33° 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MOXTHLY 



the fact that no definite standards 

 are available by which each immi- 

 grant may be judged as to his 

 mental development and normal- 

 ity. Mental defectiveness or back- 

 wardness in the Pole or Eussian 

 expresses itself in a very different 

 manner from the same conditions 

 in a West Indian negro or in a 

 Basque, or an Italian. Each is 

 accustomed to a more or less 

 limited and different range of ex- 

 perience. Each has a distinctive 

 hereditary endowment and has 

 grown up with a distinctive train- 

 ing, a peculiar environment and 

 habit of thought and action. Ex- 



RcssiAx Polish Gikl. 



perience and deduction agree that 

 each must be examined by methods 

 peculiarly suited to his own cir- 

 cumstances. Such methods can 

 only be developed from the experi- 

 ence of trained men in the careful 

 examination of many cases. Nu- 

 merous cases are put through a 

 detailed mental examination and 

 released because no definite and 

 recognizable sign of mental im- 

 ])airment could be obtained. Many 

 have latent symptoms which are 

 indefinite, but which if kept on 

 record for a large number of cases 

 would make possible a more exact 

 standard of diagnosis. If a care- 

 ful stenographic record were filed 



