Schlapp: Causes of Defective Children 



391 



at the Post-Graduate Medical School 

 and Hospital, zve have recorded hun- 

 dreds of cases in which immigrant 

 couples who had produced normal chil- 

 dren in Europe, under familiar envi- 

 ronment, have, after their arrival in 

 this country and their projection into 

 the unfamiliar and enervating social 

 and economic situation, brought forth 

 one. two and in rare instances more 

 defectives. 



It seems to me that there can be no 

 question thqt the emotional nature of 

 man, and particularly of woman, plays 

 an important part in bringing about the 

 chemical disturbance which is responsi- 

 ble for such abnormalities. The home- 

 sickness of these mothers is always 

 marked, and this is the beginning of a 

 general emotional involvement. Strange- 

 ly, and yet naturally enough, after four 

 or five years, when the immigrants 

 have become adjusted to their new 

 environment, they bring forth healthy 

 children again. 



In the case of Mongolians and 

 microcephals, the endocrine disturbance 

 in the mother has evidently been grave, 

 resulting in a serious derangement of 

 the formative process of the cells in 

 the child. Unhappily, in the present 

 state of our knowledge we are unable 

 to treat such children successfully. But 

 in all probability we could prevent the 

 occurrence of these abnormalities in 

 children of previously healthy young 

 mothers, if the normal chemical bal- 

 ance of the mother could be restored 

 by treatment before the conception of 

 the children. Not only are we unable 

 to help such children materially, but we 

 do not know precisely what glands of 

 the mother or of the child are involved. 

 We have the suspicion of a pluri- 

 glandular involvement, and this notion 

 is sustained to some extent by the fact 

 that such cases have been kept under 

 pluri-glandular treatment for periods 

 of from eight to ten years and good 

 results have been secured, without, 

 however, having been able to achieve 

 normality. The well-known short-lived- 

 ness of such seriously defective indi- 

 viduals and their great susceptibility to 



infectious diseases would also seem to 

 support this idea. 



It will be seen from both the above 

 cases that strains and drains on women 

 are and must be responsible for the 

 birth of many inferior children. How 

 slight or how grave the inferiority may 

 be will depend, of course, upon the de- 

 gree to which the mother has been im- 

 poverished or harmed. 



Women in Industry and Business 



Nothing is more certain than that 

 woman is especially adapted by nature 

 to the anabolic process of storing up 

 energy to be used in ihe function of 

 child creation and nourishing. It is 

 obvious that if this energy, instead of 

 being used for the process for which 

 it was designed, be diverted to another 

 process, the organs which were created 

 for and adapted to the original process 

 will undergo a change comparable to 

 rust. That is, they will no longer be 

 able to perform their special task as 

 easily or as successfully as if the 

 energy supplied to them had never 

 been diverted to perform other tasks 

 of a different nature. Now, when the 

 supply of energy which nature has pre- 

 pared for the biologic function in a 

 woman is not disposed of through the 

 means provided, but is applied to the 

 performance of other tasks, this woman 

 naturally becomes less and less able to 

 bear healthy, normal children. Under 

 modern social and economic conditions 

 increasing numbers of women are ex- 

 pending the energy intended to be re- 

 served for their vital function in what 

 was formerly considered man's work. 

 It is only natural that such women are 

 likely to bear poor children and thus 

 to add materially to the afflictions of 

 society. 



But the problem is not merely one of 

 the mothers' misspent energies and ex- 

 hausted forces. The emotional side of 

 a woman's life is quite as important a 

 factor in this connection as the physical 

 side. The constant shocks to which a 

 woman is subjected in industrial and 

 business life have the effect of upset- 

 ting her glands and nervous system. 



