The term encopresis is used for those cases of fecal incontinence in which no definite organic lesion is present. It is less common than enuresis but is more distressing and is a symptom, often, of severe neurosis. It varies from mere soiling to playing with feces and can be divided into (1) simple soiling. (2) neurotic cases, and (3) cases associated with petit mal or vasovagal conditions. Partial soiling may be due to fear of asking to leave the room, fear of dark lavatory or simply lack of enough leisure in a badly managed home. Encopresis is primarily a psychogenic disorder and occurs in children who are in some way constitutionally predisposed to the particular response. It is. generally speaking, a protest against an inimical and threatening environment: an unconscious reaction both of aggression and fear. From the physiological point of view it would seem as though the emotional tension operated by cutting out the voluntary control of the excretory mechanism and reducing it to a spinal reflex. An enquiry into the child''s background may reveal some worry which requires adjusting. Advice may be accompanied by medicine both for its actual effect (pulv. cretae) and as a vehicle for suggestion. Some cases, however, are actually constipated. Direct psychological treatment by suggestion or other means, aimed at removal of the symptom, is desirable and further treatment can bo carried on for the neurosis as a whole. Play therapy is. important, while vocational guidance in adolescents is necessary as well as readjustment of their attitudes to their problems. A residential open air school or hostels for evacuated children often produces good results although everything depends on the good relations between staff and patients. Remedial exercises to strengthen abdominal and pelvic muscles are useful. If simple methods fail a period of observation in hospital may be advisable both to eliminate organic disease and to effect a salutary break. showing both parent and child that the habit can be stopped.