Estabrook: The Indiana Survey 



159 



be worked out in B county for this 

 reason. This same condition of affairs 

 has excluded much intermarriage among 

 defective famihes, because of the fact 

 that these famihes are not segregated 

 into any definite locahty. As a result, 

 there is not as much association of the 

 feeble-minded with each other, and 

 accordingly there are not so many cases 

 of the defectives needing custodial care. 

 In B county 76 feeble-minded were 

 found needing institutional care, accord- 

 ing to the definition just above. 



FIGURES FOR WHOLE STATE 



If the figures obtained in these two 

 counties hold good for the rest of the 

 State of Indiana, it must be supposed 

 that there are about 5,000 epileptics 

 in the State, only 305 of whom are now 

 in the State village for epileptics. Of 

 course, many of these persons are not 

 anti-social in their conduct, but may 

 be leading useful lives. But even if their 

 labor is of benefit to the State, it is not 

 likely that their reproduction will be. 



A fair estimate indicates that there 

 are between 7,000 and 8,000 insane in 

 the State. The great majority of 

 these, over 5,300, are now cared for in 

 State hospitals for the insane, besides 

 400 patients on furlough from and still 

 under supervision of the hospitals. 

 In addition, there are 278 insane in the 

 Hospital for Insane Criminals at Mich- 

 igan City. 



The problem of the defective becomes 

 most apparent when the figure for 

 feeble-mindedness is considered. This 

 figure lies probably somewhere between 

 7.6 and 13.9 persons per 1,000 of the 

 population. Inasmuch as almost twice 

 the amount of feeble-mindedness was 

 found in A as in B county, it is impos- 

 sible to attempt to calculate the number 

 of feeble-minded in the State. A fair 



estimate will place it at about 20,000, 

 including all grades. It is estimated 

 that 6,000 of these should be under 

 State custodial care, and only 1,350 

 are now receiving it. 



The total number of epile])tic, insane 

 and feeble-minded in Indiana, then, 

 mav be assumed to be about 32,000, 

 or 1.2% or 12 to 1,000 of the general 

 population. It is evident from these 

 data that while more information is 

 necessary in order to know exactly 

 the problem of the mental defective 

 in this State, yet there can be no 

 doubt that the State should make 

 immediate provision for many more of 

 its defectives than it is now making. 



It is intei'esting to extend these 

 calculations to the entire United States, 

 even though little weight can be 

 attached to such speculations. If the 

 ratios found in these two counties held 

 good for the entire nation, there would 

 be more than 1,000,000 defectives 

 (epileptic, insane, or feeble-minded) in 

 the country. Large as this figure 

 appears, it is not much higher than some 

 of the most reliable estimates that 

 have been . made by students of the 

 problem. 



In conclusion, the survey here re- 

 ported is believed to be of interest 

 because it shows the approximate 

 amount of mental defectiveness of three 

 types in an ordinary, unselected, Amer- 

 ican population. The number of defec- 

 tives is great enough to be a serious 

 drag on the community at present, 

 and to threaten, through reproduction, 

 to become a much greater one in the 

 future. A large part of these defec- 

 tives are receiving no supervision — they 

 are often not even recognized. Appro- 

 priate measures can and should be 

 taken to prevent these persons from 

 reproducing their kind. 



Effect of Alcohol on Offspring 



Whether the offspring of alcoholized 

 rats are inferior to those from normal 

 parents is being tested by E. C. 

 MacDowell at the Carnegie Institution 

 Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, L. I. 

 A summary of the study is given in the 

 institution's annual report for 1916. 



He reports that "breathing the fumes 

 of alcohol for 90 minutes a day for 100 

 days does not cause lats to produce 

 voung with any sort of physical abnor- 

 malties that can be observed." Mental 

 tests of the young have given con- 

 tradictorv results. 



