On A it will be seen that this alcoholic man was four times married. He comes from a good family but was spoiled in his bringing up, became alcoholic and immoral—a degenerate man. His first wife, however, was a normal woman and it is claimed that the two children were normal. For his second wife, he took out of the poorhouse a feeble-minded woman. Her children were: two normal, one that died young, and one feeble-minded. He married the third time. The woman was the prostitute above referred to. She had three illegitimate children, all feeble-minded. After their marriage, they had three children, all of whom are feeble-minded. Two of these are in this institution. The father then deserted this woman and married a fourth wife, who is alcoholic and a prostitute. Of this union, however, there are no children.
There is, moreover, very strong evidence that he is the father of the third child in this institution by another woman, who is also feeble-minded.
Chart II, B, will be understood if we note that the mother’s mother is a sister of the third wife of the much-married man of Chart II, A. This sister married a feeble-minded man, and the result of that union was seven feeble-minded children, of whom one is a criminal and one an epileptic. Four are married. The feeble-minded epileptic woman married a normal man, who is one of a fairly good family. His mother was insane, the father died in an almshouse; however, we find no mental defect. As the result of this marriage, we have seven feeble-minded children, four others that died in infancy, and there were two miscarriages. This is the fourth child of this strain that is in our institution. The fifth one referred to is a half-sister of the other girl referred to on Chart II, A.
The foregoing charts and description were taken from the article of Henry H. Goddard, Ph.D., Director of Vineland, N. J., School for Feeble-minded, in the March 2nd, 1912, issue of the Survey.
The agencies of improvement.—In all organic life, vegetable, animal and man, two agencies are ever operative; heredity and environment. In plant life these two agencies operate entirely on the physical plain. This is perhaps true among the lower forms of animal life. But, among the higher forms of animal life, we find very distinct manifestations of rudimentary intelligence. Among the higher animals, experiments show that these agencies are operative on the physical and mental plains. In man these agencies are operative on the physical, mental and moral plains. Among plants and animals, where these two agencies are under the intelligent control of man, improvements are marked and rapid. Where they are not under the control of man, progress is scarcely perceptible.
Plants and animals live in harmony with law, man appears to be largely out of harmony with law; plants and animals keep law, man violates law. That man is fallen and needs additional help to heredity and environment is apparent to all who think. This help we call conversion, regeneration or redemption. It is not the province of this chapter to advocate any theory of religion. The purpose of this chapter is to show the relation of these agencies in the improvement of the human race.