its real merits. It has come into its own, and is being conducted with remarkable vigour, discrimination, and literary skill. All interested in the progress of presentday movements and desirous of viewing existing conditions from an independent standpoint should make a point of reading Everyman.

Bangor. Illustrations appear of the Carnarvon Infant Clinic and the Llandudno School Clinic Recovery Ward, together with a map of the centres in connection with the Maternity and Child Welfare Scheme for Carnarvonshire.

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Everywoman's. Published weekly by Odhams Limited, 93 and 94, Long Acre, London, W.C. 2. Price ld. each number. Annual subscription, 6s. 6d. post free.

This vivacious, amusing, instructive, practical, and generally serviceable illustrated weekly continues to be issued at its popular price of id. It contains much helpful information for mothers, teachers, nurses, and all interested in maternity and child welfare. There are designs for artistic adornment of children, suggestions regarding food, and hints for homemaking.

Impressions. Edited by G. E. Whitehouse, and published monthly by Impressions Publishing Company, Ltd., 76, Hanover Street, Edinburgh. Single copy, 6d. Annual subscription, 6s. post free.

This well-got-up, virile, serviceable journal is designated “ A Business Magazine of Character.” It is an up-to-date exposition of personages in commerce, progressive ways and means, spirit and purpose in business and patriotism. An interesting feature is the illustrated article

Progressive Personalities." The journal is full of suggestive and serviceable articles, and the numerous advertisements form no inconspicuous part.

NOTES. Nelson's History of the War," by John Buchan, which is being published by the famous house of Thomas Nelson and Sons, Ltd., is making steady progress. Volume XIX has just been issued (price Is. 6d. net). It deals with the Spring Campaigns of 1917, the German Retreat in the West, the Battle of Arras, the Second Battle of the Aisne, actions in Mesopotamia, Syria and the Balkans, Italy's Campaign since the Fall of Gorizia, and presents records of the progress of the Russian Revolution. The appendices are particularly valuable, containing Sir Douglas Haig's Third Dispatch on the German Retreat in the West, Sir Douglas Haig's Fourth Dispatch, Part I, on the Battle of Arras, Sir A. Murray's Dispatch on the Battle of Gaza, and General Milne's Dispatch on the Year's Work at Salonika. The work grows in interest and effectiveness, and there is no diminution in the size of the volumes. The presence of numerous and excellent maps continues to form a praiseworthy feature. Mr. Buchan and Messrs. Nelson are carrying through an enterprise of incalculable patriotic service and permanent educational value.

“ Infant Welfare Work in War Time," by Dr. Grace L. Meigs, of Washington, is a timely brochure, issued by the Ameri

Medical Association, 535, North Dearborn Street, Chicago. It summarizes the experiences of belligerent countries regarding : (1) The influence of war on the public protection of mothers and their babies through the service of public health nursing, and infant welfare stations, particularly as to pre-natal care and obstetrical care. (2) The influence of war on measures to insure financial aid during pregnancy and at confinement. (3) The influence of war on the protection of working pregnant

women and nursing mothers.

on

can

The Welsh Outlook. Published monthly by The Welsh Outlook Press, 43, Penarth Road, Cardiff. Single number, 6d. Annual subscription, 7s. 6d. post free.

This excellent journal is one which every progressive Welshman should subscribe to. It is full of informing, inspiring, and really instructive matter. The May number contains a striking article on “ The Next Generation," by Dr. E. Llewelyn Parry-Edwards, Medical Officer of Health for Carnarvonshire. There is also a suggestive study of “ Moral Responsibility for the Drink Traffic,” by the Rev. Principal Thomas Rees, M.A., of

and who can offer boys of 16 and over should communicate with this Ministry.

A. C. GEDDES. Ministry of National Service,

Westminster, S.IV.1.

SCHOOLBOY LABOUR ON THE

LAND. Sir,- The military situation has necessitated calling up a large number of agricultural labourers, which will seriously deplete the available labour during the coming hay, corn, and potato har

It is of vital importance that the harvest of these crops should be successfully secured this year. This success will depend largely upon boys at public and secondary schools who have reached an age that will enable them to do useful work on the land. The extent to which farmers are counting on their help is shown by the fact that demands for over 17,000 boys have already been received at this Ministry; and there is no doubt that these numbers will be largely increased when the full effect of the calling-up for military service has been appreciated by the farmers. Of these numbers, not less than 3,000 will be required during June and July, and a further 3,500 are needed for October for potato lifting if suitable accommodation can be arranged. In view of the above facts, I am reluctantly compelled to appeal to schools to release during term time such groups of boys as. may be necessary for getting in the harvest. This is a time of national crisis, and the ordinary considerations of education have not the same force as in normal times. As I have pointed out, it is necessary to provide men for the Army, and it is necessary to provide labour to take their places on the farms, and I must urgently appeal to parents, headmasters, and boys to give all the help they can. In view of my representations as to the urgency of the national need, the President of the Board of Education concurs in this appeal and is issuing a circular on the subject to secondary schools in England and Wales. All offers of service must be made through the headmasters of the schools. Headmasters who have not already received the regulations

THE EDUCATION BILL AND

CHILD CRIPPLES. SIR,— May we solicit your valuable support and that of your readers in favour of an amendment to the Education Bill, making each local authority responsible for the education of the physically defective children in its area (neighbouring areas with few such children might easily combine in the maintenance of a small Special School) ? An amendment to this effect has been set down to Clause 20 by Major Hills, M.P. Mrs. Humphry Ward in two communications recently issued to the Press has made out a strong case for a national system of physically detective schools, based upon the capital results tabulated by the After-care Committee of the L.C.C. These show how responsive crippled children are, both in body and mind, to skilled treatment. Similar results could be quoted from Liverpool with its half a dozen Special Schools, and also from Bristol. The permissive powers of the 1899 Act have so far been taken advantage of in a few large towns, there being only twenty Special Schools for physically defective cripples outside London. Provision has thus only been made for some 5,000 of the nearly 50,000 crippled children in England and Wales. Why should a child be handicapped for life because he happens to live in a district where the Education Authority regards him as not worth while ? The question is one of national importance. Those who knew something of the deplorable misery of crippled children a quarter to half a century ago have been able to note the remarkable improvement in the condition of children enjoying the

over 12.

advantages of modern Special Schools. We can compare, from the Cripple Register of the Shaftesbury Society, the far less happy and hopeful lot of the unfortunate children in areas where Education Authorities have not had the vision or energy to provide such schools. In many ways education is a more precious boon

а to these than to normal children. Has not the time arrived when no Education Authority should be allowed to contract out of its public duty to ensure that no class within its sphere of influence should grow up in a neglected condition, outcasted from the nation's educational system? This therefore becomes a test question on a limited scale of the real estimate placed by the nation upon human personality. The Education Bill already contains clauses affecting two other small classes of neglected children, and a fresh line in the Bill, or a clever turn of Mr. Fisher's pen, could easily secure their citizen-right for all juvenile cripples. As we write, an Inter-Allied Conference is meeting in the interests of disabled soldiers to avoid their being thrown upon the human scrap heap. We should like to feel that Parliament had the same fixed will to make the most of every disabled child. We appeal to your readers to throw in their services toward that end.

(Sir) JOHN Kirk, Director. ARTHUR BLACK, Hon. Secre

tary, Shaftesbury Society. 32, John Street, Theobald's Road,

London, W.C.1.

than that it will consist, for the present, of the orphans of soldiers and sailors who have lost their lives in the l'ar. Of more special interest to your readers is its meaning as an experiment. Up to now freedom for creation and research has been given to children under 7 and

It has never, so far as I know, been given to any experimentally valuable extent to children between those ages. We shall break clean away from all the old fetishes of classes and classrooms, and there will not be a “master” or a “mistress” in the place. Instead of them we shall have calm and observant advisers for the children to use to satisfy their curiosity and to inspire them to fresh activities. Te shall never assume that the grown-up has grown up in wisdom, and that the child consists for more than half of unexpurgated folly and irresponsibility. Ile shall respect our children and help them, without prejudice, to be themselves. And when they have found themselves we shall try, in our turn, to find the environment which will carry each along his proper line of development, mental and bodily and sensory, to the height of his possibilities. The stock “subjects” of the ordinary school will take their rightful place in the scheme of things. The only universally essential objects of study (so far as the purely intellectual ideal is concerned) are probably the expression of our ideas in our mother tongue, and a certain minimum power of handling numbers and quantities and surfaces. The rest of the “subjects” must vary in importance with each individual, but each individual will, of course, be encouraged to put himself in possession of that amount of general knowledge without which no single “subject" can be pursued intelligently. We shall have an uphill fight for funds. We have £730 promised in advance out of the £2,000 which would enable us to make a start. Subscription lists have just been opened, and contributions, large and small, will be gratefully received either by our Hon. Treasurer, Mr. Cecil Lubbock, at 17, Cranley Gardens, S.11.7, or by myself.

NORMAN MACMUNN.
West Downs Lodge,

Winchester.

CHARITY AND EDUCATIONAL

EXPERIMENT.

SIR,—May I venture to give your readers a few particulars of the “New Community of Boys and Girls," which has been registered as a war charity and is being opened with the help of Lord Glenconner and a Committee which includes Dr. David, of Rugby, Mr. Edmond Holmes, Mr. Homer Lane, Lord Lytton, Miss Margaret McMillan and other wellknown friends of child welfare.

The Community is to be inaugurated as early as possible, and will probably be available in the coming autumn. Of the Community as a charity I shall say no more

A HYGIENIC FEEDING BOTTLE.

Knowledge has been widely disseminated regarding the selection, protection, and preparation of milk for an infant, but there still exists much ignorance and indifference regarding the ways and means whereby the infants' food can best be administered. A hygienic feedingbottle is a necessity. And not only must the bottle be of the right size and shape but sanitary in all respects, but it should be fitted with an effective teat and valve. Among the best are those manufactured by Messrs. J. G. Ingram and Son, Ltd., London India-Rubber Works, Hackney Wick, London, N.E., and known INGRAM'S PATENT BAND TEAT AND VALVE “ AGRIPPA.” The chief features of these

publishers, have issued through Messrs. Macmillan and Co., Ltd., a fine series of WAR MAPS which should be known and used in all schools. The latest member of the series is “A War Map of Palestine.” This is drawn to a scale of ni miles to the inch. It is printed in colours, and is 26 X 22 inches in size. It gives an immense amount of detail, indicating railways and main roads, and other features enabling an intelligent study to be made of military operations now in course in Palestine. There is also a valuable inset providing an effective map of Lower Egypt, Sinai and adjoining districts. The map is published as an unmounted sheet, 6d. net, postage id.; on cloth folded, is. 3d., postage 2d. ; or on rollers and varnished, 25., postage 4d.

as

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are

essential adjuncts to a proper feedingbottle are shown in the accompanying figures. They are made of specially selected and prepared fine rubber, which effectively withstands actual boiling, and so allows of thorough sterilization. Moreover, the teat is physiologically accurate as a nipple, and can be used with comfort and ease by the infant. Both teat and valve fit tightly, will not slip off, and cannot well be detached by the child. Specimens will be sent to doctors and nurses with full particulars on receipt of a professional card. The price of the Patent Band Teat is 3}d., and that of the Patent Band Valve is 3d.

SING-SONGS.
Sing-songs”

well-beloved by children, youths, students, sailors and soldiers, and all healthy souls in the developmental period of life. Dr. W. G. McNaught, the well-known editor of Messrs. Novello and Co.'s school music, has rendered valuable, patriotic, recreational and educational service by the issue, through Messrs. Novello and Co., of his “Pocket Sing-song Book for Soldiers, Sailors, Schools, Homes, &c." (price is. 4d. net). This compact little collection of popular unison songs and hymns of the best type has been prepared with much discrimination based on wide musical experience and much practical experience of human needs. It is just the gathering of good things which will be welcome in camps of all kinds, on board ship, in clubs and classrooms, and wherever “sing-songs” are called for. The accompaniments are easy, and the songs are generally in such low keys as suit the untrained voices of men and boys. We believe that leaders of Boy Scouts, conductors of Y.M.C.A. centres, commandants of camps and the like, will

WAR MAPS. Messrs. W. and A. K. Johnston, Ltd., the well-known of geographical

extend a warm welcome to this little volume, which really meets a presentday need.

“ PHOTOGRAMS.” War has stimulated rather than discouraged pictorial photography among Britishers and Americans. As a precise and reliable recording instrument in warfare the camera has been abundantly justified. The photographer may also claim to have exercised the functions of an educationist, a patriot, and a healer of minds distressed. As evidence of all these contentions we direct attention to the recently issued "Photograms of the Year 1917-1918: The Annual Review of the World's Pictorial Photographic Work," edited by F. J. Mortimer, F.R.P.S., and published by Hazell, Watson and Viney, Ltd., 52, Long Acre, W.C.2. This fascinating annual has appeared regularly for twenty-three years. The current number is a specially fine production, and all concerned in its preparation merit warm congratulations. There are upwards of a hundred fine reproductions, many of which are particularly well-adapted for decoration of homes and schools. We commend the annual to the notice of all heads of

schools and teachers generally. The articles are of exceptional interest, and include the following : “Observations on some Pictures of the Year," by W. R. Bland; “Photography's Part in the War,” by Ward Muir; “Pictorial Photography after the War,” by Antony Guest; Pictorial Photography in Australia," by Cecil W. Bostock; “Pictorial Photography in America,” by W. H. Porterfield; "Pictorial Photography in Scandinavia,” by Henry B. Goodwin; “Pictorial Photography in Spain,” by Jose Ortiz Echague; and “Pictorial Photography in Holland,” by Adriaan Boer.

INK POWDER. Managers of schools and other educational establishments, as well as all users of ink, will be interested to know that an excellent form of INK POWDER has been placed on the market by Messrs. Wood and Gibb, of 98, West Regent Street, Glasgow. The preparation is known as the "Navajet” Ink Powder, and when dissolved in cold water it provides an excellent blue-black ink. It has been used for some years in Scotland, and under existing war conditions is likely to be popular throughout the British Isles. The ink can be used in fountain pens.