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In the hands of an experienced statistician, figures and facts can be charted and tabled according to a few simple rules to such a degree that one can not be sure whether it is statistician or facts that reveals the most by hiding the most behind perfect form. In some respects this conscientiously presented book is more perplexing than inspiring. Administrative officials in the psychiatric field will, however, see in the data presented much that will guide them. It may be beneficial to some, though it may be doubted by others, to have such data collected if only to prove that without additional data not much has been or can be revealed as conclusive.
This book contains an alarming amount of information. Most of it has been assembled with exemplary care.
On June 30, 1936, in New York State, resident patients under treatment in mental hospitals exceeded in number all other hospital patients combined by over 50 per cent and, too, were more than three times as numerous as the prison and jail populations. And it is reported in relation to incidence, that even now there are no complete annual records available (the best index is the annual rate of first admissions), and says Pollock, 'such rate varies considerably from time to time and from place to place'. He is reasonably