6 
Indiana University Studies 
the poor crippled ''grotesque" dies of grief when he beholds 
his misshapen figure in a mirror. This exploitation of crip- 
ples for entertainment did not equal in horror the Roman 
and Italian custom of commercializing the crippled children 
beggars. Powerful Roman ''masters" made slaves of these 
poor waifs and forced them to exhibit their deformities in 
conspicuous public places in order to arouse the sympathetic 
emotions of passers-by and thus obtain money. In many 
cases children were purposely maimed so that they could be 
used as a source of income either by their masters or fam- 
ilies. Such cruelty seems inconceivable and surely it was a 
hideous way for people to make money. 
In the early part of the sixteenth century, an organization 
of poor relief was formed outside the Church, in connection 
with the hospitals, and in 1601 came the really pioneer Poor 
Relief Act of Queen Elizabeth. Tho the cripples were in- 
cluded with the "infirm" and "sick" in this system of care of 
the poor, asylum care was the only provision made. With 
the beginning of the science of orthopedics in the nineteenth 
century, the care of cripples was put on a different and more 
optimistic basis, and since then rapid strides have been made 
in improving and often curing the deformity of the crippled 
individual. 
There are many fundamental reasons why the care of 
cripples should be a field of social interest and investigation 
and improvement. The enormous economic saving to com- 
munities wheie all the cripples could be given surgical care is 
in itself argument enough for public support. The value of 
increased morale which would be secured thru the transforma- 
tion of many beggars into self-respecting wage-earners is 
another argument. 
But perhaps the greatest argument for the care of cripples 
is the obvious social justice of giving every child an equal 
chance in life. The percentage of crippled children Who can 
be cured or improved is so far higher than the percentage 
of the incurable that it is criminal for any deformed young- 
ster to be deprived of the opportunity of medical examination 
and subsequent treatment. It is obviously a social duty and 
public obligation to provide proper and adequate care for the 
crippled children who are unable to pay for private medical 
attention. 
