On the evening of Monday, April 25, 1932, the members of the fourth Study-tour of Mental Hospitals met at Cleves, seven miles east of the Dutch-German frontier. Two of our party used a private car and the others a motor coach, into which we had detrained at Nymwegen. We were joined there by Dr. Kraus of Santpoort and Herr Rou, an able and zealous guide, whom the Hamburg-Amerika Linie had sent to ease our way, and facilitate our intercourse with the German colleagues receiving us.

In the earlier papers of this series Stephenson has already reported an experiment in psychiatry, in which patients at Horton Mental Hospital have been tested by psychologists of the Spearman School of Factors.∗ The p-factor has been introduced and its contact with psychiatric material developed. The present paper serves to introduce the general factor in cognition (“g”), and to indicate the significance of measures of the g-factor for psychiatric research.

This study was undertaken in the furtherance of a project outlined in an earlier paper (I), namely, the development of objective means of estimating the progress of psycho-biological reactions. Perseveration has been touched upon in an earlier investigation, and it was determined to examine more closely what seemed to offer the possibility of a valuable mode of measurement.

The use of occupational therapy in mental or physical illness, as an adjunct to medical treatment, has developed rapidly during the past twelve years. As definitions often prove a snare to the uninitiated, and as no comprehensive phrase has been coined for this scientifically applied activity, it seems advisable to give a short survey—based largely on experience gained in the United States—of the manner and degree in which this therapy is contributing to the recovery of the sick to-day.

In the Journal for April, 1932, there was published the “Final Revision of the Classification of Mental Disorders drawn up after two and a half years' consideration and discussion by the Clinical Psychiatry Sub-Committee.

During the past year interest in occupation therapy has been greatly stimulated by the visits, organized by the Study-Tours Sub-Committee, to Gütersloh, where the system associated with the name of Dr. Simon and often spoken of as “active therapy” originated, and to Santpoort, where this system has been most thoroughly applied outside Germany. Following these comes the Board of Control's Memorandum,∗ reviewing the present position, and making definite recommendations for the initiation and development of occupation therapy on similar lines.