70 HEREDITY IN RELATION TO EUGENICS 



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Fig. 36. — Pedigree of a ''mongolian" imbecile. Except for an insane 

 uncle (1) there is no evidence of a psychopathic condition in the parental germ 

 plasms. GoDDARD, 1910. 



bring half a dozen imbecile children to be a permanent 

 charge on the community. Surely there is no economy in 

 this. 



A still more appalling piece of testimony is given by a 

 delegate from Alabama to the 26th National Conference 

 of Charities and Correction. He said: ^'In our poor institu- 

 tions the males and the females are allowed to run together 

 and, so long as that is allowed, you cannot cut off the in- 

 crease. It is perfectly appalling how the children accumu- 

 late in institutions. *' 



Anyone acquainted with rural poorhouses (Fig. 37), 

 particularly in the South, will appreciate that the people 

 housed in them are mostly mentally inferior. By bringing 

 together defective men and women, without proper segrega- 

 tion of the sexes, and by protecting and nursing the defective 

 offspring of defective parents and then turning them out 

 upon the community, the improperly conducted county 

 poorhouses constitute one of the country's worst dangers. 

 What is the state of your county poorhouse, reader? 



An apparent paradox may well have occurred to the 

 reader, and that is that mental defect and the elements of 

 exceptional ability are inherited in the same way. This 

 certainly looks like a self-contradiction. Are not the feeble- 



