Poverty a Social Disease. By the Rev. W. Edward Chadwick.
(S.P.C.K. 21.) —There is sound sense with the practical know- ledge acquired by experience in every page of Mr. Chadwick's pamphlet. We may give as an example the analogy which he establishes between the physician's treatment of disease and the social worker's treatment of poverty. The first thing that the former has to decide is,—is this a curable or an incurable case ? So it is with the social worker. "Incurable cases of poverty must generally be referred to the Poor Law, which usually should mean the workhouse." Curable cases are of various kinds. Drunkenness is one common cause. Hero the pledge comes in, ' to be used, however, with discretion. Loss of work is another cause. Here "the difficulties may be at once greater and less " ; greater because outward circumstances have to be modified, less
• because the sufferer himself is more tractable. A worker in this direction will do well to road what Mr. Chadwick has to say.
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