Henry Bergh, founder of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, was also involved in efforts to protect children. His invocation of the writ of habeas corpus was instrumental in removing a child from the home of an abusive adult. Although the well known case of Mary Ellen Wilson is acknowledged as the beginning of the child protection movement in America (it led to the founding of the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children in 1874), the case of Emily Thompson is believed to have been the first case in this country in which a child was removed from her home and brought to a court of law because of physical abuse. The second paper is a favorable comment by a lecturer in child psychiatry on an article (see NCJ 161855) which analyzed the concept of social isolation and the structural and qualitative aspects of the relationships that parents have with their social contacts. References