FEEBLE-MINDED IN OHIO 



Survey of One County Shows That One Per Ceni of Population is Mentally De- 

 fective — One Large Clan is Found to Descend From Marriage of an 

 Immigrant With an Indian Squaw, Shortly Before Revolutionary 

 War — Few of the Feebleminded are Properly Cared For 



MiNA A. Sessions 

 Field-worker, Bureau of Juvenile Research, Columbus, 0. 



ON MARCH 1, 1916, a survey of a 

 rural county in Ohio was begun 

 by the Bureau of Juvenile Re- 

 search, to discover the extent 

 and social significance of fceble-minded- 

 ness in that particular part of the state. 

 The county chosen as the subject of 

 the survey is situated in what is known 

 as the hill section bordering the Ohio 

 River, and on July 1, 1916, had an 

 estimated population of 54,389. There 

 are but two cities in the co^^lt3^ each 

 of which has a population of between 

 six and seven thousand.* Along the 

 bottom lands of the streams there is 

 good farm land but because of its rough 

 surface the larger part of the county is 

 not suitable for agricultural purposes. 

 Coal mining is the principal industry 

 of the county. 



The field work was done and a de- 

 tailed report of findings has been pre- 

 par:;d by the writer. She worked in 

 the county studied from March 1 to 

 December 20, 1916 and rought informa- 

 tion in taeh township, first of all from 

 the imblic schools, and then from the 

 physicians and township trustees. The 

 county institutions Vv^crc visited and 

 the county and city of^cials, the one 

 district nurse, the one social worker, 

 and many private citizens were inter- 

 viewed. When cases of fccble-mirdcd- 

 ness were di:^eovcr. d in the schcols or 

 re]:ort(-d frcm ether sources, their 

 homes were ^'isiteel anel infoimaticn 

 obtained concerning thJr i^rsonal and 

 heredity histories. This ]jroccdure fre- 

 quently kd to the discovery of other 

 fseble-mindcd persons who were in 

 turn followed to their hemes. 



In gt;n-.ral no fenmal intelligence 

 tests were eiven, l^ut the susnccted 



eases were judged on a sociological 

 basis with possession of ability or in- 

 ability to maintain existence accepted 

 as the essential difference between the 

 normal and the feeble-minded person. 

 The definitions of th:; English Royal 

 Commission of 1904 were adopted as 

 the standard. It was recognized that 

 the environment in which many of the 

 inhabitants of the county lived was a 

 simple one, and for that reason a lower 

 degree of mentality was sufficient to 

 maintain a satisfactory existence than 

 would have been the case in a more 

 complicated environment. 



In the various state institutions there 

 were, on March first, two hundred 

 and fifty-three persons frcm this county 

 of whom forty-one were known to be 

 feeble-minded. Only twenty, or less 

 than half, of these were in the Institu- 

 tion for the Feeble-minded. Four were 

 in one of the State Hospitals and the 

 remaining seventeen, most of whom 

 had been given formal intelligence 

 tests, were in penal or correctional 

 institutions. 



In the County Infirmary there were 

 found sixty-seven inmates. Of these, 

 thirty-two individuals, or 47.7% of the 

 total Infirmary population, were depen- 

 dent on the county because their men- 

 tality was so low that they were unable 

 to maintain themsv Ives inci<: j^endently in 

 the cemmunity at large. Fleven indi- 

 viduals, or 16.4%, were there because 

 they had so broken down thdr physical 

 and mental health by the excessive use 

 of alcohol that they were no Ic.nger 

 able to make their own \Aay in the 

 world at large. It is lulalle that 

 seme at kast cf these alec?clics could 

 also be classed as fecbk-m.inckd since 



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