THE CONTROL OF THE FEEBLE-MINDED 475 



778. Medical men have often declared that the insane tend to 

 be infertile, and that, therefore, the type tends to die out. The 

 Report states : " With regard to the allegation of the small 

 ertility of mentally deficient persons, the reports of some of our 



medical investigators and other witnesses, both medical and other- 

 wise, tend to show that although, as might be expected for several 

 reasons, there is great mortality among the children of these 

 persons, there is also a very marked degree of fertility and 

 urvival to adult age, especially among those of the higher grades 

 who are termed feeble-minded. Miss Dendy, Honorary Secretary 

 of the Lancashire and Cheshire Association for the Permanent 

 Care of the Feeble-minded, a very experienced witness, has stated 

 elsewhere that from her personal knowledge she can show that the 

 ligher grades of feeble-minded persons (who are the most 

 numerous and dangerous) tend to have very large families ; and 

 she can prove this from the detailed records of 1,000 cases." 1 



779. In conclusion, the Commission sums up the general effect 

 of the evidence as follows : 



" ( i ) That both on grounds of fact and theory there is the highest 

 degree of probability that ' feeble-mindedness ' is usually spon- 

 taneous in origin that is not due to influences acting on the 

 parent and tends strongly to be inherited. 



" (2) That, especially in view of the evidence concerning fertility, 

 the prevention of mentally defective persons from becoming parents 

 would tend largely to diminish the number of such persons in the 

 population. 



"(3) That the evidence for these conclusions strongly supports 

 measures, which on other grounds are of pressing importance, for 

 placing mentally defective persons, men and women, who are 

 living at large and uncontrolled, in institutions where they will be 

 employed and detained ; and in this, and in other ways, kept under 

 effective supervision so long as may be necessary." 



780. " The question naturally rises whether it is desirable and 

 practicable that any steps should be taken to place obstacles in 

 the way of the marriage of persons ascertained to be mentally 

 defective, over and above the restrictions on marriage and procrea- 

 tion which would ensue from the detention in institutions of 

 mentally defective persons in whose case such procedure is deemed 

 necessary; and if there be a disposition to answer the question in 

 the affirmative, the problem must be faced, to which of the classes of 

 the mentally defective should such additional restriction be applied. 



1 Op. cit., vol. viii. p. 185. 



