196 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE. 



the time the child has attended school is valuable as giving information 

 bearing on possible backwardness. Most teachers here enter the 

 regularity of attendance, and any information they may possess as to 

 the causes of any absences of note. As every child is seen by the 

 medical officer, item 5, asking whether the appearance of the child 

 is stupid or bright, throws more light on the teacher's personal equation 

 or powers of observation than on the child's mental condition, though 

 it might be useful if any cases were rejected at the nomination stage. 

 Information as to whether the child is obedient, mischievous, or spiteful 

 is valuable, especially the first and last points. Most children seem to 

 be entered as either apathetic or mischievous. Spitefulness is often men- 

 tioned, sometimes on the authority of the parent, but sometimes, and 

 this is of value, because of complaints lodged at the school of the 

 child's behaviour in the street. Spitefulness appears to be more 

 common in low-grade educable defectives and in imbeciles, but also 

 markedly occurs in a group which will demand separate attention — 

 the a-moral children. Question 7, on the habits of the child, is essential, 

 since one who has not acquired the first elements of cleanly behaviour, 

 even in respect to the excreta, cannot be tolerated in any school even 

 if there are difficulties in the way of immediate classification as an 

 imbecile. It is sometimes sufficient to invalid these children for six 

 months or a year, making the parents fully understand the obstacles 

 to formal education. It is remarkable that a number of parents are 

 quite careless in respect to this primary education in habits until it 

 is forced on them by the inconvenience of having a child at home when 

 they wish to be rid of him during school hours. It might also be noted 

 that these children when not complete imbeciles are almost always, in 

 my experience, of the male sex. The information derived from item 8, 

 as to any peculiar or dangerous propensities, usually only leads to a 

 repetition of (6) 3 as to spitefulness, but occasionally some information 

 as to particular misdeeds is given. Question 9, asking for direct in- 

 formation as to the teacher's estimate of capacity along certain lines, 

 is most valuable as an estimate of the standard of the school or of the 

 teacher, and after a sufficient number of forms from one school have 

 been studied it becomes a great aid in regard to the chance a child 

 would have in the said elementary school after discharge from a special 

 school. In spite of the abolition of payment by results there is still 

 in many schools a certain standard which is looked on as the irre- 

 ducible minimum consistent with being a reasonable soul, and if the 

 school has a good scholarship record this minimum in no wise coincides 

 with even the mean standard intelligence of the merely backward group 

 of children. Where differences between the medical officer's estimate 

 and that of the teacher occur, the children should be submitted to 

 a psychological investigation by the more recent experimental 

 methods. Teachers sometimes fail to realise the importance of the 

 questions under this heading, and this is to be regretted, as during the 

 time in the infant school or in the standard opportunities must have 

 occurred of testing all the points under far more favourable con- 

 ditions than arise at an admission examination, where the work must 

 be done rapidly, and the confidence of the child may not be thoroughly 



