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from the action of the wise rules that enforce the gathering of the insane into public institutions, instead of leaving the unfortunates to the care (or carelessness) of their relatives as in past days, when the wards of the poorhouses were the only receptacles for those who had no relatives to shelter them. The erection of the Borough Asylum, at Winson Green, was commenced in 1846, and it was finished in 1851. The house and grounds covered an area of about twenty acres, the building being arranged to accommodate 330 patients. Great as this number appeared to be, not many years passed before the necessity of enlargement was perceived, and, ultimately, it became evident the Winson Green establishment must either be doubled in size or that a second Asylum must be erected on another site. Au estate of 150 acres on the south-easterly slopes of Rubery Hill, on the right, hand side of the turnpike road from here to Bromsgrove, was purchased by the Corporation, and a new Asylum, which will accommodate 616 patients, has there been erected. For the house and its immediate grounds, 70 acres have been apportioned, the remainder being kept for the purposes of a farm, where those of the inmates fit for work can he employed, and where the sew, age from the asylum will be utilised. The cost of the land was £6,576 8s. 5d., and that of the buildings, the furnishing, and the laying out of the grounds, £133,495 5s. 8d. The report of the Lunatic Asylums Committee for 1882 stated that the number of patients, including those boarded under contract at other asylums, on the first of Jan., 1882, was 839. There were admitted to Winson Green and Rubery Hill during the year 349. There were discharged during the year 94, and there died 124, leaving, on the 31st Dec., 970. The whole of the 970 were then at the borough asylums, and were chargeable as follows:—To Birmingham parish, 644; to Birmingham borough, 8; to Aston Union, in the borough, 168; to King's Norton, 16; to other unions under contract, 98; the remaining 36 patients not being paupers. The income of the asylums for the year was—from Birmingham patients £20,748 1s. 9.; from pauper patients under contract, and from patients not paupers, £2,989 9s. 5d.; from goods sold, £680 1s. 5d.; total, £24,117 12s. 7d. The expenditure on maintenance account was £21,964 4s., and on building capital account £2,966 7s. 7d.—total, £24,915 11s. 7d.; showing a balance against the asylums of £197 19s. The nett average weekly cost for the rear was 9s. 6½d, per heal. Mr. E. B. Whitcombe, medical superintendent at Winson Green, says that among the causes of insanity in those admitted it is satisfactory to note a large decrease in the number from intemperance, the percentage for the year being 7.7, as compared with 18 and 21 per cent, in 1881 and 1880 respectively. The proportion of recoveries to admissions was in the males 27.7, in the females 36, and in the total 32.3 per cent. This is below the average, and is due to a large number of chronic and unfavourable cases admitted. At Rubery Hill Asylum, Dr. Lyle reports that out of the first 450 admissions there were six patients discharged as recovered.—The Midland Counties' Idiot Asylum, at Knowle, opened in 1867, also finds shelter for some of Birmingham's unfortunate children. The Asylum provides a home for about 50, but it is in contemplation to considerably enlarge it. At the end of 1882 there were 29 males and 21 females, 47 being the average number of inmates during the year, the cost per head being £11 13s. 6d. Of the limited number of inmates in the institution 10 fewer than thirteen came from Birmingham, and altogether as many as thirty-five candidates had been elected from Birmingham. The income from all sources, exclusive of contributions to the building fund, a mounted to £2,033 3s. 8d., and the total expenditure including £193 3s. 4d, written off