CHAPTER VIL HOUSING AND HOME CONDITIONS OF 
COUNTY H. DEFECTIVES 
In doing* the field work in an investigation of this sort, 
one of the things which stands out prominently is the close 
correlation between the feeble-minded and the kind of house 
which he occupies. Unconsciously certain types of dwellings 
come to stand for the people who live within them and are 
thought of as “feeb” houses. In the majority of cases this 
“feebness’" can be detected from the outside. When this is 
not true it is usually due to the efforts of members of the 
family who are not defective. In fact, the state of the dwell- 
ing seemingly indicates, in a surprising number of cases, the 
general level of intelligence. This statement does not mean 
that a sure and easy way of detecting subnormal families has 
been discovered. It alone by no means determines the mental 
status of an individual but goes a long way toward describing 
the level of the family as a whole or of that part of the family 
responsible for the home. 
In the following tables are to be found some statistics on 
50 rural and 50 urban homes which have all been visited by 
the writer. The cases are not selected ones except that the 
homes visited by the workers other than the writer are re- 
jected. These homes are all those of feeble-minded persons. 
One home is not described more than once when it happens 
to be the home of more than one defective. The urban cases 
are from the city of Stonetown, and the rural ones are taken 
from Townships 1, 5, 7, and 12. These homes are not neces- 
sarily owned by the individual but may belong to some mem- 
ber of the family. For example, it cannot be said that a 
certain home belongs to Elizabeth McHaley, idiot, but it be- 
longs to her parents. The facts set forth in these tables are — 
ownership of home ; how acquired ; number of rooms ; amount 
of rent ; condition of home and house ; number in family ; 
neighborhood; standard of living and whether or not the 
family is self-supporting. This latter is based on the records 
of the charitable agencies. 
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