67 
inating influence even in a reformatory. With such a background as this, 
a favorable prognosis is impossible. 
One boy of sixteen years comes from a family that we have reason to 
believe is mentally subnormal. The mental examination shows him to be a 
moron, and our information is to the effect that his environment has not 
been particularly bad. ‘Though employed, he stole a wheel which he 
traded for a billy-goat he had long desired. 
Another boy is now with us for the second time. His congenital de- 
fect is of syphilitic origin and he presents many physical malformations, 
among which is a nose quite small and deformed. He had previously been 
in the reform school and was sent to us first for continuing his petty 
thievery after returning to his home, a small town in western Indiana. He 
was not long absent upon parole before he returned with a new sentence 
for horse-stealing, which act was without purpose but probably was due 
to the suggestion of associates. He recently appeared at our office with a 
smile upon his face and informed us that he had made a discovery. Upon 
being supplied with a nail, he passed it in one side of his nose and out the 
other. It afforded him great pleasure to exhibit this accomplishment to a 
clinic before a medical association. 
One boy of about eighteen, whom the psychological examination 
showed to be of low level, was convicted upon a charge of petit larceny. 
In the institution he was a hard worker both in the shop and in the 
school, but he could not accomplish a great deal. He explained in the most 
pleading terms to me at the time of his entrance, that he had been without 
work and while sleeping in a barn he found a fur overcoat which he took 
because he was so cold. Rather a delinquency than a crime is it not? 
And the cause? Mental incapacity, the inability to compete on equal terms 
with his fellows. 
From a scientific point of view, one of the most interesting cases we 
have had was that of a young man of the borderline class, having suffi- 
cient intellect to appear normal and about whose home life and environ- 
ment we have not been able to obtain sufficient data. He stabbed and 
killed a fellow inmate, almost a total stranger to him, for the sole reason 
that he wished to obtain a transfer to the State prison, where he would be 
given tobacco. Even a prison is not a complete protection against a men- 
tality such as this. 
Many more instances could be given from this one institution which 
