88 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



Another line of activity in the Vineland research department has 

 been the gathering of statistics on physical growth of defectives. A 

 report of this work may be summed up as follows : 



The lowest grades (idiots) are from two to four inches shorter and 

 from five to fifteen pounds lighter than normal children of correspond- 

 ing age. 



The middle grades (imbeciles) are less than half this amount below 

 normal, while the highest grades (morons) do not differ appreciably 

 from normal children except that there is a tendency to become heavy. 



Commenting on these results Dr. Goddard writes, " Normal chil- 

 dren begin to grow fast at about eleven years. Among defectives this 

 acceleration does not come until two years later, but when it does come 

 it is a greater acceleration than in normals. This is not yet accounted 

 for but it suggests that it may have an important bearing upon our 

 treatment of school children at that critical age of eleven to fifteen." 



The difficulty with these measurements, like all others on normal 

 children, is the fact that they are based on one measurement of a large 

 number of individuals and not on repeated measurements of the same 

 individuals. An investigation soon to be published by the writer shows 

 that two characteristics of growth of which Dr. Goddard has found true 

 of deficient children, are characteristic of normal children as well. 

 That is they naturally form two groups at adolescence, the short boys 

 and girls beginning their rapid growth from one to two years later 

 than the tall boys and girls, and there seems to be a direct correlation 

 between rapid growth at adolescence and the advent of puberty for 

 both boys and girls, the shorter ones maturing later than the tall ones. 



Classification of Mentally Deficient Children 



Dr. Howe, who is best known from his work with the blind, at- 

 tempted to group all mentally deficient children under the headings 

 " simpletons," " fools " and " idiots," but the most widely accepted 

 classification to-day is that of Dr. Barr, of the Elwyn Training School, 

 Pennsylvania, who classifies them as " feeble-minded," " imbeciles " and 

 " idiots." 



A new classification has recently been adopted by the American 

 Association for the Study of the Feeble-minded. It is functional 

 rather than physiological and is as follows : 



Class 

 ► Idiot. 



Imbecile. 



7 years, Little errands in house. Dusts. LTigb 



