NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 14926, 26 February 1912, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

THE BACKWARD CHILD IN SCHOOL. At the annual conference of teachers held in London recently Sir T. CrichtonBrowne, who occupied the chair, made; some interesting remarks on mental backwardness in school children. He eaid that the fact that backwardness was the one form of mental defect that was most remediable by mutable treatment, made the study of it of the first importance in relation to mental defect, and called for the co-operation of the teacher and the medical man. Hitherto backwardness had been dealt with mainly by educational methods. He would not underrate the value of these. They meant exercise, and had often quickened the sluggish brain and and awakened dormant power. On the other hand, they had often been futile by themselves, although they might have availed if combined with medical treatment, and often they had proved , worse than useless—sometimes cruel and hazardous. In his professional experience he had seen serious mischief done by forcing in cases of mental backwardness before the true nature of the backwardness was discovered', and when it was set down to indolence or obstinacy. It could not be too stronglv impressed, upon teachers that they should be on the lookout for individual children who exhibited backwardness or any mental peculiarity, and should bring them specially under the notice of the medical officer; and school medical officers should subject all such children to special examination, so that their mental capacity might bo gauged and any morbid conditions associated with their mental abnormality might be discovered and treated. Impaired nutrition was a frequent cause of temporary backwardness, and if long continued it might permanently dwarf and damage the brain. A GERMAN VIEW OF ISLAM. Herr K. Axenfeld, of the Berlin Missionary Society, in the course of a recent address on "The. Problem of Islam," pointed out that more than one-fifth of the non-Christian world was Mahomedan, but this was the most neglected in the field of' evangelization. It was only before Islam that Christianity had succumbed fa the great conflicts of world history, 'it was time ws stopped deceiving ourselves that the victory of Islam was won by the barbarous power of the sword. In the place of joyous readiness to carry the Gospel to Moslems Christendom had for centuries been dominated by the fear that it might itself be overwhelmed by the forward march of the Turks. Up to the present day the numerical increase of Islam by conversions from Christianity had been far greater than the number of Mahomedans won for Christianity through the efforts of Christian missions. In spite of the various sections into which the Moslem world was divided, it was none the less true that Islam was one of the most powerful unities that the world had ever seen. Tho most important element of this unity was that religion was for them the most precious thing, which they would not surrender. Politically the power of Islam had been broken, and Christian thought could not fail to see in this a striking Divine judgment. Tho growing readiness to learn was a most important element in the changed relations between Islam and Christianity. It was because they desired again to attain to independence and domination that they were willing to assimilate what had made Christians strong. Christian Europe, through its well-meant civilizing work, was, against its will, responsible lor tho Islamiising of primitive races.