68 THE FAMILY AND THE NATION 



CASE II 



Father, = Mother, 



unknown. 



mentally defective. 



husband = daughter, 



unknown. 



mentally defective. 



daughter, daughter, daughter, son, 



prostitute mentally defective, mentally defective, normal, 



before 15 years not married. in special school, 



old. I 



son, 

 mentally defective, 

 in special school. 



These family histories have been supplied through 

 the kindness of a member of a special school authority. 

 It may be as well to point out that such authorities 

 have no power at present to detain the children in the 

 special school, or to commit them to any other custodial 

 care after the age of sixteen. It must be remembered 

 also that such pedigrees are highly incomplete ; the 

 very fact of the mental defect of the persons involved 

 increases the difficulty of any efforts to get accurate and 

 full family histories, and there is at present no general 

 central office of sociology where the history of such 

 families can be followed, as the persons composing them 

 pass from special school to refuge and workhouse, and 

 from the reformatory to the police courts, the prisons, 

 and the asylums. 



It is an evident fact, yet one often overlooked, that 

 those who, through mental or physical defect, are unable 



