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The purpose of this paper is to examine the reliability and validity of the Abbreviated Mental Test (AMT) and the agreement with the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE).

This cross-sectional study included 446 older adults who were recruited by cluster sampling from 200,481 adults aged more than 60 years. For each participant, the AMT was administered by village health volunteers and, on a separate day, by a trained professional who also administered the MMSE. Descriptive statistics, Bland and Altman levels of agreement, and Receiver Operator Curves (ROCs) were used to analyze data.

Administration of the AMT by village health volunteers during the annual health screening found cognitive impairment in only 1.12% of the sample. When the AMT was given to these same individuals by trained professionals, the rate of cognitive impairment was almost 24 times greater. Two items in the Thai AMT may require modification due to markedly elevated failure rates. At the cut score of 8, the sensitivity and specificity of the AMT relative to the MMSE were moderate (78.83 and 66.67%, respectively). The degree of agreement between AMT and MMSE was 0.49 (p < 0.001) and the correlation between the difference scores and the mean is exceptionally low (0.048).

Reliable and valid cognitive screening assessment requires the administrator to be well trained and the tools to be appropriate for the population. Although AMT is short and easy for a nonprofessional to administer, some items were not suitable due to construct validity and contextual issues.

HAVING outlined the scheme for monotyped catalogues, it only remains to consider it in its financial aspects. At Hampstead tenders were obtained for the same catalogue by monotype, linotype, and by ordinary setting up. It may be mentioned that the catalogue is of royal‐octavo size, in double columns, each being fifteen ems wide and fifty deep. Main entries are in bourgeois; subject‐headings are set (by hand) in clarendon, and the entries under such headings are put in brevier. Notes and contents were specified for either minion or nonpareil, and many lines break into part‐italics. The monotype machine provided all these founts except the two already mentioned—italic numerals and clarendon. We had to do without the former type, but the latter not being numerous are easily carried in as wanted from an ordinary case. Naturally, I cannot give the exact figures of the accepted tender, but it may be stated that in our particular case the cheapest quotation was for linotype work, although there was not much difference between that and monotyping; whilst for both these methods worked out at appreciably less than the quotations for ordinary hand‐work.

We deeply regret to record the sudden death of Benjamin Henry Gerrans, F.I.C., at Clapham Park, on August 12th. For many years he had been chief assistant to the late Colonel Charles E. Cassal, upon whose decease he became Public Analyst for Kensington, the Borough of Battersea, additional Public Analyst for the City of Westminster, Public Analyst for the Kesteven and Holland divisions of Lincolnshire, and for the Borough of Chepping Wycombe. At the time of his death he was Public Analyst for the Metropolitan Borough of Chelsea and Official Agricultural Analyst for the Kesteven and Holland Divisions of Lincolnshire. In 1895 he was appointed as a Gas Examiner to the London County Council, in 1910 to the Urban District Council of Sittingbourne, and in 1921 to the County Borough of West Ham. For thirty‐eight years he was a member of the Consulting Scientific Staff of the British Analytical Control. His death will be keenly felt by all those who were privileged to know him and to appraise his worth. He was elected an Associate of the Institute of Chemistry in 1888.

The following is a partial abstract, with acknowledgments, of the latest report issued by the Ministry of Health. “This Report,” it is said, “should be of service to public analysts, analytical chemists and all those concerned with the determination of lead in food.” The condensed and valuable review describing methods for the determination of lead in foods, and a general method for the determination of small amounts of lead in food can hardly be abstracted, and we must refer readers to the report itself for the necessary details.

The following definitions and standards for food products have been adopted as a guide for the officials of this Department in enforcing the Food and Drugs Act. These are standards of identity and are not to be confused with standards of quality or grade; they are so framed as to exclude substances not mentioned in the definition and in each instance imply that the product is clean and sound. These definitions and standards include those published in S. R. A., F. D. 2, revision 4, and those adopted October 28, 1936.

THREE hundred years ago, on January 28th, 1613, the death occurred of Sir Thomas Bodley, whose name is immortalized in the library that he restored and which bears his name. Oxford's famous library, though originally founded by Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, owes its establishment to Thomas Bodley, who was born at Exeter in 1545.

THE summer is not a good time for writing editorials. In the first place it has been too warm, but more particularly, no matter how hot the topic at the time of writing, it will be cold as mutton before it eventually reaches its readers. Secondly our thoughts seem to have been devoted to anything except libraries: a little light reading perhaps, or a gentle discussion of next season's lecture programme? So now, not an editorial proper (or improper), but some editorial miscellany, beginning with the late but unregretted printing dispute. The LIBRARY WORLD has not been affected as much as some periodicals, and this issue makes its appearance only some three weeks later than planned. We have occasionally encountered comments which suggest that our journal is not anticipated each month with undue pleasure, and is quickly placed on the Chief Librarian's desk, from which honourable position its subsequent circulation is frequently delayed. Many libraries do not appear to have a professional journal circulation scheme, and this is a regrettable state of affairs. It is important that the younger members of the profession should be well informed about library affairs, and only the regular perusal of periodicals can achieve this. May we recommend that Chiefs institute and maintain a circulation programme in their libraries; we hear that it is much appreciated in those libraries which already do so.

It is not proposed here to treat the sheaf catalogue from a controversial point of view, and to enter into a detailed examination of the respective advantages and disadvantages of this as compared with other forms of catalogues. Many are alive to the merits of the sheaf catalogue, either as the only means of displaying and indexing the contents of a library, or as an addition to some already existing means, and it is for the use of these that the following practical notes on the making of a sheaf catalogue are submitted.

Considerable progress has been made in connection with the scientific survey now being undertaken as a preliminary to the consideration of improved methods of treatment and prevention of the ever increasing menace of grain pests, of which there are some seventy varieties. The survey is being made by the Stored Products Laboratory, of the Imperial College of Science and Technology, under the direction of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, and is being conducted by Professor Munro, assisted by a staff of experienced entomologists. At the commencement of the survey a research committee was appointed under the chairmanship of Dr. E. J. Butler, C.M.G., C.I.E., the Secretary of the Agricultural Research Council, to supervise the survey, consider its results, and report to the Department. Membership of the Research Committee includes, in addition to representation from Government Departments, Mr. W. P. Henderson, the Chief Chemist of the L.M.S. Railway, and Mr. W. McAuley Gracie, M.B.E., M.Inst.T., Chairman of the Standing Conference on Pest Infestation set up by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. At a recent meeting of the Research Committee, Professor Munro submitted a progress report dealing with the scientific survey, and on the convincing evidence contained in the report the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research sought the opinion of the Standing Conference on Pest Infestation as to whether consideration of control and remedial measures should be undertaken forthwith. The Standing Conference, whose membership comprises representatives of Government Departments, trading authorities and associations, including the Ministry of Agriculture, the four main line railway companies, the Port of London Authority, the Association of Master Lightermen and Barge Owners, the Research Association of British Flour Millers, the National Federation of Corn Trade Associations, the National Association of Corn and Agricultural Merchants, the National Farmers' Union, the Brewers' Society and the Maltsters' Association, took unanimous resolutions desiring the Department to secure immediate consideration of control and remedial action appropriate to the varying circumstances, and to extend the constitution of the Conference to bring into contributing membership interests outside the grain trade, but who are concerned with other produce susceptible to pest infestation, inasmuch as they would derive benefit from this stage of the work. The Chairman was authorised to negotiate with the Department accordingly and standing orders were suspended to enable him to admit into membership such bodies as furnished the requisite proof of interest. The Conference also urged that the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research should consult immediately with other appropriate public departments to secure adequate arrangements being made for the complete treatment of the problems of prevention and cure. The cost of such treatment, however, has to be met largely by industrial contributions, but it is understood that there is indication that generous contribution may be made from public funds towards the cost of the immediate remedial stage, providing that substantial industrial financial backing is forthcoming. Promises of further financial support have already been secured, but more money is required before negotiation can be entered into with the Department to obtain help from public funds. The co‐operation of all industrial organisations faced with the problem of infestation, by taking up contributory membership to support the conference in its national work, is urgently required. The problems of infestation can only be successfully combated if the complete co‐operation of all sections of industry in any way affected is secured. Full details and information regarding membership of the Conference can readily be obtained on application to the Chairman of the Standing Conference on Pest Infestation at the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, 16, Old Queen Street, London, S.W.1.

EVERY librarian in his inmost heart dislikes newspapers. He regards them as bad literature; attractors of undesirable readers; a drain upon the limited resources of the library; and a target against which the detractors of public libraries are constantly battering. From the standpoint of the librarian, newspapers are the most expensive and least productive articles stocked by a library, and their lavish provision is, perhaps, the most costly method of purchasing waste‐paper ever devised. Pressure of circumstances and local conditions combine, however, to muzzle the average librarian, and the consequence is that a perfectly honest and outspoken discussion of the newspaper question is very rarely seen. In these circumstances, an attempt to marshal the arguments for and against the newspaper, together with some account of a successful practical experiment at limitation, may prove interesting to readers of this magazine.