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NOTES, COMMENTS, AND ABSTRACTSBIOLOGICAL APPROACH TO HEALTH

PROBLEMS.AT the annual congress of the Royal Sanitary

Association of Scotland, held at Largs, in Fifeshire,Dr. Parlane Kinloch, chief medical officer of theDepartment of Health, the president, gave an addresson the Science of Life. He showed that the admini-strative health problems of to-day could be safelyapproached only on a biological basis. He expressedhis conviction that the life of members of a moderncivilised community must be founded on scientificthinking and living. The health services must drawtheir sanctions in the last resort from the science ofbiology. Our gains in biological knowledge in thepast 300 years, and, indeed, in the last 30 years,had far exceeded the gains made in the previous30,000 years. He pleaded for the acceptance of anational biological policy, which would deliberatelyseek new knowledge and apply it to the end that, asa race, we might grow in health and vigour, resource,and adaptability. In physiology and medicine a

reorientation of outlook was needed, so that assess-ment of fitness and assessment of the degree of

incapacity would become of dominant importance.The medical research organisation would pushforward the boundaries of biological knowledge, and I

the central and local authorities would secure the I,experimental application to the community of thediscoveries of medical science. The true basis ofadministrative measures was a nutritional service.So long as the authorities ignored the achievementsof biological research, so long would much of thehealth services remain a waste of effort. He indicatedalso the beginning that should be made in mentalhealth service in Scotland by the establishment offour regional psychiatric clinics in the four universitycities. At these clinics the early disharmonies leadingto mental illness would be defined and controlled,and mental patients sorted out and allocated forappropriate treatment. This would have an imme-diate effect in reducing the number of certifiedlunatics as would also a review of certified cases,together with the development of treatment on avoluntary basis. The number of certified lunaticsmight in this way be reduced by one-third. Theaddress was an inspiring exposition of fundamentalprinciples as applied administratively.THE DEVELOPMENT OF YOUNG CHILDREN.

MANY close observers of the lives of young childrenhave written large and valuable treatises on thethinking and behaviour of the young, but even suchclassical writers as Wilhelm Stern and J. Piaget,for example, have erred in obtaining much of theirinformation through questions. Mrs. Isaacs records 1

a new and fascinating departure from this method.The data of the lives of the little children in her schoolare given verbatim in her book. She has taken dailynotes of the remarks made and actions performed inwhat was almost entirely a child world, the grown-upsbeing largely in the background or joining in onlywhen necessary on the child’s level. The result isa curious record of the discovery, reasoning, andthought of children and of their biological interests.Some readers may find this record dull and dis-connected, but those who are pursuing childpsychologyfrom the educational and from the psycho-patho-logical point of view will discover much informationon the natural pursuits and ideas of the child ; manydifficulties will be cleared up, and many unacceptabletheories more easily understood. In an initial chapter,Mrs. Isaacs shows in what way her methods differfrom those of other observers. She promises to makeno interpretations while collecting data, nor does sheallow herself or her fellow-observers to do more thanto describe objectively what the child actually did and

1 Intellectual Growth in Young Children. By Susan Isaacs,M.A., with an Appendix on Children’s

" Why " Questions byNathan Isaacs. London : George Routledge. Pp. 370. 12s. 6d.

said, and the circumstances in which speech and actiontook place. In this respect she differs from Piaget,who definitely limits his field of inquiry, and thereforethe scope of his conclusions, by putting questions.

Mr. Isaacs has added a considerable chapter onchildren’s " Why " questions. This is a closelyreasoned classification and analysis of the familiarattitude of children towards their environment intheir efforts to coordinate their world and to rectifythe disparate elements of perception. This chapteris of great value, and in our view the authors’ criticalattitude to the anthropomorphic views on the child’sworld put forward by Prof. Piaget is justified.No workers in the field either of normal or of

abnormal child psychology can afford to ignorea book by Prof. Katharine Bridges on the pre-school

’

child.2 It is based upon a prolonged study of th&behaviour of children in contact with one another,and with their elders, and therefore illustrates themanner in which the emotional life of the child

i influences, and is influenced by, its social milieu. Theauthor starts out with a method which was deducedby preliminary experiment with a provisional scheme.The working out of a social develppment scale musthave entailed a great deal of labour. The manifoldobservations are at first sight very bewildering, butthey provide a warning to those who use broadercategories that analysis of child behaviour mustdepend upon detailed observations. The valuetherefore of the thesis will depend upon the studyof a larger number of cases than are here dealt withto make them statistically comparable with thenumber of observations themselves. Workers in thesame field would be wise if they used the author’sscale in order to register their own records. A chapteris devoted to the McGill Nursery Scale, and thosewho are interested in the scientific study of childrenrather than in chatty descriptions would do well to givethis their close attention. The volume is illustratedby many attractive photographs of children at play.

PRESCRIPTIONS FOR THE DEAF.IN an article on aids to the deaf published in

the Wireless Magazine for September, 1931, Mr.C. Balbi comments on the fact that while those withpoor sight seek spectacles, the deaf do not, as a whole,avail themselves of aids to hearing. In his view,this is because spectacles are prescribed on scientificlines, and the benefits obtained are instantaneous andlasting, while aids to the deaf are chosen haphazardby the patient himself, and may be found unsuitableafter purchase. Simple magnification does not

necessarily help the deaf person, since amplifyingappliances introduce distortion. This distortion can,he says, be harnessed to supplement the particularrange in which the patient’s hearing is defective.In order to ascertain this range, a standardisedtesting apparatus, known as the audiograph, has beendevised. When the range is charted, a prescriptioncan be formulated, for example for a bass deaf person.A micro-telephone, with the appropriate characteristic,can then be chosen, or an apparatus containing avalve amplifier can be used. Such an apparatusis necessarily more bulky, but it can be adjustedby means of filter circuits to conform to the specifica-tion required. Mr. Balbi suggests that while a portablemicro-telephone will continue to be popular, itscharacteristic should be prescribed. He recommends,for occasions where portability.is not essential, the useof an appropriately adjusted amplifier telephone.

AFTER Sept. 21st the address of the offices andwarehouses of Messrs. Coates and Cooper, Ltd.(Medical and Pharmaceutical Products), will be94, Clerkenwell-road, London, E.C.1. Telephone :Clerkenwell 4100.

2 Social and Emotional Development of the Pre-school Child.By K. M. B. Bridges, Assistant Professor of Psychology, McGillUniversity. London : Kegan Paul. 1931. Pp. 277. 12s. 6d.