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physical signs and on the X ray screen, that only Ithe discovery of the specific organism can make thediagnosis plain. It is believed that many cases

are missed and that the present fatality-rate of65 per cent. is consequently a good deal higher thanthe true rate. Colour has been lent to this view bya survey of the infection in cattle and sheep. No lessthan 18-4 per cent. of these animals were found to beinfected. Treatment is still in the experimentalstage. Success has been reported with intramuscularinjections of colloidal copper and with intravenous

injections of antimony potassium tartrate. X rayshave been found effective in superficial lesions.

Spontaneous cure seems to occur at times ; it istoo soon to say how often. Cases have now been

reported from 11 States besides California. Outsideof the United States two cases have been reportedfrom Naples and 14 from South America. The

question naturally arises as to whether the diseaseis limited geographically as closely as at first seemedlikely. Discovery of the mould in a natural non-pathogenic environment would be an advance.Further surveys of sheep and cattle may bring tolight unsuspected reservoirs of infection.

SOCIAL ASPECTS OF JUVENILE DELINQUENCY.To psychologists nowadays the principles of

" Erewhon " are a truism-at any rate when appliedto juvenile and adolescent crime. They have

yet to convince their brethren of the law, butit seems that they are likely to have more successin the attempt which they are making than lawyerswould perhaps receive were they to insist on trans-ferring our patients from our ministrations to those ofprison warders. At any rate the Medico-LegalSociety listened with attention and interest when ’,Dr. Emanuel Miller addressed them on Nov. 26th, ’arguing that crime was a kind of extra-version ofneurosis. He illuminated the moral issues involved Iby emphasising the effort of primitive peoples toinstil into their young all the essential features oftribal behaviour, so that they might become a vehiclefor the preservation of the community. At themoment when youth is most likely to rebel andseek individual paths it is submitted to a processof moulding-the initiation ceremony-designed toannihilate its will with savage vindictiveness.Dr. Miller traced the same idea in the Roman " patriapotestas

" and the legal enactments that have grownout of it. The patria potestas, he said, remains apsychological reality, and no dual problem of a

psychological and sociological nature can be under-stood unless this fact is realised. Identification withthe father allows the young self to absorb the

qualities of excellence and power and establish theideas of an adult life. It renders possible a will toconformity because the internal moral notionsanswer to the external social world of family demandsAnd later of social obligation. Very early in child-hood the fictions of the social order thus become theprivate fictions of the self, but if the process goeswrong-perhaps through an unsatisfactory parent-there is friction between the social self and the privateself. The result, said Dr. Miller, is neurosis, a kindof private solution in which the suffering returns tothe self in the form of neurotic or psychotic disabili-ties. If, however, the ego ideal is not well organisedin its relationship to the self, the conflict may beprojected upon the outer world and the social organisa-tion come to be regarded as the repressing forcewhich must be overcome. In this way the rebel

and the delinquent are made. Dr. Miller did not

exclude environmental factors altogether ; headmitted that the direction of neurotic symptomsmight very well be determined by playmates andolder companions. The factor of mental retardationalso plays its part by accounting for inferior emotionalintegration. He declared that a quest for a motivein juvenile crime is futile ; the child quite honestlydoes not know why he does this or that. Only aclose history of personality development and environ-mental influences could reveal to either subject or

observer the dominant factors of the situation.An attitude of legalism, he declared, merely introduceshostility and destroys human contact The investi-gator must have not only sympathy with the case,detachment from its implications, and an under-

standing of the factors, but also a knowledge of

himself, so that he may avoid the common error ofidentification and the belief that he is understandingthe child when actually he is only understandinghimself.

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RICKETS AND DENTAL CARIES.ELSEWHERE in our present issue Dr. Helen Mackay

describes an attempt to test Mrs. Mellanby’s theorythat tooth structure and liability to dental cariesare closely related. The plan was to examine forcaries the teeth of a series of children of school age(6-10 years) who were known to have had rickets,and to compare them with the teeth of children who-as far as could be ascertained-had not had rickets.For this purpose groups of 46 rachitic and 40 non-rachitic children were assembled, the rachitic groupconsisting almost entirely of children who had beenseen and diagnosed by Dr. Mackay herself at the timewhen they were suffering from rickets. Examinationof the teeth showed that while hypoplasia was almostconfined to the rachitic group, in which it was com-

paratively common, dental caries was equally severein the two groups ; the first observation thereforefalls perfectly into line with Mrs. Mellanby’s view,the second at first sight does not. There are, however,certain points which must be considered, and Dr.Mackay draws only one very limited conclusion-namely, that past rickets, in her series of cases, wasnot followed by an increased incidence of dentalcaries. Mrs. Mellanby has pointed out that, thoughof extreme importance, the bad early history of atooth is not the only significant factor in its sub-sequent welfare. Thus if an ill-formed tooth haslater a good history of vitamin D supply, it may dowell, while a tooth with a good early history and abad later one may fare ill. In the space of time,about four to eight years, between their havingrickets and having their teeth examined, the ricketychildren may have had no worse dietary history thanthose who did not have rickets, and for a certainperiod they must have had a much better one. Forif their rickets was diagnosed, presumably it was alsotreated with some intensive form of antirachitictreatment, possibly over a long period, and in so faras that was so, the rachitic children would certainlyhave scored dietetically over those who did not haverickets. It is not therefore possible to say from thisseries of cases that when all other conditions are

equal, early rickets does not predispose to dentalcaries ; Dr. Mackay is careful not to draw anyerroneous conclusion, and the reader should be equallycareful not to make broad assumptions. The latest

report of Mrs. Mellanby’s own work 1 is one of a large-1 Med. Research Council, Spec. Rep. Ser. No. 159. 1931.

Report by the Committee on Dental Disease.