Harvard in Oriental Literature corresponds in a degree to the Hepburn Chair in American Political Science at the Imperial University of Tokyo.

Mrs. Etsu I. Sugimoto teaches Japanese at Columbia University. Classes in elementary Japanese average about ten members. Mrs. Sugimoto also teaches Japanese History and Culture, with an average class enrollment of twelve.

At the University of California, Professor Yoshi S. Kuno offers courses in Japanese language covering three years. Professor Kuno also lectures on Japanese life and culture, and on Japanese religion and ethics.

While the University of Chicago does not offer Japanese at present, its policy may be regarded as typical of those forward-looking universities which have that language in contemplation. The following is quoted from its catalog: "To the old Department of Semitic Languages and Literatures, covering the historic civilizations of the Near Orient only, have... been added the functions of an oriental seminary ultimately to include the Orient as a whole (except Sanskrit and Comparative Philology, which are naturally grouped with the classical languages). Thus far the old Department of Semitic Languages and Literatures forms the nucleus of the new organization, which for the present is made up of three sub-departments: (1) Sub-Department of Semitic Languages and Literatures; (2) Sub-Department of Egyptology; (3) Sub-Department of Russian Language and Institutions. To these, sub-departments of Chinese, Japanese, etc., may be added as circumstances may warrant."

It is thus seen that in the United States a small beginning has been made toward an acquaintance with the language and literature of Japan. Now that many Japanese books and periodicals are printed in the Roman characters, the process of learning the written language has been greatly facilitated, and there is no longer any valid reason why Japanese should not take its place with the standard modern languages in American colleges and universities.

A Health Clinic and its Effect on the Physical

and Mental Status of Children

C. O. WEBER AND DR. KATHERINE WOLFE,
UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA, LINCOLN, NEBRASKA.

I

SMURTANCE HE departments of school health already in existence have given such definite proof of their

T worth, that a school system which lacks such

service as they are able to give is rightly judged as archaic. These new achievements have interesting consequences in other fields. For instance, plenty of opportunity is now afforded to the psychologist to settle the long-neglected question of the effect of health on mentality. The variation of mental age with sex, race, schooling, etc., has been studied exhaustively; and so often is the question of its relation to health ignored that it suggests a sort of unconscious connivance on the part of psychologists. There is indeed a motive which leads the psychologist to neglect the relation between health and I. Q. With all scientists, the psychologist shares that lovable weakness of wanting formulæ to be constant. Now health, if it affects mental age at all, is bound to shake the time-honored tradition of the constancy of the I. Q.

In the summer of 1922, an unusual opportunity was afforded at Lincoln, Nebraska, to observe both the physical and the mental results of a nutritional clinic. It is the purpose of this paper to report the major results of this study.

II

The entire project was planned and executed by Dr. Katherine H. Wolfe, the city school physician. Dr. Emerson, the well-known nutritional expert from Boston and an assistant were secured to give scientific advice. Dr. Emerson gave stated lectures, examined the cases in person, prescribing a dietary program which was adjusted to individual needs. The

clinic lasted for eight weeks, the first week being the last week of school.

The subject formed two groups. A control group was formed in every district where experimental work went on. The experimental subjects consisted of malnourished children varying from to in age, and representing various sections of the city. But 14 of the experimental cases had bad tonsils removed in addition to receiving the dietary treatment. They are accordingly treated as a separate group in this study. In vacation time, it is difficult to induce all subjects to return at stated intervals to a designated place to be studied, and our records therefore have numerous blank spaces. But poor attendance is a sure sign of poor interest, and in justice to the experiment, only those cases are considered whose data sheets are complete for all tests made. Of the tonsil cases there were 14, the normal experimental group also consisted of 14 members, and the group of controls was 13 in number.

III. THE DIAGNOSTIC WORK.

At the invitation of Dr. Wolfe, the Department of Psychology of the University of Nebraska undertook to determine the effect of a nutritional program on the physical and mental capacities of the subjects. Dr. Wolfe and a group of cooperating physicians and nurses carried on other diagnosite work which we may in general designate as physiological.

The subjects were given four anthropometric tests: weight, right grip, left grip, and vital capacity. These tests were given with the instruments and according to the method prescribed by the Vineland Research Laboratory. The chief mental tests consisted of the Terman Group Test, and a series of "alertness" tests. Form A of the Terman test was given at the beginning of the clinic, and form B at the end. The "alertness" tests consisted of a number-cancellation test, the Porteus Maze test, two directions tests, and a digit-symbol 1 Doll, E. A., "Anthropometry as an Aid to Mental Diagnosis," Vineland Publications, No. 8, February, 1916.

test. These tests were given under the direction of Dr. W. S. Hyde, psychologist at the University of Nebraska.

IV. RESULTS.

Anthropometric Data.-Table 1 gives the averages of the physical and vital measurements of these various groups for the first and last weeks. It gives also the gross gain, and the per cent of gain or loss. We may average right grip, left grip and vital capacity together, as they represent measures of vitality as contrasted with weight, which is a measure of growth. This table shows that all subjects improved in vitality, and this may be ascribed to the effect of release from school work, and the open-air life that followed. However, the experimentals improved the most, and the tonsil cases improved the most of all. The slight loss in weight by the controls is the only loss in physical status that occurs.

Table II gives similar results for the Terman Group Test. All gained in this test, but the controls gained the least. As for the five alertness tests, all groups made a gain in all tests except the direction tests. In both of these tests, the normal experimental group show a loss, while the tonsil cases and the controls show a loss for one of them.

In general, this experiment shows that a dietary program, carried on for a short period of eight weeks, has a marked effect on the mental alertness and the mental capacity of children. This finding is in harmony with other similar studies, such as the demonstration given by J. E. W. Wallin that dental treatment will have an immediate beneficial effect on the mental capacity of children. The experiment shows, moreover, that there is an acquired factor in intelligence; and that it is false to suppose that intelligence is a fixed, hereditary characteristic.