j MENTAL DEFECTIVES,

Hokitika Guardian, 31 July 1924, Page 4

j MENTAL DEFECTIVES,

In a recent lecture in London on "Stiine I'auses of a C.‘i Population,” Professor K. W. .Macliride said a C'.'l man was a product ol imperfect development. a degenerate. Those people cl the menial ages o| s, !i, and P) constituted a sin ial menace, for they (ould just support themselves in the lowest grades of society, and they hied recklessly. Mental delieielley, or want of intelligence, went hand in hand with moral deficiency or lack of sell-con-trol. was the basis of all morality. It was a <|Ucsiioti of cardinal importance whether mental deficiency was or was not transmitted to the offspring of the I’.edeiimls. Tile iplestion had been seti led in the affirmative by the rescan lies ol l)r. tloddard, who was atiai!:.d to an Aineiieao institution for mental delect ires. Oui of |sg ebildren both of whose parents were mentally defective, 1711 were mentally deficient. Where oil" parent was mentally defective and the other, though normal, had mental defectives amongst his or her aloe-try. half the children wi re normal rail half were mentally defective. Alcoholism was a symptom, not a cause of feeblo-milidedlless. From those ojlisideral ion.s il toilov,; .1 that a (':! population was largely l''e result of iprkless and improvident reproduction, and the (piestioiis of iho prevention of the appearance ol this papulation and of over-population ultimately resolved themselves into the practicability- ol birth-control, and eventually sterilisation of the unilt. Nature observed a rigorous natural se- ! - tinii. We had two alterualives. either to pursue a policy ul laissex faire, or. if we were iletermineil to in-lerfi-ie v.ilii (lie operations ol natural select inn. we must take steps properly In space birth and sterilise the unlit, lie know these wore unpopular theories. lon they weri' forced oil every scientific .mail locking at the matter dispassionately.