or ninth year, and the pubertal period, with all its changes, later on.

In almost all cases of the class I have in mind, an important factor is fatigue. The children fatigue more quickly and more unexpectedly than average children, also more erratically: that is to say, some centers of mental activity will be more readily subject to exhaustion than others. Then attention and concentration will flag, or there will be spasmodic and fleeting interest for other things in between periods of instruction. Sometimes the attention of a child will return as quickly as it had disappeared, or the child will follow a sudden impulse in another direction, and be thoroughly disgusted with any task which we attempt to force upon it. It would be erroneous to follow in the handling of such manifestations any one-sided method. True enough, the will of the educator must sometimes be substituted for the will of the child, and under certain circumstances the child must be forced to remain in line, as it were, instead of running wild. But in numerous cases the educator must exercise a very great deal of discretion and forbearance in managing children in this condition. It must not be forgotten that the very attempt to check a child's erratic effort may act as a powerful suggestion to the child to continue. Sometimes children will, in a way, exhibit symptoms of genuine mental aberration or even insanity, and must be managed accordingly.

Faulty association will show itself sometimes in the form of motor disturbances. These motor disturbances will not only have the form of poor muscular co-ordination, as such, so that the child will be imperfect in different lines of manual activity, as for instance, writing, sewing, shop work, or even such fundamental activities as dressing and eating; but there is a variety of other symptoms. They may, for instance, be observable in the matter of spelling. Spelling mistakes will also happen in the case of ordinary mortals, and they are subject to certain physiological and psychological laws. But apart from what has been called "constitutionally bad spelling," they occur only when our attention or our nervous control is in some way diminished. They are caused by a temporary incongruency

of the images composing the word to be written in our mind, or in some dissociation in the speech centers. In many instances these mistakes are represented merely by transpositions of letters in words, or of words in sentences; the user of a typewriting machine will observe that sometimes he will write all the letters which compose a word, but not in proper sequence. The machine represents the mechanical apparatus as controlled by the motor centers in the human brain. But while in normal man these blunders are rare and very definitely conditioned, especially again by fatigue, they are a chronic condition in a large number of atypical children. So that in this way again it is shown that atypical conditions are largely due to more or less erratic fatigue.

There are peculiar manifestations which have been designated as contrary sensations and contrary reactions. Contrariness is frequently observed in what has been called "naughty children," and it is usually supposed that it indicates naturally perverse morality, or at least a temporary moral aberration. It may mean nothing of the kind, and be a purely mental symptom, without any moral significance whatever. The child will employ a word opposite to the one it desires, or is expected to use. It will say "No," when it should or would say "Yes," raises the right arm when it is the turn of the left, and does exactly the opposite to what it was told to do. These cases must be treated with particular care, for the contrary reactions often take place against the will of the child, and are more or less reflex or automatic in character. Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, of Philadelphia, and Dr. Pick, of Vienna, have endeavored to solve the mystery of these peculiar conditions. There may be an impairment in the association of ideas, or the concept of one thing may immediately call forth the concept of the contrasting thing; and this last conception, being the last, may become the immediate cause of reaction, which then, naturally, will be in the opposite direction. Or there may be motor disturbances, so that a motor impulse will become derailed, as it were, and switched off to the opposite side. The fact that contrasts are very apt to call each other forth mutually in human consciousness has been manifested in the well-known French proverb,

Les extremes se touchent. In a peculiar form this contrariness will manifest itself in reading, when one word will be substituted for another. Sometimes a word of opposite meaning will be substituted, but more often a synonym. The contrariness becomes more apparent when these faults are corrected by the teacher. The very desire of avoiding the falling into the mistake will lure the nervous child into making it. There was a pupil in my school who would spell the words “quarter dollar” quite correctly when reading them on the coin. But when asked what the words read she would invariably say "twentyfive cents."

An important lesson can be derived from these observations as to the method of how spelling should be taught.

I might multiply examples of eccentric or atypical mentality, but I am afraid to lose myself too much in details. In fact, my own work has become so specialized that I may think more particularly of cases directly interesting the pathologist and psychologist, while they may be of little value in ordinary school practice. But it seems necessary to state this, that in many instances the fault lies not with the child so much as with the teacher or the method prescribed. In other words, that there is not altogether the right understanding of a child's needs in every case, and that seemingly eccentric reactions are due to unskillful management of the mental life of the growing child. The more you will train yourself to look into the natural laws governing the unfolding of a child's mentality, the less perplexed will you be by manifestations which may seem strange, and yet present no difficulty to the skillful observer and psychologist.

I may add a few general characteristics which have been observed in these children. There is, first of all, a certain lack of balance,-an unstable equilibrium; they are easily affected by influences, especially of an emotional kind, and by every little indiscretion in diet or amusement. There seems to be an impairment of control of all bodily functions; and I wish to add that this is a characteristic of all children with nervous affections of any kind, be they otherwise bright or dull. There is a singular lack of rhythm, and a weakness

of the sense of localization and direction in a large percentage. Response is not so direct as in the average child, but more or less circuitous, and every step in their mental and moral development must be taken with great care and precaution, the teacher never taking anything for granted. Their memory is either particularly weak, or particularly strong; some of those children whose mentality is unreliable, have the most astounding power of mechanical memory. In their mental activity it is often to be observed that they come to what may be called a dead stop, when it is extremely difficult to remove the obstacle and lead them on to a rational association. Such dead stops are observable in all children, but considerably more so in these, and they have apparently no proportionate relation to the mental power of the child. Morally, these children are more selfish and more self-centered than the ordinary child is ; possibly owing to the indulgence of their parents at home.

In a majority of cases there were prenatal influences, sometimes caused only by a nervous condition of the mother during pregnancy. Oftentimes it was a premature birth, or forceps were used, or there was malnutrition before and after birth.

One of the most pernicious things the educator has to deal with in the cases of these children is the faulty habits of response which they have acquired during the long time of their struggle with an unfavorable environment. Not having been properly understood and handled, they had to find some way of adjusting themselves to the demands made upon them, or to the neglect which condemned them to practical inactivity. The result is a set of habits which it is most difficult to eradicate so as to replace them by new and rational habits of thinking, feeling, and willing. Here the greatest patience has to be exercised, especially on the part of parents, who only too often expect us to correct the mistakes of years in the shortest possible time.

These statements will indicate the necessity of a much more careful handling of these children than can be usually afforded in a day school. Ungraded and special schools and classes, such as are now being connected with public school systems, can do very good work with what I have called pseudo-atypical children, that is to say, those with whom a more individualized

instructional training or discipline will suffice. Pseudo-atypical children are such whose progress in school had been hindered by temporary illness, change of schools, slower rate of development, or physical difficulties, such as lameness, and deformity, slightly impaired hearing or vision, adenoid vegetations, etc. Also children of unusually rapid development, without genuine pathological precocity; and that class which is difficult of management (the naughty, troublesome, spoiled children) can be very satisfactorily reached by individual attention in such classes. But the atypical child requires, in most instances, a removal from its home, which often has been a direct or indirect cause of the atypical conditions, into an environment where all educational forces can be scientifically co-ordinated. They require the closest observation and study, so that each manifestation can be understood in its causality and as a developmental symptom. Educators and physicians must co-operate in the study of the problem of the atypical child.

The Men Needed
(SELECTED)

THE call is for men, in the last place, of Jesus Christ's profound peace; men who can go out into the rush of modern life with the poise of Jesus Christ; men who can move among feverish men and yet be cool men themselves; men who in great sorrows can stand steady; men who have come under the spell of eternity; men whose lives have opened down into the deep stillness that always underlies the noisy surface of our busy life; men of the presence of Jesus Christ; men in the midst of any confusion able to

"Hear at times a sentinel

Who moves about from place to place
And whispers to the worlds of space

In the deep night, that all is well."

-E. I. Bosworth.