PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY 



HELD AT PHILADELPHIA 

 FOR PROMOTING USEFUL KNOWLEDGE 



Vol. LI July, 1912 No. 205 



HEREDITY OF FEEBLE-MINDEDNESS. 



By henry H. GODDARD, PH.D. 



{Read April 19, 19 12.) 



In formulating the laws of human thought, the logicians recog- 

 nized what they called the fallacy of too few heads of classification. 

 This might he called the fallacy of ignorance or of immaturity. It 

 is characteristic of immature minds, the child mind and the begin- 

 nings of any science. To the child who has just learned the meaning 

 of " papa " and " mamma," it often happens that all men are " papas " 

 and all women are " mammas," while the child born in certain local- 

 ities believes that all men are either white or black. Similarly in the 

 beginnings of science, we are limited through a lack of knowledge to 

 a few heads of classification and our development comes by increas- 

 ing our genera or species. Coming more closely to our particular 

 problem, we find that for many years, mankind has beefi divided into 

 those who are sane and those who are insane, the latter class includ- 

 ing all those people whose behavior was so far from established 

 norms that they could not get along comfortably in the world by 

 themselves. 



To-day the mental defectives or feeble-minded are alluded to in 

 England as cases of congenital insanity. However, of late, we have 

 begun to draw a rather sharp line between insanity and mental 



PROG. AMER. PHH,. SOC. LI. 205 I, PRINTED JULY 23, I9I2. 



173 



