Public Provision for the Feeble-Minded 1865 sons in the state of New York. A canvass of the institutions for feeble-minded, epileptics, and seven of those for the insane and reformatory cases, made a few months ago, shows 6,650 in institutions. None of the special classes or almshouses nor of the vast numbers kept in their homes were included. The field workers of the three institutions[superior]1[end superior] in New Jersey have been recording cases as they happen to find them in the communities where they are studying family histories. Within the year they have reported 4,124 cases not in institutions. There are in New Jersey institutions 1,348, with 393 on waiting lists, making 5,865 recorded cases in that state. Careful testings in the special classes throughout the country show that a large percentage of the children formerly supposed to be merely backward are actually feeble-minded. The English commission found that feeble-minded mothers produce an average of twice as many children as normal mothers. Four families studied by the training school at Vineland show 2,798 individuals of whom 687 are known to be feeble-minded and 1,532 undetermined. Two hundred and sixty-seven other families show 11,345 individuals, of whom 1,049 are known to be feeble-minded and 6,219 undetermined. All recent studies make it evident that from 60 to 90 per cent of the cases of feeble-mindedness are hereditary. Alcoholism, tuberculosis, and syphilis are found inextricably mixed with this condition. What has been set forth so far goes to show that until a careful canvass is made by trained investigators we can only guess at the truth. We believe that 1 to 500 is entirely too conservative an estimate of the ratio of the feeble-minded to the total population, and that 1 to 300 is more near correct; but if there is danger of wasting energy in discussing the ratio of 1 to 300 let us say 1 to 500. That means 182,260 in the United States. About 10 per cent of the estimated number of the feeble-minded are now cared for in proper institutions. Here they have all creature comforts, cleanliness, and medical attention. They are made happy by entertainments, toys, and games. They help in household duties of every description. They acquire surprising proficiency with tools, learning carpet-weaving, mattress-making, broom-making, and the simpler side of carpentry, painting, masonry, dress-making, and tailoring. They are effective workers in the making of bricks and in concrete work. On the farm and in the care of stock, under supervision, they are far superior to many "hired hands." In this way they contribute much toward their own support and from 10 to 30 per cent become fully self-supporting under direction. In most institutions there are excellent school departments where the elements of reading, writing, etc., are taught to the small number who can really use this knowledge to good advantage. But what of those who are not in the proper institutions? Many are in prisons and reformatories, sent there for crimes committed through ignorance or at the suggestion of others. Murder, arson, thievery, and innumerable immoralities are charged against these irresponsibles (so pronounced by the superintendents of the penal institutions). A complete "research" examination should be made of every questionable prisoner, and an abstract of the findings presented to the judge before he passes sentence. Then the incompetents would be sent to a "village for the simple," there to live out a harmless, useful, and happy life. Now they live through a series of circles made up of crime, arrest, trial, imprisonment, parole, discharge, and crime again, entailing upon the community a burden of expense to which it seems indifferent. In the hospitals for the insane these deficients are adding to the already overcrowded condition. They do not need the care of an expert physician and the expensive, protected buildings - they want mothering, directing, and the opportunity of the land. They need a job, with ma- [superior]1[end superior] The state village for epileptics, the institution for feeble-minded women, the training school at Vineland. March 2, 1912.