showed exceptional finesse. Her beauty and unusual charm had won him; he early learned that these were dependent on her having her way and that when crossed she would become frigid and unapproachable; and under this he discovered a veritable hornets' nest if aggressive interference with her plans or moods was employed. So through the years he saw to it well that no act of his diverted the sunshine; his clubs, his committees, his "business" kept him away through unpropitious days.

THE YOUNG MATRON.

At thirty-three, Mrs. Jordan Clark made her social season in New York a brilliant success. Her remarkable beauty was in full bloom-the mists of suspicion were gone-and with apparently unlimited resources her entertainments were unquestionably triumphs of art. Then stocks went tumbling,

and after several anxious months Jordan Clark had to tell his wife that their circumstances had fared badly, that he must really work to save the remnants. And be it said to his wife's honor that she met this as she had the pain of motherhood, and was chastened.

The New York apartment was given up, the home on the Heights leased, and for nearly three years they lived what, for them, was certainly a simple life her only serious liv ing; "our only happy married years," her husband afterward said. Undoubtedly, for those months she forgot herself in her sympathy for him who stood in need of her sacrifice. She willed to give it, and gave it freely, and these days stand as a record of what her life might have been.

Jordan Clark had business ability, almost business genius. and in three years they were independent; the old round of entertaining and entertainments, as befitted their wealth, was resumed. At forty-three, the shadows again lengthened. For a time the wife was self-accusatory, childishly and absurdly so; still, for her, this was a most abnormal frame of mind. Her unhappiness deepened, and for two years and a half strange hands cared for the wretched woman.

THE MIDDLE-AGED WOMAN.

This illness left Mrs. Clark permanently defective in any expressed or manifested effort at productive living. Beauty of body and mind have been dimmed and never returned. Fifteen years have passed. Through seven of these she has

had to be cared for away from home. Of course, through these illnesses she has taken many forms of treatment, but nothing has ever been found that could restore the defect made possible by her inadequate home training in early childhood. The mother cowered before her child's wilfulness, mistaking strength of selfishness for strength of character. The daughter lives on, now past sixty, weirdly maintaining her good looks through the falsifications of artifice. The thinnest possible shell of good manners remains-those common to selfish conventions. Pitiably narrowed is her horizon and hopelessly stunted is her soul. Stripped of youth and brocades and jewels, dainty, winning, rarely promising Hortense Wendell is but a withered wreck. Life has presented its riches on a golden tray; of these she has chosen as first the way of her will, and to no human will has she ever sacrificed a jot. The powers above thwarted her desires; her suffering became a disintegrating force, bringing to her falseness, incurable emptiness, and spiritual ugliness.-Hygeia.

HEALTH OF TORONTO CHILDREN

What we speak of as medical inspection of the schools was given its first start in France in 1833. This start consisted of a law providing for the inspection of the sanitary condition of the school premises and a general supervision of the health of the school children. Some fifty or sixty years after this, medical school inspection was taken up by the London School Board, which at that time appointed a medical officer to take charge of the work. In 1907 medical school inspection was made compulsory throughout England and Wales. On this continent, Boston in 1894 established the first medical inspection of schools. Toronto's system, established in April, 1910, was the first in Canada.

It was soon found that infectious diseases occur largely among pre-school children and the following up of the work in the homes was necessary. On account of it bringing a large group together in an organized way the school became the most important weapon in the hands of the authorities in their effort to combat the communicable diseases.

All children in Toronto undergo a complete physical examination at the time of entering and before leaving school. The mouths of all school children are examined every year and

faulty dental conditions corrected. The school organization enables the health department to keep in touch with children during their impressionable years and they are taught personal and public hygiene, the ways and means by which diseases are spread and how these can be prevented.

The Public Health Act of Ontario provides that in cities having a population of not less than 200,000 the local board of health may provide the medical and dental services in the schools and this has been done in Toronto. The school medical service staff consists of seven full-time physicians, four part-time, a part-time psychiatrist, and part-time eye specialist. The part-time physicians give five mornings a week to their work. The school medical officers are responsible to the medical officer of health through his deputy. They exclude all cases of communicable diseases from school that they find, or that are brought to their attention. They visit the homes of those children excluded from school by the school nurse as suspect cases, for the purpose of diagnosing such cases.

Complete physical examination in the first grade makes it possible to correct physical and mental defects at a time when it counts most. The second examination, made in the junior fourth, a year before the child leaves school, makes it possible to have remaining physical defects remedied so that the child may be physically fit upon entering the industrial world. The complete physical examination covers eyes, ears, nose, throat, heart, lungs and a survey of the child's general physical condition. An outstanding feature of the Toronto system is that parents are invited to attend at the time of these examinations. If the parent is not present, the school medical officer sends a notice to the parents stating the defects which he has found and recommending that the child be brought to the attention of the family physician. The same note is handed to the parent when present. It is found that about forty per cent. of school children have defects: vision, tonsils and nasal breathing, numbering largest.

If the child's physical condition is unsatisfactory during the school period, a special examination is made. School work must be essentially preventive in character, yet care is given those who have not developed properly in a physical sense. So auxiliary classes have been formed to bring the child up to normal, and at the same time carry on its mental training. Children suffering from malnutrition and those with a family. history of tuberculosis, or tuberculosis contacts, usually make

up such classes. From May to October, forest schools are conducted and the open air classes during the regular school term. The extra expenses are paid by the department. Fresh air, sleep and nourishing food soon make the child happy and well. High Park forest school is one of the best known of these. The child remains at school all day, a noon meal being provided as well as a cup of milk in the morning and afternoon. Couches and covers are provided and the children have a midday siesta of one hour and a half.

A special class for children with defective vision has been established. A specialist in mental diseases, with a specially trained nurse and secretary as his assistants, makes mental surveys of the school children. Those found to be mentally defective are recommended as cases suitable for the industrial classes. The object of these classes is to give individual care to these handicapped children and help them develop to the full their mental possibilities, to interest them in mechanical work so that they may become self-sustaining, respectable and normal citizens.

The staff of the school dental service in Toronto consists of twenty-five part-time, six half-days per week dentists, under a director of dental service. A yearly survey of all the school children is made. Between fifty and sixty per cent. are found to have some dental defect. A notice is sent to the parents, and, if they are unable to pay for the child at a private dentist, they sign a request for the department to provide the necessary care. Thousands of school children receive free dental treatment in this city. There are twenty-one school dental clinics and three special clinics for extraction.

The Toronto system of generalized public health nursing, which gives a small area of the city to each nurse, means that all of the field staff of eighty-five public nurses have certain duties in connection with the schools. Generally they spend their mornings in the schools.

All children who have been absent from school two or more days are examined by a nurse before being readmitted to the class-room. If the child has been excluded on account of a communicable disease it must bring a certificate from the division of quarantine stating that the child may return to school. Minor skin conditions are treated by the nurse, and a series of eight talks on health, outlined by the department, is given by her annually in the schools, or by the teacher if the latter desires to give them.-Selected.

INVESTMENTS AND SPECULATIONS

In view of the number of doctors who are inclined to "take a chance," a contemporary writer says:

If we assume that investments are better for the physician than speculations, we have only partly surveyed the ground. Why should he save at all? Here are a few reasons:

To develop a retirement fund which will finance himself and his family during old age.

To build up reserve fund to take care of ill-health or other periods of enforced inactivity.

To get funds to defray the expenses of a vacation, or a trip abroad for pleasure or for study.

To get funds to own his own home or to construct a sanitarium.

To develop the means for sending children to college.

To accumulate a fund to endow a chair for special scientific research, or to help worthy young scientists.

To create an estate, the income on which will support dependents in the event of the death of the breadwinner.

DOCTORS AS MEN OF LETTERS

Your review of Dr. MacLaurin's "Post Mortem" in a recent Spectator and an evening spent with that curious book have made me wonder why so few doctors have been writers. Chekov and Sir Thomas Browne are two who come first to mind, but I find it hard to recall a dozen doctors who are remembered for their imaginative writings. The literature of medicine seems to have absorbed like a dry sponge all the fancy and creative energy of the profession. Beside the army of literary parsons and politicians in English literature alone, the doctors make a poor show. This is to be wondered at more especially since the novel has become an almost instinctive form of expression for any one with the idlest inclination to write. The doctor, above all people, has exceptional opportunities for studying human beings. He comes into contact with all sorts of people under conditions that throw their actions and character into bold relief. He is necessarily a trained observer, and yet, with all this raw material at his disposal, he is seldom tempted to try his hand at literature.

Among the few doctor novelists it may be interesting to recall Samuel Warren, the author of "Ten Thousand a Year." This forgotten novel appeared in three dense volumes in 1841,