Knox: Tests for Mental Defects 



125 



latter, organic diseases of the central 

 nervous system occur, with possible 

 extinction of the line unless a strong 

 new blood is introduced. No comment 

 need be made upon this but there must 

 be some good reason why we are not all 

 insane or deficient. 



MARKED CHARACTERISTICS. 



Before taking up the actual tests used 

 in detecting mental enfeeblement some 

 of the characteristics that are possessed 

 in whole or part by all such cases may 

 be enumerated. They are: 



(1) Dullness and stupidity and an 

 inability to make use of such knowledge 

 as they may have acquired. 



(2) Faulty reasoning and judgment 

 and an inability to correctly estimate 

 sizes, shapes and forms; difficulty in 

 understanding any new system of life 

 to which they may be subjected and 

 customs and methods of procedure in 

 the everyday routine, etc. They may 

 find it difficult to take the measure of 

 other people and therefore become the 

 butt for practical jokes and the prey of 

 confidence men. 



(3) Lack of ingenuity and native 

 ability. Defectives are usually only 

 capable of performing work that they 

 have already learned after painstaking 

 training in much the same way that an 

 animal is taught tricks. They are un- 

 able to meet emergencies and to act and 

 think for themselves. They therefore 

 follow others blindly into crime or 

 slavery without thinking of their danger. 

 Persons like these blindly follow the 

 mob leader, dynamite boss, gangster or 

 cadet. 



(4) Faulty attention and memory. 

 The first of these renders it practically 

 impossible to learn anything compli- 

 cated. The second makes it unsafe to 

 depend upon such persons to perform 

 necessary acts with which they may be 

 entrusted, e.g., safety work for railroad 

 companies. 



(5) Exaggerated egotism, which 

 gives them confidence in their own abili- 

 ties, often at the expense of others. 

 Defectives are frequently lewd, obscene 

 and quarrelsome. Sextial atrocities and 

 murder accompanied by torture and 

 mutilation have been committed bv 



them in the frenzies of temper and pas- 

 sion to which minor disappointments 

 will sometimes drive them. 



(6) Selfishness and absence of the 

 altruistic sense are common attributes, 

 although the feeble-minded are at times 

 very faithful to those who care for and 

 protect them. 



(7) Emotional instability and hys- 

 terical outbursts are seen in various 

 degrees. Ill timed mirth and grief and 

 unusual reactions to minor excitations 

 are common. 



(8) Exaggerated suggestibility 

 which causes them to be easily led and 

 misdirected by more gifted persons. 



(9) Inability to withstand tempta- 

 tion. The baser qualities of the sub- 

 conscious mind cannot be inhibited and 

 dishonesty and other crime is the fre- 

 quent result. 



(10) Early brain fag and absence of 

 the power of sustained energy. Such 

 people are incapable of consistent effi- 

 cient work for any great length of time. 

 They are easily discontented and dis- 

 couraged with each new position they 

 obtain. 



NOMENCLATURE VAGUE. 



By this it is not -meant that all defec- 

 tives are possessed of all the above 

 mentioned characteristics but it is true 

 that every defective who is certified by 

 the United States Public Health Service 

 is possessed of a certain group of them 

 and perhaps in some cases all of them. 

 These ten are not all the peculiarities by 

 which defectives in general are distin- 

 guished, but the elements and mental 

 spheres enumerated here will serve to 

 give a clear idea of what constitutes 

 mental enfeeblement in the aliens who 

 are presented for examination. For- 

 tunately the term "feeble-mindedness" 

 is regarded by most alienists as a sort 

 of waste basket for many forms and 

 degrees of weakmindedness, and since 

 it is incorporated in the law as a man- 

 datorially excludable defect, it is espe- 

 cially suited to the needs of the exam- 

 iners who for the sake of conservatism 

 and certain fairness include many imbe- 

 ciles under the term. 



The commoner characteristics of de- 

 fectives have been given above. Know- 



