CRIME AND FEEBLE-MIXDEDXESS. 



By G. T. Moeice, K.C. B.A 



Read July IT, 1920. 



The study of the mental deficiency called feeble-minded- 

 iiess is of great importance for the promotion of social welfare. 

 There is reason to believe that want of knowledge of this 

 matter leads to wasted effort and expense. The subject has 

 recently been receiving much atteution in England and 

 America. In South Africa, Dr. J. Marius Moll, of Johannes- 

 burg, has been a pioneer worker on the subject and has 

 endeavoured to rouse public interest in it. My object in this 

 paper is to draw attention to the bearing on criminal law of 

 the new light on the subject. 



Advancing knowledge has shown chat the old broad dis- 

 tinction between sanity and insanity which prevailed in 

 criminal law was insufficient. About a century ago an English 

 Judge laid down that the insane person was one who was so 

 totally deprived of understanding and memory as to be as 

 ignorant of what he was doing as a wild beast. At the present 

 day no Judge would think of defining insanity in such uncom- 

 promiising terms. In fact, ever since McXaughton's case in 

 1843 there has been a controversy amongst English legal and 

 medical men as to what constitutes insanity in law. We know 

 the saying that there are no sharp distinctions in nature, an<l 

 this may be expected to ai)ply in a special manner to such a 

 subtle and complicated entity as the human mind. Medical 

 science is always tending to discover intermediate states between 

 the two classes which popular language distinguishes as the 

 sane and the insane. 



In recent years much attention has been given to a class 

 of mentally defective person known as feeble-minded or 

 morons, wlioin one hesitates to place among either the sane or 

 the insane. Tliey are persons whose mind does not develop 

 beyond that of a child of twelve, and thougdi not without some 

 intelligence are incapable of looking after themselves, and 

 require, when grown up, supervision such as the normal person 

 only requires in his childhood. This class of persons has been 

 recognised in recent legislation dealing witli the insane. In 

 the Mental Disorders Act, i)assed in the T^nion in 191G, the 

 feeble-minded person is described as one " in whose case there 

 exists from birth or from an early ag? mental defectiveness 

 not amoimtiug to imbecility, so that he is incapable of com- 

 peting on equal terms with his normal fellows or of managing 

 himself and his affairs with ordinary prudence, and who 

 requires care, supervision and control for liis own protection 

 and the protection of others." The chief (diaracteristic of the 

 feeble-minded, so far as I can make out, seems to be want of 

 intelligence, accompanied by weakness of will, leading to the 



