What, then, have been the special causes improvement? of First and chiefly, there has been very much more individual care of the children, both by guardians and their officers. Secondly. A shorter stay in the schools, boys and girls going to independent work as soon as they are able to do it safely. Thirdly. The transference of certain elder boys and girls to special training homes, prolonging the period of training and protection. Fourthly. The application of the Protection of Children's Act, 1889. Fifthly. The after care of the M.A.B.Y.S. (c) Care during sickness or convalescence. Sixthly. The care of the feeble-minded,' a class for whom guardians and officers have greatly enlarged their sphere of work. It would have been interesting to say something of the advances made by provincial and country Boards. Whether in town or country, the governing bodies who provide for these children must represent those who have to pay for them. For embodying a new idea a voluntary society will generally be best. For a wide-spreading work supported by the rates representation is inevitable, although the supplementary work of voluntary institutions should be made available for special purposes. In working out the Poor Law, the qualification of a representative is mainly personal; and representation on party lines must be entirely out See Mrs. Burgwin's paper, pp. 66-72. of place in a work of so much detail. The short sketch I have given of the last sixty years shows how, broadly speaking, the mind of the people has been reflected in the treatment of Poor Law children. Sir Henry Fowler's Act of 1894 provided that it should be still more so. The electors, no doubt, need stirring up and enlightening. But, on the whole, they will do wisely to avoid candidates who make very startling proposals. The children's guardian must be awake, and with the sun his daily stage of duty run.' Nothing startling or violent may happen, the misspent moments may never be redeemed, but at least the present day's work will be better done, and then increased capacities for life generally, will be as certain as the day itself. Mrs. E. S. LIDGETT. Guardian of the Poor, St. Pancras. Mrs. Francis Rye, Hon. Secretary of the State Children's Aid Association, asked permission to explain briefly the object of her society. It contended Francis that none of the existing systems for providing Rye for pauper children are calculated to give full scope to their faculties, and that better results might be obtained (1) by abolishing large schools and bringing children up in families or in small groups, where they would be daily in touch with the various interests and activities of social life; (2) to dissociate children from all connection with the workhouse and the officials who have to deal with the pauper class; and (3) to obtain from the State further powers of control over neglected children. In the discussion which followed, Mr. E. H. Pickersgill, M.P., said he ventured to think that the present system was not the best which could be taken to prevent the children of paupers from becoming paupers; we were now beginning to learn Pickers that the essential feature of success in dealing gill, M.P. with large numbers of people, whether children or adults, was to treat each as an individual person. Mr. E. H. Lady Windeyer gave an interesting account of the boarding-out system of New South Wales (the colony of which the late Sir William Windeyer was All children are Attorney-General). Lady deyer con sidered children of the State who are in asylums or other institutions subsidised by the Government, and there are scarcely any charitable institutions in New South Wales which are not subsidised by the State, because the practice obtains of giving pound for pound to private subscriptions. When the children are taken from their pauper surroundings they are classified in the following way by the State, either as boarded-out children, apprentices, inmates of cottage homes, or inmates of the Cottage Ophthalmic Institution. This last is simply a cottage home presided over by a mother well trained in the treatment of eye diseases-it is, in fact, an ophthalmic hospital. The number of children in the colony only amounts to 3,600, and there are seldom more than twenty-six in the Ophthalmic Institution. The Boarded-out Children.-The unhoped-for success of this movement, Lady Windeyer considered to be largely due to the ladies of the boarding-out districts, who superintend this divisional work of the Board. The children are placed in the homes of people willing to act as their foster-parents; they must attend school regularly in conformity with the Education Act, until they reach the age of fourteen. The child ceases, how This is ever, to be a boarder at the age of twelve, and has to be apprenticed; the large proportion are apprenticed in the homes where they have lived so long. regarded by the Board as a matter for great congratulation. The foster-parents prefer to take these children into their homes, pay a small sum as wages (about 11. per quarter) and provide clothing, in order to retain them as their children until they attain the age of seventeen, when the State child is free from apprenticeship. Cottage Homes are required by the State for defective children, who, unfit to be placed with those who are healthy and strong, are put into these homes in the country, where the situation and soil of an ironstone nature is peculiarly suited to diseases of the eyes. In conclusion, Lady Windeyer dwelt upon this point as being worthy of attention by other Poor Law guardians. After many of those present had given expression to their views on this important subject, Lady Warwick closed the discussion by urging that all should consider how the excellent suggestions made on both sides of the question could most wisely be carried into effect. The Teaching of Defective Children Sir Douglas Galton, K.C.B., who occupied the chair, introduced the subject of Mrs. Burgwin's paper with the following remarks: I was glad to accept Lady Warwick's invitation to preside at this meeting, because my attention has been Sir directed in recent years to the question of the Douglas connection between the efforts of the brain K.C.B. and physical conditions of the body. For it is only by a careful consideration of these problems Galton, that the education of children can be brought into lines with scientific knowledge. Mr. Charles Roberts, in his interesting memorandum on Physical Education in Schools, calls the education of children a national industry which is concerned with a capital of 900,000,000l. and an annual revenue of 20,000,000l. If this large industry is to be properly administered in the interests of the population so as to produce the maximum beneficial result, the influence of school work on the health of the children must be carefully studied. The conclusion at which Dr. Roberts arrives is, that with proper management in its various branches, school work would become the most healthy occupation (not excepting idleness) which children could adopt, and he appears to consider that, with proper sanitary supervision and an adequate combination of physical exercise, overpressure would not occur. The influence of the efforts of the brain on physical conditions of the body has long been studied in Italy, France, Germany, and the United States. Professor Mosso showed by the instrument he called the Ergograph that the will or brain power which caused the muscles to move became exhausted before the muscles had lost their power to contract. As an example of exhaustion from brain work he instanced how, in listening to music, the attention becomes dull when listening to a symphony, sooner than when listening to an opera. Because in the former case the hearing alone is concerned; whereas in the opera the sight and the hearing relieve each other. Professor Griesbach, in Germany, endeavoured to ascertain the effect of brain work on the nervous system in a boys' school in the following manner : |