spreading the seeds of leprosy and plague. Then came Jenner, who discovered that by injecting poison into one's blood he was thereafter immune from small-pox. Time was when one might imbibe freely typhoid germs with his milk and water.

Now the air we breathe is tampered with, windows must be opened at night, our rooms must be kept almost uncomfortably cool during the day. Lest we enjoy ease we must perform wearying exercises. Vitamines are forced into us by the milkman, yeastmaker and raiser of carrots. Children, too, are inveigled by clumsy clowns and unconvincing fairies to eat this and drink that, abstain from confections, stay away from the movies-life is not worth living and no opportunity afforded (as was to their parents) of being an invalid.

At one time sickness was looked upon by the Church as of divine origin and sent to shape us for a better life. In Boston, a fight was put up against inoculation-the workings of providence were not to be interfered with. In this same city a cult has arisen which banishes sickness-a mere myth. Undertakers "morticians" (to be up-to-date) are becoming alarmed by the activities of the health experts. In Washington a street car advertisement "caught our eye and comforted our spirit," writes the editor, "-a picture of the Taj Mahal with this inscription: 'India's most wonderful temple is not more impressive and beautiful than Wery O Life's funeral service'-an eloquent tribute to sympathetic attention to detail.” None of the hygienists, concludes the editor, have made

66

any suggestions as to what is to replace sickness and suffering as the greatest of civilizing influences and developer of human sympathy. "Perhaps the trouble with Western civilization -and there is something decidedly wrongis that we are getting too sanitary, and that we need to return to a more natural existence. Individually we may be getting better and better, but collectively we seem to be getting worser and worser."

Camp Sanitation

The return of a child to one of our cities in the midst of her vacation at a summer resort brings to the fore the consideration of sanitation in summer camps.

It is high time all these camps were regularly and efficiently inspected. Particular emphasis should be placed on the source of drinking water and the disposal of excreta, garbage and the like.

These camps are usually occupied by groups of intelligent families, mostly from the city, who ordinarily drink sterile water, use pasteurized milk and possess the usual civic provision for the disposal of sewage and garbage. They are aware of the importance of sanitation along these lines. Many of these camps are organized into community societies. for sociability and community improvement. It would be easy for our provincial officers to get in touch with the officiary of these communities, and draw their attention to the necessity of making adequate provision for chlorination of water (if necessary) and the proper sort of privies. The pro

vincial department of health wisely provided water disinfectants for any householders who wished to apply for them. We hope next year they will send an inspector to visit each of these camps, say about July 1st, Aug. 1st, and finally about Sept. 1st. This final visit would decide whether the summer visitors had properly cleaned up their premises before vacating.

Eugenics

Of 5,758,000 men between the ages of twentyone and thirty, inclusive, 1,289,000 were unfit for service-22 per cent. The same percentage of disability would likely be found in the same number of women. This, says a writer in a contemporary, came as a shock.

Among the more common defects were undersize, overweight, imperfect vision and hearing, flat feet, mental defectives, etc. Of the mental defectives, 583 were psychotics, 1,436 psychopaths, 1,660 psychoneurotics, 2,096 dementia precox cases, 39,095 feeble-minded, 14,195 epileptics, 14,195 general paretics, 19,144 syphilitics; over 82,000 in all. In France, 1,475 feeble-minded were found in addition. Many epileptics and syphilitics doubtless got through without discovery.

The writer maintains that there are fewer syphilitics in females between the ages of twenty and forty-five than in the male.

There were 80,601 rejected on account of tuberculosis.

One serious aspect of the problem is that so many of these defectives are allowed to procreate; another is that the mentally abnormal are much more prolific than their mentally superior neighbors.

Reformatory investigations show that 65 per cent. of the population are feeble-minded; that of prisons 54 per cent.

In Chicago, of 4,460 prostitutes examined, 80 per cent. were found to be mentally defective.

Out of 700 descendants of the Jukes sisters, 140 were criminals, 280 paupers and otherwise undesirable. They cost the State of New York, up to 1891, the sum of $1,308,000; the Nain family, similarly afflicted, have cost the State $1,400,000!

John Samuel, of criminal ancestry, married a half-breed wife; 10,000 of their progeny are scattered through the Middle West-most of them in prisons and poorhouses; thieves, beggars, prostitutes, vagrants and paupers!!

We sincerely hope things are not so bad as this in Canada. We have not seen any statistics yet. But if conditions are at all like those above described, the sooner the truth is known the better.

It is up to the medical profession to inaugurate measures to put a stop to this sort of thing. What has been done for the stamping out of small-pox and malaria, the great decrease in mortality from diphtheria, the purification of milk and drinking water, the improvement of sewage disposal and the like, can also be done for the prevention of mental abnormalities, by educating the public so as to se

cure better marriage laws; to make better provision for these defective classes.

One contemporary well says, "Every child has a right to be well born, and parents who are not fit and able to take care of children after they have come, should not bring children into the world; and the physically and mentally fit people owe it to themselves and to the State to raise as large families as their means permit."

Occupational Therapy for Adolescent Insanity

In his manual of psychiatry, Rosanoff says that Hoch finds in a large percentage of dementia precox (51-66 per cent.) evidences of a peculiar make-up which he has termed "shut-in personality" -persons who do not have a natural tendency to be open and to get into contact with the environment; who are reticent, seclusive; who cannot adapt themselves to situations; who are hard to influence, often sensitive and stubborn in a passive rather than an active way. They show little interest in what goes on, often do not participate in the pleasures, cares, and pursuits of those about them; although sensitive, they do not let others know what their conflicts are; they do not unburden their minds, are shy and have a tendency to live in a world of fancies. "What is, after all, the deterioration in dementia precox" he adds, “if not the expression of the constitutional tendencies in their extreme form, a shutting out of the outside world, a deterioration of interests in the environment, a living in a world apart." As to