boys and girls who need the training which they can get in an institution of this character, and for whom there is no other place. We feel that the training in normal home life, household work, and outside responsibilities, which these boys and girls will receive in this way, is really worth more to them than the money payment which they receive, and it is for the above reasons that we allow them to go out to work for the small pay asked, hoping that after they become competent trained helpers and have proven themselves trusty and worth more for instance, after a year of such service and training-they will receive compensation equal to the value of the work they then perform. Many of these boys and girls were taken by social workers from very bad homes where poverty, alcoholism and other vices and lack of parental care prevailed, and placed here or in other institutions or homes for care, training and protection, or were finally sent to us for further care, study and training, and we are now sending them out to receive their finishing training and the final world test as to their ability to make good. We hear a great deal these days about the very prolific feeble-minded woman and the public menace therefrom and this argument has been urged as a paramount reason for permanent custodial care for feeble-minded. women of the child bearing age, especially morons. Now it has been my experience in caring for 1,500 feeble-minded women, at least 500 of whom have been morons or border-line cases, that it is scarcely ever that the prolific case is a moron or border-line case. Almost invariably she is an imbecile, and no one doubts the advisability of holding imbeciles in close custody or supervision, however much one may question the propriety of segregating or imprisoning for life the higher grade cases and further depriving the public of the services of these in many ways useful members of society. In view of the fact that a constantly increasing number of border-line cases are appearing at our institutions and at Rome, if nowhere else, (this possibly due to the workings of Chapter 448 of Laws of 1912 which allows us to take doubtful cases for observation and study) diagnosis is difficult and observation is necessary. Therefore, there remains to us, if we are at all conscious of the extreme responsibility placed upon us, but one sure test as to the mental competency and capacity of the case to lead a normal life and that is thorough training and the world test as provided for under Chapter 448, Laws of 1912 (parole law). Many of these cases have never lived in normal or reasonable homes. They have had no opportunity to lead normal lives. They lived as children in great congregate institutions where little or no manual and industrial training and especially no normal family domestic training was available and thus become institutionized. The only fair treatment for these doubtful cases after giving them such training, is to give them one or more favorable trials in a normal, well selected family. This offers an opportunity to round out domestic training and experience. During the past ten years I have seen many boys and girls thus rehabilitated and the fact that a few fall on the first trial, or repeatedly, is no sure criterion that our judgment of the case was fallible. I have many times seen these very same cases of failure, succeed almost immediately when placed in another environment and from thence on make good. Possibly the previous experience in failure was one of the best lessons such cases could have had. Were not all of us tried by our parents and friends many times and were we not often on the point of social failure except that an indulgent parent was at hand to try us again and again until we eventually found ourselves? NERVES AND THE WAR FREDERIC J. HASKIN In no previous war have nervous diseases and disorders been such a distinct and alarming problem as in this one. Statistics show that 10 per cent of the total Canadian casualties are nervous disorders of one kind and another. The percentage in the other allied armies has not yet been calculated, but it is known to be running extremely high—while the same must be true of Austria and Germany. An American doctor who worked with the Red Cross in Germany at the beginning of the war asserts that with every load of wounded brought in from the firing line there were many insane and psychoneurotics. With all its scientific preparation for war Germany had not anticipated any trouble with nerves. It was a totally new problem, and one for which no provision had been made at all. The nervous cases were sent to the base hospitals, along with the surgical cases, and received scant attention. They were of no interest whatsoever to the surgeons, naturally, but a great nuisance, interfering with the provisions for other patients. As soon as possible they were removed to the evacuation hospitals-or convalescent homes-where they were kept for a few weeks and then sent back to the front. Within a short time they would be back in the base hospitals again. This Red Cross doctor says he knew of one case that went through this procedure three times before it was discovered that it was useless to return him to the front. Then the government ordered a psychiatrist stationed at every base hospital to take care of such cases, which greatly expedited matters. If a man were insane, he was sent to an institution; if merely feeble minded, he was put on some simple duty in the home guard; if a neurotic, he was taken off the firing line, and if he turned out to be a slacker, able but unwilling to fight, he was given hard labor about the fortifications or on the military roads. Thus each case was treated individually. What Germany learned at the beginning of the war of course every other belligerent learned, too. Canada's method of handling its wounded is an example to the whole world. When Canadian troops are shipped back to be mended they are examined at once by a board of medical men, psychiatrists, and psychologists, which diagnoses their cases. A man afflicted with tuberculosis is not sent to the same hospital with a man having a gun wound in his shoulder. He is sent to a tubercular sanatorium. The man with the gun wound is sent to a surgical hospital. Insane soldiers are put in charge of expert psychiatrists in the military insane asylums; feeble-minded soldiers are educated, the blind and crippled are reëducated, and nervous disorders are taken care of in special hospitals. This is the first time that psychology and psychiatry have entered the field of war or the first time that war has entered the fields of psychology and psychiatry. Doubtless there was insanity in past wars. Personal memoirs of the Napoleonic wars, in fact, prove it, but apparently little attention was paid to the matter. Insanity is due to two causes-it may be inherited, or it may be induced by a hostile environment. Take a man who would do very well as a blacksmith-who can use his hands but not his wits skilfully-and put him in charge of an intricate military manoeuvre. Nine times out of ten he will fail, and seven times out of ten he will go insane. Hence the work of the military psychologist is to determine each soldier's proper environment. It is when the men come back from the front wounded or mentally deranged that the duties of the military psychiatrist begin. He must diagnose and prescribe for each case. Of all the cases that of the neurotic presents the most difficulties. He is the man who breaks under the strain, and is hardest to cure. European psychiatrists believe that all of neurotic tendencies should be kept away from the front. Under this experience of war Europe is developing the science of psychiatry almost as rapidly as it has surgery. Cases which were inexplicable at the beginning of the war are now understood. All of which will save the United States the cost of many mistakes.-The Globe, New York. METHODS SUGGESTIONS FOR THE STUDY OF THE WOOL INDUSTRY MARTHA A. BARNEY PUBLIC SCHOOL 64, MANHATTAN Aim: To give children some understanding of production, manufacture and distribution of textiles so that they may have intelligence as consumers from the standpoints of hygiene, economy, artistic appreciation and in a small way begin to realize the meaning of the problems concerned with citizenship. Subject Matter Problem: Necessity for winter clothes. How do we get our winter clothes? Distinguish textiles by handling. a. Wool. b. Cotton. c. Silk. d. Linen. Discussion of wool (wool feels warmer because it holds more air), cotton, silk and linen. Very elementary discussion. WORK WITH WOOL. A. Uses of woolen cloth. Sources of wool. B. Where sheep are raised. a. In the United States. b. Australia. c. South America. d. Russia. How sheep are cared for. A. Eastern United States. (Raised principally for mutton.) (a) Pastures. (1) Picture to illustrate: Mauve "Spring" and "Autumn." B. Western United States. a. Ranches (Picture to illustrate.) (1) Sheep men. Pay $50 a month. Number cared for by each man-2,500. (2) Cost of raising per head. Comparison of prices in United States, South America, Australia. Why? (3) Breeds used for wool bearing. a. Merino Show picture. b. Angora goat-Show picture. c. Show picture of English sheep if possible. (a) Leicester. (b) Lincoln. A. Necessity for care. B. Effect on wool. Softens wool, eliminates coarse hair. B. Shearing-Sorting. 1. Shearing. The shearing life of the sheep is about five years-then fattened and sold for mutton. A. Hand shearing. (1) Have pelt and children actually shear. B. Machine shearing. (1) Picture-discussion of machine shearing. (2) Where sheared. (3) Number per day-100 to 200. (4) Cost of shearing-10c. a head. (5) Discuss merits of hand and machine shearing. C. Time of Shearing. (1) In spring. Why? (2) Sometimes twice a year. D. Care of Sheep After Shearing. (1) Branding. (2) Dipping in antiseptic solution. (3) Care of fleeces. E. Sacks-bales are used to crowd in fleece. Bags hold about 40 fleeces. F. Where the bales are sent. Why? How? (Question of transportation.) G. What is done with wool after reaching big markets? 2. Sorting. (1) Price of unwashed wool. (2) Wool usually unwashed when sent to manufacturers. |