" I WANT my child's life to be of use,"
Miss Buck writes, explaining why she is making public her experiences with a daughter who has not developed mentally past the age of four. She has received many letters from distressed parents, she says, and she thinks that her own experience may help them. Too little is known of the causes of mental defect. Her own child seemed normal at birth and physically grew to be beautiful, but by degrees it became obvious that she was not developing mentally. Miss Buck describes her weary round of doctors and psychologists in the United States, and how all, except for one German doctor, were. afraid to tell her that the case was hopeless. AfterWards she had to decide whether to keep the girl with her or put her in an institution, and, realising that the child would probably. outlive her, decided on an institution. Another tour of America in search of a suitable home followed. Some institutions she found' " mediaeval " • one a sham. She chose a- home finally where happiness was stressed above anything else ; but even then she found the parting, when the child was nine years old, almost intolerable. She makes various pleas in this short description of her own reactions to the problem. One is for a change in the public attitude to these children ; that they should be integrated more into society—as indeed they are in China, where Miss Buck lived for so long. Another is that more research into causes of mental defect should take place. She points out, too, that these children may have special compensations—her daughter has an enormous delight in classical music—and that by sheer " social sense " they may per- form more than their intelligence quotient leads one to expect. Some of this book, with its consideration of American institutions, will not be of practical value to the English parent ; but the general theme, treated with . frankness yet restraint, is universally touch- ing. Royalties are to be given to the Train. ing School at Vineland, New Jersey, which is doing important research in mental defect.
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