The Modern Outlook on Mental Health *An address given at Bristol University on Thursday, 12th March, 1931, to a meeting under the auspices of the National Council of Women.

more in need of frank discussion than the question of mental health. How important this question is you will realize when I tell you that there are more than 120,000 patients under care in our mental hospitals in England and Wales, and it is estimated that in addition there are 300,000 mental defectives, of whom roughly one-third need institutional care. At the outset I want to remind you of the distinction between mental disease and mental deficiency. This distinction has long been recognized in English law, and as far back as the reign of Edward I we find the statute (De praerogativa regis) enacting that " The