176 GODDARD— HEREDITY OF FEEBLE-MINDEDNESS. [April 19, 



effect is more serious and this accounts for the fact that the physical 

 condition has in so many cases masked the hereditary factor and so 

 our understanding of feeble-mindedness is usually much compli- 

 cated by the presence of these diseased conditions. An illustration 

 will make this clear. 



Feeble-mindedness and epilepsy are often combined, constituting 

 a complex that is very troublesome. 



In the writer's opinion the problem would be much simplified by 

 recognizing two groups : first those who belong to a strain of pure 

 feeble-mindedness upon whom epilepsy has been grafted, and second 

 a group of normal people suffering from epilepsy but in whom the 

 epilepsy has produced an arrest of development and even set up a 

 degenerative process. The clinical appearance of the two groups 

 is much the same. The family history is needed to differentiate 

 them. 



Apparently also the Binet tests are useful on this line, those 

 who are primarily feeble-minded testing in the same manner as 

 other feeble-minded persons, that is to say, succeeding in the tests 

 up to a certain definite point beyond which they cannot go, whereas 

 those who are primarily normal but have deteriorated as a result 

 of the epilepsy, show a scattering in their answers, that is to say, in 

 some particulars, they show the intelligence of, for example, ten- 

 year-old people while in others, they are only six, the degenerative 

 processes set up by th.e epileptic attacks having destroyed certain 

 mental processes and not others. 



I shall not at this time go further into the question of the effects 



of the various diseases upon the different strains of mentality but 



shall content myself with showing you on the screen the portraits of 



ses of pure feeble-mindedness together with charts, showing that 



it is hereditary. 



Note: The author showed a number of slides of perfectly nor- 

 mal-looking people but whose mentality ranged from that of two- 

 year-old children up to that of ten-year-olds, although their physical 

 age was in each case much greater. Each portrait was followed by 

 a slide showing the hereditary character of the defect in several 

 generations. One portrait with its accompanying family chart is 

 here shown as an illustration. 



