For many years past, during five of which I held the appointment of Inspecting Physician to the Lunatic Houses for the County of Warwick, I have availed myself, both in this and in other countries, of such opportunities as presented themselves to me of examining the correctness of the opinions contained in the following pages.<br><br>In offering them for the examination of others, my desire is to render the recognition of insanity less difficult, by showing in what it differs from those varieties of mind which approach the nearest to it; and to point out those circumstances which, even in persons decidedly insane, can alone justify various degrees of restraint.<br><br>That an inquiry of a difficult nature, and opposed, in this country, by peculiar obstacles, must be incomplete, I freely admit.