The Caning of Girls Our Medical Correspondent writes : Dr.
Kitching, of Wetherby, has drawn attention, in the British Medical Journal, to the survival of a practice •which most people thought to be extinct. It seems that the caning of girls, up to and over the age of puberty, is still part of the corrective procedure permitted in the elementary schools -of this country. Moreover, it appears that there is no regulation debarring assistant masters from caning girls, even during menstruation. Dr. Kitching drew the atten- tion of the Medical Department of the Board of Education to this practice; and asked whether it had the Board's approval. The curt reply, to the effect that " the Board are not satisfied- that any alteration of- policy with regard to corporal punishment is necessary," is printed in the British Medical Journal. Correspondence in the current number of the Journal reveals instances which, on the face of it, are, from a medical point of view, scandalous. Whatever view may be taken as to the desirability or excusability of this form of punishment, it is well that the public—which, after all, is ultimately responsible for the conduct of the elementary schools of the country— be made acquainted with the facts.
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