encephalitis lethargica and the Schick test. A new chapter on Industrial and Marine Hygiene has been added and contains much useful information.

A. A. M.

EDUCATION ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO

This treatise (1) which was written in 1800 by a friend of Thomas Jefferson and at his request, had the approval of that great man the earliest of American statesmen to possess a clear grasp of the national significance of education, and the one who did most to promote it. The Encyclopædia Britannica says of Thomas Jefferson: "District, grammar and classical schools, a free state library, and a state college were all included in his plan.

He was the first American statesman to make education by the State a fundamental article of democratic faith."

Du Pont de Nemours divides his book into three parts: "Primary Schools", Secondary Schools or Colleges", and "On the University, or rather the Special Schools for the Higher Sciences". He presents in his treatise many quite modern theories, that, for instance, of learning to read by writing: "To begin the instruction of a child by teaching him to read is to forget that he prefers the use of his fingers to that of his brain; or rather that he uses his brain by means of his fingers. He has an urgent desire to move, to act, to accomplish". And the following might well have been written in 1924 by one of our most advanced educational theorists: "It must always be remembered that children have a great desire to learn... They are always in search of new sights and experiences... And the reason that they so often dislike the school work which is provided for them is that it takes them from their chosen studies which they pursue freely and profitably in their walks and their

(1) National Education in the United States of America, by Pierre Samuel Du Pont de Nemours. Translated from the Second French Edition of 1812 and with an Introduction by Bessie Gardner Du Pont, Newark, Delaware. University of Delaware Press, 1923. Pp. xxv and 161.

games, or in examining us with an interest of which we are unaware."

The treatise works out for boys only apparently girls did not need to be nationally educated in those days a quite complete system of schools, even going into such details as the sort of books to be used in the primary schools and how much the boarders in the secondary schools should allow for laundry per year. The secondary schools were to be primarily boarding schools which day scholars might attend, and the principal and professors were to be paid in part by subvention from the State, in part by the students fees, in order that they might have an additional incentive to make the school more useful and well known. A system of State scholarships, open to rich and poor alike, the holders of which were to be voted for by the class, was one of his ideas.

While many of Du Pont de Nemours' suggestions could not be used to-day, there is much of value and originality in this reprint of a book first written, by a citizen of France,

in 1800.

T. G.

CORRESPONDENCE

THE TRAINING OF NURSES

To the Editor of The World's Health.
Sir,

Through the courtesy of the League of Red Cross Societies, I have had an opportunity to read Dr. Herbert L. Eason's very interesting paper before publication.

While appreciating the wit of the author, who often hits the nail on the head, and feeling how justified is his simile of new wine in old bottles, I cannot, at the same time, help seeing that there is a lot to be said on the other side.

If most of the visible results of the old system of training are good, is that sufficient proof that there is no need for improvement? Have

we counted the failures which might have turned out successes if dealt with differently?

nurses cannot but be aware that the hours

of work are too long for the minds of the pupils to be fresh so that they are able to profit by the amount of theory given, even if this be confined to strictly necessary instruction. In this respect there is a very real need of reforms. Should these be directed toward cutting down still further the scanty notions the nurse is now given as to the meaning of her work, or should they rather, as suggested by the Rockefeller Report, be directed toward shortening hours and lessening routine work, in order to give more scope for study? The work thus cut out would then have to be performed by another kind of nurse.

The quotation from Professor Whitehead shows the enormous significance of routine work in the training of the nurse, and the suggestion that lower grade nurses should perform some of the work is considered by us, in this part of the world, dangerous, because of the impossibility of keeping this grade, after training, within its limits.

Admitting that the old system is not ideal and that reforms are certainly needed, the question arises of how the way is to be cleared for them. The Rockefeller Report is, as Dr. Eason says, a very stimulating document. It has stirred us in the Old World to our very bones, and we must find a way, adapted to conditions here, to meet the need for reforms in our hospitals and training schools for nurses. If this way prove not to be exactly that suggested by the Report, it will still be working towards the same goal which we all hope to attain the best possible training for the pupil nurse.

SOPHIE MANNERHEIM, Graduate of St. Thomas's Hospital, London; Superintendent of Nurses, Surgical Hospital, University Clinics, Helsingfors, Finland; President, International Council of Nurses.

Helsingfors, June 15th, 1924.

Lectures on Venereal Diseases, by Leonard Myer, F. R. C. S., Lecturer on Venereal Diseases to St. Paul's Hospital, London. For Nurses, Masseurs and the General Public. Contents include: Early Manifestations, Early and Late Complications, Congenital Syphilis, Marriage and its Relations to Venereal Disease, etc. Published at 6 shillings net. Offered (new) for 2 shillings post free. The Construction and Reconstruction of the Human Body, by Eugen Sandow. This master work on the Therapeutics of Exercise proves that curative exercise has a far greater effect upon the functions of the various organs and organic systems of the body than anyone has yet recognized. Contents include: Exercise, its Structural Effects, its Functional Effects, its Moral Effects; Exercises for Men, for Women, for Children; Exercise and Reproduction; Exercise and Metabolism; Exercise and the Ailments it is Known to Cure; Exercise and the Diseases it may be Expected to Cure, etc. Beautifully illustrated by 36 full-page photographs. Published at 15 shillings net. Offered (new) for 8s. 6d. post free.

When ordering either of above, mention Offer 536. Money refunded in full if the books do not meet with approval.

FOYLE'S,

121-125, Charing Cross Road, London (England)

The Red Cross is the symbol of human compassion. It was their pity for the suffering and unaided victims of the battle of Solferino (June 24th, 1859) that moved Henry Dunant and his friends to take the first steps which led to the formation of the International Red Cross Committee in 1863, and to the signature in 1864 of the Geneva Convention, under which the rights of the wounded in wartime were officially recognized. Red Cross Societies have since been formed in nearly every country.

In 1919, on the initiative of Mr. Henry P. Davison, Chairman of the War Council of the American Red Cross, the Red Cross Societies of America, France, Great Britain, Italy and Japan founded the League of Red Cross Societies, with the object of applying the spirit and organization of the Red Cross, in peacetime, to the improvement of public health throughout the world. The permanent Secretariat of the League, established in Geneva in 1919 and transferred to Paris in 1922, is a central office equipped to collect and distribute information bearing on the peacetime work of Red Cross Societies, and to assist them in planning and carrying out their programmes. The Secretariat also acts as the collective

representative of the national Societies belonging to the League, and in this capacity maintains close co-operative relations with the Health Section of the League of Nations, the Of fice International d'Hygiène Publique, the International Labour Office, and the more important non-official international health organizations. The General Council, which is the supreme authority of the League, meets at least once every two years. It comprises delegates

from all Red Cross Societies members of the League. At its second meeting, in 1922, the Council recommended to all Red Cross Societies the adoption of peacetime programmes aimed especially at the development in their several countries of popular health instruction, public health nursing and Junior Red Cross organization. This is the basis upon which Red Cross Societies throughout the world are working to-day.

The Board of Governors of the League meets annually. It consists of representatives of each of the five founder societies, ten nominees of societies designated by the General Council, and the Director-General and Secretary-General. The Board of Governors directs the policy of the League in pursuance of the resolutions of the General Council.

We mentioned briefly last year (1) the Washington session of the National Conference of Social Work, the proceedings of which amount to an encyclopaedia of social work. Two features made this year's session somewhat of an experiment: first, it followed inmediately upon the 50th meeting, which, commemorating half a century of progress, was given unusual importance; besides, the Conference was to meet on Canadian soil, for the second time only in the history of these conferences.

The result has been what was to be expected from an organization which derives its strength from the democratic appeal it makes to every social worker, and from the leadership of such able, active and devoted men and women as Miss Grace Abbott, the President, Major W. H. Parker, the General Secretary, Dr Peter Bryce, the second Vice-President, in charge of the local arrangements, and their colleagues. In the number and character of the members,

(1) Fifty Years of Social Work, The World's Health, July 1923, IV, 7, pp. 20-21.

as well as in the variety and choice of subjects, attendances at the meetings, and interest in the discussions, the Toronto Conference was equal to any of its forerunners.

Ten general sessions, 52 section meetings, 28 meetings of kindred groups, various exhibitions, and numerous round table conferences covered the whole ground of social work.

The Conference was opened by a remarkable address on Public Protection of Children, delivered by the President, Miss Grace Abbott, and closed with two addresses on International Co-operation for Social Welfare, the speakers being Dr René Sand and Miss Jane Addams.

A Red Cross luncheon, attended by some 400 American and Canadian Red Cross workers, was organized on June 26th by the Canadian Red Cross, under the Chairmanship of Sir Robert Borden, ex-Premier of Canada. An extensive presentation and discussion of the Red Cross programme, especially of its Public Health Nursing and Junior Red Cross phases followed.