444 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIV. No. 351. 



A NOTABLE FACTOB OF SOCIAL DEQEN- 

 EBATION." 



The subject to which I propose to call 

 your attention cannot be said to be a new 

 one, though I do not think that it has ever 

 been presented before this Section. I wish 

 to speak for a short time on one of the 

 phases of social anthropology, in which I 

 am very greatly interested. My theme is the 

 problem of the feeble-minded. This term 

 is now generally used to include all persons 

 from those with weak minds to the most 

 abject idiot. Perhaps most of us have met 

 with a few individuals of this class. Almost 

 every community contains one or more of 

 these degenerates. The aggregate for our 

 country, however, makes a mighty host. 

 We do not know how many feeble-minded 

 persons there are in the United States. The 

 census of 1890 gives 95,571 individuals of 

 of that kind. From Pennsylvania there 

 were reportedthat year 8,753 ; Ohio, 8,035 ; 

 Indiana, 5,568 ; Iowa, 3,319 ; Kansas, 

 2,039 ; Colorado, 192. What the increase 

 since then has been we do not know. The 

 present census does not give any figures on 

 this point ; therefore any effort to ascer- 

 tain the number can be but an estimate. 

 These feeble-minded persons are distributed 

 throughout our land, not in the same propor- 

 tion everywhere. They are not so notable in 

 some localities as in others. In some places 

 they are so few or inconspicuous as scarcely 

 to be recognized. On the contrary, else- 

 where their presence is strikingly manifest, 

 and they, in one way or another, make a 

 deep impression upon society that must 

 endure through succeeding generations. 

 The feeble-minded are found under many 

 conditions. There are children and men 

 and women. It is as children and as adults 

 in their more active years that most of us 



* Address of the Vice-President and Chairman of 

 Section H, Anthropology, of the American Asso- 

 ciation for the Advancement of Science, Denver 

 meeting, August, 1901. 



know them best. Our social organization 

 is made up of many factors. Some are con- 

 structive, some destructive. The feeble- 

 minded are a disturbing element. Their 

 life is a degenerating social force. 



Soiae of the children with stronger mental 

 powers enter the public schools. They may 

 make some progress for a time, but whether 

 they do or not, they must soon drop behind 

 because they are unable to keep up with 

 the work. Others roam the streets ; the 

 boys become the butt of the neighborhood, 

 they are led into pranks, too often into 

 vices, and seem to possess a peculiar tend- 

 ency to immorality. The girls, many of 

 them strong, well-appearing, with no one 

 to teach them aright, and without strength 

 of mind to protect themselves against the 

 temptations which surround them, too 

 early and too often fall into vice. " It is 

 impossible to think of the evil of feeble- 

 mindedness without heeding the curse of 

 vice and illegitimacy which are its inev- 

 itable accompaniments. In the feeble- 

 minded person the animal passions are usu- 

 ally present and are often abnormally 

 developed, while will and reason, which 

 should control and repress them, are ab- 

 sent. The feeble-minded woman, thus 

 lacking the protection which should be her 

 birthright, falls easily into vice. She can- 

 not in her weakness resist the persuasions 

 and temptations which beset her. When 

 her baser passions are strong, she must op- 

 pose not only the influences from without 

 but her own dominating desires. She is 

 not to be condemned and punished, but 

 rather to be pitied and helped in every pos- 

 sible manner." (Bicknell, Proc. Fourth 

 Indiana State Conf . of Char. & Corr., 1895, 

 p. 64.) Many of these poor creatures are 

 easily attracted by an immoral life. Once 

 begun, the pace is rapid, the course is al- 

 ways the same. It is impossible to tell or 

 even to conceive of the depths of degrada- 

 tion to which they go. Dr. Kerlin, in 



