In the thirteenth number of this Journal, May, 1855, we published an article on the accumulation of chronic lunatics in asylums, in which we recommended that further accommodation should be provided when needful, not by enlarging the existing buildings, but by the erection of distinct houses built on a simple plan, retaining as much as possible the ordinary arrangements of English homes. We recommended this arrangement on the experience derived from the occupation by patients of two small houses originally built for offices; these small houses or cottages, as they are called, are cheerful and homelike, and patients much prefer residing in them to the wards; their efficiency for the accommodation of tranquil patients and the simplicity of their construction, led us to advise on the score of economy, that further accommodation for chronic patients should be provided by establishing lunatic colonies, the cost of which we calculated “at the rate of 48 for each patient, or from one-fourth to one-seventh part of the relative cost per head, at which county asylums have been erected.”∗