In the October issue of the<i>Albany Medical Annals</i>under the title of "Idleness and Insanity in Prisons; an Answer," there appears an editorial comment upon a leading article in theJOURNALof July 31, relative to the New York statute prohibiting convict labor. That article was avowedly instigated by a paragraph in a lay publication that seemed to deserve attention, and which was only one of several that have appeared in the secular and religious press of New York State and elsewhere, that reflected severely upon the New York law. This one was certainly circumstantial enough in its statements and being sent abroad as a press dispatch it naturally obtained credence. It seems, however, to have been incorrect in its details, as the<i>Annals</i>claims, and accepting its correction, theJournalwillingly acknowledges that the editorial criticised was prompted by an erroneous item in the public press. Admitting the