SEQUEL TO " THE JUKES " 297 



who could not be called feeble-minded, their history 

 seems to have varied mainly as does that of most 

 of us with the opportunities of social " nurture." 

 But all this is too vague: let us take more precise 

 acts. In 1915 there were 43 male Jukes between 

 the ages of 15 and 18; out of 29, whose histories 

 are adequately known, " 18 are anti-social, doing 

 poorly in the world at large; 2 are criminal, while 

 7 are so obviously mentally defective as to be 

 noticeable to the general community." It may be 

 noted that all the Juke criminals were or are feeble- 

 minded. Of the 43 lads referred to above, 19 are 

 industrious. The number of males over 19 and 

 females over 15 was 705 in 1915, and 305 (or 43 

 per cent.) of these are "inimical to the general 

 welfare of the community," 41 are criminal, 

 103 mentally deficient, 83 intemperate. But 152 

 are industrious, and 65 are classed as " good citi- 

 zens." Of these good citizens, we are told that 

 " the bad traits which have held down their 

 brothers and sisters have become lost, and they are 

 the fountainheads of new families of socially good 

 strain." The word " lost " is arresting. It may be 

 that some of the bad traits illustrate Mendelian in- 

 heritance, and may, in the case of marriage into good 

 stock, be entirely absent in a certain proportion of 

 the grandchildren and subsequent descendants. 



On his laborious study of the Jukes, Dr. Esta- 

 brook bases some general conclusions: cousin-mat- 

 ings in radically-defective stock produce defective 

 offspring, even when the parents make a passable 



