A DEPARTMENT OF BIOCHEMICAL RESEARCH AT 

 VINELAND, NEW JERSEY^ 



AMOS W. PETERS 



To the Training School at Vineland, N. J., belongs the credit for 

 the first establishment anywhere in the world of a biochemical 

 laboratory as one means of investigation of the problem of feeble- 

 mindedness in children. To the writer of this article has fallen the 

 honor as well as the heavy duty of testing what are the possibilities 

 of biochemical research in the field of feeble-mindedness. The 

 large problem which this unfortunate affliction of a considerable 

 portion of humanity presents to organized society is becoming daily 

 more evident, as its economic bürden and its social consequences 

 force themselves on public attention. Research on the problem is a 

 crying need not simply f rom the humanitarian Standpoint, but also as 

 an economic necessity. The care and treatment of these cases and 

 the governmental management of this problem, including its amelior- 

 ment and prevention, will in the future rest on the basis of data ob- 

 tained by scientific research. At present we are proceeding on a 

 very small amount of such data and we are just discovering, after 

 some preliminary efforts made in the psychological direction, how 

 extensive and manysided this problem is. What assurance have we 

 that our present method of dealing with the problem is in rational 

 accord with the nature and origin of the condition? Our proce- 

 dures are in the stage of costly empiricism and in the very infancy 

 of scientific investigation. It is therefore an important step for- 

 ward when this Institution ventures to add to its present psycho- 

 logical method of investigation that of the rapidly growing and 

 fundamental science of biochemistry. The need for this additional 

 method of attack, and the tendency of expert thought toward it, is 

 well illustrated by the following quotation from the words of a 

 leader in the study of problems of psychopathology, Dr. Southard : 



^Reprinted from The Training School, 1912, ix, p. 70 (Sep.). 



238 



