=Hostile Head-Masters and Teachers.=--It is important to state that the procedure for selection which we have outlined can be carried out without the concurrence of the head-masters. As a matter of fact, one has to be prepared for everything, even the hostility of the school staff. It may be that a head-master who has a defective in his school refrains from mentioning the fact. It may be that he is indifferent, or does not believe in special education, or simply does not choose to put himself about; or, again, he may be timid and afraid of trouble, or may shrink from the recriminations of parents, behind whom he sees the hostile shadow of some town councillor or journalist. Lastly, he may be an ignoramus who, even at this time of day, imagines that a child cannot be a defective unless he has incontinence of urine or a sugar-loaf head. We have already come across several fellows of this kind. The sceptical type is most common. We recollect a head-master who, in response to our inquiry, replied with irritating calmness: "I have five hundred pupils in my school. I am sure that not one of them is a defective. You are of a different opinion. Well, my school is open. Come and see for yourself." And he added with a sceptical smile: "The school doctor and myself will be very curious to learn how you manage the inquiry." As a matter of fact, the proportion of defectives in his school was just the usual one--about 2 per cent. At the time when the Government Commission was holding its inquiry as to the number of defectives, we found in the statistical tables which we had in our hands that whole towns, even as important as Fontainebleau, had replied "None," yet we knew by personal inquiry that that reply was wrong. The systematic reticence of the head-master is therefore already in evidence, and will certainly turn up again even when the law is in full operation. Doubtless wiser counsels will prevail in the long run, and opposition will become less. But it will never disappear entirely. However, one will not be affected by it in picking out the backward children, but the children who are abnormal, though not backward, and the ill-balanced children, will perhaps escape, unless the inspector visits the school, and, knowing the disposition of the head-master, takes the precaution of questioning the teachers as to the children in their class who give them the most trouble in regard to discipline. As a rule the masters have an interest in pointing out these pupils in the hope that they will be removed. B THE RÔLE OF THE PRIMARY INSPECTOR: TO ACT AS REFEREE. In the pedagogical examination the inspector should exercise a measure of control. It is he who sets the teachers to fill up the schedules, who interprets the returns, and estimates their value.