It has been increasingly the practice in Scotland for Procurators-Fiscal to obtain psychiatric opinions on the mental state of all persons accused of murder. Between 1953 and 1964 I made 66 such examinations, mainly in the Glasgow area; because of other commitments none were carried out between July 1955 and March 1958. The official Criminal Statistics for England and Wales (1) show that during the eleven years from 1953 to 1963 the number of persons found guilty of murder was 395 and of manslaughter 969; comparable figures for Scotland (3) were 43 and 148.