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066 272 577
The Menace of the
Feeble-Minded
The tragic story of the Corwin family.
Ten thousand feeble-minded a con-
servative estimate of the number
at large in the State.
Only nineteen hundred feeble-
minded under care in the two
institutions in Massachusetts.
Eight hundred and eighty-six waiting
to be admitted on April 1st.
$64,775 the cost to the State of three
families with twenty children, or
about $3,240 per person.
What has happened in Massachusetts
because such cases as the above
are left at large
May, 1913
1.
HV
3004
PIZ
COMMITTEE ON PROTECTION OF
THE FEEBLE-MINDED
of the
MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION
OF CRUELTY TO CHILDREN
43 MT. VERNON STREET, BOSTON, MASS.
CHARLES P. PUTNAM, M.D., Chairman
C. C. CARSTENS, Secretary
BOSTON
Miss EDITH N. BURLEIGH
Miss FRANCES G. CURTIS
GRAFTON D. CUSHING
Mrs. E. GLENDOWER EVANS
H. BRADLEE FENNO
EDWARD T. HARTMAN
Miss ALICE L. HIGGINS
J. PRENTICE MURPHY
WILLIAM H. PEAR
Rev. MICHAEL J. SCANLAN
Mrs. QUINCY A. SHAW, JR.
Mrs. A. D. SHEFFIELD
DR. E. E. SOUTHARD
Miss LUCY WRIGHT
BEVERLY
Dr. NORMAN M. MACLEOD
Capt. JAMES A. WRIGHT
BROCKTON
Rev. DUDLEY H. FERRELL
GEORGE S. PAINE
FALL RIVER
#
Dr. JOHN H. GIFFORD
Miss ELLEN M. SHOVE
D
HAVERHILL
OLIVER S. HUBBARD
Mrs. GERTRUDE E. MERRILL
IPSWICH
Mrs. L. CARTERET FENNO
Mrs. W. E. TUCKER
NEW BEDFORD
Dr. ANNA W. CROACHER
Rev. PERCY GORDON
NORTHAMPTON
Dr. W. J. COLLINS
Mrs. H. D. SLEEPER
PITTSFIELD
Dr. BRACE W. PADDOCK
Dr. ALFREDA B. WITHINGTON
SPRINGFIELD
Miss FRANCES E. CHENEY
Miss EMMA C. YOUNGQUIST
WORCESTER
Dr. KENDALL EMERSON
Dr. SAMUEL B. WOODWARD
I. ONE OF MANY
Feeble-mindedness, physical deformity, sensuality, cor-
ruption of the youth, adultery, illegitimacy, and man-
slaughter! What a train of crime the Corwin* family
reveals.
The father is stupid and simple, though not a bad man.
The mother was recently committed to the Women's
Reformatory at Sherborn after a long record of adulterous
conduct, which she carried on with white and black alike,
before husband, children, and grandchildren, without any
feeling of shame.
Eleven children were born to this couple, but Thomas
is the only one who is known to be self-supporting and
respectable. The whereabouts of three others are un-
known. Gilbert, a son of twenty-five, was recently held
for the grand jury on the charge of manslaughter, but he
was so clearly defective that it would have been a second
crime to have punished him for what he had done, but
the bearing of which he could not comprehend. Instead,
he was certified as a mental defective and admitted to
the Institution for the Feeble-minded at Waverley.
Cora, a daughter of twenty-seven, is married to a
worthless, deformed, sensual creature, who has not
hesitated to enter into immoral relations with his wife's
mother. Cora herself has two illegitimate children, one
born before marriage and the other since. But these
women are not the ordinary prostitutes, for they take
particular delight in seeking out and corrupting the
young men and boys of their communities who are just
reaching maturity, and each acts as a decoy for the other,
and when a sister of ten was being assaulted in their own
house, Cora did not hesitate to look on from another
room. Cora has also been certified to be a defective, but
when a place was sought where this source of moral con-
tagion could be segregated, no room could be found for her.
*The names used in this pamphlet are all fictitious.
[3]
Edith, another daughter of thirty, is a repulsive, mis-
shapen idiot.
The remaining four children, together with two grand-
children, most of whom are too young as yet to determine
the grade of their mentality, have been removed from their
filthy and immoral home and committed to the State
Board of Charity, to be brought up at public expense for
better things, if only their heritage allows this to become
possible.
II. ESTIMATED NUMBER OF FEEBLE-MINDED
IN MASSACHUSETTS
Conditions in the Corwin family just described are not
unique or exaggerated. They are typical of a large
number of the feeble-minded in Massachusetts who are
not now under institutional care, though the number of
such persons living in our various communities is ex-
tremely difficult to determine.
In 1912 the State Board of Insanity made a census by
means of correspondence with overseers, hospital authori-
ties, superintendents of schools, social workers, and any
others who might know of any number of feeble-minded.
By this means 5,007 different cases were reported. Later
on, to test the accuracy of these reports, a house to house
canvass of twenty-one towns in Worcester County was
made. This revealed nearly three (2.8) times as many
cases in these towns as had been reported under the
previous correspondence method. These returns gave a
rate for these towns of one feeble-minded person to five
hundred and six of the population, or about two per
thousand, a rate that had previously been given as the
minimum in the report of the Commission to Study the
Increase of Criminals, Mental Defectives, Epileptics, and
Degenerates.
g
However, if the same proportion of under-statement
in the census by correspondence exists throughout the
State, then 14,000 rather than 5,000 is more nearly the
correct number. The true figure is between 5,000 and
14,000 persons, and probably about 10,000. This number
[4]
does not include any of the 1900 feeble-minded persons
receiving care in the two schools for the feeble-minded, in
1913.
III. OUR PRESENT SITUATION IN
MASSACHUSETTS
The development of accommodations for the institu-
tional care of the feeble-minded in Massachusetts has
been at least on a par with that in other States, but like
other States we have as yet only imperfectly awakened to
the menace that the feeble-minded have become to the
welfare of our communities.
About 1,500 are at present in the care of the Massa-
chusetts School for the Feeble-Minded at Waverley and
about 400 in the Wrentham State School at Wrentham,
a total of about 1,900 under care. In addition, there are
about 600 in the various almshouses of the State. The
last group, however, do not get training when they are
teachable, nor do they get the close oversight which their
condition requires.
A growing public sentiment requires that feeble-minded
women of child-bearing age who are a burden to the
community and a menace to the future wellbeing of the
race, and defectives with criminal tendencies shall be
segregated; that idiots shall have custodial care; and
that feeble-minded children shall have the training and
education that their mental capacities permit them to
enjoy. These requirements represent a change in public
sentiment which, together with a broader interpretation of
what constitutes feeble-mindedness and a better apprecia-
tion of the excellent care that these unfortunates are
receiving in modern institutions, is responsible for the
increase in the number of applications for admissions to
the schools of this class.
Unfortunately, however, the number to be admitted is
very quickly limited by the bed capacity of these schools,
and has shown a constant tendency to outrun the space
available. The following table shows the growth in the
number of applications for admission, the number
admitted, the number of inmates, and the bed capacity
for various recent years:
[5]

Year
1895
1900
1905
1910
1912
Applications
for admission
164
280
370
594
787
Number of per-
sons admitted
47
114
282
464
366
Inmates
426
626
934
1,642
1,855
Beds
421
600
1,002
1,650
1,841
The notable increase in the number of inmates from 900
to 1,600, namely, over seventy-five per cent, between 1905
and 1910, marks this as the period during which the rapid
growth of institutional care began. This great increase
in the number under care in 1910 and the large number
admitted in that year was largely due to the opening of
the new school at Wrentham. Throughout the table it
is evident that the number of inmates is constantly as
large or larger than the bed capacity, and in the report
of the school at Waverley for 1912, page 17, it is stated:
"We have been much overcrowded during the entire
year. At one time there were sixty patients sleeping on
mattresses on the floor, on settees, and even on tables
and chairs."
The significance of the figures in this table then will
lie mainly in comparing the number of persons admitted
with the number of persons applying for admission. In
spite of the opening of the new school at Wrentham and
the overcrowding both there and at Waverley, the table
shows conclusively that the schools are not only not
able to keep abreast of the demand, but are steadily
losing ground. Starting in 1905, when the number
admitted reached almost 300, a larger and larger number
of persons have been refused admission each year. For
example, in 1905 there were only 98 applications by
persons who could not be admitted; in 1910 the difference
had become 130 in spite of the opening of the second
school; while in 1912 there were 421 applications from
persons who could not be admitted for lack of room,
which was 55 more than were actually admitted during
the same year.
Nor does this tell the whole story. There is a wide-
[6]
spread feeling of the uselessness of forwarding more
applications. Court officers, physicians, overseers of the
poor, social workers, and others have been discouraged,
and no longer apply for more admissions while so many
previous applications are still on file. Because of the lack
of room the superintendents themselves have openly dis-
couraged needy cases from being applied for; notwith-
standing, during April, 1913, 886 cases, still considered
pressing as far as the superintendents knew, were awaiting
admission. Physicians in all parts of the State examine
new cases constantly, certify them as feeble-minded, the
court "commits" them, and then because of lack of room
nothing is done.

LARGE
000 — AT ENORMOUS O
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nun yaral
windand
WAITING LIST
IN
INSTITUTIONS
1900
COST
ΤΟ
STATE
IV. THE COST OF THE FEEBLE-MINDED
OUTSIDE OF INSTITUTIONS
Wherever a careful study has been made, feeble-
mindedness is found to constitute a serious drain upon
the resources of all public and private agencies for relief.
Resources which should be used for the relief of normal
[7]
persons are diverted to the needs of defectives, with the
result that conditions which should be made impossible
are perpetuated.
All who have studied or have had to do with the feeble-
minded are convinced that they inevitably become the
dependent, delinquent, or diseased members of their
communities, and producing offspring, these are equally
ignorant, immoral, and prolific. In one way or another
the burden of their support is thrown upon private or
more commonly upon public charity.
It is impossible to express adequately the cumulative
burden, but the following instances may help to make the
financial cost clear.
The probable cost to the State of Massachusetts of
twenty children in three defective families has recently
been calculated to be $64,775. These figures are based
upon the annual cost of maintenance of $125 for every
child committed to the State Board of Charity, and of
$180 for every one committed to the institutions for the
feeble-minded. In the case of the former the age of
twenty-one, or time of discharge in the cases where it had
already happened, was made the limit, while in the
case of the feeble-minded the expense was calculated up
to the age of thirty-three, which it may be assumed is a
conservative expectation of life. This gives an average
of about $3,240 for each child.
In "The Hill Folk," a Report on a Rural Community of
Hereditary Defectives, recently issued by Florence H.
Danielson and Charles B. Davenport, a chapter is devoted
to the financial burden entailed by criminals and de-
pendents of these family groups, living in a town of
Massachusetts. To compare the amount of poor relief
given to this family, the amounts paid in two decades
were studied, with the following result:
Decade
1879-89
excluding 1888
1901-10
Total aid to
Paupers
$15,964
27,045
[8]
Aid to The Hill
Families
$1,483
7,873
Per cent of total to
The Hill Families

9.3%
29.1%
This increase of poor relief of four hundred and thirty
per cent in three decades illustrates graphically the
growth of the burden. But this financial cost is but a
small part, for turning to the court and prison records
for the last thirty years, we find that at least sixteen
persons from The Hill Families have been sentenced to
prison for serious crimes during that time. The cost of
these sixteen persons to the county and State through
their courts and institutions has been at least $10,763.43.
The crimes committed included lewdness, rape, incest,
adultery, assault, burglary, etc. About one third of the
business of the court came from these families.
The third and largest item of expense was for the
maintenance of the wards of the State. Thirty-five
different members of these families have been State
charges, and for cost of commitment, board, clothing,
school tuition, officers, salaries, etc., they have cost by
careful computation as accurately as can be estimated,
$45,888.57. But of these thirty-five, twenty-one are still
under care, and their cost for the future has not been
included. To quote from the report: "The financial
burden, then, which The Hill people entail is constantly
increasing, and that far beyond the proportion of their
increase in numbers. This burden rests especially upon
the town in which they live. The four hundred per cent
increase in the financial aid which they have required in
the last decade presents this fact in a startling manner.
The large percentage of the crimes which were against
sex indicate that the influence which such persons exert
in a community is of far more importance than the
10,700 odd dollars spent in punishing the criminals after
the influence has been established. The money expended
on the State wards is well spent where even half of them
are trained for useful citizenship, but the imposition upon
society of an equal number of undesirable citizens calls
for a policy of prevention which will work hand in hand
with the present one of partial alleviation.'
[9]
>>
V. THE ALTERNATIVES, AND WHAT WE CAN
DO THIS YEAR
There are two important projects before the General
Court of 1913 by means of which help can be obtained in
making more suitable provision for these unfortunates
and in protecting our communities from crime, degrada-
tion, and misery, and from an increasing financial burden
without any relief in sight.
Under Chapter 495 of the Acts of 1911 the delinquents
in our various penal institutions who are certified as
defectives may be transferred to a department where
they may have continuous care suitable to their condi-
tion, so that they may not drift out again into the com-
munity and helplessly commit new offenses. To this
group may be added those inmates of our institutions
for the feeble-minded that are certified as having criminal
inclinations, as well as those who in our communities
show these same criminal tendencies and are a menace to
community life.
The Prison Commission of Massachusetts, who are
charged with the care of these unfortunates, after careful
study this year ask for an appropriation of $100,000 to
build a new department for women and girls at Sherborn,
and an additional $100,000 to build a similar department
at the State Farm for men over twenty-one.
The Institution for the Feeble-Minded at Waverley is
not only overcrowded, but it is administratively a com-
pleted unit and cannot very well have its bed capacity
added to. The State School at Wrentham is now building
two additional cottages to accommodate 210. This
year the Trustees are asking for an additional appropria-
tion of about $295,000 to provide for 345 more of these
unfortunates.
Feeble-mindedness is eighty per cent hereditary. By
segregation only can sufficient relief be obtained so that
these unfortunates will not propagate their kind. Both
of these appropriations should therefore be passed, for
they may be looked upon as a sound financial investment
for the future wellbeing of our State.
The State Board of Insanity should be asked to deter-
[10]
mine the approximate increase of this group of unfor-
tunates, and then if the State would place under care each
year an additional number, somewhat in excess of this
increase, the feeble-minded would in a generation largely
disappear.
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts faces two alter-
natives. Shall it continue forever to pay the constantly
increasing cost that the feeble-minded and their unfor-
tunate descendants are laying upon us through courts,
prisons, county jails, almshouses, hospitals, probation
service, care of children through the State Board of
Charity and overseers of the poor, to which must be
added the burden that they lay upon infant and orphan
asylums, associated charities, relief societies, and child-
helping agencies; or, shall we adopt the other alternative
and face courageously this problem with a remedy which
lies at hand? Segregation is humane and effective, and a
good financial investment for developing greater prosper-
ity and happiness in the future.
VI. VARIOUS TYPES OF THE FEEBLE-MINDED
AND EXAMPLES OF EACH
The results of feeble-mindedness manifest themselves
in many ways in our communities, and for convenience of
illustration five groups have been made. Many of the
illustrations given might, however, with equal justice
have been placed in one or another of these classes or in
several of them at the same time. All of these are on the
waiting lists of the two institutions and the relatives are
eager to have them protected. Space alone is lacking.
There are many hundreds more of each class in Massa-
chusetts.
(a) Young Women with Illegitimate Children
This type of case is well known to all public and private
charities. These young women are many times attractive
in appearance and demeanor, and fall easy prey to
designing men. When relieved of the care of infants
whom they do not know how to bring up, they often
drift into prostitution.
[11]
1. Bessie's mother came of a group who are notorious for
stupidity, feeble-mindedness, and intermarriage. Bessie went
to school, but could learn almost nothing. While still a mere
child she married a youth who had gotten her pregnant. After
he died she became pregnant again by her uncle, in spite of
her father's and sister's watchfulness. The letter from the
father making application for her commitment states, "She
has no capacity except for scandal and gossip, and this is made
use of by the lower element. . . I am getting old and cannot
keep up the fight," i.e., to keep his daughter out of trouble.
Her name is still on the waiting list for admission.
2. The mother of the Grand family married at seventeen,
gave birth to at least eleven children, and died at forty of
tuberculosis. Five of these children have died. Four of the
survivors are feeble-minded women. One of them has given
birth to a second illegitimate child and is now in the almshouse.
The three other feeble-minded are equally indolent and cannot
read or write, though two are at work in a candy factory at
simple tasks. All are passionate, and the father is anxious to
have them safeguarded, but so far in vain.
3. Sarah is a stupid Jewish girl of eighteen who is un-
doubtedly feeble-minded. Her mother is dead. Her home is
poor. She herself is undersized and in poor health. She is
untruthful and dishonest in money matters, and only capable
of the simplest tasks. She is now pregnant and in Boston
awaiting her confinement.
4. Wilma is an illiterate woman of twenty-five, whose mind
when tested was shown to be that of a child of seven. She
comes from a family which includes a long line of thieves,
prostitutes, and other degenerates of white and negro blood.
The girl is undersized and has an impediment in her speech.
She has had one illegitimate child, and is not safe on the street
unattended. Her sister, who was also feeble-minded, died as
a prostitute. Her feeble-minded brother has had three children.
born to him in his mother's house of prostitution that are now
in the care of the State Board of Charity. Another feeble-
minded brother has married a low-grade imbecile, to whom a
child has just been born.
5. Lillian was the nineteen-year-old girl of a most unfor-
tunate and unhappy union. Her mother proved to be defective
and immoral, and used Lillian as a decoy for finding vicious
[12]
men for her own practices. This inevitably led the girl astray,
and while at the State Infirmary to give birth to an illegitimate
child, she was pronounced feeble-minded and diseased.
6. Susie is an American girl of fifteen. Her father is now
dead, but while living never amounted to anything. Her
mother is a simple-minded woman. The girl is a low-grade
mental defective, and is now pregnant by her brother, who
has run away. She does not understand the significance of
her condition and is clearly not responsible for it. Two years
ago she could not be admitted to an institution for the feeble-
minded because of the waiting list, and now when she is to
enter it she leaves behind a defective baby for the community
to care for.
7. Dora is a defective, unmarried mother of twenty-four,
with an illegitimate child. She is very emotional and sensual.
Ever since she was a little girl she has submitted to or invited
sex relations with boys and men. In several families where
she has worked as a servant she has enticed the men of the
families by going into their rooms late at night or waiting for
them as they passed through the halls, for she says the presence
of men excites her beyond control. She has probably been
pregnant before and committed abortions. She passes over her
affairs as of no account. If allowed to live in the community
she will certainly be the mother of more children, and by reason
of her immoral actions will spread venereal disease far and wide.
8. Louise, a woman of twenty, belongs to a defective group
of children of an alcoholic father and a high-grade feeble-
minded mother, who was herself an illegitimate child. The
superintendent of the almshouse, in which she and her illegiti-
mate child have been for some time, pronounces her sexually
uncontrollable and a great menace, for in spite of constant
supervision she has threatened the life of her child. None
the less, specialists so far have deemed her uncommittable.
Pearl, an eighteen year old sister, is clearly feeble-minded,
but because of the waiting list she has had to remain at home,
where she was cruel and abusive to the younger children, and
was constantly subject to temptation from a Chinese laundry-
man and a criminal Italian living on either side of her. At
length she was transferred to the almshouse.
One son has been committed to an insane hospital; a second
to the Parental School, though really mentally defective; a
third, also defective, has become a ward of the State, while a
fourth has been admitted to the Wrentham State School.
[13]
(b) Irresponsible and Neglectful Parents
The offspring of the feeble-minded, even when not
defective, receive such cruel treatment, poor care and
training that they become the neglected and wayward
children of our communities. The last family is a case
in point. The father was alcoholic, the mother feeble-
minded. Of the seven children the one who was normal
lacked the bringing up that would in any way equip him
for life in his community.
9. Torney is a man of sixty who together with his wife are
both high-grade imbeciles of decadent New England stock.
The father is improvident and revengeful. The mother is
irritable, suspicious, and childish. Both have violent tempers.
A son of thirty-five does foolish if not crimina, pranks. He and
his mother have both been suspected of incendiarism. He has
served several terms in prison and his whereabouts are now
unknown. A daughter of twenty-five is a low-grade imbecile,
a vagrant, unchaste, diseased creature. She has married an
imbecile. There is a son of fifteen who is much like his father.
10. Williams, who seems feeble-minded but has not been
examined, married as his second wife a woman who is also
probably feeble-minded. She has borne him eleven children.
Four of these have been pronounced feeble-minded and are
now in the Waverley institution. Two more of them have
been taken by the State Board of Charity, and are suspected
of feeble-mindedness. The whereabouts of the rest are un-
known. The home conditions in which these people lived
were of the very worst. The children lived like animals and
were covered with both head and body vermin.
11. The father of the O'Neil family is intemperate, stutters,
and is a high-grade imbecile. The mother has an impediment
in her speech and is also an imbecile. Of the six children, one is
suspected of being feeble-minded and five are considered
feeble-minded. Of the last group, Joseph, a boy of ten, is a
low-grade idiot. He has never attended school. Henry and
Harold, twins of five, have no teeth, are undersized, of the
microcephalic idiot type, their health is poor and their speech
imperfect. Minnie, a girl of nine, is incapable of profiting by
the school instruction which the teachers are trying to give
her. Her speech is defective and she is also microcephalic.
[14]
12. Mary Cotter is a married woman of twenty-five who
comes from a degenerate family. Her husband, who is just out
of jail, is cruel and abusive, lazy, drunken, ugly, and apt to
steal most of his living. He has been arrested once for shooting
a man. At one time he threw this wife and her four days'
old baby out of doors. The first wife, who was half-witted,
died in a barn during childbirth. The overseers of the poor
write that he "always has some woman to abuse." The
home is filthy and ramshackle; there is insufficient food. A
man and woman who were unmarried have been living in the
home with them. The applicant is almost stone deaf and
talks with difficulty. She has been pronounced feeble-minded
and been committed by the court, but she is still at large and
her husband is trying to find her. Two of the children are in
the care of the State Board of Charity.
(c) Defective Delinquents
It is estimated that from twenty-five to thirty per cent
of the juvenile and adult inmates of our prisons and
reformatories are of this type. Our feeble-minded
institutions contain a considerable number of the same
group who, when discharged into the community, become
lawbreakers and again and again come before the courts
for commitment.
13. Edith is a feeble-minded girl of eighteen, whose mother
is dead and who boards with her father, now here, now there,
for they are forced to move frequently because of the girl's
abnormalities. She is nervous, excitable, and quick tempered;
she steals, sets fires, and breaks windows. Besides, she is
disgustingly filthy in her habits and does not hesitate to
falsely accuse men of having immoral relations with her.
Over a year ago she was pronounced feeble-minded, and her
father has asked that she may be protected. In the doctor's
letter accompanying the application he writes, "I hope you
can accept her at once, as she is a menace to the community."
14. Jacob, who is now seventeen, was born of a feeble-
minded mother. The home was dirty and disorderly in the
extreme. There is grave doubt whether she was ever married,
and her morality is at present questioned. The boy was in
special and ungraded classes most of his school life. He dis-
played a vicious influence over the rest of the children. He
[15]
has recently been committed to Concord Reformatory for
larceny and gross immorality. His admission to Waverley
some years ago would have been a blessing not only to him
but to others who have suffered at his hands.
15. Three children were born to the Easton family, two of
whom were blind idiots, but they have died. The third son
has recently been suspected of taking a purse from a woman's
pocket, and he admits that he has done this at several other
times. He is queer and troublesome at home, so that his
mother has felt that something was wrong with his head.
For instance, he will leave the house without clothing on, and
when questioned will say, "I can't help it." The physician
who has examined him feels that the only safeguard in his
case is custodial care which he cannot at present receive.
16. Samuel is a deaf and dumb Jewish boy of seventeen
who has a bad reputation with the police in his vicinity. He
has been twice arrested, once for breaking and entering and
once for having robbed a drunken woman. He is able to talk
but little, but what he says is of a vulgar and profane character.
His father has little sympathy with him and calls him "the
dummy."
(d) Idiots Requiring Institutional Care
This group is perhaps less a menace in the community
than a burden in the particular families into which they
have been born.
17. The Gardin family have four children surviving out of
eleven. Two of these, a grown man and a woman, are feeble-
minded. Both are totally blind and growing deaf. Their
education at the School for the Blind has been attempted, but
without success. The young man later tried to undertake
some simple industrial tasks in which many of the blind succeed,
but. he was not able to do even the simplest unaided. The
young woman still plays with the toys that will amuse a small
child.
18. Ann Simpson is a woman of forty-five with the mind of
a child of twelve. This woman's mother, who is undoubtedly
feeble-minded, has been immoral and has been at Deer Island
a good many times; a record of marriage cannot be found.
Ann was complained of by neighbors years ago because she
[16]
led young girls astray. An application was made for her
admission to an institution for the feeble-minded, but there
was no room. She has since had a venereal disease and has
served two years at Sherborn Reformatory for night-walking,
and is now a common prostitute whose whereabouts are
unknown.
19. Thompson is a man of forty-five, of a quiet temperament,
with no bad habits, who becomes violent and destructive when
he is abused or teased. He can neither read nor count, but he
needs shelter, understanding, and sympathy. In the crowded
condition of our institutions he is naturally among the last to
be admitted.
20. Frances Smith is a girl of about twenty, an only daughter,
but an imbecile of the lowest grade, who has never made the
slightest progress in school. She has just given birth to an
illegitimate child, but she is so stupid that even during her
confinement she could not be made to understand what had
happened and that the child was hers. The man who is thought
to be the father of the child is also of low mentality and unable
even to support himself. The mother is anxious that her
daughter shall now be admitted to the school, and she is on the
waiting list, but there is at present no room.
21. Rose is a feeble-minded woman of twenty-three. She
is crippled, scarcely talks, her left side is paralyzed, and she is
subject to convulsions. She is both untidy and destructive,
and her constant need of care and supervision is a great drag
on the household.
(e) Feeble-Minded Children
These are of a type that are capable of considerable
education and training. Though perhaps never to be
trusted out in the community, they can be in a measure
self-supporting in an institution.
22. A few months ago Lucia, a little Italian girl of thirteen,
when examined by an alienist, because her teacher had com-
plained of her backwardness, was found to be feeble-minded.
It was then learned that her maternal grandfather was insane;
that a maternal aunt was for two years in an insane hospital
in New York, and that her mother had been deported to Italy
[17]
because of insanity. The mental condition of the only other
children of these parents was tested and another child was
pronounced nervous, hysterical, and probably suffering from
epilepsy. The father of these girls is cruel to them at home, but
there is no place for them to have better protection.
23. Horace is a boy of nine whose name may indicate
descent from old New England stock. Upon examination
he was pronounced feeble-minded. He has been so trouble-
some at school that they have had to exclude him. He is
unruly, irritable, stubborn, and destructive. A brother was
for a time at the Worcester Insane Hospital. Both of his
parents are anxious that he might have the training that only
a special school can provide.
24. Wilfred is the only son of a mother who was decidedly
illiterate and intemperate, but who has now died of tuber-
culosis, and the boy is largely left without care from early
morning until night. Although seventeen years of age he
is so backward that he could not do the work of the first
grade. An alienist has recently pronounced him feeble-minded.
He is weak willed and untruthful, uses low language, and is
silly with girls. It is felt, however, that under direction he is
capable of doing some industrial work.
25. Hattie, a motherless girl, in the care of one of the
children's societies of Boston, has just been certified feeble-
minded. The father, a hard drinker, claims that has remarried,
but it is believed that he is living illegally with another woman.
At any rate he does not care for the girl. Her brothers have
repeatedly been truants and one of them is now in Concord
Reformatory. The girl is extremely backward and troublesome
in school, is unruly, stubborn, and deceitful, and needs special
training very much.
[18]
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BOSTON, MASS.

THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
DATE DUE
(9AM-5-1998
JAN 1998
AN 2 0 1998

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