84 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



permanently established in an institution for the care of mental defect- 

 ives. The field is new and full of promise and the movement is rapidly 

 growing in value and influences. This institution has comparatively 

 few children (390 in all) and many of these come from wealthy fam- 

 ilies whose ancestry is known or from families who have lived in New 

 Jersey for several generations. There are few communities of such 

 stable population and so much inter-family marriage. 



Institutional life and training is inferior, most of us will agree, to 

 that of even a mediocre or low-grade home, but there are at least two 

 groups of individuals who are exceptions to this general rule, the feeble 

 minded and the insane. Both are par excellence individuals of state 

 concern and state protection because the}' are incapable of self -direction, 

 self-control or self-support. The defectives, who are by-products of 

 unfinished humanity, belong in institutions where they may be cared 

 for, made happy and to some extent useful, and where they may be 

 studied for the betterment of civilization. 



Lines of Investigation at Vineland 



Dr. H. H. Goddard, Superintendent Johnstone and their field 

 workers, are spending much time at present on the problem of eugenics 

 — study of heredity. The home of each inmate has been carefully can- 

 vassed in order to get data which may throw light on the problem of 

 heredity. What has been the result? Three concrete cases will suffice 

 to indicate general tendencies. 



1. An alcoholic insane paternal grandfather, a tuberculous cancer- 

 ous maternal grandmother, imbecile mother with feeble-minded sister 

 married to imbecile father. Result: Five feeble-minded children, one 

 dead, one in custody, all the rest at large. 



2. An insane father, a feeble-minded mother, seven children all 

 mentally deficient; one in proper custody, one married, three in alms- 

 house with mother. 



3. A feeble-minded paternal grandmother, a neurotic maternal 

 grandfather, an alcoholic father, a neurotic mother with a " queer " 

 sister ; ten children, eight feeble-minded children, two uncertain ; one of 

 this family in proper custody. 



All of the children indicated " in custody " are at Vineland. 



Proper care of the feeble-minded and epileptics would prevent this 

 dangerous class from running at large and would help to solve the 

 fundamental problem of the causes of mental deficiency (Figs. 2 

 and 3). 



What are the controlling conditions of heredity ? What are the re- 

 sults ? The accompanying heredity charts which have been marked out 

 with great care indicate controlling tendencies and suggest the ques- 

 tion, Is Mendel's Law of Heredity, which has been proved for plants 

 and animals, applicable to human beings? This is ano+her important 



