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Indiana University Studies 
lated to other mental defectives not discussed as special cases. 
Following’ is a brief sketch of each mental defective in the 
Poor Asylum. 
Chester Brant, 58 years old, has been in the County House 
for 14 years, 10 months, and 15 days. Since 1896, when he 
was admitted for the first time, he has entered the Asylum 
8 times. Once he left to work but was gone less than a year. 
On the other occasions of absence, he has gone to visit rela- 
tives. He has always been ill the greater part of each year. 
When 16 years old according to his statement, he had “white 
swelling’’ and a few years later suffered from what he says 
was a spinal disease. At any rate, he was sick for 6 years, 
and when he became able to move about one leg was drawn 
up much shorter than the other. One eye is gone. What 
little work he has been able to do has been light tasks about 
the farm. He was never able to attend school and can neither 
read nor write. Nothing is known of his family history ex- 
cept that he has a brother, Noah, who has twice been ad- 
mitted to the Poor Asylum. Chester’s mental age is 7 years, 
which, taken with his institutional and home history, indi- 
cates that the physical condition is the minor cause of his 
being in the institution. 
Bob Williams has been in the Almshouse 10 different times, 
each stay as a rule being brief, as he does not care for the 
confinement of a permanent home. His total time there 
amounts to only 1 year and 10 months, which is scattered all 
the way from 1901 to 1919. He is usually sent by the court 
after being arrested for vagrancy. He has no home and does 
not want one. He is often to be found curled up like a dog 
in the middle of the street, asleep. He never worries about 
the cars which might hit him or the trouble people have in 
going around him. Many times the police have gone to pick 
up the drunk man reported only to find Bob, taking his after- 
noon nap. He causes much trouble at the County Asylum, 
as he is not particular as to whose bed he sleeps upon. Early 
in his career he was thought to be afflicted with enuresis, but 
later it was found that he would not disturb himself suffi- 
ciently to leave his bed or wherever he happened to be. He 
once was cured for 2 months after the superintendent and 2 
other men slipped a rope about his neck and threatened to 
hang him to the rafters of the jail Unless closely watched, he 
