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inating influence even in a reformatory. With such a background as this. 

 a favorable prognosis is impossible. 



One boy of sixteen years comes from a family that we have reason to 

 believe is mentally subnormal. The mental examination shows him to be a 

 moron, and our information is to the effect that his environment has not 

 been particularly bad. Though employed, he stole a wheel which he 

 traded for a billy-goat he had long desired. 



Another boy is now with us for the second time. His congenital de- 

 fect is of syphilitic origin and he presents many physical malformations, 

 among which is a nose quite small and deformed. He had previously been 

 in the reform school and was sent to us first for continuing his petty 

 thievery after returning to his home, a small town in western Indiana. He 

 was not long absent upon parole before he returned with a new sentence 

 for horse-stealing, which act was without purpose but probably was due 

 to the suggestion of associates. He recently appeared at our office with a 

 smile upon his face and informed us that he had made a discovery. Upon 

 being supplied with a nail, he passed it in one side of his nose and out the 

 other. It afforded him great pleasure to exhibit this accomplishment to a 

 clinic before a medical association. 



One boy of about eighteen, whom the psychological examination 

 showed to be of low level, was convicted upon a charge of petit larceny. 

 In the institution he was a hard worker both in the shop and in the 

 school, but he could not accomplish a great deal. He explained in the most 

 pleading terms to me at the time of his entrance, that he had been without 

 work and while sleeping in a barn he found a fur overcoat which he took 

 because he was so cold. Rather a delinquency than a crime is it not? 

 And the cause? Mental incapacity, the inability to compete on equal terms 

 with his fellows. 



From a scientific point of view, one of the most interesting cases we 

 have had was that of a young man of the borderline class, having suffi- 

 cient intellect to appear normal and about whose home life and environ- 

 ment we have not been able to obtain sufficient data. He stabbed and 

 killed a fellow inmate, almost a total stranger to him. for the sole reason 

 that he wished to obtain a transfer to the State prison, where he would be 

 given tobacco. Even a prison is not a complete protection against a men- 

 tality such as this. 



Many more instances could be given from this one institution which 



