'hopital de Bethleem oil les fous