[80] Feeble-mindedness, its Causes and Consequences. By H. H. Goddard, director of the Research Laboratory of the Training School at Vineland, New Jersey, for feeble-minded boys and girls. New York, The Macmillan Co., 1914.
[81] Probably the word now covers a congeries of defects, some of which may be non-germinal. Epilepsy is so very generally found associated with various other congenital defects, that action should not be delayed.
[82] Goddard, H. H., Feeble-Mindedness, pp. 14-16.
[83] See the recent studies of C. B. Davenport, particularly The Feebly Inhibited, Washington, Carnegie Institution, 1915.
[84] In this connection diagnosis is naturally of the utmost importance. The recent action of Chicago, New York, Boston, and other cities, in establishing psychological clinics for the examination of offenders is a great step in advance. These clinics should be attached to the police department, as in New York, not merely to the courts, and should pass on offenders before, not after, trial and commitment.
[85] As a result of psychiatric study of the inmates of Sing Sing in 1916, it was said that two-thirds of them showed some mental defect. Examination of 100 convicts selected at random in the Massachusetts State Prison showed that 29% were feeble-minded and 11% borderline cases. The highest percentage of mental defectives was found among criminals serving sentence for murder in the second degree, manslaughter, burglary and robbery. (Rossy, C. S., in State Board of Insanity Bull., Boston, Nov., 1915). Paul M. Bowers told the 1916 meeting of the American Prison Association of his study of 100 recidivists, each of whom had been convicted not fewer than four times. Of these 12 were insane, 23 feeble-minded and 10 epileptic, and in each case Dr. Bowers said the mental defect bore a direct causal relation to the crime committed. Such studies argue for the need of a little elementary biology in the administration of justice.
[86] For a sane and cautious discussion of the subject see Wallin, J. E. W., "A Program for the State Care of the Feeble-Minded and Epileptic," School and Society, IV, pp. 724-731, New York, Nov. 11, 1916.
[87] Johnstone, E. R., "Waste Land Plus Waste Humanity," Training School Bulletin, XI, pp. 60-63, Vineland, N. J., June, 1914.
[88] "Report of the Committee on the Sterilization of Criminals," Journal of the Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology, September, 1916. Of the operations mentioned, 634 are said to have been performed on insane persons and one on a criminal.
[89] Guyer, M. F., Wisconsin Eugenics Legislation. Trans. Amer. Asso. Study and Prevention of Infant Mortality, 1917, pp. 92-97.