CEIME AND FEEBLE-MINDEDNESS. 117 



male driftiiig" into a life of crime or becoming" a habitual 

 drunkard, and to the female becoming- the victim of seduction — 

 tlie latter a lapse most calamitous for society, as feeble- 

 mindedness is hereditary. 



Although the description of the feeble-minded given 

 above is rather vague, there can be no doubt that the medical 

 men and others who have studied the subject have laid their 

 hands on a real class of persons. Tests have been devised, 

 consisting of questions and exercises, in order to ascertain 

 whether persons belono" to the feeble-minded. These are 

 supplemented by the history of the person. Tlie upshot has 

 been, not only uniformity of results obtained by different 

 investigators, but also a singular agreement between the pro- 

 portion of the feeble-minded in various classes of persons in 

 different parts of the world. Thus, in 1904, the proportion of 

 feeble-minded (diildren in schools in England and Wales was 

 g'iven at "8 per cent., ratlier less than 1 in 100 ; and Dr. .T. Marius 

 Moll has arrived at the same figure for the Transvaal Govern- 

 ment schools, that is, for European children in the Transvaal. 

 This proportion of less than 1 per cent, may be taken as the 

 proportion of feeble-minded amongst ordinary adults of the 

 European race. On the other hand, the proportion of feeble- 

 minded amongst convicts (/.e., condemned criminals) has been 

 found to be about 20 per cent, both in England and in the 

 Transvaal. This means that the feeble-minded are more than 

 twenty times as numerous amongst convicts as among ordinary 

 persons, and the proportion increases with increased criminality 

 as measured by previous convictions or, lo'ng- sentences. I am 

 informed by Mr. Xorman. the able and zealous Probationary 

 Officer at Johannesburg, that in the case of first offenders at 

 Joliannesburg the proportion of feeble-minded was 8 to 10 per 

 cent. In industrial schools the proportion has been found to 

 be from 7 to 16 per cent., the proportions varying in different 

 schools. In reformatories the figures have ranged between 

 8 and 25 per cent. In contrast with those comparatively low 

 proportions, we find high figures for long-sentence prisoners. 

 Thus, at the Central Prison, Pretoria, the proportion was 20 ])er 

 cent. ; on the Breakwater at Capeto\>'n, 25 per cent, feeble- 

 minded and 10 per cent, cases on the border. In Sing Sing 

 Prison, America, Dr. Gluch foimd the proportion of feeble- 

 minded to be 28 per cent. In homes for fallen women and 

 amongst arrested prostitutes the pro])ortion of feeble-minded is 

 enormous. Dr. Dunstan found it to be 90 per cent, at the 

 Home at Irene, near Pretoria, and figures from other parts 

 of the world make this proportion quite credible. The high 

 proportion of feeble-minded is not confined to criminals. In 

 the case of an Unemployment and Relief Board, the proportion 

 of feeble-minded amongst those to be relieved was found to be 

 21 per cent. 



It is clear from these figures that the question of feeble- 

 mindedness is of essential importance in dealing with 

 criminals. The credit of discovering this is due to the late 

 Dr. Goring, an English prison doctor, who, instead of pro- 

 pounding a high-sounding theorv about the criminal, like 



