The Dominion. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1912. THE MENTALLY DEFECTIVE

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1551, 21 September 1912, Page 4

The Dominion. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1912. THE MENTALLY DEFECTIVE

Perhaps the most depressing of all the annual reports presented to Parliament is that dealing with the mental hospitals of the Dominion. People seem to have settled down to the belief that prevention on any appreciable scale is almost hopeless, and that all that remains to be done is to continually increase the asylum accommodation so as to make the lot of the mentally defective as comfortable as possible. The .present year's report tells us that "whereas the increase, in the male patients to the number of CO was slightly in excess of the proportional increase of males in the general population, the addition female patients was slightly below the proportional increase of females in the general population, with the total result that the increase of mentally defective persons was proportional to the increase in the general population." The report has not a great deal to say on the question of prevention. Its suggestions in this respect include the modification of the stress of environment by a mode of life as natural as the circumstances of the everyday world will permit; also such simple homely necessaries as fresh air, v proper nourishment, healthy exercise, and "methods of mental development and subsequent employment adjusted to ago and individual capacity." But even after all these matters had been attended to the report states that there would always Temain tho'so so inherently unstable in mind that they would succumb to a much reduced ratio of stress, individuals who may bo said to bo predestined to insanity, and those who are mentally deficient at birth. To modify tho environment is to consider the individual, to prevent the propagation of the unfit benefits the race; but the solution of that problem is still to bo sought. The partial solutions suggested by the knowledge at our disposal are by no means simple; but to /Say, therefore, that it is impossible to Stem the tide of social degeneracy, which has overwhelmed former civilisations, the superficial likeness notwithstanding, is to exp_ress a pessimism which is unjustified. No one can fail to observe the public interest which is being aroused on,'this subject, thanks largely to tho work of tho Eugenics Education bociejy, and once that interest is focussed and becomes a conviction a popular ideal will be created which will influence the setcction of the parents of the succeeding generation much as religious and social distinctions do at present.

The problem is certainly one of the most difficult that at present faces the civilised world. In proof of this it is only necessary to state that one distinguished scientific authority (Mr. Doncastee in his book on Heredity) tells us that the increase in insanity in modem times is largely due to the provision of institutions in which sufferers are cared for and frequently discharged as cured. ' Under the old "straightjacket" system cures were out of the .question, and so the unfortunates could never recover and propagate their kind; but now many of them, go back into the outer world and Bring" large families into existence. Of course no one wishes to see the criiel methods of by-gone days reintroduced, but, as we have said before in these columns, it is surely time that, as a first step, something was dono to restrict the marriage of the feeble-minded. It is necessary, however, to proceed with the greatest caution, and suggestions of adopting tho methods of the, stock farm and extreme measures in other directions only increase the difficulties in the way of moderate, necessary, and possible reiorms. In a recent issue of The Lancet Btresa is laid on the need for caution. It advises the propagandists of th'e Eugenics movement to take heed of the judicious warning of Mb. Balfour, and to beware of the cranks, and the faddists who find an irresistible fascination in jiist such questions as fall within' the province of eugenics, especially while they still retain the glamour of novelty. Tho conditions of'the moment are peculiarly favourable to the acceptance by public opinion of soma methods of eugenic reform, particularly in the direction of segregating tho mentally defective and limiting the propagation of diseases that destroy the vitality of the stock. And nothing is more likely to injure the prospect of. such salutary measures being carried into effect than that their advocacy should be 'associated with reckless proposals which, under the pretence of being the legitimate conclusion of science, are but hasty generalisations. The Lanclet hopes that the programme of practical eugenics will be kept free from methods that violate feelings and repress impulses which are the highest product/of- human evolution.

Physical fitness is not the one and only thing needful in-human beings. We are reminded of this fact in a most interesting paper rpad at the recent Eugenics Conference in London, by Dr. Samuel Smith, of Minnesota Universitjv who stated that what the world owed to invalids would provide material for' a remarkable treatise. He was not euro that, for intellectual efficiency some little abnormality of the flesh was not almost a pre-requisitc. There was not the slightest evidence that genius in any particular direction was ever inherited. Luther and Napoleon and Abraham Lincoln were biological surprises. Beethoven and Mozart and Wagner could no more have been predicted than Shakespeare or Michael Angelo. With regard to the policy of seeking the ideal baby in the ancient Spartan method—that is, by destroying all unpromising infants—Dr. Smith instanced Herbert Spencer, the philosopher, and Sin Isaac Newton, the scientist. The former was so delicate as a child that he could be given no regular education. Newton was so frail an infant that his nurse did not think it worth while to keep him alive. These are very important facts which go to show how needful it is to proceed with the utmost caution, but such facts must not be utilised as an excuse for doing nothing or as a justification of a policy 'of drift. The ideal to be aimed at is to induce the best in body and mind to marry and have children, and to avoid the multiplication of the physically and mentally weak by preventing such people, as far as possible, from having offspring. Perhaps Mr. Doncaster states the position too conservatively when hs says that "it is admitted that at present these things hardly come within practical politics,"-but most people will agree] with him when he, declares that there is little doubt that the nation which first finds a way to make them practical will in a very short time bo the lea'dor of the world.