68 Anthropological Investigations. 



As to the character of this class of children, this can be judged of 

 in two ways; first, by the cause of commitment to the institution, 

 and, second, by the conduct of the child since confinement. This 

 second criterion is undoubtedly the safer. 



As to the cause of coming here, as stated on admission of the 

 children, we find that 13 individuals of the whole number of 105 were 

 sent here for truancy, 9 for disobedience, 2 for running away, 1 ror 

 staying out late, 1 for begging, 1 for petty larceny, 1 for pilfer- 

 ing, and 3 for being ungovernable. All these together amount 

 to 30 per cent, of the 105 children, the remaining 70 per cent, came 

 here either for a home or on account of poverty of their parents or 

 guardians. 



Observation of the children since they have been in the insti- 

 tution shows that 3, only, out of the 105, behaved persistently badly. 

 Two of these individuals had at the same time inferior learning 

 abilities and bad heredity. ' 



The conclusion which can be made from the above data is, that 

 the physically entirely normal children are liable both to be children 

 with little heredity predisposition, and with fairly normal abilities 

 and character. These facts will be much better appreciated after 

 several of the following sections of this study have been perused dv 

 the reader. That there should be found among the children who 

 have no physical abnormalities a certain percentage with inferior 

 abilities and with a persistent bad behavior, shows that the mental 

 system can not be looked at as a mere reflection of the state 

 of the body, or the reverse; the brain can apparently have properties 

 which are not perceptible in the external parts of the individual. 



