INHERITANCE OF MENTAL DEFECT 65 



reserved for the most part, by the especial providence 

 that watches over our social legislation, for those who 

 can afford to pay for a long and expensive course of 

 treatment. No really destitute person need apply ; 

 habitual cases of this sort are still treated by short 

 terms of imprisonment. But, in spite of these restric- 

 tions, which probably have the effect of raising the 

 social status of the inhabitants of Homes of Retreat, 

 it is estimated by the authorities concerned that 

 seventy per cent of these unfortunate people are 

 mentally defective, probably irreformable. They are 

 not drunkards in the sense of suffering from the drink 

 craze ; they are primarily feeble-minded, and probably 

 would never have acquired the vice had they been 

 earlier placed and kept under control. 



It is interesting to note that the general opinion of 

 these specially competent witnesses is that *' alcoholism 

 in one or both parents exerts its influence mainly by 

 impairing the vitality of the children. ... It has not 

 any special tendency to beget a proclivity to drunken- 

 ness in the offspring, but, in the manner indicated, has 

 a distinct influence in the production of feeble-minded- 

 ness and epilepsy. . . ." 



Another section of the report of the Commission 

 deals with the prevalence of sexual immorality among 

 the feeble - minded ; and here the evidence comes 

 chiefly from those who are acquainted with the subject 

 through the work of the Rescue Societies and the 

 workhouse maternity wards. The lack of self-control 

 which is noticeable among feeble-minded boys, and 

 drives them ultimately into the prisons, sends the girls 

 on to the streets, to become the prey of the first 



