After-care is especially imperative in cases of mental disorder. Patients may be discharged from insane hospitals in some cases if the physician can trust in the home environment. The social worker is his aid in these cases and thus helps to keep families together. The prevention of insanity and the after-care of patients is the object of the National Committee for Mental Hygiene which numbers Julia Lathrop, Jane Addams, Mrs. Philip Moore and several other women among its members. Dr. Thomas Salmon, a leader in this work, writes: “Women are active in this committee and I can say that we rely very much upon the wise counsel of these members of the committee.” DISTRICT NURSING Care of the sick in hospitals, as everyone knows, depends almost as much upon efficient nursing as upon the skill of the physician—in many cases, far more. Of the labors of nurses for humanity, it is not necessary to speak here. But in our present public health campaign, a new type of nurse has appeared, “the visiting nurse,” who watches homes to guard against disease as well as to cure, and she is now regarded by competent observers as the strategic point in the battle for improved health in our cities and towns. Ysabella Waters in her examination into the system of visiting nursing in the United States shows that in 1913 “50 health departments employed 867 visiting nurses, including 345 school nurses, 350 tuberculosis nurses, 107 infant hygiene nurses and 65 employed in other fields of sanitary work. At the same time 64 departments of education reported the employment of 200 visiting nurses in their work and Miss Waters obtained records of 2,367 nurses taking part in public health work under other auspices, most of them being engaged in the campaign against tuberculosis.” An excellent system of district nursing is that developed by Miss Lillian Wald from her Nurses Settlement in New York City, and, according to Professor Winslow, it was due to her far-sightedness and organizing ability that the application of the educational force of district nursing was made to the problem of tuberculosis. Miss Wald’s belief that the hospitals can never cope with disease and that home treatment is better and more practicable is borne out by the figures given for the total number of patients treated last year by the district nurses which indicates that the number visited and cared for was larger than the number treated by three large city hospitals in the same space of time. Ten per cent. is the proportion usually cited as the ratio of the sick taken to hospitals. Miss Wald contends that the treatment of patients in their homes, especially where children are concerned, is preferable to hospital care in most cases, and can be carried on in a way that compares favorably with the treatment accorded in hospitals and by the private nurse in the homes of the well-to-do.