E.—ls.

68

sour). Then they peeled the remainder, cut it up into slices, lit the stoves (after a talk about matches), cooked the apples, and talked about them while they were stewing. They then laid the tables with neat white cloths, plates and saucers, spoons and forks, cups, milk-jugs, and sugar-basins. When the " apple-sauce " was ready, they sang a grace, sat down, and enjoyed a light but wholesome lunch of bread and butter, milk and sugar, and apple-sauce. They washed up everything, including the pannikins in which they had stewed the apples, and put the things away. Then they were told the room was wanted for another class ; so they went off to their ordinary class-room, where, after performing a few rhythmic exercises, and singing a song, they proceeded to tell the teacher all that they had done with the apples, " in order that they might be able to tell their mothers when they got home." It was the real thing —not make-believe —and hence its virtue ; there was little or no fear that the children would acquire confused ideas about what they had done. On the other hand, in the English and German schools there was greater attention paid to the teaching of a trade—but partly because these schools are in or near large cities. The value of gardening as a suitable occupation seemed often to be overlooked. In Frankfurt the chief occupations seemed to be the making of card and wooden boxes (intended for packing jewellery and other small manufactured goods), knitting, caning chairs, and bookbinding. In England basketmaking and wirework were generally added, but bookbinding I saw only in one school. In the Red Cross Street School, Bristol, the boys are taught to sew on buttons and to mend their own clothes. Boys and girls make ornamental basketwork, table-mats, clothes-baskets, &c, to order ; the boys also mend cane chairs : all these things lead up to remunerative employment. In a London technical school I found a class of weak-minded boys, older than those just referred to, making simple articles of tin ware which had a selling value, and so helped to provide the boys with a means of livelihood. The importance of co-operation between the teacher skilled in the treatment of the mentally defective and the medical specialist is recognised everywhere —in the first instance, for the proper classification of the child, and afterwards for the adjustment of physical and mental work to secure the best development. The influence of the medical specialist is evident in the importance attached to regular exercises in rhythmic motions intended to secure the better co-ordination of motor-muscles and nerve-centres. In one school —otherwise good —I found that owing to want of funds they had classes of twenty, but this number is much too large for effective work. General Conclusions. —Expert teacher and medical specialist must cooperate throughout; classes must be small; instruction should be very real and concrete throughout, beginning with familiar domestic subjects, the breakfast-table, furniture, clothes, gardening, cooking, &c, and leading up to technical, work likely to provide a means of livelihood, for at the best, the work of defectives must be largely imitative ; there should be a great deal of drill in co-ordinated physical exercises. Preference should be given to outdoor occupations, not only as more healthy in themselves, but as better for the moral upraising of the pupils ; it is infinitely better for one of these unfortunates to become the humblest kind of farm labourer than a hanger-on in a town slum. Schools for the Deaf. The Deaf-mute Institution at Kingsdown, Bristol, is a good example of a small but successful institution. Its Principal is Mr. 0. H. Illingworth ; the number of pupils is eighty, about the same as at the Sumner School for the Deaf. The chief features are that the size of classes is limited to eight pupils ; all the teaching is oral; the comprehension of spoken language is far in advance of the power of speech, many orders being given and obeyed at once, though the pupils cannot repeat what was said. This is regarded as an advantage, inasmuch as comprehension should precede expression, and it acts as a stimulus to the pupils to acquire the power to express themselves so as to be understood. Systematic instruction in handwork is given throughout the school. The age of leaving —sixteen —is, in the Principal's opinion, too early. Female teachers are found to be most successful, especially with young children. Mr. Illingworth strongly advises the admission of pupils at five years of age, as the necessary preliminary training is rarely given at home. These younger children should be separated from the rest in classes, in the playground, and in the bedrooms. He also advises that teachers should be with the children all the time ; considers that partiallyhearing children would then get as much benefit as if they were placed in separate homes with untrained people, but he admits that separate cottages under the charge of teachers} would be best of all. The handwork should lead up to technical work that fits the pupil for his or her future trade. The