The Adoption of Children 201 



any. It is strange that since the War, with all 

 the orphans and war babies needing homes, this 

 great legal defect has not been corrected by act 

 of parliament. 



There are various ways in which children are 

 received and offered for adoption. The orphan 

 and juvenile asylums have usually a larger or 

 smaller number of children who are available 

 for adoption. It is often difficult to get them 

 out, however, owing to religious and other quali- 

 fications that are not easy to fulfill. Some of 

 the large Societies having close relationships 

 with children, such as the State Charities Aid 

 Association and Children's Aid Society of New 

 York, also have as an important feature of 

 their work the adoption of children. Since 

 1898 the former Society has placed 3400 chil- 

 dren in homes for adoption; in the last six 

 years, the latter organization has done the 

 same beneficent work for 432 children and the 

 great majority have turned out well. It is a 

 most satisfactory and promising kind of reme- 

 dial effort, as the results are constructive and 

 permanent. The greater the number of agen- 



