The Mentally Retarded Patient

J. B. Lippincott Co. London: Pitman Medical Publishing (Jo. Pp. 203. 32s. The number of useful texts on mental deficiency is small, especially those by psychologists, so that a new volume written by the chief clinical psychologist of the Flower and Fifth Avenue Hospitals, New York, is opened with interest. The author, Harold Michal-Smith, draws a clear picture of the inadequacy of the social services in the United States for backward children and mental defectives. He points out that, apart from expensive private advice and care, special provision exists in only a few States and that even this is handicapped by outmoded and incorrect ideas about mental defect.