214 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 



The feeble-minded population of the State does not appear 

 to be a shifting one. Of the 8.9 per cent, of cases born in New 

 Hampshire, but outside the town of present residence, the ma- 

 jority were born within the county as well, often in an adjacent 

 town, and the majority of those born in the United States, but 

 outside of New Hampshire, were born in one of the other New 

 England states. 



FEEBLE-MINDED CITIZENS IN PENNSYLVANIA * 



DR. WILHELMINE E. KEY 



DR. KEY'S report is based upon a four months' intensive study 

 of a rural community in northeastern Pennsylvania, containing 

 about 700 square miles and a population of 16,000. 



The purpose of the study was to determine the number of men- 

 tally defective persons in this community, and their cost to the 

 people of Pennsylvania, as well as to discover possible remedies 

 for a condition that experts agree becomes rapidly worse wher- 

 ever left unchecked. 



Dr. Key found in this district 508 persons, ranging in age from 

 six years upward, who were feeble-minded that is, who were 

 either clearly mentally defective, or who, being members of the 

 family of such a defective, have been so affected by their associa- 

 tions and environment as to be indistinguishable from mental 

 defectives in their conduct and social and family relations. 



In other words, more than three defectives not in institutions 

 were found for every 100 of the population of this Pennsylvania 

 community. This enumeration did not include a considerable 

 number of shiftless, indolent, inefficient persons, who had no clear 

 mental or physical defect, but who, in a stricter classification, 

 might be classed with the defectives, so far as their effect upon the 

 community is concerned. Nor did it include children under six, 

 unless they were obviously and unmistakably defective. 



A careful house-to-house study, oft-repeated, verified and am- 

 plified by examination of official records and family histories and 

 by consultation with well-informed neighbors and social workers, 

 developed several striking conclusions: 



i Adapted from Report of The Public Charities Association of Pennsyl- 

 vania, pp. 8-9; 36-46; 61-62. Publication No. 16. Phila., 1915. 



