ID# 1937:
 "The Feeble Minded," by Mary Dendy, Economic Review (July 1903)
Date:
1903
Pages: (1|2|3|4|5)
Source:
 University College London, KP, 183
1937. 5 holy and happy as his physical and mental limits will permit. More, far more than this: we can so guard and protect that life that those terrible physical limits shall not be handed on to a third and fourth generation. This is what we must aim at, [italics]since weakness of intellect is hereditary and hereditary in an increasing degree.[end italics] In America the term "feeble-minded" is made to cover the whole range of persons suffering from congenital mental disease, for those who are only slightly defective to those who are imbecile or idiotic. In England, however, it is properly confined to those who have been described by the Commissioner in Lunacy as - [extract quote] "persons who are not the subjects of such a degree of mental unsoundness as, in the opinion of the medical officers, renders then certifiable in the present state of the law, and are, therefore, unable to be detained against their will, [italics]although they are not sufficiently of sound mind to be able to take care of themselves."[end italics] They thus form a class between the sane and the certificable insane.[superior 1] It is to be regretted that the managers of some idiot asylums, prompted by a very natural desire to see more definite results from their labor, should have altered their titles to "training schools for the feeble-minded," and notwithstanding that all their inmates must legally be certified to be idiot or imbecile, should be making great efforts to admit only improvable or high-grade cases. It is to be regretted on three grounds: first, there is at present no other refuge for the idiots, excepting the workhouse; secondly, it is not possible to exclude all idiots, and it is [footnote text] [superior 1]It is to be observed that the certificable insane suffer from two forms of disease: acute lunacy or madness, which may be temporary, and may arise from many causes; and idiocy or imbecility, which are permanent conditions. Idiocy is congenital; imbecility may be congenital, or may be the result of brain disease. Both idiocy and imbecility are more severe forms of feeble-mindedness. With acute lunacy I have nothing to do here, except as the parent of weakness of mind. [end footnote] [end]
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