28 THE KALLIKAK FAMILY 



The last family of half brothers and sisters of Deborah 

 are, at present, living with the mother and her second 

 husband. The oldest three of these are distinctly 

 feeble-minded. Between them and the two younger 

 children there was a stillbirth and a miscarriage. The 

 little ones appear normal and test normal for their ages, 

 but there is good reason to believe that they will develop 

 the same defect as they grow older. 



Besides the mother of Deborah, Justin and Eunice 

 had ten other children, of whom six died in infancy. 

 One of the daughters, Margaret, was taken by a good 

 family when a very small child. When she was about 

 thirteen, she visited her parents for a few weeks. While 

 her mother was away at work, her father, who was a 

 drunken brute, committed incest with her. When the 

 fact became known in her adopted home, she was placed 

 in the almshouse. The child born there soon died, and 

 she was again received into the family where she for- 

 merly lived. The care with which she was surrounded 

 prevented her from becoming a vicious woman. Al- 

 though of dull mentality, she was a good and cheerful 

 worker. When about thirty-five, she married a respect- 

 able workingman but has had no children by him. 



Another daughter, Abigail, feeble-minded, married 

 a feeble-minded man by whom she had two feeble- 



