The decrease in national mortality is followed by a corresponding decrease in the mortality of the hospital population. There was a marked decrease in the mortality of male patients 20-29 years of age from the period 1950-1915 to 1956-1962, a decrease which has no parallel in the female patients, nor in the men of the general population. Tuberculosis is no longer a leading cause of death in the hospitals and in the general population. Cancer mortality is no higher in patients with functional psychoses than in the general populations. Mortality from circulatory diseases (heart diseases, apoplexy and arteriosclerosis) is only slightly higher in the hospitals, in marked contrast to the high excess mortality of the patients from most other causes, in particular respiratory and infective diseases. The excess mortality from circulatory diseases decreased from 1926-1941 to 1950-1962, because the hospital population did not follow the rising trend evident in the general population. Patients may be relatively protected against circulatory stress by the hospital regime and by their own lack of strong emotional response.