450 



SCmNGE. 



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



as parents in the first generation. Tlie 

 reason is the women were principally poor 

 asylum inmates who were permitted to 

 leave the institution and either live among 

 relatives of a similar stage of mentality or 

 roam the country. They returned to the 

 poor asylum as a maternity house and 

 nothing was learned or recorded of 

 the paternity of many of the children. 



persons, 304 males and 224 females. Of 

 these, 26 were parents of the third genera- 

 tion. Of the latter seven were parents of 

 the fourth generation. From it came the 

 single parent of the fifth generation. In 

 the first generation there were 267 individ- 

 uals of 306, or 87 per cent., who were feeble- 

 minded ; in the second generation 386 of 

 548, or 70 per cent., were so recorded ; in the 



A Table of 241 Families Each containing Two oe Moke Generations of Feeble-mindedness 



Eepresented by 970 Individuals. 



No. families of 2 generations of feeble-mindedness 221 



16 

 3 

 1 



241 

 Total No. of persons 970. Average to each family 4. 02. 



Most of the families obviously are of two 

 generations. The child and parent are 

 reported, and often nothing has been learned 

 of an earlier ancestor. Where there are 

 three or four generations some of the older 

 members are dead, so that the amount of 

 information concerning them is scant. On 

 the other hand the later generation is rep- 

 resented by one or more children, many of 

 them so young that their mental state can- 

 not be determined. 



In the second generation there were 548 



third generation 59 of 95, or 62 per cent. , 

 were so noted ; in the fourth generation 13 

 of 20 cases, or 65 per cent., were given as 

 feeble-minded. In the fifth generation the 

 single representative is reported as feeble- 

 minded. The aggregate showing, as noted, 

 is that 74.8 per cent, of the descendants of 

 these feeble-minded ancestors are feeble- 

 minded. • Other defects among the children 

 are noted as follows : insane, 3.4 per cent. ; 

 epileptic, 3.8 per cent. ; blind, 2 per cent. ; 

 deaf, 8 per cent. ; paralysis, 9 per cent. ; 



