29 JANUARY 1927, Page 3

The supporters of the Mental Deficiency Bill, which was abandoned

at the end of the last autumn session, do not, we are glad to learn, intend to accept defeat. The Times has published a letter on this subject, signed by Sir Leslie Scott and several other persons of knowledge and expe- rience who have taken a deep interest in the problems of mental deficiency. The writers point out that by the Act of 1913 no one can be dealt with as mentally defective unless the defect has existed from birth or from an early age. Twelve years' working of the Act has shown that this definition leaves out, for example, those whose mental development has been arrested by accidental injury during adolescence, by sleepy sickness and so on.