216 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 



county has done the best it could with the means at hand. 

 Surely it is high time that the State inaugurate a more intelli- 

 gent and far-reaching policy which shall forever rid these sections 

 of their unequal and undeserved burden." 



(3) There is a very distinct tendency for mental defect to run 

 in certain families, indicating the strong hereditary influence, 

 which can only be checked by steps to prevent marriage and 

 continued propagation of the kind. 



(4) Comparisons between groups of forty-five defective 

 women, and forty-five normal women in the same area, showed 

 that the average birth-rate for defectives was seven children to 

 each mother, while that of the normal women was two and nine- 

 tenths children for each mother. This excess of defective births 

 was not offset by higher mortality rate among defectives, the 

 actual survivals of children of defective mothers being twice as 

 great as in normal families. 



While it is recognized that this narrow inquiry, covering so few 

 cases, is not to be accepted as conclusive, it seems clear that in 

 this particular area, the tendency to multiplication is consider- 

 ably greater among defectives than among normals, thus intensi- 

 fying and emphasizing the problem of caring for and preventing 

 the unlimited propagation of mentally tainted children. . 



(5) Centers of defectiveness have flourished where remedial 

 agencies have been most active for relief of external conditions. 

 The lightening of the struggle for existence which this relief 

 brings only makes it easier for the defective to live on, procreate 

 and multiply his kind. The root of the evil lies not primarily 

 in external conditions, but in the failure to separate and restrain 

 inherently defective individuals from propagation. 



An interesting sidelight on the situation is contained in Dr. 

 Key's study of the rural school, in relation to the defective. 

 This disclosed 160 pupils whose inability to advance could be laid 

 primarily to hereditary defect. The detailed histories of fifty 

 such children are given in the report. An instance is cited, 

 where, of forty children in a certain school, ten were defective, or 

 retarded in their revelopment from two to four years. The ef- 

 fect of these children upon the normal children, and the waste 

 effort expended by and for the defectives is one of the sound 

 arguments for wider State supervision and care of defectives. 



