November i i, 1922] 



NATURE 



6<u 



These Dr. Kimmins would have treated at psycho- 

 logical clinics such as are already established in the 

 United States, America, and other countries, in which 

 very useful results have been obtained. He also 

 suggested that if the teacher had a fairly sound 

 knowledge of his own personal equation it would 

 greatly increase his efficiency. 



I )r. Hamilton Pearson claimed that the practical 

 application of psycho-analysis had a place in school 

 routine with two reservations, namely, that the operator 

 should be not only a trained analyst, but should have 

 special experience in child analysis, since the technique 

 is different, and the work altogether more difficult 

 and delicate than with adults ; and secondly, that 

 the limitations of the field of application within the 

 radius of our present knowledge are thoroughly under- 

 stood. In helping to define those limitations it may 

 be taken as a rule that no child showing normal 

 development, adapting adequately and progressively 

 to its environment, should have even a nodding 

 acquaintance with analysts. The rigidity of a 

 systematised educational scheme must of necessity 

 fail to win response from a minority of children, and 

 this coupled with an adverse family environment 

 accounts for the mal-development of the few. 

 Among this group of potential neurotics, criminals, 

 and chronic failures lies the sphere of usefulness of the 

 child analyst. 



Dr. Pearson declared that analysis itself is not 

 curative, but by exposing the causal factors of the 

 mal-development it is a means of pointing the way to 

 constructive methods of treatment. He described 

 three cases in which analytical methods had been 

 used, to illustrate how they had been treated. The 

 subsequent history of each child showed how by 

 co-operation with the teacher a definite cure had 

 followed. He believed that in co-operation lies the 

 future of psycho-analysis in its practical value to school 

 life, and that the knowledge gained in dealing with 

 the abnormal would be of inestimable importance in 

 dealing with, and understanding, the normal. 



Dr. R. G. Gordon endorsed the value of co-opera- 

 tion of the workers in the fields of education and 

 psychology, and also emphasised the necessity that 

 such problems should be dealt with only by people 

 whose knowledge is extensive, and embraces such 

 collateral subjects as physiology and biology. He 

 protested strongly against the unqualified dabbler 

 with his pseudo-metaphysical speculations which are 

 not even logical. 



Dr. Gordon described two types of children likely 

 to give trouble, namely, the psycho-pathic child, and 

 the retarded child who is yet not sufficiently feeble- 

 minded to be classed as mentally deficient. Every 

 child inherits certain predispositions, and some dis- 

 positions unmodified or uncontrolled are evil and lead 

 to vicious conduct, but if properly correlated, and 

 modified by each other, and by education, they are all 

 capable of leading to the highest virtues. It is 

 the uncontrolled impulses which characterise the 



behaviour of the moral deficient, such as an over- 

 mastering impulse of acquisitiveness and a complete 

 failure to get into touch with reality. 



The retarded child is a slightly different problem. 

 If with an intellectual inferiority he possesses a 

 nature in which self-assertion is a large factor, he will 

 not submit to inferiority — superiority at games may- 

 save his self-respect, but in their absence his will to 

 assertion may show itself in acts of rudeness, dis- 

 obedience, or stubbornness. To avoid punishment 

 he becomes a liar ; to prove his independence he 

 plays truant ; and possibly to further his object he 

 may steal money, etc. Other undesirable traits may 

 exhibit themselves in his efforts to gain ascendancy 

 over other children. In many cases it is only neces- 

 sary to remove such children from the unfair competi- 

 tion involved in school, and start them in training 

 suited to their intellectual capabilities. Not only 

 will this do away with all vicious tendencies, but it will 

 increase their achievement to a remarkable degree, so 

 that they grow up not incapable of taking a worthy 

 place in the world. Neglect of proper treatment for 

 such children means that they eventually enter the 

 ranks of the neurotic or the criminal, or may turn 

 to drink or drugs which lead to an abased and 

 useless life. It is obvious that investigation and treat- 

 ment of such cases should be definitely undertaken 

 both for the sake of the individual and of the State. 



The investigation should be carried out in three 

 directions : (i) the physical examination — a purely 

 medical concern ; (2) the intelligence estimate through 

 the use of such means as the Stamford revision of the 

 Binet-Simon tests, etc. ; and (3) the child's reaction to 

 life — requiring mental exploration. In the last case 

 Dr. Gordon said if clinics are established it must be 

 borne in mind that only properly qualified workers 

 should conduct the inquiry. The mind of the child 

 is a delicately adjusted mechanism and cannot be too 

 carefully handled ; the greatest care must be taken 

 that nothing shall be implanted which shall still 

 further weaken control and upset the nice adjustment 

 of impulses on which his or her sanity depends. The 

 functions of such clinics will at first be purely advisory, 

 and here the importance of sound advice is obvious. 



In schools of all types are to be found children 

 whose moral sense and will to work are so impaired 

 that their time at school and probably at home is a 

 succession of misdemeanours and acts of viciousness, 

 a continued refusal to adapt themselves to social 

 order ; they are deaf to all appeals to reason. The in- 

 vestigation of the problems set by these children seems 

 to be rightly in the hands of the psychologist, and the 

 present inquiry is to learn to what extent mental 

 exploration in the form of psycho-analysis can save 

 the child by pointing out the cause and thus suggesting 

 the remedy. Every speaker expressed the opinion 

 that this inquiry should only be undertaken by a fully 

 qualified specialist and should be limited to those 

 children who were abnormal in their behaviour and 

 in their response to the usual incentives to work. 



Corrosion and Colloids. 1 



CORROSION is defined as the oxidation of a sub- 

 stance ; it may be produced by chemical or electro- 

 chemical means. The following facts are difficult to ex- 

 plain on a purely electro-chemical theory of corrosion : 

 (a) Certain depolarisers do not increase corrosion, 

 but actually inhibit it ; (b) the conductivity of elec- 

 trolytes is not directly connected with the amount 

 of corrosion ; (c) Lambert's pure iron is readily 

 attacked by sodium chloride solution and dilute 



1 Abstract of sixth report of the Corrosion Research Committee of the 

 Institute of Metals, presented by Dr. G. D. Bengough and J. M. Stuart at 

 tht Swansea meeting of the Institute on September 20. 



NO. 2767, VOL. I 10] 



acids ; and (d) the presence of ions of the corroding 

 metal sometimes increases corrosion. The order of 

 corrodibility of metals in distilled water, certain salt 

 solutions, and non-electrolytes is different from their 

 order in the electro-chemical list ; this suggests that 

 there are factors interfering with the electro-chemical 

 action. .Such factors are scale formation, and the 

 nature and distribution of the products of corrosion. 



The effects of strain and impurity in the metal are 

 considered on the electro-chemical view to be of 

 fundamental importance. Experiments on Lambert's 



