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of the period of education by two years in the case of these children seemed to
indicate hopefulness that additional instruction might lead to the establishment
of working capacity and powers and of a harmonious self-control in the scholars.
Gradually, in the years up to 1909, various tests of intelligence and capacity were
being tried out but there was no established scale and each of the medical officers
was making his own separate experiments and investigations. At this period
nomination for admission was made almost entirely by the teachers of the ordinary
schools. After the introduction of the system of general medical inspection under
the Administrative Provisions Act, nominations from the teachers were supplemented
by those from the school doctors. The numbers of admission examinations increased
as did the provision of special schools. After 1909 the work of Professor Binet
became known in England and the tests were tried out in some of the schools and
.at admission examinations so that at about 1912 these tests became part of the
recognised procedure of ascertainment. Between 1912 and 1914 data were
accumulating to shew their value in distinguishing between the innately defective
•children and the dull and backward children, and as a consequence the numbers
of higher grade children admitted very materially diminished. The war caused
a certain dislocation of the arrangements of classification owing to the frequent
changes of medical officers necessitated and it seems probable that some higher
grade cases may have been deemed backward and so not admitted, and that children
of a lower grade were given rather lengthy trials in school; this being due to the
fact that no one medical officer had the opportunity of seeing many of them for a
sufficiently long period to form a definite opinion that mental progress had ceased.
With the return of the regular staff, so that children could be kept under continuous
observation, these lower grade children were combed out. From the end of the
war onwards the standard of suitability for admission to special schools has been,
broadly, that a child should have a mental ratio of between § and ^ the normal
with some serious educational retardation, always supposing that retardation
could not be explained on other than mental grounds.

In the early days of the Act, if it became necessary to enforce attendance,
proceedings were taken before a Court whose decision on the facts was final. A
judgment of the High Court, however, based on the Elementary Education Administrative
Provisions Act, 1909, (Section 6), was that a Magistrate was bound to act
on the certificate signed by a duly qualified practitioner approved by the Board of
Education to the effect that the child was defective, and that a Magistrate was not
entitled to form his own opinion or question the child in the case where a decision
was not disputed. Later the position changed somewhat: by the Education Act,
1918, re-enacted in the Education Act, 1921, it was laid down that in a case of doubt
as to whether a child is or is not defective or epileptic the matter shall be determined
by the Board of Education. The final word on standardisation is thus in the hands
of the Board.
Dr. Boome has standardised certain tests which have been suggested for use
in the examination of alleged mentally defective children by their application to
Mental
testa.