For some years I have been making investigations into the intellectual, moral, and physical conditions of school children. These investigations found their original impulse when, as a member of a suburban board of education, I and a former prominent public educator of Brooklyn, were engaged in a study of the best methods of dealing with refractory and stupid children. Subsequently when in the homes of the poor, as medical visitor for a metropolitan hospital, and more recently when making investigations into the elemental and contributing factors of mental deficiency for various medical societies. I have been impressed with the alarming and the widespread disabilities of school children and their close relation to alcohol.
In several schools examined less than 20 per cent. and in some classes less than 2 per cent, of the children were found absolutely normal in mind and body. In an examination of the records of 63,000