THE FEEBLE-MINDED 281 



treatment of the child, whereas the latter really was set 

 going by the former. To a large extent the community is to 

 blame for allowing " feeble-minded " children to be boarded 

 out except in proper medical institutions, guaranteed and 

 inspected by State authority. It is the same story as that 

 which was once common enough in regard to " lunatics," 

 but has now been put an end to by the law. The board- 

 ing-out of children, whether healthy or weak-minded, 

 should in all cases be illegal, except under proper official 

 sanction and guarantee. It is not only for the sake of the 

 children that this provision is necessary. It is certain 

 that foolish people have been led, in the absence of all 

 restraint and interference by public authority, to under- 

 take without evil intention the care of discarded children, 

 and have been led on by the hopeless dullness and obstin- 

 acy of a child with defective brain into cruel treatment of 

 it ; and when in some cases the child has died as the 

 natural consequence of its congenital feebleness, the 

 miserable guardians have been found guilty of causing its 

 death. Though little excuse can be made for such mis- 

 creants, it is greatly to be desired that the law should 

 step in at an earlier period, and both ensure proper care 

 for the feeble-minded child and remove from unqualified 

 guardians the chance of developing from a state of mere 

 ignorance into one of criminal responsibility. 



The Government Commission on the Treatment of the 

 Feeble-Minded, which has recently reported, has adopted 

 the view which I have explained in this article as to the 

 origin of feeble-mindedness. A large amount of evidence 

 was taken by the Commission from medical experts 

 and others. A certain number of the witnesses main- 

 tained the opinion that feeble-mindedness arises from the 

 action of deficiency of food, of overcrowding, and possibly 

 of drunkenness upon individuals of healthy strain, whose 

 offspring, as a consequence, exhibit feeble-mindedness. 





