In the early years of this century a syndrome manifested by perceptuo-motor difficulties was described. During succeeding years further references were made to such a syndrome. In the first half of this century, however, children who suffered from such difficulties received little acknowledgement of their problems; few were neurologically assessed or offered remedia- tion. Many school teachers were unaware of the existence of such problems and so were unable to make allowances for the gross and fine motor difficulties and perceptual problems encountered by some pupils during the course of the...

In the early years of this century a Scottish doctor speculated on the evolutionary origin of human tears. It seemed to him that with the increase in brain size and cognitive powers of our early ancestors many events in the struggle for existence would be just too distressing to observe. How comforting then, for the mother, distraught by the sight of her child being devoured by a lion, to cloud her vision with a flood of tears! Just so, though if the good doctor had pondered further, the following picture might have occurred to him, comfortable in his speculative armchair, and given him some...