Section 3.—Illustrative Cases of Hereditary Degeneracy.

The Juke Family.

To show the close relationship existing between the criminal and the psychopath the record of the so-called Juke family in America was compiled by R. L. Dugdale.

The descendants of one morbid couple were traced through five generations. Whilst a small proportion were honest workers, the great majority were paupers, criminals, and prostitutes.

Of 540 Jukes practically one-fifth were born out of wedlock, 37 were known to be syphilitic, 53 had been in poorhouses, 76 had been sentenced to prison, and of 229 women of marriageable age 128 were prostitutes. The economic damage inflicted upon the State of New York by the Jukes in seventy-five years was estimated at more than $1,300,000, to say nothing of diseases and other evil influences which they helped to spread.

A more recent investigation shows that 2,820 people have been studied; 2,094 were of Juke blood and 726 of "X" blood married into the Juke family; of these, 366 were paupers, while 171 were criminals, and 10 lives have been sacrificed by murder. In school-work 62 did well, 288 did fairly, while 458 were retarded two or more years. It is known that 166 never attended school; the school data for the rest of the family were unobtainable. There were 282 intemperate and 277 harlots. The total cost to the State has been estimated at $2,093,685.

The Kallikak Family.

The history of the Kallikak family has been traced and fully described in detail by Dr. Goddard, and his study shows the hereditary nature and sociological bearings of feeble-mindedness.

Martin Kallikak was a youthful soldier in the Revolutionary War. At a tavern frequented by the militia he met a feeble-minded girl by whom he became the father of a feeble-minded son. In 1912 there were 480 known direct descendants of this temporary union. It is known that 36 of these were illegitimates; that 33 were sexually immoral; that 24 were confirmed alcoholics; and that 8 kept houses of ill-fame. The explanation of so much immorality will be obvious when it is stated that of the 480 descendants 143 were known to be feeble-minded, and that many of the others were of questionable mentality.

A few years after returning from the war this same Martin Kallikak married a respectable girl of good family. From this union 496 individuals have been traced in direct descent, and in this branch of the family there were no illegitimate children, no immoral women, and only one man who was sexually loose. There were no criminals, no keepers of houses of ill-fame, and only two confirmed alcoholics. Again the explanation is clear when it is stated that this branch of the family did not contain a single feeble-minded individual. It was made up of doctors, lawyers, judges, educators, traders, and landholders.

New Zealand Cases.

But it is not necessary to go to the records of older countries to find examples of this kind. Unfortunately, this young Dominion, whose history as a European settlement is comprised within the lifetime of its oldest inhabitants, is already reproducing some of the saddest problems of civilization which perplex the people of the Old World. We started with every advantage in the shape of a favourable climate and rich natural resources. The original settlers were, for the most part, men and women of sturdy determination, enterprising spirit, and strong physique.

In the "seventies" a vigorous public-works policy was inaugurated, and great efforts were made to introduce fresh population, the result being that undoubtedly a great impetus was given to settlement, and the country was fairly started on the road to prosperity. But, unfortunately, it is now only too apparent that insufficient care was taken in the selection of immigrants.

The following extract from a statement made to the Committee by Sir Robert Stout, Chief Justice, and President of the Prisons Board, illustrates this point: "The Prisons Board has sometimes brought before it several persons of one family who have offended against our laws, and in the experience I had in 1884 and 1885, when looking after our Hospitals and Charitable Aid Department in the General Government, I found that people obtaining charitable aid had done so for three generations; that is, grandfather, father or mother, and children were all obtaining aid from the Government because they were unable to maintain themselves. Some of the cases were traced, and it was found that the grandfathers, or grandparents, had been originally in poorhouses in the Homeland, and although they came to New Zealand and had greater opportunities than they had in their Homeland, yet their inability to provide for themselves continued."

How serious the problem has already become will be seen from the following illustrative cases selected from a large number given in the evidence:—

Case No. 1.

Father: Weak-minded.Mother: Weak-minded.
Female, born 1906.Female, born 1907.Female, born 1908.Female, born 1909.Female, born 1911.Male, born 1912.Male, born 1913.Male, born 1915.Female, born 1916.

All these children except one are feeble-minded, and when committed to the care of the State were found living under deplorable conditions. Most of these children will require lifelong control in an institution. The total cost of maintaining this family will be approximately £9,500. These children are cousins of another family under State control. There are four children, two of whom are simple-minded. The mother is feeble-minded, and the father died in a mental hospital. In this case the mothers of the children are sisters.

Case No. 2.

Father: Feeble-minded.Mother: Feeble-minded and drunkard.
Female, illegitimate, born 1902.Male, born 1904.Male, born 1906.Male, born 1907.Male, born 1910.Male, born 1912.Female, born 1914.Female, born 1916.Male, born 1918.Male, born 1920.Male, born 1923.

All these children are feeble-minded and have been brought under State control shortly after birth. Some are now in mental hospitals and some in special schools. All these children are lifelong custodial cases. The cost to the State for maintenance is approximately £16,000, towards which amount the father has contributed but £6.

Case No. 3.

Father: Old-age pensioner in Home for Aged People.Mother: Apparently weak mentally and morally—at present in reformatory home.
1. Female. Prostitute residing with drunkard.2. Female. Prostitute and addicted to drink.3. Female. Immoral and generally bad character. Inmate of private reformatory.4. Female. Indifferent, married criminal, now in prison.5. Female. Drunkard and married a drunkard although man of good education.6. Female. Well-known prostitute, married member of notorious criminal family, and himself criminal.
Female, born 1908.
Male, born 1915.		Female, born 1911.Male, born 1913.Male, born 1907.
Male, born 1914.		Male, born 1910.Female, born 1912.
Female, born 1917.		Male, born 1911. Male, born 1912.Female, born 1908.Female, born 1912.Female, born 1916.Female, born 1898.
Female, born 1905.		Female, born 1900.Female, born 1902.
Female, born 1908.		Male, born 1910.
All these children are illegitimate. Reputed father a drunkard and man of bad character.All these children are illegitimate. In most cases the father is unknown.Both illegitimate. Reputed fathers well-known bad characters.Mother married a widower with three children. There are three more of marriagemaintained by the State.All delicate neurotic types and difficult to manage.

All these children, numbering twenty-one, were committed to the care of the State, in most cases shortly after birth. Twelve of the children are illegitimate. The husband of daughter No. 6 is also the father of one each of the offspring of daughters Nos. 2 and 3. Most of the children are delicate and poorly developed, and at least six of them are definitely tubercular. The remainder are either neurotic or erratic in their conduct and have given a great deal of trouble in their upbringing. The total cost to the State for the maintenance of these children may be quoted at £10,000, but of this amount £482 has been recovered from the various men liable. It is difficult to assess the State's total commitment. If some of the children have to be maintained until they reach the age of twenty-one the additional cost will be £3,000. There is the probability, too, that the offspring of these children will become charges upon the State.

Case No. 4.

Father: Addicted to drink and degenerate.Mother: Drunkard and morally deficient.
Female, born 1908.Male, born 1909. Admitted special school, 1920.Female, born 1910.Male, born 1914.Male, born 1916.Male, born 1917.Male, born 1918.Male, born 1920.Male, born 1923.
All these children are illegitimate and are feeble-minded, requiring lifelong control. Three are now inmates of mental hospitals, and in time the remainder of the family at present in special schools will be sent on to mental hospitals. All probably feeble-minded. Not yet brought under State control.

An officer of the Education Department describes the home as "one of the dirtiest and most squalid homes I have seen." The cost (including past, present, and approximate future maintenance) to the State for the upkeep of this family is estimated at £10,000. Nothing has been paid by the parents towards the support of these children. In all probability, the remaining members of the family will be brought under State control at a probable cost of £4,500.

Case No. 5.

Father: Drunken waster; subnormal; frequently in gaol.Mother: Feeble-minded helpless invalid. Died shortly after children committed to care of State.
Male, born 1904. Tubercular. Partly self-supporting.Female, born 1907. Tubercular. Suffers from epileptic seizures. Inmate mental hospital. Lifelong custody.Male, born 1909. Subnormal. May in time become partly self-supporting under favourable conditions.Male, born 1911. Mentally deficient. Case for lifelong control.Male, born 1913. Mentally deficient. Lifelong custodial case.Female, born 1914. Feeble-minded and badly nourished. Case for permanent segregation.Male, born 1916. Very backward. May become partly self-supporting under favourable conditions.

In 1916 the whole of this family was committed to the care of the State, and at least six of them will be lifelong cases. The cost to the State, computed up to twenty-one years in each case, is approximately £8,500, but the additional future cost may easily be estimated at £5,000, making in all the sum of £13,500. The father was ordered to pay at the rate of 15s. a week, but the amount recovered from him to date is only £156.

Case No. 6.

Father: Subnormal. Was a watersider, so dirty in habits that watersiders complained. A sexual case.Mother: Has always been addicted to periodic fits of insanity. Has been in mental hospital on several occasions.
Female, born 1904. Subnormal.Female, born 1909. Subnormal; also delinquent.Female, born 1915. Subnormal.Female, born 1916. Subnormal.UnknownUnknownUnknown
These four children werecommitted to the care ofthe state in 1917.Not yet brought underState control.

The approximate cost to the State of maintaining these four children will be £5,150, less what is recovered from the father. Up to the present the amount received from him is £176. Should the other three children be brought under State control, the additional cost may amount to approximately £5,000.

This is a glaring case of persons being allowed to marry who are totally unfit to marry. A relative stated that the mother's mentality was in a shocking state at the time of marriage. The father has always been subnormal. The woman is too insane at times to attend to ordinary household duties or matters of ordinary personal cleanliness. At the time the children were committed the home was in a shockingly filthy condition, and at that time was one of the worst brought under the notice of the Department in the district. The second girl (age fifteen) has had her hair cut for the sake of cleanliness by some kindly disposed well-wisher. The mother allowed the dirt to accumulate to such an extent that the whole of the girl's head was covered with a scab of dirt. She had to enter the Hospital to have this removed. This was a most objectionable case. After the State took charge of these children the mother and father were still allowed to cohabit, with the result that three more children have been born. Without doubt, these children will also be supported by the State. The father is a sexual case, and foster-parents of the children have objected to the father visiting them on account of the way he handles them.

Section 4.—Elements of the Problem.

Wallen, in his book "Problems of Subnormality," draws attention to three basic phases of the problem of the feeble-minded:—

"(1.) The obligation of society to identify and register as early as possible all feeble-minded children. All students of social problems will concede that feeble-mindedness is one of the fundamental causes of our numerous social ills. It is a prolific source of poverty, destitution, all kinds of crimes against property and person, social immorality, illegitimacy, and of prolific and degenerate progeny.

"There are few problems in present-day constructive social economics which are more important than the development of a State-wide and a nation-wide policy for the compulsory official identification and registration of feeble-minded children, particularly all those who come from homes where the conditions are not such as to guarantee continuous supervision and support.

"(2.) The proper educational care and training of feeble-minded children. The adequate discharge of this obligation involves segregating the feeble-minded in special classes as soon as they can be indubitably diagnosed and providing for them the type of training which will maximally develop those powers and aptitudes which they possess and which will maximally equip them for earning their livelihood.

"(3.) Provision for continuous oversight and supervision over the feeble-minded."

It is clear that if we wish to reduce the number of mentally defective and socially inadequate individuals we must not only consider measures for preventing as far as possible the transmission of hereditary defect, but must also provide for the youth of the country an environment and training calculated to encourage the development of its best powers. There is no doubt that unfavourable home conditions and unsuitable educational methods conspire to keep many children from realizing their full capabilities. This is especially true of the backward and feeble-minded. It is, moreover, wasteful and ineffective to force on children of poor mental receptivity and potentialities an educational curriculum devised for those of normal mentality, since the subnormal impede the general progress in an ordinary class, and in it they soon form a discouraged minority which learns to accept failure unquestioningly. Untrained to perform the simple work which is within their power and in the achievement of which they might earn self-respect and happiness, they feel themselves to be aliens, and may cease to regard the laws of society in which they have no sense of membership. In such cases the community which might have benefited from their work had their potentialities been properly developed is burdened by their maintenance, and, further, if they are not law-abiding, has also the expense of segregating them in reformatories and gaols. Hence it is clearly the duty of the State to adapt the educational curriculum to the requirements of various groups of children.

The child who has been handicapped by illness and lack of opportunity, the child who is inherently dull and backward, must be distinguished from the child with nervous instability or definite mental defect. Wherever possible, the training suitable for various improvable types of children should be arranged in connection with the ordinary public schools. But the curriculum must be modified to suit the need of the individual and should be directed with the object of making him a useful member of society. By this means these pupils are not deprived of that association with their normal fellows which is of such value as a preparation for their after-life in the community.

For children whose homes are unsuitable or too remote from centres, who require more continuous supervision, or who tend to become delinquent, special residential schools will be necessary. These schools would also be used for those whose capabilities cannot be assessed without extended expert observation for a considerable period.

The special school is to be regarded as a training-centre for such feeble-minded children as are expected as a result of the training received there to be fitted to take a place in the community and to perform useful work under adequate supervision. There is a danger of filling the special schools with children whose poor mental endowment renders them incapable of receiving benefit at all commensurate with the energy and expense devoted to them. Such children are subjects for custodial institutions.

Institutional care is necessary for mentally defective persons whose helplessness or anti-social traits would render them either the victims of the unscrupulous or a menace to society. Such individuals should be segregated in farm and industrial colonies, so that not only is the community freed from the responsibility of their presence, but they themselves are afforded opportunity of leading much happier and more useful lives, and of becoming, to some extent, self-supporting.

All feeble-minded children within the community, whether in special classes, or on parole from an institution for the feeble-minded, or over school age, should be carefully supervised.

It is clear that the problem of making provision for the feeble-minded and mentally abnormal in the community is first to be encountered in the schools, though there must be considered also a much smaller number of such low mental capacity that they have never sought admission there.

In deciding the place of the feeble-minded in the community factors other than the degree of mental defect have to be considered. Many feeble-minded individuals are capable of performing useful work, and provided they have no anti-social traits and can receive adequate care outside their permanent inclusion in an institution is undesirable, not only from consideration of their own well-being, but also from a social and economic standpoint. Many feeble-minded individuals are so dependent upon routine that having once been trained in the regular performance of simple duties they find difficulty in breaking their methodical programme. In this way their lack of initiative is really protective, as it tends to keep them steadfastly at their labours.

In the case of all feeble-minded persons living outside institutions, whether with relatives or otherwise, the State should, in the interest of both such feeble-minded individuals and of society, have the ultimate right of supervision.

The magnitude of the task to be undertaken cannot be estimated unless we have some indication of how numerous are those for whom special measures must be adopted. The information given below must not be too literally interpreted, but will serve to throw some light upon existing conditions in New Zealand.