I30 THE TREND OF THE RACE 



t5T3es of humanity. On the other hand, those who are mentallyl 

 defective or subnormal tend, through their lack of restraint and; 

 foresight, to be unusually prolific. The records of the Jukes, 

 Kallikaks, Nams, Hill Folk, Tribe of Ishmael and other notoriousi 

 defective strains show that these degenerates are distinguished! 

 for unusual fecundity which more than offsets their high infant ; 

 mortaHty. Dr. Wilmarth in reporting on some cases of thej 

 transmission of mental defect has incidentally chosen cases which ; 

 illustrate the high fecundity which is only too prevalent in this j 

 class: "Two children from one family are under our care. From i 

 the sheriff, who brought the children, and an intelligent neighbor, \ 

 I learned that the mother was weak mentally. The father seldom \ 

 worked but managed to raise his family on what he could obtain ; 

 in other ways. Not one of the eighteen children was a desirable 

 member of society. The girls drifted into disreputable lives; the \ 

 boys were idlers and thieves with no moral sense. I know a I 

 couple in Pittsburgh, Pa., whose nine children were all idiots of : 

 low grade. A family in eastern Wisconsin, the father and mother ! 

 are both feeble-minded; at least 7 of the 8 children are imbeciles; \ 

 5 we have cared for. A couple in this state have nine children, all ' 

 subnormal, and there are several, to my knowledge, in collateral i 

 branches of the family. One feeble-minded woman, now removed j 

 from the state, had by different men 18 children in 19 years, she ; 

 alleges. I have seen only three of her children. These were ' 

 feeble-minded and especially defective in moral sense." ^ | 



1 Dr. C. T. Ewart (Jour. Mental Science, 56, Oct., 1910) states that "Dr. Ettie \ 



Sayer, in the course of her work for the London City Council, studied the family ' 



history of 100 normal families and 100 families where mental defectives were found. ] 



The normal families averaged five in number, while families showing abnormality \ 



averaged 7.6, or nearly one-third as many more." It is not altogether clear from \ 



the account how the average number in the normal families was arrived at. If ' 



100 families were chosen and the average number of children computed, it would [ 



not form a fair basis of comparison with the fecundity of the stocks containing : 



mental defectives. Taking the mental defectives, or any lot of individuals however ] 



characterized, it is probable that they will be found to come from families of ! 



more than the average size. If we draw 100 people at random from the general < 



population, we are apt to get a preponderating number from families of relatively : 

 large size, since these present the largest number of individuals to draw from. If 

 we take 100 families and find the average number of individuals they contain, this 



