INHERITANCE OF MENTAL DEFECT 69 



to support themselves, become a charge on the com- 

 munity. Whether they are supported by public funds 

 in workhouses, asylums, or prisons, or whether they 

 form an even heavier, because more localised, burden 

 on their relatives, they involve a tax on others, and 

 necessitate the expenditure of unproductive labour. 



A large proportion of the petty crime of the country 

 is due to feeble-mindedness ; much of the pauperism is 

 caused by mental or physical infirmity. Such qualities 

 are hereditary, and the direct cost to the normal 

 members of the community of the descendants of a 

 single criminal or feeble-minded pair is often appalling. 

 One such case has been investigated fully, that of the 

 notorious " Jukes " family in the United States of 

 America. The pedigree contains some 830 known 

 individuals, all descended from five sisters born about 

 1760. A large proportion of these individuals have 

 been in prison, some of them for serious crimes. 

 Frequently the women have consorted with criminals. 

 Many of the race have been paupers, partially or wholly 

 supported by the country. The total direct loss to the 

 state caused by this one family has been calculated as 

 about 260,000, while the indirect loss cannot be 

 estimated. 1 



Those familiar with our country villages recognise 

 that feeble-mindedness is specially rife in certain localities. 

 The cross -marriages between a few neighbouring 

 families, in which mental defects are hereditary, pro- 

 duce gradually a feeble-minded population. The present 

 tendency for the abler youth of the country to drift 

 into the towns, leaves the inferior stocks behind in the 



i The Jukes, by R. L. Dugdale : New York, 1884. 



