tion of the fining system; the establishment of a woman's reformatory; sex education and advice in the high schools and colleges to supplement home training; the publication of health bulletins by public health agencies; special care for feeble-minded children; the quarantine of venereally infected persons; compulsory reporting of venereal diseases; free diagnosis and treatment of venereal diseases, and compulsory treatment of venereally infected prisoners. WALTER CLARKE. American Social Hygiene Association, Chicago. "ANTISOCIAL" ELEMENTS. By Hans Gross. Archiv für Kriminalanthropologie und Kriminalistik. Band 64 1. und 2. Heft. 1915, pp. 51-53. Impressed with the apparent willingness and abandon which prisoners portray at various times in their desire to be helpful to humankind, Gross finds himself in a state of emotional ecstasy regarding their true sociability. He describes two incidents, one related by a co-worker, the other within his own experience. The former is an occurence in a penal institution, the inmates of which were maintaining that they could be of more use to their Fatherland by being away from prison walls, contributing their little mite to stave off the invaders than if they continued drawing unnecessarily upon the much-needed resources of the country. Although their wish could not be granted, Gross felt that the motive back of their desire was a most commendable one. Gross then relates his own experience at a watering place on the Adriatic. One dark night a serious fire started in one of the important buildings of the town. The citizens and visitors who turned out seemed entirely helpless. Especially was it necessary to save the large number of wine casks which were piled on the ground. But, confronted by a wall three meters high, and what was worse, by the extreme heat of the flames once the wall was scaled, not a man present placed so small a value upon his life as to risk losing it in such a certain trap. So the fire continued. Suddenly a concentrated, hurrying group of about two dozen could be seen rushing to the scene in double-quick time. In fifteen minutes a breech had been made in the wall, and in the scorching, blistering heat, those brave men rescued every one of the valuable casks. When the smoke cleared it was learned that the daring fire-fighters had come from a nearby penal institution, not one of the group sentenced for less than ten years' imprisonment. And although at work on one of the darkest nights in the year and assisted in every way by circumstances which make flight easy, not one of them even attempted to escape. As the last cask was being rescued by the above-mentioned social outcasts, completing a task from which the bravest in the community had shrunk, Gross leaned against a nearby tree and ruminated on the proposition: "The only social beings among us are the 'antisocial'!" SAMUEL C. KонS. Director, Psychopathic Department, House of Correction, Chi cago, Ill. |