This is a history which illustrates very well the source of a large number of the almshouse inmates. The central figure is an epileptic woman, who spent most of her life in the poor house. No two of her seven children are by the same father. The epileptic daughter, whose father was feeble-minded, had started to lead the same kind of life as her mother; in the almshouse she gave birth to one illegitimate child before she was put under State care. The mother, when she last left the almshouse, went to live in a hut in the woods with a feeble-minded man, who had three feeble-minded sons; one of these sons married the feeble-minded sister of one of the epileptic patients at the New Jersey State Village.
This is the history of two patients who have been found to be related, the great grandfather of the one was the brother of the grandmother of the other. The principal mating under D 7a is that of a feeble-minded man married to an epileptic woman, whose mother died in the insane asylum. They had six children, the first died when only a few months old, the next and the fourth were not bright and died young, the third is an epileptic, the fifth is feeble-minded and criminalistic and he is now at the State Home for Boys, the sixth is also feeble-minded and cared for at an industrial home for children. The mother and father, at one time inmates of the almshouse, are now supported by the town. Under D 7b the father, who died of spinal meningitis, was migrainous and had many epileptic relatives, the mother is neurotic. There were four children, the first an epileptic, the second died at 20 of spinal meningitis, the third is of a very nervous temperament, the last, a girl of 16, seems to be normal.
Both of the parents in this case are feeble-minded. The father was the black sheep of his family, his brothers are intelligent men, and for the most part good citizens; the mother, however, was the illegitimate child of a feeble-minded woman. There were seven children, one an epileptic, the others all feeble-minded with the exception of the sixth, who is now about 11 years old; she was taken from her home and put with a very good family; she shows the effect of the changed environment, and though not up to her grade in school, is only slightly backward. There is some doubt about the parentage of the child, and it is very probable that she is by a different father. Since the father's death the mother has had one illegitimate child; her children were taken away from her except the two oldest because of the immoral conditions in the home, and she now claims to be married to a feeble-minded man, who is the younger feeble-minded brother of her imbecile daughter's husband.
The central mating in this case is that of an epileptic, alcoholic, sexually immoral man, married to a neurotic and sexually immoral woman, who has many insane and feeble-minded relatives. They had in all ten children; two were epileptic, three, feeble-minded, one criminalistic and sexually immoral, the sixth is the only one who has a good reputation, the last was a stillbirth. The father and mother are no longer living together.