Under the title of “The inference of local degeneracy from a comparison of the vital tatistics of the people,” the late Dr C. S. Morrison, Medical Superin tendent of the County and City Asylum, Hereford, published a somewhat alarming account of the local conditions (Journal of Mental Science, vol. LIII, 1907, p. 795). After showing that the mean quinquennial rate of admissions to the Asylum had risen from 4·8 per 10,000 inhabitants in 1871–1875 to 7·0 in 1891–1895 and after a slight drop in the succeeding period to 7·2 in 1901–1905. (not including boarded-out patients in the latter case), he proceeds to remark upon the prevalence of thyroid insufficiency.