Feeble-mindedness is hereditary and transmitted as surely as any other character. We cannot successfully cope with these conditions until we recognize feeble-mindedness and its hereditary nature, recognize it early, and take care of it.
In considering the question of care, segregation through colonization seems in the present state of our knowledge to be the ideal and perfectly satisfactory method. Sterilization may be accepted as a makeshift, as a help to solve this problem because the conditions have become so intolerable. But this must at present be regarded only as a makeshift and temporary, for before it can be extensively practiced, a great deal must be learned about the effects of the operation and about the laws of human inheritance.
FOOTNOTES
[1] All names, both Christian and sur-names, are fictitious.
[2] It is important to trace out in detail these relationships on the charts.
[3] At present eight states have laws authorizing some form of asexualization or sterilization. But in all these cases the practice is carefully restricted to a few inmates of various specified institutions.