SAFETY FROM FEEBLE-MINDEDNESS 



185 



diseased through immorality have seemed to raise their heads 

 and say : " Here we are. We had tainted blood. We passed 

 our curse on." 



Study these charts. They were made up from records kept 

 in the Vineland institution. Some of them carry the family 

 line back from son to father for five generations, while each 



INHERITANCE OF FEEBLE-MINDEDNESS 



Squares represent males ; circles, females. Black means feeble-minded ; white with 

 N in it means normal ; without N it means no data. When striated they indicate 

 some condition worthy of note. A added means alcoholic ; T means tuberculous. 

 The hand points to the individual whose ancestry is studied. In this case notice that 

 both parents were feeble-minded and that the man had three feeble-minded brothers 

 and one feeble-minded sister. Notice also that the grandfather on the father's side 

 was feeble-minded. (From " Heredity as a Factor in the Problem of the Feeble- 

 minded Child," by H. H. Goddard) 



one shows what fathers and mothers and grandparents have 

 done for their descendants. Surely no disaster is greater than 

 that of being the descendant of feeble-minded ancestors. 1 



1 Dr. Ellis says : " Feeble-mindedness is an absolute dead weight on the 

 race ; it is an evil that is unmitigated. The unquestionable fact that in all 

 degrees it is highly inheritable renders it a deteriorating poison to the 

 race ; it depreciates the whole quality of a people." Also, " it is useless 

 to work for the coming of a better race if we impose upon it the task of 

 breaking the fetters its fathers have forged." 



