be a certain amount of irresponsibility, and need of guidance or protection, without which, too, there is always certain retrogression. Children they are in this respect, and children they will remain too often, alas, the tools or victims of the vicious, sure to go to the wall in a life struggle, or in competition with normal labor. A correct classification is of paramount importance, more especially as an aid to training. There are so many classifications that I do not find practical the pathological, the ethnological or physiognomical, etc. I can't do anything with these at all. They are all very well for pet theories they read very nicely in the text-book, and present to some people very attractive pictures, but to my mind the practical working classification is broadly two divisions the idiot, helpless and untrainable; the imbecile, which may include the moral imbecile (i. e., without the moral sense), trainable in three grades - low, middle and high and between the two the idio-imbecile, simply improvable, whose mental limit is soon reached. The period of training must depend largely, of course, upon the physical condition; feeble minds being always more or less associated with feeble bodies. Backward physically as well as mentally, the feeble-minded need longer time for building up to at least approximate a sound mind in a sound body. The home, where it is possible, or a well-regulated asylum nursery can best supply this up to about the sixth year, so that at the age when normal children are leaving kindergarten, mental training should begin with mental defectives; from this up to the fifteenth or sixteenth year the training should be steady and progressive, but always limited to capacity, and must stop at any age when limit is reached, lest pressure provoke deterioration or insanity. Powers of expression cease largely with adolescence, when some regular congenial employment, without anxiety or over-fatigue, must supply that stimulus most necessary to keep them up to the point they have reached. These are facts which the world at large does not understand; this is the reason why so many return to tell me: "I can't get along somehow. I am different from other people. I don't know what it is, but people don't understand me." And yet in their institution home they work happily and well in their measure, knowing nothing more is expected of them than the best they can do. The colony plan to which Mrs. Dunphy referred has long been a favorite theory with me, and I trust we may have it yet. It does seem the only natural provision for defectives, and the true outcome of the training of our brighter boys and girls, satisfying the natural longing for change, and the eager desire to test newfound powers. The self-respect implanted at such cost would be sustained by appreciation in a somewhat broader field, and labor no longer regarded as "child-work" might find its recognition in a suitable and reasonable compensation, while at the same time there would be that protection and paternalism so absolutely essential. The only hope of arresting rapid increase is by separation, asexualization and permanent sequestration, and this would largely be assured by a national colony or reservation. The government has already provided for the deaf-mute, the negro and the Indian, but here is a class amounting really to a race permeating ali branches of society, and too often causing trouble and disaster, yet in many states not even recognized by the law. Mrs. CHARLES E. CROUSE, Syracuse. In regard to the previous paper, I would like to state that, at the very last meeting of the State institution, there was a resolution passed to ask for an appropriation from the State of New York for the introduction of the "Sloyd system " of education into our institution; knowing, from nine years' experience as manager there, that manual training is one of the most important features of the education of the feeble-minded, this introduction is of very great import ance, and will undoubtedly prove as effective here as in the public schools, even more so. In correspondence with Dr. Fernald, of Massachusetts, the head of the State institution there, he told us that if all other methods of education should be excluded, or must be excluded, he would certainly pray for "Sloyd system or some form of manual training to be retained, as the best feature of education in the institutions for feeble-minded children. It is, therefore, our earnest hope that the State, when asked for this appropriation, will meet it. Mr. JULIUS HAMMERSLOUGH, Vice-President of the Institution for the Improved Instruction of Deaf Mutes of the City of New York. I feel like an orphan here because Mr. E. A. Gruver, principal of our institution, was expected to attend this meeting with me as one of the committee, together with our president, who, I am sorry to say, was stricken with sickness so that he cannot be present. The paper read by Mrs. Dunphy struck home so plainly that I cannot help but express my sentiments and approval. I have been connected with the institution, which I have the honor to represent, for the past twenty-five years. It has been my labor of love to be a member of the school committee, and naturally I have watched with care and attention the progress and the needs of the children that come under our charge, some 215, beginning with the age of five years. The younger we receive these children the better they can be trained. The matter that you were referring to particularly at this time is of special value to us because we are frequently brought face to face with the condition that feeble-minded children are presented to us for instruction, and that our institution is not the proper place for them. So far as I know, there is but one institution receiving deaf-mute feeble-minded children, which is the Syracuse Institution for Feeble-Minded Children. I am aware that a few feeble-minded deaf children have been received at Randall's Island, but it is not their custom to accept many, nor has either institution special facilities for teaching feeble-minded deaf children. The difficulty that presents itself is that we have a large number of deaf-mute children, and among them a few feeble-minded, that are proper subjects for another institution. The difficulty we find is that the parents and guardians of these children are very loth to send them far away from home. They like to keep their children near them, so that they can visit them frequently. I believe that the State of New York is charitable enough and should be willing enough to educate these children in separate institutions, and, if I am permitted to say so, I think that if the proper influences were brought to bear we should have a home for these feebleminded deaf-mutes, as well as for other feeble-minded children, in the city of New York. I cannot but feel that I should present this matter to this Conference, and I can only regret that it should not be presented to you in a more able way. I thank you, Mr. Chairman. At 5.15 P. M., the session adjourned. NINTH SESSION. Friday Evening, November 22, 1901, Association Hall. The first subject considered was the report of the Committee on Improved Housing, which was presented by Mr. Edward T. De vine, Chairman of the committee, beginning at 8.30. Mr. Devine presided throughout the session. REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON IMPROVED HOUSING. The Committee on Improved Housing is, like the new Committee on Sanatoria for Consumptives, an interesting sign of an awakened public conscience. The two new committees are closely related. They deal not primarily, as their names might suggest, with architecture and medical science, although physicians and architects are among the classes that must be called upon for their contributions. Our committees deal primarily and directly with the problem of saving human lives, destroying contagion, and increasing the number of healthful homes. Here the two committees part company, for the one considers the remedial work of an institution for those who are removed from their homes for treatment; the other considers the means by which the domestic environment may be made safe and reasonably comfortable. There are three known ways of contributing to this end: I. Restrictive legislation. Before discussing these remedies, we may profitably inquire as to what are the housing conditions which we seek to improve. Limiting our inquiry to the large cities of the State of New York, we find six cities of the first and second classes. Upon the housing conditions of New York city and Buffalo, I have had access to the admirable and exhaustive report of the Tenement-House Commission,- unfortunately not yet printed by the Legislature, although its recommendations have been embodied in law. Speaking of New York city, the report says: "The most serious evils may be grouped as follows: "1. Insufficiency of light and air due to narrow courts or air shafts, undue height, and to the occupation by the building or by adjacent buildings of too great a proportion of lot area. "2. Danger from fire. "3. Lack of separate water-closets and washing facilities. "4. Overcrowding. "5. Foul cellars and courts, and other like evils, which may be classed as bad housekeeping. * * The tenement districts of New York are places in which thou sands of people are living in the smallest space in which it is pos |