Heredity of Feeble-Mindedness

Abstract

The admission blanks of institutions for the feeble-minded gen- erally have some questions relating to the ancestry of the applicant.Upon examination of those on file at Vineland, N. J., it was felt that the answers were not sufficiently accurate to be valuable.In some cases, at least, parents had stated that which they thought would get the child into the institution.Recognizing the difficulty of preventing these inaccurate state- ments, it was decided to publish a new blank which should be called the "After-admission Blank," containing very careful, detailed ques- tions about the relatives of the child.This blank was sent to all parents and physicians, with a little note urging them for the sake of the child to tell all they possibly could about the child's relatives, their condition, any diseases they had had, any habits, such as alcoholism, any insanity or the like which had occurred in the family.It was expected that this would only be preliminary to more detailed and careful work later.We were, however, greatly surprised at the amount of information received, which has since been proved to be generally very accurate.Upon the basis of this information, we prepared charts of the children, which were truly remarkable in what they revealed as to the etiology of feeble-mindedness.This spurred us on to more careful and detailed work.We were fortunate enough to find some philanthropic people who were glad to furnish the funds necessary to employ two field workers.It was felt that this was very delicate business, but the relation between the superintendent at Vineland and the parents of the children is so in- timate and friendly that we have had complete cooperation from the start.The field worker goes out as the superintendent's personal representative with a letter from him recommending her and urging the parents, for the sake of the child, to tell all they possibly can, and to send her on to other relatives or to any one who may be able to give the information, which may be used to help their child, or some one's child.The response has been full, free, and hearty.Parents do all in their power to help us get the facts.There is very rarely anything like an attempt to conceal facts that they know.Of course, many of these parents are ignorant, often feeble-minded, and cannot tell all that we should like to know.Nevertheless, by adroit

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