Hrdlicka. 5 



natural defects. Under such circumstances the asylum would be 

 no more than a correctional institute and could never turn out 

 normal children who would be fully capable of wrestling with the 

 difficulties with which they will be confronted in life. If such is the 

 case, the community could not expect to greatly improve them in 

 the short term of two or three years, but would have to take very 

 much prolonged additional care of these individuals. 



If, on the other hand, the inmates of the Juvenile Asylum are 

 not found to differ greatly in their strength and constitution from 

 the average ordinary children, and thus not be handicapped by 

 serious physical defects — then the state of these children will be 

 very much more hopeful. The community could in this case expect 

 that a course of proper training and instruction, such a course as 

 it tries to provide for these children in the Juvenile Asylum, would 

 be largely sufficient to elevate or reform these children and to allow 

 them to reach the normal average standard of boys and girls of 

 their ages. Individuals of this kind would be on an almost equal 

 footing in facing the problems of their lives with other individuals 

 who have never been socially or morally inferior, and they would be 

 almost as fully capable as these other children to become good and 

 useful members of the community. In this case it is plain that no 

 expense which the community might undergo to elevate and im- 

 prove the inmates of the Juvenile Asylum would be lost; further- 

 more, the community would be sure that every additional expense 

 for the benefit of this class of individuals would not be misapplied, 

 but could be expected to bring its proper returns. 



It is true that actual experience may have already largely illus- 

 trated the problems just stated by showing what percentage of the 

 discharged inmates of the Juvenile Asylum have become self sup- 

 porting men and women and good members of society ; but science, 

 which will give us an intimate knowledge of every individual child 

 admitted, will effect more than mere experience alone could ever do. 

 A thorough knowledge of the subjects concerned, of the children 

 who are being committed to and discharged from our juvenile 

 asylums, will alone sufficiently clear up the problem of what future 

 can be expected for these children. Such a knowledge ought 

 to guide us very largely in establishing the most efficient means to 



