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whether it exists as an isolated defect or whether sufficient other defects are present to constitute feeble-mindedness, in which condition it is frequently found. Treatment consists of the application of special educational methods and treatment of the underlying hypoplasia.

Congenital word-deafness has received less attention than congenital word-blindness, though Gall (Quoted by Clara Harrison Town, Ph.D. Congenital Aphasia. The Psychological Clinic, Nov. 15, 1911) as early as 1861 described a class of children, which, in my opinion, exhibited many of the symptoms of this condition, which, in its milder forms, is a fairly common cause of retardation. It is obvious that the child who, although possessing the ability to hear ordinary sounds, is unable to appreciate and retain impressions of spoken language will fail to acquire the faculty of speech. To differentiate mutism resulting from worddeafness from that which is entirely motor or peripheral in character often requires close and prolonged observation. Several years ago a little girl of five years was brought to me from a distant city because she had never talked. So adept was she in lipreading and in interpreting the slightest gestures of others that it had never been discovered that she was deaf.

Partial word-deafness gives rise to speech so peculiar as to give the impression that the child uses a language of his own. To this condition the name of "Idioglossia" has been given. The speech of the child with idioglossia is almost unintelligible except to those who have become accustomed to it. While upon analysis it will be found that in each individual the sounds substituted are always the same for the same words, one's first impression is that he is listening to meaningless gibberish. The condition must be differentiated from defective speech due primarily to mechanical causes and from partial deafness. This condition, like word-blindness, is common in those presenting the symptom-complex feeble-mindedness, though usually in the feeble-minded its characteristics are different. Treatment as in the other conditions mentioned consists of measures directed toward stimulation of the forces underlying development and the institution of highly individualized special training.

General Treatment of the hypoplastic consists of various: (1)

Hygenic, (2) Medical and (3) Educational measures directed toward the stimulation of the co-relative development of growth forces and the maintenance of somatic and psychic equilibrium.

Hygenic measures: Regular habits of sleeping and eating, of bathing and exercise can not be inculcated too early, in fact much in this direction should be accomplished in early infancy. Stimulation of metabolism and of growth may be brought about by air, rain and sun baths, and by the utilization of other natural agencies, such as water, radio-active substances, electricity, etc. Swimming and bathing in open-air pools (I have little use for those indoors) is a valuable adjunct to treatment. Swedish and other gymnastics, eurythmics, massage, folk and esthetic dancing, the medicine ball and bean bag, and various other sports and activities all have their value as a means not only of stimulating the forces of growth but also in correcting defects of posture and of psychomotor control. Open-air sleeping I consider a necessity for hypoplastic children. Hit and miss methods of feeding children beyond the age of infancy are still prevalent. The diet of the hypoplastic child should be based upon scientific principles. Not only should the caloric value be regulated according to his needs, but the proportions of protein, fat and carbohydrates as well. These children, as a rule, make better progress on a diet relatively free from animal proteins.

Medical measures: I have come after a number of years of fairly wide experience in the treatment of hypoplastic children to rely upon but few drugs. Hypoplastic children are of course subject to the same disturbances which affect other children and in even greater degree, and these disturbances require practically the same medical treatment. But as regards the treatment of the basic constitutional defect my chief reliance is upon the hygenic and natural measures mentioned above and upon the administration of the various glands of internal secretion. Organotherapy, as it is called, is rapidly becoming a rational, scientific method of treatment in a large number of the ills to which flesh is heir. Dr. Woods Hutchinson, that happy writer on popular medical subjects, has paraphrased Shakespeare to say, "we are such things as ductless glands are made of, and our little life is rounded out by a sheep," the sheep being one of the domestic animals which furnish

the glands for human consumption after special preparation. The possibilities offered by this form of treatment seem limitless to those who have given the subject the attention it deserves. Out of the mass of experimental and clinical evidence regarding the functions of the ductless glands there is rapidly crystalizing not only a new physiology and pathology but a new psychology and a new therapeutics. In no branch of medicine are these revolutionary changes so apparent as in that dealing with early development and the defects thereof. There is now hope of cure for conditions which a few years ago were considered incurable and even unimprovable.

The description of surgical measures for the correction of deformaties and of removal of sources of reflex disturbances and nasal obstruction, or of mechanical aids to treatment, as orthodontia, fitting of glasses, etc., are not within the scope of this paper, though they should be utilized whenever indicated.

General Educational Measures: It is a difficult matter to separate education, in its broader sense, from hygiene, especially from mental hygiene, for education, according to the new Standard Dictionary, "includes not only the narrow conception of instruction, to which it was formerly limited, but embraces all forms of human experience, owing to the recognition of the fact that every stimulus with its corresponding reaction has a definite effect upon character." Every act of the child's daily life should be utilized for educational purposes in the systematic development and cultivation of the normal powers of intellect, feeling and conduct. Froebel's appeal "Come, let us live with our children," would if intelligently heeded be of untold educational prophylactic value.

Hypoplastic children, more than others, require measures directed toward the instillation of habits of self-reliance and fearlessness. I know of no better methods of developing these char acteristics than the activities mentioned under hygiene. Vague and even definite fears tend to disappear when a day of healthful, purposeful activity is followed by a night in the open under the stars. If the fundamental primitive fear instinct alone as Boris Sidis (Boris Sidis, M. D. Psychopathology of Neurosis. New York Medical Journal, April 24, 1915) believes, is the source of all psychopathic maladies, it should be the first aim of education

to cultivate those traits of character which would lead to its subjection. This phase of the subject is discussed at some length in my article "Mental Hygiene in Childhood", a copy of which I would be glad to send to any one who is interested.

In the application of more formal educational measures the specific requirements of the individual child must be considered. For the child not yet ready for the three R's and for many further advanced but whose development is uneven, the methods in use in the kindergarten and in the Montessori systems are essentially group activities; to use either in its entirety interferes with the individualization so necessary in hypoplatsic children. For this reason Mrs. McCready and I are accustomed to choose from each what is suited, or may be applied, to our needs, combining with it the other special measures required. The special educational and corrective principles and methods involved in the treatment of stuttering, lisping, word-blindness, word-deafness, idioglossia, deafmutism, postural defects, etc., require more detail of description than the reader's patience, already overtaxed, would permit.

Classic Sonnets

The Roman Mosaics

Color, still music, rose in glowing tide

To greet our new made Lord! at first with beams
Balanced in unskilled hands, yet moved by dreams.
Of what might mean His grace divine and wide,
Long at his task the awakening artist tried.

Then ranks on ranks dipped fingers in the streams
Of glorious tint, working as he who deems

His vision one wherein the Truth doth bide!

Heaven smiled when the old Sun-god poured his rays.
Through hymns of crystal wrought of vivid hue;
And, awed, young Christendom looked up to see
The higher message hovering o'er their days,—
It softly flamed between them and the blue-
Rome's perfect song of praise, Saviour, to Thee!

HELEN CARY CHADWICK.

O

The Control of Student Activities

ARTHUR M. CARDEN, PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA.

¤ NE of the most perplexing questions before educators in secondary schools today is the question of control of student activities, such as athletics, assessments, entertainments, etc. In some schools these matters are handled by the members of the faculty completely, leaving nothing for the students to do. This method loses some of the biggest advantages of school life in that it deprives the students of the opportunity to acquire an actual, first hand knowledge of the work of public governing bodies. If the schools are for the purpose of training the students in citizenship, and no one will deny that this is their primary object, they are failing in their purpose just so much as they deprive the students of this practical training.

On the other hand schools which leave the matter wholly in the hands of the students have to face the questions of dishonesty, lack of training, and irresponsibility in the students. It seems that if students are left to do as they like dishonesty in financial matters is bound to creep in. There are many ways in which to play petty graft so that it is difficult to catch the culprit at it. In the struggle for leadership, which is often as bitter as among their elders, politics of the ward type further complicates the problem. Cliques and clans make the democracy of our public school system a sham. The existence of secret societies in our secondary schools has been said to be one of the greatest evils we have to face in educating the youth of the country. The existence of these societies can often be traced to the struggle for leadership in school politics. To alleviate one evil will lessen the other. Furthermore, having no one to call them to account except their fellows, a feeling of insubordination often grows up which affects all the other relations of the students. In one large California high school nearly five hundred boys had pledged to walk out of the school building provided the faculty did not make certain concessions within an extremely lim

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