Mental Disease and Defect 



19 



TABLE II. CLASSIFICATION BY AGE AND SEX 





OVEK 



UNDER 



AGE 







SIXTEEN 



SIXTEEN 



UNKNOWN 



TOTAL 





19* 



31 



7 



57 





23t 



20 





43 



Totals 



42 



51 



7 



100 



•This includes 4 married who have 5 children. 

 fThis includes 11 married who have 12 children. Seven 

 illegitimate children are also recorded. 



What is the social significance of these data? First, it is 

 rather a surprise, perhaps, to find a predominance of males in 

 the first 100 feeble-minded patients referred to the Social Service 

 Department. When it is further discovered that the large num- 

 ber of females and more than one-half of the males are over six- 

 teen years of age, the situation becomes more complicated. As 

 the School for Feeble-minded Youth — the only institution in 

 Indiana for the care of the feeble-minded — does not admit males 

 over sixteen, and its department for adult females is very limited 

 in capacity, it becomes evident that a large number of these must 

 remain in the community. 



Clarence B. is a moron, age twenty-six, the son of a drunkard 

 and a hard-working, commonplace but virtuous mother. He 

 boasts of having married seven women. He was in Juvenile Court 

 on a charge of incorrigibility when sixteen years old and care in 

 the School for Feeble-minded Youth was then advised. He was 

 instead sent to the Boys' School at Plainfield, and released on 

 parole after two years. He roamed about and became known 

 to the police in several cities, told many stories of his parentage 

 and his experiences which were later found to be untrue. He 

 told of his marriage in Kentucky, describing his wife's appear- 

 ance, her work in the cotton mills, etc., and later told of pro- 

 ceedings for a divorce because of her infidelity. It was after- 

 wards learned that the patient had never been to Kentucky, was 

 not married, and that these tales were but products of his 

 imagination. 



-The 11 married women are reported to have 12 children, while 

 the 4 married men have 5 children. Adding to this 7 known 

 illegitimates, there is a total of 24 children. According to the 

 laws of heredity of feeble-mindedness, all evidence would indicate 

 that a large number of these are defectives. It might be added 

 that there were perhaps other children unrecorded and also that, 



