TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9537, 8 July 1909, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

THE SCHOOL SYLLABUS. The Hon. G. Fowlds, replying to a deputation from the Auckland Education Board, said that be hoped at the Dominion Conference to be held shortly it would be possible for inspectors to agree on a general interpretation of the school syllabus, which was intended to give freedom to the teacher. It was never intended that inspectors should examine on subjects not in the teacher's scheme of work. The conference should not, he thought, be confined to inspectors. The wnole question of syllabus could there be thraehed out, and the necessary adjustments coull follow.

INSURANCE AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT.

One of the measures which the Australian Federal Government proposes to submit to Parliament is a scheme of insurance against unemployment. In connnctiou with.this subject, there is a reference in the report of Sir John Cjckburn, submitted to the Commonwealth Parliament last week, on the "International Congress of Social Insurance," held in Rome in October, 1908. The subject elicited much discussion at the congress. It was admitted that'good results had followed the application of this system by the State injjseveral countries. The law in Denmark provides for associations of workmen belonging to one or more trades, or of employes, such as clerks and waiters. These are recognised by the State and receive State aid, amounting' to one-third of the premiums] collected by the'. Association. A total not to exceed £13,500. is distributed in proportion to the premiums collected by each association. The association must not afford assistance (1) to those who are unem ployed on acount of a strike ;r lockoumt; (2) to sick, or those who are unable to work; and (3) to those who have lost their work through drinking habits, er bad conduct, or a refusal to accept the work offered by the association. Assistance may take the form of travelling allowance, house rent, daily pay, or in kind. The daily pay must not exceed two-thirds of the carrent wages in the trade concerned, and a maximum and minimum amount are fixed.

DANIiERS OF THE X-RAY

The danger of misusing tha X-ray is the subject of an interesting paper by Dr Gordon G. Burdick, in the American Journal of Clinical Medicine. Dr Burdick warns us that all over the scientific world persons are paying the penalty for their rashness m handliig this terrible agent, of whose effects on the bodily ti 8 ies they knew so little. "The danger," he writes, "that has been ckne by unthinking manufact'irtrs and physicians, who have allowed children -of tender years 'to see th« bones of their hand' with the fluoroscopy, can only be guessed at, b"t a heavy toll has undoubtedly been exacted that will become apparent in after years in various ways. To see the average X-ray tor is to see an individual who has been unthoughtful and careless, one who will bear the maik i of his blind enthusiasm to the grave. They are falling all around us, dying with cancer from the ' chronic irritation, amputations of arms, lege, removal of bones that decayed from too much exposure, and so on. To see many of the electricians who have lived in the atmosphere is to see a living death personified, the tissues becoming corroded with ex quisitely tender ulcers, cracks, etc., making life bearable only under the influence of morhme." Dr Burdiek, however, makes it quite plain that he does not undervalue the X-ray when used for legitimate purposes: "As a diagnostic agent nothing will or can take its place. As a therapeutic agent for a limited class of diseases, not amenable to treament by any other means, this has been a benediction from the Almighty. That it has been misrepresented and has suffered from much ignorant handling j and dishonesty cannot be questioned." !