complicated, and adaptation is more easy, than in the towns. There is a certain, practical, even easy way of finding out whether the teacher has been trying to keep in contact with real life, and whether his school for defectives is well managed. It is to find out what becomes of the defectives on leaving school, and what percentage he has been able to place in situations with a suitable salary. Such measures of control are so logical that they only require to be formulated to obtain the immediate assent of all sensible minds. Yet one may ask whether, as a matter of fact, in the schools managed by the State, the inspectors occupy themselves sufficiently with this practical side of education, and do not even make the mistake of judging the education by itself, according to a conventional, literary, or scientific ideal. We are not speaking of public schools, colleges, and lycées. These establishments are attended by normal children, and it may be admitted that it is not, strictly speaking, the business of the State to prepare these for social life. As a matter of fact, that is not our own opinion, but that does not matter. What is certain is that the duty of the State becomes more precise and more pressing when it is a question of assuring the lot of the defectives. Has it always been kept in mind that their education should put them in the way of an occupation, and that one should teach them nothing useless, so as not to make them lose their time? We do not think so. We hope that the schools for the blind take care to know whether the Braille which they teach their pupils is a method of reading and writing which will be useful to them in life; whether the manual arts, such as caning chairs, the making of brushes and mattresses, are the best means which they can teach to the non-musicians whereby to gain their bread. We equally hope that in the schools for the deaf and dumb, which are teaching their pupils by the oral method--with what effort, what expense, and what devotion one may imagine--they have inquired what percentage of their pupils attained the ability to communicate verbally with people other than their teachers, and also what is the percentage of pupils who, ten years after leaving school, still use that method and find it advantageous. All these questions should be asked, and conscientious minds should try to find an answer to them by impartial inquiry, in order to find out whether the methods are useful, and whether the school is directing its energies well. What is being done about this with respect to the schools for defectives? We must do this justice to the legislation at present projected with regard to defectives, that it is not indifferent with regard to this question of control. The Ministerial Commission, in which one of us took part, heard many demands for guarantees of this kind. Its mistrust was awakened, and it made a number of suggestions which have been included in the Bill.