Hrdlicka. 8i 



encouraging-. Twenty-three, or 45 per cent., of these children were 

 brought to the institution for some sort of misconduct. In 14 in- 

 stances the misconduct was disobedience, in 7 cases truancy, in i 

 staying out, and in 1 petit larceny. In 2 of the children the behavior 

 since they have been in the asylum is bad. In 1 boy the speech is 

 very defective. 



Thirteen and seven-tenths per cent, of the children whose one or 

 both parents died of consumption were of inferior abilities in learn- 

 ing, and no one of the 51 children showed in any way an exceptional 

 brightness. 



Both the ordinary orphans and the orphans whose parents we 

 know succumbed to consumption are shown in these last two divi- 

 sions to be physically inferior, not only to entirely normal children, 

 but also to the average of all the asylum children taken together. 

 In both classes, besides, there is apparent a considerable tendency 

 for misconduct. The physical inferiority of these individuals is un- 

 doubtedly due to a very large extent to the inherited deficiencies in 

 their constitution. The tendency to misbehavior may be partly due 

 to some deficiencies, but is in all probability much more due to 

 improper training and other causes of social character, which were 

 the results of the decease of the parents of the children. The simi- 

 larity in the data concerning both of these classes of orphans is 

 undoubtedly due to the fact that in each of the classes there are 

 many individuals who at the same time belong also to the other 

 division. 



CONCLUSION. 



It seems to me that the most proper way to conclude this study 

 will be not by any generalizations, but with a wish for the extension 

 of similar investigations. There is a broad and promising field for 

 studies of this nature in Juvenile Asylums, as well as in other institu- 

 tions in this country, and particularly in the Slate of New York. If I 

 were allowed a suggestion. 1 would recommend that the State Boards 

 of Charities, particularly that of this State, give their official sanc- 

 tion and support to such studies, and extend them gradually to cor- 

 rectional and other institutions which fall under their control; pro- 

 vided, of course, that they can secure the services of the proper, able and 

 unprejudiced, investigators. 

 6 



