[Dissertation] Segregation or Surgery: The Mentally Retarded in America, 1850-1920

Citation preview

NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY

SEGREGATION OR SURGERY: IN AMERICA,

THE MENTALLY RETARDED 1850-1920

A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS for the degree

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Field of History

by PETER LAWRENCE TYOR

Evanston, Illinois June 1972

X

PLE ASE NOTE: Some p a g e s m a y hav e ind istinct print. Filmed as received. U n i v e r s i t y M i c r o f i l m s , A X e r o x E d u c a t i o n Com p a n y

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter I

II

III

IV

V

VI

Page INTRODUCTION

..................

...

1

EUROPEAN BEGINNINGS AND AMERICAN ESTABLISHMENTS 1800-1860

17

INSTITUTIONAL GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT 1850-1875 ...................

THE EMERGENCE 1875-1885

OF CUSTODIALISM

THE BURDEN OF 1885-1908

THE FEEBLE-MINDED

44

80

124

SEGREGATION OR SURGERY 1908-1910

BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY

188 232

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1

2

Page INMATE POPULATIONS IN PUBLIC .INSTITUTIONS FOR THE .RETARDED . . . .

128

NATIVITY OF WHITE PARENTS OF MASSACHUSETTS INMATES ................

161

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I have been given an unreasonable amount of help by }

kind friends and sympathetic librarians.

M. Christine Stone,

librarian of the Walter E. Fernald State School, Waverly, Massachusetts gave me complete freedom in the Library's superb collection,

as did J. Albert Matkov and James Parla,

State Librarian and Supervisor of Annex respectively, State Library of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, House,

Boston.

in the

State

Both Libraries permitted me the luxury of

working with their materials in unlimited quantities

for

extended durations. Much assistance was extended to me by Gertrude L. Annan, Librarian of the New York Academy of Medicine, staff.

and her entire

The personnel at the Reference Desk of the New York

Public Library was consistently obliging in the face of my many inquiries. Maryland,

At the National Library of Medicine,

Bethesda,

two members of the Reference Services Division,

Daniel T. Richards and Joseph Forrest,

gave me a great deal of

their time and knowledge as well as directing me to their counterparts at the Library of Congress. Two colleagues at Northwestern University, and Roger Mitchels, bore preparation of

the brunt of assisting me in the

the manuscript.

untiring efforts.

John Drodow

I am most grateful for their

My wife, Hilary,

supplied love and silence

when each was appropriate.

I alone am responsible for the

finished manuscript, and for any and all errors.

Peter Lawrence Tyor Evanston, Illinois

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

Incidents of organized repression have punctuated all of America's past..

Such episodes--ranging from the Salem

witch trials to the Indian extermination campaigns and the inquisitions of the McCarthy era— have varied in scope, sity and duration.

inten­

Seldom, however, have unanimity of opinion,

quality of leadership and severity of reaction combined so successfully as in our treatment of the feeble-minded'*' during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. growing accord,

physicians,

With

scientists and criminologists

condemned the feeble-minded as social parasites and failures. Calling for sterilization or segregation,

they led the outcry

to prevent the feeble-minded from inflicting disaster on future generations. This was a dramatic change from the optimistic pre-Civil War conceptions of mental disabilities.

The apparent success

of moral treatment for the insane had encouraged many asylum superintendents

to proclaim that insanity was

the most curable

^This term may offend some modern readers, but it was the most widely used scientific term in the period 1865-1920. Feeble-minded, like its antecedent, idiocy, refers to those who today are described as mentally handicapped or retarded. When discussing the views of those in the past, I shall use the terms with which they would have expressed themselves.

2 of diseases.

The early educ ational work of Dr. Samuel G.

Howe with idiots promis ed equ ally rewarding resu Its.

3

Despite

the expansion of ins t i tut iona 1 facilities and th e growth of prof essional socie t i e s ,^ the hopes of the humani tarian reformers were not fully rea li zed .

The feeble-minded were never educated

to the point where they could completely provide for themselves. Like other objects of ref o r m , the feeble-minded lingered in ins titutions which , like asy 1urns and penitentiar i e s , had been designed to transform and discharge

them.

The failure of the educational ideal and sion to custodial institutions

the slow conver­

cannot fully account for the

antipathy expressed toward the feeble-minded

from 1890 onward.

This problem has been examined by a number of scholars. of the earliest works, Stanley P. Davies,

Social

One

Control of the Feebleminded by

established a pattern of explanation followed

2

There is a growing body of literature on insanity in this period. See: Norman Dain, Concepts of Insanity in the United States, 1789-1865 (New Brunswick, 1964); Gerald N. Grob, The State and the Mentally 111 (Chapel Hill, 1966); Ruth B. Caplan, Psychiatry and Community in Nineteenth Century America (New York, 1969); and J. Sanbourne Bockoven, Moral Treat­ ment in American Psychiatry (New York, 1963). 3

See: Harold Schwartz, Samuel Gridley Howe, Social Reformer, 18011876 (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1956). ^From Howe's first school in the Perkins Institute for the Blind established in 1848, to 1892, nineteen public institutions for the feeble­ minded were founded. A contemporary view can be found in Walter E. Fernald, "The History of the Treatment of the Feeble-Minded," Proceedings of the National Conference of Corrections and Charities, XX (1893), 203-222 (here­ after cited as N.C.C.C.)

by later authors."*

Davies believed:

Two factors were mainly responsible for this rather suddenly aroused and widespread concern about a problem which had theretofore existed without any general public notice. These factors were: 1. The development of the eugenics movement together with the rediscovery of the Mendelian laws of heredity and resulting heredity studies. 2. The development and application of the BinetSimon method of intelligence testing.”

Although indicating that advances in biology, psychology were primarily responsible,

genetics and

Davies implied that

the frame of mind both of the scientific community and the wider society played a major role. Eugenics

thrived in the turn of

the century enthusiasm

for race and heredity that had been sparked by Darwin. Arguing that society had interfered with the process of natural selection by preserving inferior stocks through misguided p u b ­ lic charity,

eugenicists were

survival of the race.

concerned for the continued

Those officials most familiar with these

debilitating agents--the insane,

feeble-minded,

alcoholics,

paupers--had always considered heredity as one of many likely causes.

Although Robert Dugdale's pioneering study

The Jukes

Davies actually succeeded himself, revising and reissuing his work as: Social Control of the Mentally Deficient (New York, 1930); and as The Mentally Retarded in Society (New York, 1958). ^Stanley P. Davies, Social Control of the feebleminded (New York, 1923), p. 37.

4 had balanced the forces of heredity and environment;

other

commentators had placed unwarranted emphasis on inherited defect.

As Davies pointed out,

the rediscovery of Mendel's

laws made possible numerous studies of science,

cloaked in the mantle

that proved feeble-mindedness

and other social g

problems had predominantly hereditarian origins. Importation of the Binet-Simon method of intelligence testing by Dr.

Henry H. Goddard in 1908 permitted a more

accurate assessment of the feeble-mindeds1 mental capacities. Professional custodians

and eugenicists,

using representative

sampling techniques, now had the means to estimate the per­ centage of the feeble-minded at large in the community. found it alarmingly high. causal

They

Only one link in the chain of

thinking that indicted the congenitally feeble-minded

as major social menaces was lacking.

Next tested wer e the

known social failures already in institutions— criminals, paupers,

alcoholics— and a large proportion of them proved

feeble-minded.

Davies summarized,

"The more thoroughly the

mental defective was searched for and found,

the more completely

was he apparently involved in all manner of offences

against

7 First published in A Record and Study of the Relations of Crime, Pauperism and Disease, Prison Association of New York, Annual Reports, XXXI (1875), it was.the best known study of abnormal families and went through four editions by 1910. O Davies, Social Control, pp. 37-42. ^Ibid., pp. 43-55.

5 the social o r d e r . A l b e r t America^

Deutsch in The Mentally 111 in

elaborated on Davies'

causal forces,

Instead of two

Deutsch listed four, but they were all familiar:

the development of mental tests, laws,

schemata.

the rise of eugenics,

the rediscovery of Mendel's

and the publication of genealogi-

cal studies of defective stocks.

12

Deutsch also

criticized

the hasty generalizations made by early investigators,

stating

that "a point was soon reached where every person who tested twelve years or less in an intelligence ipso f a c t o , to be feeble-minded.

13

test was pronounced,

Commenting on intelligence

testing of "social debtors," Deutsch noted: And when it was found that a large proportion of those groups tested twelve years or less, it was immediately inferred that an organic connection existed between feeble-mindedness on the one hand, and crime, pauperism, and social degeneracy on the other. Attempting to explain the cause of these exaggerations, Deutsch, paraphrasing Davies, 1920 as one of alarmism, social hysteria set in,

referred

to the period 1910-

Deutsch believed that "a period of comparable in many respects

witch-hunting mania of yore."^

This was

to the

encouraged by over

^Davies, Social Control, p. 45 "^Albert Deutsch, The Mentally 111 in America: A History of Their Care and Treatment from Colonial Times, rev. ed., 1949 (New York, 1937). 12Ibid., pp. 354-362. 13Ibid., p. 356. Ibid. 15Ibid., p. 360.

eager scientists using untested, newly developed methods and then leaping to conclusions.

Essentially, Deutsch attributed

the widespread belief in the "menace of the feeble-minded" to a sort of scientific youthful exuberance.

Like Davies,

he saw the extreme claims of the alarmist stage progressively challenged by careful investigators using sophisticated tech­ niques with more extensive data."^ Neither author sought to demonstrate why the tenets of eugenics were so accepted or why professional custodians and scientists employed Mendelian biology or Binet testing as they did.

Both of these tasks were more ably handled by

Mark H. Haller in his book Eugenics:

17

in American Thought. social predilections

Haller examined the intellectual and

of the advocates of eugenics.

they were middle-class, professionals: scientists.

In general

college educated, native American

physicians,

Eugenics

Hereditarian Attitudes

custodians,

appealed

in an age of Progressivism.

social workers and

to them as a scientific reform

At the same time,

eugenics

easily lent itself to their class and nativist prejudices. 16

See:

18

Davies,Social Control, pp. 70-87; Deutsch, Mentally 111, pp.

362-386. 17 Mark H. Haller, Eugenics: Thought (New Brunswick, 1963). 18

Hereditarian Attitudes in American

Ibid., pp. 5-6. On this subject of natlvism and prejudice, see: John Higham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of American Nativism 18601925 (New Brunswick, 1955); Barbara Solomon, Ancestors and Immigrants: A Changing New England Tradition (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1956).

7 Haller skillfully documents the growing inclination of pro­ fessionals to accept heredity as the fundamental cause of social failure and mental disease. In his account,

19

"Myth of the Menace of the Feeble-

Minded," Haller proceeds in the same straightforward manner as did Davies its

and Deutsch.

Haller states,

"the myth had

origin in several developments that increased public

awareness of the feeble-minded they presented."

20

and exaggerated the dangers

He then narrates

the familiar chain of

events, beginning with Mendelian biology, the outcry for control.

and ending with

Although presented in greater

detail and with a wider scope,

Haller's

discussion reflects

the patterns established by prior studies.

21

Eugenics does achieve notable exception, however, its discussion of these accepted causes.

in

In accounting for

the

eagerness with which hereditarian causation

triumphed and

the

intensity of the eugenics-oriented campaign

for suppression

of the feeble-minded,

Haller makes a number of useful suggestions.

Concerning the scientists and custodians,

he noted:

Those engaged in studies of the feeble-minded felt the excitement of pioneers whose scientific investi­ gations shed new light on the causes of many social 19 Haller, Eugenics, pp. 21-94 20 21

Ibid., p. 95.

For another similar approach, see: Leo Kanner, A History of the Care and Study of the Mentally Retarded (Springfield, Illinois, 1964), pp. 117-138.

8 problems. The feeble-minded were no longer a peripheral problem but a central problem of great importance.22 Hereditarian causation of feeble-mindedness and crime could provide a defense against criticism that institutions to improve their inmates;

after all,

failed

little could be done

to change those who were predisposed to certain acts by biology.

Haller also posits

the idea that those working with

the defective and the delinquent were swayed by their social and class bias.

They were "unable to believe that a normal

person could fall into such ways of living,

they became con-

vinced that such persons were born with a fatal flaw."

All of these studies--Davies, Deutsch,

23

Haller--help

explain why the feeble-minded were treated as they were. many problems

in accounting for the "social hysteria,"

to Yet

the

stringency of response and the acceptance of custodial leader­ ship still linger.

These works are similar in approach.

Focusing on scientific achievements and custodial attitudes, they slight the role played by the feeble-minded in society. Sociologists would classify that role as a deviant one and it is through the sociology of deviance that a fuller understanding of the interaction between the feeble-minded and society can 22

Haller, Eugenics, p. 96.

23

Ibid., pp. 24-25.

be reached.

Treatment of and attitudes toward the feeble­

minded were social facts and (to paraphrase Dur k h e i m ) , they must be explained socially. The mentally ill were among the first groups whose behavior was studied and classified as being deviant; criminals,

sexual perverts,

suicides, alcoholics,

addicts were also included in the same category. teristic

24

and drug The charac­

that distinguishes these groups is that they are

composed of individuals whose activities have violated societal norms.

This was precisely the behavior

tified the feeble-minded because, organic lesions

(microcephalies,

that iden­

except for those suffering cretins,

m ongoloids),

there were no uniformly observable symptoms of feeble­ mindedness.

The most widely used definition was based upon

social performance, not medical or psychological criteria. It characterized as feebleminded, one who is capable of earning a living under favorable circumstances, but is incapable, from mental defect existing from birth, or from an early age, (a) of competing on equal terms with his normal fellows, or (b)* of managing himself and his affairs with ordinary prudence.25 See: Edwin M. Lemert, Social Pathology (New York, 1951); and see: Jack P. Gibbs, "Conceptions of Deviant Behaviour: The Old and the New," in Hark Lefton, James K. Skipper, Jr., and Charles A. McCarthy, Approaches to Deviance: Theories, Concepts, and Research Findings (New York, 1968). 25

Quoted by Alfred F. Tredgold in Mental Deficiency (Amentia) (London, 1908), p. 75; and in Davis, Social Control, p. 19; a slightly

10 In practice,

any deviant behavior neither obviously criminal

nor obviously insane might be classified

feeble-minded.

Even an individual who failed to support or control himself, especially in sexual affairs,

could have been labeled

feeble-minded and by the standards of the period would have been considered a deviant. Foremost in any consideration of deviance are the norms and rules of society; without would be no deviance.

their existence,

there

"Since," as one observer noted,

"deviance depends as much on the existence of a rule as on the occurrance of an act, deviance may be created or expunged by changes in the rules."

26

What was

tolerated or even

encouraged in one environment could be interpreted

as deviant

behavior when new normative patterns were established. Deviance is a relative phenomenon.

"It is not a property

inherent in any particular kind of behaviour; it is a property conferred upon that behaviour by the people who come into direct or indirect contact with it."

27

different form in the New York State Mental Hygiene Law can be found in Deutsch, Mentally 111, p. 332. This definition was proposed by the Royal College of Physicians of London, and was adopted in the Report of the Royal Commission on the Care and Control of the Feeble-minded, 5 vols. (London, 1908). Tredgold was an advisor to the Commission, and was widely known in England and America as an expert on feeble-mindedness. 26 Albert K. Cohen, Deviance and Control (New York, 1966), p. 21. 27 Kai T. Erickson, Wayward Puritans: A Study in the Sociology of Deviance (New York, 1966), p. 6. This dissertation owes an intellec­ tual debt to Wayward Puritans for suggesting ways in which the sociology of deviance could be applied to historical problems.

11 Society is responsible for the creation of deviance and derives

a variety of benefits from it.

Deviants serve

most clearly as norm testers and clarifiers;

they delineate

the community's legal, moral and social boundaries. behavior and the response sense of identity.

Their

to it are aids in achieving a

A society becomes cohesive when it unites

to define and proscribe deviance.

Deviants provide a point

of negative reference against which normality can be affirmed and appreciated.

As Kai Erickson notes,

Deviant forms of behaviour, by marking the outer edges of group life, give the inner structure its special character and thus supply the framework within which the people of the group develop an orderly sense of their cultural identity.28 Some deviance is necessary

for the maintenance of society.

Like other essentials in an advanced society, created,

distributed,

deviance is

and regulated by specialists who are

trained and organized to perform these functions. Agencies of social control bear the primary responsi­ bility for the management of deviance.

Generally little more 3=

■•

is required of these agencies than the containment of deviants because society rarely demands the complete suppression of deviance.

The institutions nominally established to elimi­

nate deviance— reformatories, asylums, ill-equipped for the task. high,

clinics— are notoriously

The incidence of recidivism is

and only a small proportion of the community's resources 28Ibid., p. 13.

are devoted to remedial efforts. of deviance is anticipated,

29

When a certain volume

the agencies of social control

operate in a custodial rather than correctional mode. employ Howard B e c k e r ’s terminology, n.ot "rule creators."

they are "rule enforcers,

A custodian faces a dual problem,

the one hand, he must demonstrate to others lem still exists.

To

...

"on

that the prob­

On the other hand, he must show

that his attempts at enforcement are effective and worth-

The professional custodians of the late nineteenth century were the instrumental figures in the identification of the feeble-minded as a major social problem. nascent professional groups,

Like other

the custodians organized

to

facilitate the exchange of information and to ensure the official sanctioning of their methods and beliefs. class,

31

As a

the custodians gained influence and recognition as

the ideal of institutionalization became widely accepted. 29

See: Erving Goffman, Asylums: Essays on the Social Situation of Patients and Other Inmates (New York, 1961); Thomas S. Szasz, "Commit­ ment of the Mentally 111: 'Treatment' or Social Restraint?" Jour. Nerv. Ment. Pis., CXXV (April-June 1951), 293-307; David Sudnow, "Normal Crimes," Social Problems, XII (Winter 1964), 255-276. 30 Howard S. Becker, Outsiders: Deviance (New York, 1963), p. 157.

Studies in the Sociology of

31The Association of Medical Officers of American Institutions for Idiots and Feeble-minded Persons was established in 1876. For an incisive overview of emerging professionalism in this period, see: Robert II. Wiebe The Search for Order: 1877-1920 (New York, 1967), pp. 111-133.

13 They were the chief sponsors of'the general tendency in the last half of the century toward the differentiation and classification of the various classes of dependents and delinquents."

32

Contact between the community and socially

troublesome persons was increasingly channeled through the specialized professional; standards

they created and applied the

that determined social adequacy.

As the potential

danger of the feeble-minded became well known,

the promi­

nence' of the professional custodian increased. The rise in the incidence vof feeble-mindedness was attributed,

in part,

to the more demanding style of mental

life that had developed since the Civil War.

America was

transformed from a predominantly rural, agricultural, town-oriented country to an urban,

industrial nation-state

that was managed by a conglomerate of centralized, specialized bureaucracies. behavior developed.

impersonal,

New norms and standards of

Individuals came under more intense

scrutiny from compulsory education, and the urban environment.

industrial discipline

Opportunities increased for

deviant behavior to be observed and recorded. adage,

small

"He is feeble-minded in Paris,

Binet's old

and normal at home,"

was quoted with approval by custodians as summarizing the

32 Deutsch, Mentally 111, p. 340. 33 Quoted by Henry H. Goddard, Feeble-mindedness: and Consequences (New York, 1914), p. 573.

Its Causes

33

14 difficulty of life for the feeble-minded in the complex, modern world. "Feeble-minded" was actually a catchall description for anyone considered unable to adjust to life in nine­ teenth century America.

Hereditary causation was so readily

accepted because it removed the present from censure and incorporated the traditional belief in individual sin.

As

Haller observed, The attack against the menace of the feeble-minded had been the major aspect of a general feeling among eugenic leaders that social failure— from crime and intemperance to poverty and unemployment— stemmed from low intelligence of hereditary origin.34 Custodians

could reassure the honest,

employed,

temperate

members of the community and advance their own importance by declaring that the feeble-minded were "the persons who make for us our social problems,"

35

thereby implying that

there was no other cause of social disruption within society. For people buffeted by industrialization and urbanization while trying to achieve some sense of identity, been comforting to believe that benign

it must have

the system was basically

and that those who could not make a go of it

mentally

were

incapable.

Whenever .a group is stigmatized as deviant,

there

develops what I term a sense of moral distance between the 34 Haller, Eugenics, p. 160. 35

Goddard, Feeble-mindedness, p. 5.

15 deviants and society.

This arises from the belief that

because deviants violate social norms they do not inhabit the same cultural universe or share common social values. Generally the latter charges are employed as explanations for, as well as consequences of, deviance.

People come to

believe that deviants are not quite human and that different standards of morality can be applied to them. expressed these sentiments,

Goddard

saying the feeble-minded were

"a more primitive form of humanity,

a vigorous animal

organism of low intellect but strong physically — the wild O

c.

man of today."

Once it was decided that the feeble­

minded posed a genetic threat to civilization,

it was a

simple matter to propose the same extreme sanctions

that had

been applied successfully to other dangerous, but inferior groups . The feeble-minded occupied two successive deviant roles.

The first served principally to aid society in

achieving a sense of identity during a period of abrupt change.

The feeble-minded reassured the community

failure had its roots in individual inadequacies, ciencies of the system.

total suppression. 36Ibid., p. 508

not in defi­

When the biological danger of the

feeble-minded was publicized, merely to contain them.

that social

custodians were no longer asked

A general clamor arose for their

It was in the second role,

as genetic

defectives,

that the feeble-minded received such adverse

attention.

Finally,

it was the integration of both roles

that produced "the myth of menace of the feeble-minded."

CHAPTER II EUROPEAN BEGINNINGS AND AMERICAN ESTABLISHMENTS 1800-1860

The first significant study of the mentally retarded was begun in France in the early nineteenth century.

The

object of the investigation was to determine the mental status and capabilities of a boy found roaming the forests of Aveyron.^

Bonaterre,

the Professor of Natural History

of the Central School of the Department of Aveyron, the youth as often walking on all fours, teeth,

selecting his food by smell,

language, gence.

described

fighting with his

having no articulate

and only the most feeble indications of intelli­

When examined by Phillippe Pinel,

Chief of the Bicetre,

Pinel declared

and, according to popular belief,

Physician-in-

the boy to be idiotic

incapable of education.

There are differing accounts of the background, age, and manner of capture of the "savage of Aveyron." Deutsch states that he was about seventeen years old when caught by a group of hunters in 1798; see Albert Deutsch, The Mentally 111 in America: Their Care and Treatment from Colonial Times (New York, 1949), pp. 336-338. Davies and Barr agree with Deutsch for the most part, but they place the boy's age as twelve; see Stanley P. Davies, The Social Control of the Feeble-minded (New York, 1923), pp. 27-29, and Martin W. Barr, Mental Defectives: Their History, Treatment, and Training (Philadelphia, 1904), pp. 29-32. Seguin, a student of ILard, states that the youth was captured in 1801 by Bonaterre, allowed to escape, and then recaptured at age seventeen; see Edward Seguin, "Origin of the Treatment and Training of Idiots," Am. Jour. Ed., II (August, 1856), 145-146. All of these works are in substantial agreement. I have generally relied on the factual information supplied in Leo Kanner, A History of the Study and Care, of the Mentally Retarded (Springfield, Illinois, 1964), pp. 10-17. 17

18 This diagnosis was disputed by Jean M. G.

Itard, Chief of

the National Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, who believed that the boy

(whom he named Victor) was merely

suffering from a lack of human contact and education--that he was entirely untaught.

Itard took Victor into his own house­

hold, hired a governess and for six years attempted

to instruct

him. Tb,g controversy surrounding the "savage of Aveyron" aroused widespread interest in Europe. the progress of Victor's

In Bonnaterre's words,

education

would furnish to philosophy and natural history impor­ tant notions on the original constitution of man, and on the development of his primitive faculties; pro­ vided that the state of imbecility we have noticed in^ this child does not offer an obstacle to his instruction. Here was an opportunity

to observe the interaction of Rousseau's

"natural man" with the forces of civilized society.

It was

hoped that the outcome of Itard's labors might resolve the dispute between the sensationalists, who believed the human mind to be a tabula rasa at birth that gained all knowledge through means of the senses,

and the nativists, who contended

that man was born with innate ideas which developed with maturity. Itard, himself an adherent of the sensationalist theories 2 Bonaterre, Notice Historique sur le Sauvage de 1 'Aveyron (Paris, 1801), p. 50, quoted in Edward Seguin, Idiocy and its Treatment bythe Physiological Method (New York, 1907), p. 16.

19 of Locke and Condillac,

enthusiastically began Victor's edu­

cation by modifying the techniques of physiological instruc­ tion that had been perfected by Jacob Pereire in his work with the congenitally deafmute.

Physiological education was

intended to vitalize and perfect control of the muscular system and the senses.

It was premised on the belief that

ideas arose from responding to sensations which were pe r ­ ceived through the senses.

The pupil began with simple

grasping exercises and proceeded to progressively more com­ plex,

demanding

tasks.

Following these motor training drills

the student was called upon to make increasingly finer sen­ sory distinctions--starting from the development of the sense of touch and continuing to training in other senses. this was accomplished,

Once

the regular techniques of education

could be employed as the student was prepared to comprehend and respond to the world outside himself.

Pereire was renowned

for his achievements in aiding the deafmute to communicate and Itard was familiar with his methods. For more than a year Itard attempted to arouse and interest his pupil, but

the results were far less than antici­

pated if Victor was only suffering from mental atrophy.

The

possibility of actual mental defect, hinted at by Bonaterre, became more apparent.

Itard altered his approach and concen­

trated directly on "1st.

The development of the senses.

The development of the intellectual faculties.

3rd.

The

2nd.

20 development of the affective functions."

3

Itard persisted

for five more years in his attempt to elevate Victor from a state of savagery to a model of civilized behavior. Finally,

he realized that he could not

fully accomplish

his goal and abandoned Victor to a custodial institution, where he remained until his death in 1828. Originally Itard had disagreed with Pinel's diagnosis of idiocy, but he had never questioned idiocy was an incurable condition.

the supposition that

Although he did not suc­

ceed in his ambition to- totally transform Victor, achieved unprecedented results

Itard had

as the first to undertake the

systematic training of an idiot.

Victor had

learned to recognize objects, identify letters of the alphabet, comprehend the meaning of many words, apply names to objects and parts of objects, make "relatively fine" sensory discriminations, and "preferred the social life of civilization to an isolated existence in the wild."4 Itard had demonstrated

that it was possible to improve and train

the idiotic through appropriate educational methods. The significance of Itard's accomplishments was not lost on his colleagues in France.

The French Academy officially

reported in 1806, that if he [Itard] has not obtained a greater success, it must be attributed, not to any lack of zeal or talent but to the imperfection of the organs of the ^Jean M. G. Itard, De L'Education d'un Homme Sauvage (n.p., 1801), pp. 44-45, quoted in Seguin, Idiocy, p. 23. ^Kanner, History of Care, p. 16.

subject upon which he worked. The Academy, moreover, cannot see without astonishment how he could succeed as far as he did.5 Inspired by Itard's achievement,

Guillaume M. A. Ferrus,

Physician-in-Chief of the Bicetre hospice des a l i e n e s ,. estab­ lished a separate section for idiots and imbeciles

in 1828;

a similar facility was created at the Salpetriere in 1831 by Jean P. Falret. Auguste F. Voisdn, by his teacher,

Private schools were established by F e r r u s ’ successor at Issy,

Vallee,

in Paris in 1848.

port followed these ventures,

in 1834, and

Little public sup­

as these men were primarily

interested with general psychiatry and their concern with mental defectives was secondary.^ Prior to the nineteenth century, accorded

the best treatment

to the mental defective was benign neglect.

of precision in terminolpgy indicates medical profession.

The lack

the disinterest of the

The word idiot is derived from a Greek

expression meaning peculiar or a private person, one who is cut off from relationships with others and is alone.

It was

frequently used generically to refer to all varieties of mental defect;

however,

restricted

in this period,

the term idiot was increasingly

to the profoundly and severely retarded--those con­

sidered more afflicted and helpless.

Indicating a higher level

"ieguin, Idiocy, p. 21.

£ Kanner, History of Care, pp. 46-49; Deutsch, Mentally 111, pp. 338-339.

22 capability,

although still requiring guidance and control,

the word imbecile was employed. Latin, meaning needing a staff,

Its derivation is from tottering,

terms as well as a plethora of others,

or weak.

These

such as dunce,

fool,

and simpleton, were utilized indiscriminately by laymen and physicians without reference to etiology,

symptomatology,

or pr o g n o s i s . The eminent psychiatrist Jean E. M. Esquirol formu­ lated the first medical definition of idiocy: Idiocy is not a disease, but a condition in which the intellectual faculties are never manifested; or have never been developed sufficiently to enable the idiot to acquire such an amount of knowledge as persons of his own age, and placed in similar circumstances with himself, are capable of receiving. Idiocy commences with life, or at that age which pre­ cedes the development of the intellectual and effec­ tive faculties, which are from the first what they y are doomed to be during the whole period of existence. Esquirol limited the application of the term idiocy to cases of congenital mental defect.

Idiocy was inferred on the basis

of a comparison of the s u b j e c t ’s "knowledge" with that of like-situated contemporaries. all others

Hence,

this definition,

like

that followed, was a relative or a social definition,

relying on an evaluation of the subject's abilities to others in society.

in relation

Esquirol's use of the word "doomed" was

an indication of the still prevalent belief in the immutability Jean E. M. Esquirol, "Observations pour servir a' l'histoire de l"ldiotire," in Maladies Mentales (2 vols.; Paris, 1828), II, pp. 284-285 quoted in Barr, Mental Defectives, p. 19.

23 of idiocy. Esquirol's pessimism was not shared by his pupil, Edward Seguin. Itard,

Seguin studied medicine and surgery with

as well as psychiatry under Esquirol.

He joined the

methodological innovations of Itard with the theoretical advances of Esquirol to become

the first professional

specialize in the treatment of mental defectives.-

to

Seguin

began his career in France and there established his reputa­ tion.

After the Revolution of 1848, he emigrated to the

United States, where he aided in the operation of a number of institutions

for defectives while maintaining a private

practice in New York.

He was one of the founders of the

Association of Medical Officers of American Institutions for Idiotic and Feeble-minded Persons and, of his life's work,

as the culmination

served as its first president in 1876.

Seguin was born in 1812 at Clamecy,

France,

and

received an excellent education at the College d'Auxerre, g

and at the Lycee St. Louis in Paris.

Despite the forebodings

of Esquirol, but with Itard's encouragement,

Seguin estab­

lished his own school in 1837 and undertook the education of an idiotic boy. improvement;

By arduous and continual work,

the boy showed

after a year and a half, Seguin had enabled him

to learn to speak,

to write and to count.

Esquirol conceded

g

"Edward Seguin" in Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography (New York, 1888), V, 454.

24 Seguin's success and the private institution gained recog­ nition and increased enrollment.

For a brief period in

1842, Seguin was affiliated with the Hospice des Incurables and with the Bicetre, where he was able to treat greater numbers of children; however,

he soon ended this relation­

ship and reestablished his private school. commissions— in 1842,

1843,

Three separate

1844--investigated Seguin's

results and the Commission of the Paris Academy of Sciences reported in 1844 that Seguin had conquered idiot education.

the problem of

9

Like Itard,

Seguin based his instructional techniques

on the discoveries of Pereire.

After a period of study,

Seguin reached six major conclusions: 1st.

2nd.

3rd.

4th.

5th. 6th.

That the senses, and each one in particular, can be submitted to physiological training by which their primordial capability may be indefinitely intellectualized. That one sense may be substituted for another as a means of comprehension and of intellectual. culture. That the physiological exercise of a sense corroborates the action, as well as verifies the acquisitions of another. That our most abstract ideas are comparisons and generalizations by the mind of what we have perceived through our senses. That educating the modes of perception is to prepare pabulum for the mind proper. That sensations are intellectual functions per­ formed through external apparatus as much as

9 Kanner, History of Care, pp. 35-37.

25 reasoning, imagination, etc., through more internal organs.10 Seguin treated all manifestations of life as expressions of functions and all functions as resulting from certain organs.

The task of education was to bring all- the senses

and organs

to their maximum functional point.

Mental defectives posed special problems for educators. Seguin found that idiocy incapacitates mostly the functions which give rise to the reflex, instinctive, and conscious phenomena of life; consequently, the idiot moves, feels, understands, wills, but imperfectly; does nothing, thinks of nothings, care for nothing (extreme cases); he is a minor legally irresponsible; isolated without associations; a soul shut up in imperfect organs, an innocent.12 First it was necessary

to strengthen the body and muscular

systems and to correct any physical abnormalities.

This

was accomplished through the use of correctional gymnastic exercises,

stimulating baths and massages,

proper diet and

pure air, along with a generally wholesome environment. was considered especially important,

Diet

as improper nutrition

Seguin, Idiocy, p. 20. Seguin's major work was Traitment moral, hygiene et education des idiots et des autres enfants arrieres (Paris, 1846). He modified this work and published it as Idiocy and its Treatment by the Physiological Method (New York, 1866): this became a basic text, both in Europe and America, and was in such demand that it was reprinted by the Columbia University Teachers College Educational Reprint series in 1907. ■^Deutsch, Mentally 111, p. 339; see Edward Seguin, New Facts and Remarks Concerning Idiocy (New York, 1870), especially pp. 40-43. "^Seguin, Idiocy, p. 29.

26 was believed to have a deleterious effect on all bodily functions.

Next,

the various senses were engaged,

as the

defective was lead to make increasingly finer sensory dis­ criminations.

Remedial assistance was provided if only one

sense appeared particularly afflicted.

Finally,

a series

of sensory-motor drills was instituted which were designed to carry the defective from the elementary habits of muscular control to the complex mastery of vocational skills.

13

Acting in conjunction with the physiological education was the incessant effect of moral treatment. ment,

as contrasted

to physical

treatment,

Moral treat­

emphasized

the

human relationship developed between master and pupil as a curative agent.

For Seguin,

this approach was vital because

"that which most especially constitutes

idiocy,

is the

absence of moral v o l i t i o n , superceded by a negative w i l l ," and that "the treatment of an idiot, essentially consists in changing his negative will into an affirmative one. The instructor,

. . .

. . .

through the force of his own personality,

had to arouse in his pupil the desire to overcome the handi­ cap.

Mere automatic response or repetition was not sufficient,

as action had to be accompanied by conscious effort.

Only

13

See: Ivor Kraft, "Edward Seguin and Nineteenth Century Moral Treatment of Idiots," Bull. Hist. Med.,XXXXV (September-October, 1961) 393-419; William Boyd, From Locke to Montessori (London, 1914), Chapter VI; Edward Seguih, pp. 88-129. ^Seguin, "Treatment and Training," 151; and see: pp. 148-170.

Seguin, Idiocy,

27 then,

Seguin believed,

activity,

could all facets of the human being—

intelligence, will--be brought into a harmonious

whole. Seguin's system of physiological education has been discussed at some length because it was successfully employed by virtually every American and European institution for the mentally defective. the field.

His books became

the standard works in

The combination of physical

therapy and mental

discipline was so satisfactory that Seguin's methods under­ went remarkably little change or alteration during the period of institutional development. this widespread popularity was

One consequence of

the curtailing of medical and

scientific research in the field of remedial education for the retarded.

Seguin's work appeared so definitive that his

contemporaries and successors devoted their own research to other areas, Thus,

such as etiology or institutional planning.

Edward Seguin had the distinction of being considered

both a pioneering innovator and an established authority.

It was the proven success of physiological education in the 1840's that inspired Americans

to establish facilities

solely for the care and treatment of mental defectives. had been a number of earlier attempts

There

to ameliorate the con­

dition of the retarded, who had previously been lodged in

28 that great catchall of dependency— the county poorhouse— or else kept privately at home.

Beginning in 1818,

American Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb of Hartford,

the Con­

necticut accepted a limited number of defectives, who showed considerable improvement when given the proper training.

15

In 1839 a blind youth, who was also paralyzed and

retarded, was admitted to the Perkins Institution for the Blind in Boston.

Samuel G. Howe,

the Institution's

director,

was able to help the child by employing the new methods

that

he had developed to instruct the sightless and the deafmute. Howe was so encouraged by the results that he accepted two similar cases in the I n s t i t u t i o n . ^

While

these efforts

demonstrated the feasibility of "idiot education" to a .small groups of interested physicians and laymen,

there was no attempt

at this time to enlist public support or create specialized ins titutions . In America,

as in France, psychiatrists were among the

first professionals to be interested in the plight of the 15 Linus P. Brockett, "Idiots and Institutions for Their Training," Am. Jour, of Ed., I (May, 1856), 597. Brockett, a leader in the struggle to establish an institution for defectives in Connecticut, reported a total of thirty-four pupils cared for by the Asylum. "^Barr, Mental Defectives, pp. 61-62. There is a dearth of material on the early phase of Howe's work; Harold Schwartz, Samuel Gridley Howe; Social Reformer (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1956) says very little about this period, while F. E. Williams, "Dr. Samuel G. Howe and Beginnings of Work with the Feeble-minded in Massachusetts," Bos. Med. Surg. Jour., CLXXVII (October 4, 1917), 481-484, provides merely a cursory sketch of Howe's activities.

29 mentally retarded. 1845,

Following the New York State Census of

Amariah Brigham,

the superintendent of the New York

State Lunatic Asylum at Utica,

used his Annual Report

to

publicize the European educational methods that he believed could be employed to instruct by the Census.

the 1600 defectives enumerated

The report enthusiastically described

the

progress made by concerned Europeans such as Seguin in France,

Carl M. Saegent in Germany,

in S w i t z e r l a n d . ^ an experiment

and Johann J. Guggenbuhl

Brigham called upon New York to undertake

to aid the retarded,

we are of the opinion that much may be done for their improvement and comfort; that many, instead of being a burden and expense to the community, may be so improved as to engage in useful employments and to support themselves; and also to participate in the enjoyments of society.18 In his plea for state assistance,

Brigham asserted that proper

care would not only succor the defective, but also financially benefit the community.

This argument, combining humanitarianism

with economy, would be continually invoked by all those who sought to institutionalize the defective. The first legislative action concerning provision for the mentally defective was Senate by Dr.

initiated in the New York State

Frederick F. Backus of Rochester.

Backus was

17For a good summary of European developments see Kanner, History of Care, pp. 17r-31, 45-62. 18Third Annual Report of the New York State Lunatic Asylum at Utica (Albany, 1845), 59.

influenced by Samuel B. Woodward,

Director of the Worcester

State Lunatic Hospital, whose annual report of 1844 con­ tained a brief sketch of developments in France with the suggestion of adopting European techniques after corresponding with Woodward,

in America.

In 1846,

Backus "moved a reference

of that portion of the State Census referring to idiots, the committee on Medical Societies, On January 15, Backus presented

to

of which he was chairman."

the report of his committee;

he narrated the successes of institutions in Europe and urged New York to imitate them.

Finally,

on March 25, Backus

reported a bill for the acquisition of a site and the con­ struction of suitable buildings for an "Asylum for Idiots." The bill was passed in the Senate,

and initially was assured

of House approval, but was finally defeated for budgetary reasons.

This same pattern was repeated in 1847.

In Massachusetts January 22, 1846,

similar events were taking place.

On

Horatio Boyington moved an order in the

House of Representatives

to appoint a committee to "consider

the expediency of appointing commissioners condition of idiots in the Commonwealth,

to inquire Into the

to ascertain their

19 Brockett, "Instruction of Idiots," 596; and also for the influence of Woodward, see New York State Asylum for Idiots— Syracuse, Account of the Laying of the Cornerstone of the New York State Asylum for Idiots— Syracuse, September 4, 1854 (Albany, 1854), 39-40; and the Eleventh Annual Report of V/orcester State Lunatic Hospital (Boston, 1844). My account of these first efforts closely follows Brockett, who is substantiated by numerous Annual Reports of the concerned institutions.

19

31 number,

and whether anything can be done for their relief."

The order passed and a committee of Boyington, Kimball, report,

and Howe as chairman was formed.

20

Gilman

The committee's

presented on March 25, recommended the appointment

of commissioners and Boyington,

Kimball,

and Howe were chosen.

They issued a preliminary report on March 15, 1847 which, although it contained a letter from George S. Sumner in Paris describing the methods and results of Seguin,

disclosed

little information on the situation in Massachusetts. Howe soon learned that sending circular letters town clerks yielded scanty results.

to

The following year, he

personally visted 63 towns and examined 574 individuals. The outcome of this survey,

the first by anyone with even a

pretense to professional knowledge, was

the famous Report

of the Commissioners Appointed to Inquire into the Condition of Idiots in the Commonwealth.

21

Howe found the level of care,

both in homes and in almshouses appallingly low.

He charac­

terized the treatment in almshouses as kindly, but ignorant; there was no separation of the sexes, poor diet,

almost no

20 Quoted in Walter E. Fernald, "The History of the Treatment of the Feeble-minded," N.C.C.C., XX (1893), 205. 21

Report of the Commissioners Appointed to Inquire into the Con­ ditions of Idiots -in the Commonwealth (Senate Document No. 51, Boston, 1848). Fernald stated: "This report was widely circulated and read throughout America and Europe, and furnishes to-day the basis of the cyclopedic literature on this topic." Ibid., 206. The original draft of the Report and the records of Howe's examinations are on deposit with the Library of the Walter E. Fernald State School, Waltham, Massachusetts.

32 bathing,

or proper exercise and employment.

was even worse but,

as Howe explained,

22

Home care

"this is not to be

wondered at, when we consider that idiots are generally born of very poor stock . . .

23

The Report detailed

numerous examples of what would appear as deliberate cruelty, unless one remembers

the prevailing beliefs

that the retarded

could not experience pain, would willingly digest, almost anything,

and were unable to benefit from any type of human

contact. Howe thought that the community had a responsibility to improve the defective, disease of society;

since he regarded "idiocy as a

an outward sign of an inward malady."

24

Believing that idiocy was the result of the violation of natural and physical laws, he expected idiots would be born to parents who disregard the conditions which should be observed in intermarriage; they overlook the hereditary trans­ mission of certain morbid tendencies; or they pervert the natural appetites of the body into lusts of diverse kinds . . . .^ With continued transgressions,

the parents

could become so

degenerate that they could transmit this deterioration to their unfortunate children. 22

Report on Condition of Idiots, 27.

23

Ibid., 32.

24Ibid., 2. 25Ibid., 56.

33 Like others in his time, Howe was unaware of the pre­ cise mechanism of biological inheritance.

He concluded:

The transmission of any inferiority is not always direct. It is not always in the same form. It may be modified by the influence of one sound parent; it may skip a generation; it may affect one child more, and another less; it may affect one in one form and another in another . . . . Variety is the great law of nature, and it holds good in the transmission of diseased tendencies, as well as in anything else.26 However,

continued decay was not inevitable,

the natural laws of health were obeyed.

provided

that

The old Greek maxim,

"nothing to excess," was the surest guide to wholesome life. Howe believed that the newly acquired trait of adherence to the natural laws could also be inherited and "would remove from any family, however strongly predisposed to insanity or idiocy,

the possibility of its reoccurance."

was likened to the seven plagues of Egypt. manent affliction for society; rather, it God

Thus idiocy

It was not a per­ was a warning

from

the treatment

of

that society had to redeem itself. The Report recounted the history of

the

27

retarded,

focusing on the achievements of Itard, Seguin,

and Guggenbuhl.

Howe enumerated the many benefits

that would

accrue to Massachusetts if educational facilities were pro­ vided for the defective. cial savings,

There would be a considerable finan­

as not only could some of the retarded become

26Ibid., 59. 27Ibid., 57.

self-sufficient, but also the many who cared for them at home could again engage in useful labor. would be removed.

As Howe stated in a contemporary article,

"an ignorant, vicious, force in society,

A moral evil

or suffering class is a disturbing

it has no business

removed or there can never be order."

there, 28

it must be

There would be

the satisfaction in fulfilling a Christian duty to help a fellow human being,

especially since it had been demonstrated

that education was effective and that without it the retarded would further decline.

Howe emphasized that in a democracy

all have the right of access to the means of self improve­ ment,

not just in the common schools,

provisions for those who require them.

but through special The insane,

the deaf,

the blind were receiving state aid, why not the most helpless and brutalized class — the mentally defective?

Finally, Howe

remarked on an especially appealing consequence for M assa­ chusetts:

the state would be a model and guide for all other

states to follow.

29

As a result of the survey, in Massachusetts was estimated hundred.

the number of the retarded

to be from twelve to fifteen

Howe strove to make it clear that idiocy existed in

many forms and gradations,

ascending from "drooling idiots"

28 Samuel G. Howe, Causes and Prevention of Idiocy (Boston, 1874), p. 6; this is a reprint of an article that originally appeared anonymously in the Mass. Quarterly Rev., III (1848). 29

Report on Condition of Idiots, 35-53.

35 to fools and simpletons,

"and that the difference between

their intelligence and that of other men, in degree,

and not in kind."

30

is a difference

Most distinctively,

they

were incapable of self-guidance and did not possess the amount of knowledge usual for their ages. Almost all of the mentally defective were generally harmless, but Howe was aware of another variety of retarda­ tion— moral idiocy--that was often encountered in prisons. He defined it as that condition in which the sentiments, the con­ science, the religious feeling, the love of neighbor, the sense of beauty, are so far dormant or underde­ veloped, as to incapacitate the person from being a law unto himself, in anything like the degree which is usual with others of his age.31 Howe clearly accepted the belief that moral sentiments, intelligence and will, were finite entities, impaired or invigorated.

Postulating

like

capable of being

that moral idiocy was

most liable to develop in classes that were exposed to b r u ­ talizing systems of labor,

such as domestic service in Boston

or factory work in England,

Howe dismissed the idea that all

crime was the result of innate depravity.

Some criminals,

acting in a state of moral idiocy, were created by forces that were beyond the individual’s control. education,

Proper treatment and

not prison, were the only methods

30Ibid., 16. 31Ibid., 19, 20.

that could salvage

36 these unfortunates, social system."

created "by the very operation of our

32

It is difficult to determine which tactics were most influential with the legislature;

the horrifying tales of

retarded servants instructing their young charges in self­ abuse so as to tire more easily for sleep,

the democratic

appeal to respect the rights of all citizens to an education, or the thinly veiled warning that,

"Were it. not for the action

of certain principles which give the race recuperative powers, there would be the danger of its utter destruction as a whole, by the sins of so many of its individual members."

33

Nor

can the originality of Howe's research, his status as a humani­ tarian in the Greek Revolution,

or his international reputation

as the teacher of a blind deafmute, Laura Bridgeman, be ignored. Host probably,

it was not any single argument but a

combination of factors

that motivated

makers to resolve on May 8, 1848,

the Massachusetts

law­

to appropriate $2,500 annually

to an experimental school for a three year test period.

Howe

was appointed director and the school was located in a wing of the Perkins

Institution for the Blind.

Ten indigent

idiots,

one from each of the state's judicial districts, were selected as pupils. 32

A competent teacher,

James B. Richards, was hired

Howe, Causes and Prevention, 10.

33Report on Condition of Idiots, 60.

37 and then sent to Paris to learn firsthand the method of physiological education#

34

Before the experimental school accepted its first students in October,

another institution for the retarded

which must be designated the first in America had already been in operation for three months.

Hervey B. Wilbur, who

had graduated from medical school only six years previously, had been so impressed by the published repo.rts of Seguin's achievements,

that he opened his own home in Barre,

chusetts to care for the mentally defective.

35

Massa-

He described

his work as that of extending educational opportunity, ing,

say­

"this institution is designed for the education and

management of all children who by reason of mental infirmity are not fit subjects

for ordinary school instruction."

36

The private school was organized on the family plan, with students and staff sharing the same facilities.

It long

remained an attractive alternative for the wealthy, who did not wish their children to be placed in a public institution. 34 See: the Third and Final Report on the Experimental School for Teaching and Training Idiotic Children— First Report of the Trustees of the Massachusetts School for Idiotic and Feeble-minded Youth (Boston, 1852), 3-6, 18-20, for Howe's review of these events, and his claim of Massachusetts'primogeniture in the field. There is a constant skir­ mishing in the early sources, as to which state really was first. This .can easily be resolved. New York introduced the first legislation, Massa­ chusetts passed the first legislation, and established the first private, and public institutions. 35

"Hervey B. Wilbur," in Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography (New York, 1888), VI, 503.

og Quoted in Fernald, "History of the Treatment," 206.

By the fall of 1848, Massachusetts had two schools for the retarded, while New York had yet to pass legislation. lature,

Every year,

the enabling

in the annual address to the legis­

the Governor strongly recommended Backus' bill.

the winter of 1851,

In

at the invitation of Governor Hunt, Howe

appeared before the legislature at Albany with some of his pupils and demonstrated their abilities. play proved decisive.

In July,

1851,

This practical dis­

the legislature appro-'

priated $6,000 annually for a two year period to an experi­ mental school.

Five trustees were appointed,

near Albany for the school, a superintendent.

leased a house

and then began searching for

There were only two places

to go for an

experienced man and the trustees chose Barre. their offer and in October, twenty pupils, tricts.

1851,

the school was opened with

one from each of the state's judicial dis­

At the end of two years,

the experiment was deemed

a success and the legislature approved plans manent institution. localities,

Wilbur accepted

to build a per­

After some spirited bidding by different

a site at Syracuse was selected.

In 1854,

con­

struction began on the first building erected for use as a school for the mentally defective in America.

37

Pennsylvania departed from this pattern of state initiated institutions.

In 1852,

James B. Richards

left Howe

in Boston and established his own school in Germantown, 37

Third and Final Report, 20; and the Third Annual Report of the Trustees of the New York Asylum for Idiots (Assembly Document No. 54, Albany, 1854), 1-2.

39 Pennsylvania.

Though it only had a capacity of four, he

soon interested prominent citizens of Philadelphia in his work.

With the assistance of Bishop Alonzo Potter, Franklin

Taylor,

Dr. Alfred Elwyn and others,

in February,

1853,

a corporation was formed

to operate the school.

The Board of

Directors retained Richards as teacher in charge and then arranged for an exhibit of Richards and his students before the legislature in 1854. completely successful.

The demonstration in Harrisburg was A special act then incorporated the

Pennsylvania Training School for Idiotic and Feeble Minded Children as a private institution receiving an appropriation that provided for a number of state sponsored beneficiaries. This mixture of private enterprise and public support was not novel;

it had been employed previously for undertakings

were believed

to be in the public interest.

The Pennsylvania school prospered, relocated.

The second time,

that

38

grew, and was twice

the site was selected by a com­

mittee that included Dorothea L. Dix, who took a continuing interest in the institution.

In 1856,

Seguin joined the staff

but, as was the case in Boston and in New York, he only remained for a short

time.

Seguin was still having difficulty

learning English and he proved to be a difficult man to work with when not in complete authority.

As a result of the ensuing

friction, both Seguin and Richards retired.

Joseph Parrish,

38 See Louis Hartz, Economic Policy and Democratic Thought: Penn­ sylvania, 1776-1860 (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1948).

40 a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, was apointed superintendent.

The cornerstone for the new

institution was layed in 1857 at Media in Dr.

Elwyn*s honor)

(later renamed Elwyn

and the entire school was moved

in two Conestoga wagons in 1859. ing their own facilities,

Neighboring states,

there lack­

began sending afflicted children

in 1860 and paid on the same per pupil basis as did the state of Pennsylvania. every school.

This was the practice at virtually

It was both a useful source of income and a

means of publicizing the institution in those states that had not yet established one.

39

Prior to the Civil War, institutions

three mo re states established

for the education of the retarded.

in 1857; Kentucky in 1860.

In 1862,

Ohio acted

Connecticut gave state

40 aid to a private school that was founded in 1857 .

In every

state there was a struggle against public indifference and incredulity.

The extent of this problem was indicated in

39 An excellent source for Pennsylvania developments is the Anni­ versary Report Read at the Ninth Annual Meeting of the Pennsylvania Training School for Feeble-Minded Children (Media, Pennsylvania, 1862). Almost all of the Annual Reports of the various institutions have reviews of their past histories in every decennial year. 40

First Annual Report of the Trustees and Superintendent of the Ohio Asylum for the Education of Idiotic and Imbecile Youth (Columbus, Ohio, 1851); Report of the Commissioners of the Kentucky Institution for the Education and Training of Feeble-Minded Children (Frankfort, Kentucky, 1869); and First Annual Report of the Directors and Superintendent of the Connecticut School for Imbeciles (Hartford, Connecticut, 1862).

41 Connecticut18 Report of the Commissioners on Idiocy which observed "that it was

the settled opinion of a large majority

of citizens of the commonwealth, so utterly hopeless,

that Idiots were a class

that it was a waste of time even to

collect any statistics concerning

them."

41

Yet,

statistics

proved to be most influential with the legislatures, when they were cited to support the need for educational facili­ ties.

It was emphasized that of more than 1400 mental

defectives in Connecticut, while in Massachusetts,

330 were under 20 years old,

at least 250 of the nearly 1100

mentally retarded were less than 16 years old.

43

Since it

was believed that youths were especially susceptible cation,

42

to edu­

the need for a state institution was clearly evident.

All of these institutions were intended to fulfill a variety of educational functions. defect had a didactic value.

The occurrence of mental

It was considered

ways in which a righteous lawgiver punishes

"one of the

transgression."^

^Report of the Commissioners on Idiocy to the General Assembly of Connecticut— May, 1856 (New Haven, Connecticut, 1856), 1. This Com­ mission, chaired by Brockett, made an investigation and report quite similar to Howe's in Massachusetts. 42

Report of the Commissioner on Idiocy— Connecticut.

43 Massachusetts Commission on Lunacy, Report on Insanity and Idiocy in Massachusetts (Boston, 1855). ^James B. Richards, "Causes and Treatment of Idiocy," N.Y. Jour, of Med., Ill (1856), 378.

42 As another observer put it, humiliating as the thought may be, we are driven to the conclusion that the vast amount of idiocy, in our world, is the direct result of violation of the physical and moral laws which govern our being; that oft times the sins of the fathers are thus visited upon their children; and that the parent, for the sake of a momentary gratification of his depraved appetite, inflicts upon his hapless offspring a life of utter vacuity.4^ The primary task of the school was

the cultivation and dis­

cipline of the pupil's abilities.

This was

to be accomplished

by the student's adoption of an ordered, well regulated way of life that complied with all the known moral, p h y s i c a l , and natural laws.

By reaffirming a n d ’practicing standards of

health--proper diet,

sanitary housing, moderation in physical

and mental exertion,

salutary sexual practices — the institution

could provide an example to the community and prevent the continued degeneration of society. In addition to public health and individual improve­ ment, men like Howe, Wilbur and Brockett were motivated by a sense of Christian fellowship.

Education of the retarded was

undertaken to show our reverence for God's plain will, and to acknowledge the common brotherhood of man, by taking these the most unfortunate of His children, and attempting to lift them up to a place, humble though it may be, upon the common platform of humanity.46

^Brockett, "Instruction of Idiots," 600. 4^Second Annual Report of the Doings under the Resolves of the Legis­ lature, May 8, 1848 for Training and Teaching Idiots (Senate Document No. 9, Boston, 1851), 3.

43 It was believed that the increased attention given to the treatment of all types of defect--insanity, blindness, deafness— was commensurate with the progress of civilization itself.

America was becoming a finer and better society

because it no longer abandoned the handicapped to lives of emptiness and misery.

The provision of education institu­

tions for the mentally retarded was among the final steps in this process of self-improvement,

or as Howe said,

"it is

a link in the chain of common schools--the last indeed, but a necessary link in order to embrace all the children in the S t a t e .

47

Third and Final Report on the Experimental School for Teaching and Training Idiotic Children (Boston, 1852), 3.

CHAPTER III INSTITUTIONAL GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT 1850-1875

The first American institutions

for the mentally

retarded were all intended to operate strictly as educa­ tional facilities.

Their founders and supporters optimis­

tically believed that in almost all cases, and with very few, if any exceptions, those usually called idiots, under the age of twelve or fifteen, may be so trained and instructed as to render them useful to them­ selves, and fitted to learn some of the ordinary trades, or to engage in agriculture.!

The goal of the school was "to give the dormant facilities 2 the greatest practical development" and then to return the mentally defective,

now capable of self-support,

homes and communities. supervised

To this end,

their admissions,

to their

the institutions

closely

requesting an early entrance

and fixing a maximum age limit

(generally sixteen), while

denying acceptance to the insane and the epileptic.

Since

the diagnosis of these conditions was not always apparent, the schools instituted a trial period of six months

to a

^Third Annual Report of the Trustees of the New York Asylum for Idiots (Assembly Document No. 54, Albany, 1854), 5. 2 Seventh Annual Report of the Trustees of the New York Asylum for Idiots (Assembly Document No. 33, Albany, 1858), 19. 44

45 year in which

to determine the suitability of a child for 3

the institution.

These procedures were adopted so that the

schools, which were still generally considered to be experi­ mental,

could present the best possible report of progress

and because the superintendents genuinely believed, said of South Boston, intended

for a school,

that "this establishment,

as Howe

being

should not be converted into an asylum

for inc ur a b l e s . The school superintendents were firmly committed to an educational,

as opposed to a custodial,

ideal.

They rigorously

enforced the policy of annual vacations, which returned the pupils

to their homes for periods of up to two months in the

summer.

These vacations served a two-fold purpose,

in addi­

tion to allowing the staff a respite from the seventeen hours a day, tion,

six day work week.^

By annually leaving the institu­

the retarded were reacquainted and exposed to the condi­

tions of everyday life in society that they would eventually encounter.

At the same time,

the school was divested of the

3

Institutional rules and information were generally contained in a separate circular, which was bound at the end of the Annual Report. 4 First Annual Report of the Trustees of the Massachusetts School for Idiotic and Feeble-Minded Youth (Boston, 1852), 35. "*See Isaac N. Kerlin, The Manual of Elwyn, 1864-1891 (Philadelphia, 1891). The Manual is an excellent guide to the internal organization of the institution. It is a compilation of rules, advice, routines, and information, that was given to new staff members, and that served as a source for standard operating procedures.

46 character of a permanent residential institution.

This

practice continued through the 1870's and although there was some apprehension over the lack of suitable supervision, the vacations were still believed to be beneficial.^ Numerous other aspects of institutional operation discouraged the development of custodialism or regimentation. Most of the schools were originally established near the state capitol so that members of the legislature might observe the need for and results of educational

training.

frequent and distinct visiting days for parents, from the governing authority,

There were inspectors

and the curious general public.

This constant visitation continued and students with the community.

the interaction of staff Every superintendent adopted

the educational methodology of Seguin, which emphasized the recognition and responsive treatment of individual inadequacies as the primary task of the physician-educator. instruction, be a study,

it was declared

In actual

that "each individual case will

and must be treated as its peculiarities

Mere routinism should be avoided in every excuse, times.

demand.

and at all

"7

^See the Sixteenth Annual Report of the New York Asylum for Idiots (Senate Document No. 14, Albany, 1867), 16; and the Twenty-seventh Annual Report of the Trustees of the Massachusetts School for Idiotic and FeebleMinded Youth (Document No. 28, Boston, 1874), 22. 7 Second Annual Report of the Trustees and Superintendent of the Ohio Asylum for the Education of Idiotic and Imbecile Youth (Columbus, 1858), 15.

There was no prescribed manner of dress or uniform for the students.

Each of the children was

to be individually

supplied with clothing by their parents or, if they were indi­ gent, by the county responsible for their care.

Funds came

from a variety of sources— the state treasury, "county officials, neighboring states,

parents and benevolent donors--producing

a situation that was hardly amenable to centralized institu­ tional control.

A vital feature of any custodial situation,

the involuntary internment and retention of the individual, was also absent.

Admissions

to the institution were made on

the basis of parental application supported by medical

testi­

mony, while discharge could be demanded by the pupil's guard­ ians at any time. of selection;

The schools

could only exercise the power

they could neither initiate entrance, nor deny

withdrawal.

Thoughts of acquiring the power of commitment,

similar

to that exercised by insane asylums, were far from the minds of the school authorities in this period.

Their foremost con­

cern was to justify the continued existence of their institu­ tions as they were presently constituted. Pennsylvania realized

Richards of

that

the proposing to teach and give knowledge to those whom it was supposed were without minds had, and still has, to a large, perhaps the larger portion of our citizens, the appearance of a wild and visionary under­ taking. It is this feeling which forms the chief

48 obstacle to an entirely successful establishment of our Institution in public estimation.8 It was still a popular belief that it was impossible cate an idiot,

to edu­

since education was an activity that engaged

the mind and idiots were believed to be without any mind at all.

The superintendent strove to make it clear that

"we

do not propose to create or supply faculties absolutely 9

wanting."

They believed, however,

"that there is nothing

so low in the scale of human intelligence but will reward an earnest effort for its elevation

. . .

There were two central ideas that the Annual Reports stressed repeatedly: disease,

first,

idiocy was a condition,

that existed in many different forms;

all human beings, improvement.

not a

second,

like

idiots were not exempt from the laws of

Three.broad,

overlapping classifications

of

retardation were generally employed by the superintendents to categorize the condition of their pupils. lowest grade who, with constant training,

Idiots were the

could improve their

personal habits and possibly learn to care for themselves. Imbeciles were considered to have more ability and could g

Third Annual Report of the Board of Directors of the Pennsylvania Training School for Idiotic and Feeble-minded Children to the Corpora­ tion (Philadelphia, 1856), 4. 9 First Annual Report of the Trustees of the New York Asylum for Idiots (Assembly Document No. 30, Albany, 1852), 15. ^Sixth Annual Report of the Trustees and Superintendent of the Ohio Asylum for the Education of Idiotic and Imbecile Youth (Columbus, 1863), 8-9.

49 assist the less able,

or perhaps be self-sufficient under

the proper supervision.

During the 1850's a new term--the

feeble-minded--came into use.

Specifically,

the feeble­

minded were the highest grade mentally retarded,

although

the appellation was also used generically in reference to all varieties of mental defect.

Since there was no way of authori­

tatively establishing the extent of an individual's mental disability,

these categories did not correspond to any veri­

fiable mental hierarchy. authorities' capabilities.

They merely represented the

judgment of an individual's social and economic The classification of mental retardation was

the result of a process of deductive reasoning,

i.e. because

an individual can not care for himself, he should be catego-. rized as an idiot. It is evident

that the superintendents utilized

this

tripartite classification to indicate differing levels of social competency,

not immutable mental capacity.

As they fre­

quently mentioned,

education and training had not only improved

the student's social performance, but also prevented degeneration from feeble-mindedness

or imbecility

to idiocy.

11

It

seemed imperative that they disprove the public's belief that idiocy was a static,

unchanging condition.

This could be best

accomplished by a scientific test of their results— a test such 11

See the Eighth Annual Report of the Trustees of the Massachusetts School for Idiotic and Feeble-minded Youth (Boston, 1856), 17. Virtually every Annual Report of any institution, from 1850 to 1870, had detailed case histories.

50 as might "apply to any new theory in physics,"

12

which

would compare the latter progress of the pupils to their earlier condition. histories,

In every instance,

as documented by case

there was some degree of improvement.

letters from the students'

parents,

Repo r t s , provided ample testimony

Numerous

included in the Annual

that the appearance of any

improvement, whether it was in cleanliness,

table manners,

or speech, was convincing proof of the school's ability to educate the retarded.

13

The superintendents were aware dramatic changes

that these seemingly

could mislead some to expect total transfor­

mations and they continually cautioned the public that there was no cure for feeble-mindedness, amelioration.

only the potential for

Having proved that this potential did exist,

they asserted that it was the obligation of the state to pro­ vide the opportunity for the retarded to exercise their right to develop.

The superintendents felt that this was no more

than what was already being done for the blind or deaf. these dependents,

the feeble-minded were not responsible for

their infirmity and, it.

Like

in fact, were the least able to overcome

The school could not "convert them into intelligent and

self-guiding i n d i v i d u a l s . " ^ Syracuse,

Rather, as Wilbur said of

"to impart a capacity for usefulness and happiness

^Third New York (1854), 4. 13

See the Fifteenth Annual Report of the Trustees of the New York Asylum for Idiots (Assembly Document No. 79, Albany, 1866), 16-65. ]4 Eighth Massachusetts (1856), 17.

51 Is the highest practical end of instruction in this institu­ tion."15 It may appear somewhat contradictory that, while the schools'

objective was the self-sufficiency of their pupils,

the superintendents concluded that the feeble-minded could never be cured and would always need some supervision.

Yet

this incapacity for self-direction was not seen as a critical barrier to economic self-support in society.

Most of the

school authorities would have agreed with Richards when he said, "the multitude of laborers on our streets, habit and routine; thought,

and farms, work by

they are not independent in their modes of

or life."15

Richards believed that few people were

actually capable of original thought and they were geniuses. While the feeble-minded were the most dependent of all,

17

the

rest of mankind still relied heavily on the initiative and intelligence of this genius class.

The retarded were merely

like the blind or the deaf; after special education,

they would

require helpful assistance and supervision. Equal in importance to the acquisition of vocational skills,

the mentally defective had to be trained to live har­

moniously in society.

It was confidently believed

that

their minds and souls can be developed so that they may become responsible beings, acquainted with their 15Seventh New York (1858), 22. 15Fifth Annual Report of the Board of Directors of the Pennsylvania Training School for Feeble-minded Children (Philadelphia, 1858), 24. 17Ibid., 25.

52 relations to their Creator and a future state, and their obligations to obey the laws and respect the rights of their fellow citizens.18 The superintendents were willing to be judged on the basis of the practical results

that they achieved.

They generally

enumerated fully all facets of their students'

progress:

improved in physical health and bodily habits;

greater use

of senses, power of observation,

and dexterity;

development

of the reasoning faculty and consciousness of surrounding relations; last

increased intelligence and self-control.

19

The

was especially significant because "the exhibition

of greater self-control, and moral obligation" the superintendents

20

and an increased perception of social on the part of the pupils allowed

to continue to report "an increasing

resemblance to ordinary persons of their own age."

21

As the effectiveness of educating the mentally handi­ capped became more widely known and accepted,

the schools

experienced a moderate growth in enrollment which even the Civil War failed to halt.

Starting in the 1850's,

the student

bodies increased on the average of four new pupils a year. 1ft Third New York (1854), 5. 19Tenth Annual Report of the Trustees of the New York Asylum for Idiots (Assembly Document No. 30, Albany, 1861), 10. ?0 Third New York (1854), 20. ^Seventh New York (1858), 25.

Even this modest addition quickly overtaxed the hastily con­ verted accommodations use.

that had originally been pressed into

By the end of the decade, all of the schools had moved

to larger quarters.

New York and Pennsylvania chose pre­

dominantly rural areas with good transportation to urban centers, while Massachusetts selected a more constrained sea-side location in South Boston.

Before the new facilities

were completed, waiting lists of prospective students had grown.

As soon as the new buildings were finished,

filled to capacity. South Boston had 70,

Thus, 23

in 1862,

and in 1864,

they were

Syracuse had 140 students, Elwyn registered 144.

22

24

A cyclical pattern was established that continued for the next fifty years.

Institutions built to relieve waiting list

pressures, never to meet the demands of increasing population. Because they did not see retardation as an incurable problem, construction always lagged behind applications for admission. As each building was completed,

the cycle began again.

The Civil War had relatively little effect on the activi­ ties and the personnel of the schools for the mentally retarded. Pupils continued to be admitted as the states maintained the 22

Eleventh Annual Report of the Trustees of the New York Asylum for Idiots (Senate Document No. 59, Albany, 1862), 13. 23

"Historical Notes on Institutions for the Mentally Defective," Am. Jour. Ment. Def., XLV (1940-41), 187. 24

Eleventh Annual Report of the Pennsylvania Training School for Feeble-minded Children (Philadelphia, 1864).

54 the prewar levels of their appropriations. some expansion.

There was even

Connecticut chartered the Connecticut

School for Imbeciles in 1861 with George H. Knight as super­ intendent and Kentucky completed

the construction of the

Institution for the Education and Training of Feeble-minded Children under James Rodman in 1861.

25

Naturally,

were some dislocations caused by the war. with ten pupils

there

Elwyn found itself

from the Southern States and the school had

to maintain them at its own expense.

26

Wilbur noted that

prices were rising and that two of his pupils had enlisted and served in the Union Army.

27

Joseph Parrish,

intendent of the Pennsylvania Training School, join the United States Sanitary Commission. by Issac N. Kerlin, intendent.

Kerlin

the super­

left Elwyn to

He was replaced

his former student and assistant super­ also served in the Sanitary Commission

for a short time in 1863 prior to his promotion.

28

There are

25 Henry M. Hurd, The Institutional Care of the Insane in the United States and Canada (4 vols., Baltimore, 1916), II, pp. 127-128, 471-472. Hurd is also an encyclopedic repository of information on institutions for the mentally retarded. 26 Anniversary Report Read at the Ninth Annual Meeting of the Direc­ tors of the Pennsylvania Training School for Feeble-minded Children (Media, 1862). 27 Thirteenth Annual Report of the Trustees of the New Asylum for Idiots (Assembly Document No. 194, Albany, 1864); and see Edward Seguin, Idiocy and Its Treatment by the Physiological Method (New York, 1907), p. 181. Seguin considered this a positive reflection on the value of military drill in the schools. 28

See the Forty-first Report of the Pennsylvania Training School for Feeble-minded Children (Philadelphia, 1893); and "lssac N. Kerlin," in D.A.B., X, 352; and National Cyclopedia of American Biography (New York, 1897), IV, 229.

55 few mentions of the war in the Annual R e p o r t s , and there is little other evidence of its direct impact on the schools. Near the end of the Civil War, on February 18, 1865, the Illinois General Assembly approved "An Act to Organize an Experimental School for the Instruction and Training of Idiots and Feeble-minded Children in the State of Illinois." This was the sixth institution to be established and it was to be the last until Iowa acted in 1876.

Charles T. Wilbur,

the brother of Hervey, was chosen to be the first permanent superintendent of the experimental school.

Although he was

only thirty, Wilbur had previously been associated with three other schools; he was a teacher in New York, superintendent in Ohio, Lakeville,

the assistant

and had established the school at

Connecticut.

After graduation from the Berkshire

Medical Institution in 1860, he served in the Union Army as a surgeon before coming to Illinois.

He was instrumental in

the establishment of schools for the retarded in Iowa, Indiana, Kansas, Nebraska and Minnesota.

In 1882, he began

publishing the monthly Philanthropic Index and R e v i e w , the only periodical devoted solely

to the mentally defective.

in 1883, Wilbur left Illinois

for Kalamazoo, Michigan,

Finally, to

found a private institution for the care of the feeble-minded.

29

Wilbur guided the Illinois school through the slow process

29

"Charles T. Wilbur," in Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography (New York, 1881), VI, 503, and National Cyclopedia of American Biography, X , 451.

56 /

of maturation that was to be repeated, succeeding institution.

in essence, by every

The General Assembly authorized

the expenditure of $5,000 per year for a two year test period.

The board of directors of the Institution for

the Education of the Deaf and Dumb in Jacksonville had been charged with organizing the school.

They decided to lease

the house and grounds of ex-Governor Joseph Duncan, which were also in Jacksonville.

Space was very limited, but

Wilbur was able to get an additional for another building,

so that by 1870,

of the school was eighty children. ment yet,

$3,000 appropriation

as Wilbur pointed out,

30

the total capacity This was some improve­

there were 1,738 feeble­

minded in Illinois and 832 were under 20 years old. were as numerous as the insane; cared for only 80.

however,

They

the state properly

31

Like every other superintendent of a newly established and struggling institution, Wilbur advertised the economies that it would effect.

For every five pupils in the school,

four people who had previously attended them individually could be freed for more productive labor.

It would not cost

society as a whole any more to properly care for the mentally defective.

The burden would merely be shifted from

30 Sixth Annual Report of the Illinois Institution for the Educa­ tion of Feeble-minded Children (Springfield, 1870), 8, 24. 31 Eighth Annual Report of Illinois Institution for the Education of Feeble-minded Children (Springfield, 1872), 15.

57 local authorities or poor families who do not attempt to instruct them, and usually at a less cost per capita, places them under that discipline and training which often fits them to become pro­ ducers.^ There was a constant emphasis on the usefulness and produc­ tiveness of the training.

Wilbur reiterated that "all our

exercises are made subordinate to, and terminate in, a capacity and disposition for some form of industry."

33

It

was by means of arguments like these that Wilbur was able to have the Illinois Institution incorporated as one of the permanent charitable institutions of the state in 1871. Wilbur and every other superintendent

used the Annual

Report to influence and inform the legislature.

They justi­

fied their requests for renewed appropriations by calling attention to the large number of mentally defective as yet uncared for and by the beneficial results that they had already achieved.

Every year the same key facts and arguments were

stressed and repeated. the repetition,

The superintendents

apologized for

but they believe it was important that new

legislators be informed of the situation. Starting in 1865,

the superintendents began reporting

to the newly created State Boards of Charities. was first,

followed by Ohio and New York in 1867;

Massachusetts Illinois and

32Sixth Illinois (1870), 9. 33 Seventh Annual Report of the Illinois Institution for the Educa­ tion of Feeble-minded Children (Springfield, 1871), 36.

Pennsylvania were next in 1869,

and Connecticut acted in

1873.

such as the Massachusetts

They had various

titles,

Board of State Charities, Charities,

the Pennsylvania Board of Public

the Illinois Board of State Commissioners of

Public Charities or, most simply, of Charities.

They differed somewhat in scope, membership

and authority.

In general,

but not executive,

the state boards had supervisory,

power over prisons, jai-ls, reformatories,

insane asylums, hospitals, dumb, blind,

the New York State Board

orphanages,

and feeble-minded.

34

boards to the legislature varied,

schools for the deaf,

The Reports of these from merely duplicating

the Annual Reports of the various institutions in Massachusetts,

to, especially

comprehensive examinations of the needs of

the state. Another important group the superintendents sought to impress was the general public.

In this formative period all

agreed with Hervey Wilbur's remark that the Annual Report provided "our almost only with the public."

35

being of the family.

[sic] opportunity of communication

The most common appeal was to the well The effect of caring for one feeble­

minded child could completely exhaust the mother, other children of their share of attention,

deprive the

and drive the

o/ Oscar Craig, j|t^ al_, "History of the State Boards," N.C.C.C., XX (1893), 32-51. ^~*Tenth New York (1861), 11.

59 father to drink or other excess.

Without ever getting the

proper training that could prevent them from becoming per­ manent public charges,

the feeble-minded could destroy the

viability of family life and pauperize a whole family.

Thus

the entire community could suffer from the presence of the untrained mentally retarded unless adequate provision in special schools was maintained for them. As ardently as any other superintendent,

Charles Wilbur

emphasized the educational purpose of his school. The design and object of the Institution are not of a custodial character, but to furnish the means of education to that portion of the youth of the State not provided for in any of its other educational institutions, who are of a proper school-attending age, and who shall remain such periods of time as shall, in the estimation of the Superintendent and Board of Trustees, suffice to impart all the educa­ tion practicable in each particular case . . . . Children between the ages of ten and eighteen who are idiotic, or so deficient in intelligence as to be incapable of being educated at any ordinary school, and who are regarded as suitable cases for instruc­ tion, may be admitted by the Superintendent.36 As in the older institutions,

the superintendent still deter­

mined which pupils were acceptable and for what periods they would remain. I

There was also a trial period and a bond to insure

the removal of a pupil with no cost to the school. retained the annual vacation in July and August,

Wilbur also

but students

could remain at the institution with the superintendent's 36 Charles T. Wilbur, Report of the Committee on Idiocy Made to the Illinois State Medical Society (Chicago, 1874), 23.

60 approval.

Clothing was to be supplied by the parents or

paid for by the county responsible for the child.

Illinois

was the first state to provide free tuition, board, laundry to all state residents,

and

not merely paupers.

This

assumption of the complete responsibility for the education of feeble-minded was to be adopted in latter years by vi r ­ tually every other state.

Despite some innovations,

and all succeeding institutions adhered

Illinois

to .the operational

patterns already established by the existing schools.

Wilbur subscribed to the same theories of educating the mentally defective as did the other superintendents. believed no new educational principles,

He

that is, principle

advanced beyond Seguin, were required for his work.

When

pupils came to the Illinois Institution, It finds them as a class, cut off from society by certain defects or infirmities of a physiological character. It seeks to diminish or remove that separation by means directed to modify or do away with those underlying peculiarities. It thus begins by attempts to restore a normal condition of the various functions. It stimulates the exercise of these functions by suitably adapted means. It opens the avenues of sensation, so that the torpid brain is brought into communication with the awakening Influences of the outer world. ^ These theories were founded on the belief that education began with the acquisition of certain intuitions from nature through

^Sixth Illinois (1870), 23.

61 the senses.

The reasoning powers then arranged and com­

bined them.

As the circle of observation was enlarged,

powers of comparison and combination formed conceptions. Thus in treating the mentally deficient,

the 38

the superin­

tendents concentrated on the physical organs of sensation and the facilities of the brain. century psychiatrists,

Along with the nineteenth

"they shared the conventional belief

in the existence of a non-material eternal .soul, which was equated with the mind and was thought its physical agent, Ohio said,

the brain."

"strictly,

. . . . In Idiocy,

As R. J. Patterson of

there can be no disease of the mind

as in insanity,

ment that is at fault. Gustavius A. Doren,

39

to be separate from

it is the mind's instru­

His successor at Columbus,

echoed the attitudes of others concerning

the physical basis of feeble-mindedness: Our efforts are always first directed towards securing the healthy action of every sense, limb, and muscle . . . . For imbecility is always the result of some physical cause, dis­ turbing the balance or destroying the relations of the functions.^1

38Seventh Illinois (1871), 38. 39

Norman Dain, Changing Concepts of Insanity in the United States, 1789-1865 (New Brunswick, 1964), p. 64. 40Second Ohio (1858), 14. 41

Tenth Annual Report of the Trustees and Superintendent of the Ohio Asylum for the Education of Idiotic and Imbecile Youth (Columbus, 1866), 10.

62 The extent to which the superintendent believed that all bodily and mental functions were interrelated can be fully appreciated when it is realized that they accepted belief

the

that an "unhealthy impression made upon the digestive

system will produce a similar effect upon the brain and the moral nature."

A2

morally, mentally,

The retarded were considered to be

and physically diseased.

The task of the

school was to restore the vital balance that was disturbed by their condition. While the superintendents

considered their function

to be primarily restorative and educational,

they were

naturally gratified with their achievements in individual cases.

But, as the waiting lists for entrance into the schools

continued to grow,

they began to express their frustration

that the basic causes of mental retardation, while not beyond the control of man, were out of their hands.

Howe voiced the

widely shared opinion that "it begins to be known that in almost every case,

the imbecility of the children is congenital,

and that the causes of it are to be found in the physical condition of the parents."

A3

The mentally defective were not

responsible for their own condition.

It was

their parents

who were at fault and it was their actions that were consistently indicted.

42

Eighth Annual Report of the Pennsylvania Training School for Feeble-minded Children (Philadelphia, 1861), 9. /*1 Eighth Massachusetts (1864), 8.

63 Most superintendents concurred with Doren when he found that, not all cases of feeble-mindedness,

"but the

majority of them must be attributed to the violation of physiological laws,

and the children of men must inherit

their ills if they persist

in fastening these violations

from a normal condition upon them s e l v e s .

These violations

could take many forms, but the most commonly cited ones were excessive dissipation and amusements of alcohol and sexual relations),

(especially in the use

arduous mental or physical

labor or consanguineous marriages— any of which could over­ strain and shatter the nervous system.

The superintendents

shared an essentially conservative outlook:

they condemned

any type of excessive behavior in strong and vivid terms. Kerlin denounced inebriation saying,

"thirty per centum of

idiots have been referred to the transmitted poison of alcohol, coupled with the attendant poverty and wretchedness its children are so often b o r n . H e

into which

further believed that

"unlawful and excessive use of the organs and functions of procreation,

probably stands at the head of all enervating

and demoralizing influences," as men yielded generate natures,

"to their unre-

in the abuse of their bodies

that should be

44 Seventh Annual Report of the Trustees and Superintendent of the Ohio Asylum for the Education of Idiotic and Imbecile Youth (Columbus, 1863), 18. 45

Fourteenth Annual Report of the Pennsylvania Training School for Feeble-minded Children (Philadelphia, 1867), 17.

64 the white pure temples for purified souls."

46

The superintendents soon realized that if they were ever to decrease the number of mental defectives,

they would have

to secure increased community-wide adherence to the basic physiological laws of moderate and healthy living. sense,

then,

In one

their Annual Reports became extramural attempts

to provide blueprints

for improved public health.

They were

convinced that unless individuals ceased their excessive indul­ gences,

societal

decay and degeneration were inevitable.

The

nervous conditions developed by too much drink or infamous living did not remain wholly with the individual transgressor, for it was a commonly accepted belief that "if one set of func­ tions is developed to the neglect of another it becomes effect,

an unchangeable condition for transmission,

law of nature that like reproduces like."

for it is a

No one was quite

certain of the exact mechanism of transmission. intendents expressed the Lamarkian belief

in

Thus the super­

"that not only the

peculiarities which are ours by inheritance, but the influence of acquired habits is transmitted;” they also believed

"the

effects must be particularly severe where both parents are victims of the same taints." diction,

48

There was no apparent contra­

as both thoughts reinforced the notion of parental

46Ibid., 19. 47Tenth Ohio (1866), 14-15. 4^Seventh Ohio (1863), 18.

65 responsibility for the congenitally retarded. This concern for hereditary enfeeblement can be traced back to Howe's Report on the Condition of Idiots, where he found that 355 of the 359 parents that he examined had "widely departed from the normal conditions of health and violated natural laws."

49

It was common knowledge

that "the tendency

to constitutional disease is transmitted from parent child.

to

There was general agreement among the superinten­

dents that repeated abuse and indulgence establish a condition at variance from that which is normal. The enfeebled or congested brain becomes habitual, the diseased condition of the body becomes chronic, and the law of hereditary transmission explains like begetting like.51 It was equally regretable that

"idiocy is only one of the great

category of calam ities resulting from violated physiological law, but its place is mournfully prominent with deaf mutism, blindness,

insanity,

scrofula,

and infant death."

52

At the same time that these pernicious forces of hereditary debilitation were being subjected to the renewed scrutiny of 49Massachusetts Commission on the Condition of Idiots in the Com­ monwealth, Report of the Commissioners Appointed to Inquire into the Condi­ tion of Idiots in the Commonwealth (Senate Document No. 51, Boston, 1848), 57. ^Fifth Pennsylvania (1858), 15. 51Seventeenth Annual Report of the Trustees and Superintendent of the Ohio Asylum for Education of Idiotic and Imbecile Youth (Columbus, 1864), 19. 52 Fourteenth Pennsylvania (1867), 17.

66 the superintendents,

the schools for the mentally retarded

were undergoing changes which resulted in their assumption of an increasingly custodial character.

The primary influ­

ences in this subtle alteration of institutional personality were the exploitation of remunerative forms of inmate labor and the growing awareness

that larger numbers of the mentally

defective than had h i t h e r t o •been realized were incapable of self-support. It had always been known that a certain percentage of the mentally defective were so profoundly or severely retarded that little if any improvement would be forthcoming from even the most persistent

efforts.

were considered to be incurable,

Members of this class

and they were generally

excluded from the schools so that the superintendents could concentrate on the much larger number of the feeble-minded believed to be educable. question of what

As early as 1856,

to do with the incurables.

Howe raised the He recognized

that

the school had no proper facilities for them and, while he felt that institutions which would shelter them for life were an evil, he believed the institutions.

them to be a lesser evil than life without 53

apparent concern for,

However,

there was little mention of, or.

distinct custodial provisions

in the

following years, primarily because the superintendents were

^Eighth Massachusetts (1856), 15.

preoccupied with the difficulties of establishing the educa­ tional functions of existing schools.

Superintendents

emphasized the educational and economic benefits of the school in order

to present them most favorably in the Annual R e p o r t .

Even if there had been genuine interest in creating life homes for the unimprovables, superintendents would have faced great difficulty in building legislative support that were at once custodial and expensive. educated

the lawmakers

for institutions They had already

to believe that the main purpose of

their institutions was educational.

In later years,

intendents would have to overcome this belief,

the super­

as they changed

their own opinions on what the proper role of the institutions should be. After the Civil War,

as many of the pupils who had been

admitted as young children in the 1850's were then coming of age to leave the schools,

t h e .superintendents began to acquire

a more accurate assessment of their true capabilities. these students first entered

the schools

such a gratifying rate of development assumed charge.

When

they demonstrated

that the superintendents

that they would continue to improve until their dis­ Now,

as they approached

that critical time,

the

superintendents realized that few of their charges were able to support themselves even with the kind assistance of family and friends.

The actual experience of working with the retarded

on a daily basis over a period of years made it possible for

68 the superintendents

to acknowledge that improvements were

primarily due to the combined influence of the natural process of growth and entry into the therapeutic-educational environment of the school.

The effects of both of these

factors would diminish in time. for most pupils, declined.

The rate of development,

slowed at the age of puberty and then

Except for a few cases,

improvement.

there was no continued

Thus, by the late 1860's,

the. superintendents

were becoming aware that only a small proportion of their students would ever be able to support themselves. It was true that a number of the retarded, of the highest grade), had improved and developed point where they could, earn enough to defray

(generally to the

under capable and constant supervision,

the cost of their maintenance at home.

But frequently their parents did not want to remove them from the schools where they could receive professional care.

In

other cases the student's parents or relatives had died or moved and he was left friendless and alone, who had come from the county almshouses. for him to go except deteriorate.

There was no place

to the almshouse, where he would surely

Even if the schools could have located proper

v accommodations

support,

like the pupils

for all who were capable of supervised self-

there was still the matter of providing for those

feeble-minded who could only contribute some fraction toward their cost,

and then only in an institutional environment.

69 Finally,

the superintendents were confronted by the claims

of the even more helpless, who had originally been denied admission

to the schools, but who had an equally valid

right to some form of custodial care. Kerlin first mentioned plans for a custodial department in 1867

54

and

to support

them he devoted the Annual

Reports of 1869 and 1871 to a detailed analysis of the disposi­ tion of all admissions in 1853.

55

to the school since its establishment

He reported that out of a total of 500,

only 81

were able to fully support themselves, while 140 could pro­ vide for some portion of their expenses, 118 were capable of performing small services and chores, lessly dependent.

and 161 were hope­

More than one-half of all admissions were

actually unsuited for any extramural life.

Kerlin also

estimated the financial condition of the students' from their admission blanks.

families

Using this data, he was able to

extrapolate the resources of the estimated 3500 feeble-minded in Pennsylvania. sample,

If the Elwyn population was a representative

Pennsylvania had 717 retarded who came from families

fully able to support

them,

664 could call upon half support,

and 1619 had families who were poor but not willing to place 54

Fourteenth Pennsylvania (1867), 19.

~*~*Sixteenth Annual Report of the Pennsylvania Training School for Feeble-minded Children (Philadelphia, 1869); and Eighteenth Annual Report of the Pennsylvania Training School for Feeble-minded Children (Media, 1871).

70 them in almshouses, where 569 did reside.

Kerlin reached

the conclusion that there were many mental defectives who were unable to provide for themselves and who came from families too poor to support them.

As Kerlin noted,

there

were "several in the present Family who are either adults or approaching adult life, provisions,

the time has come to make such

not only for the persons named, but also for

many candidates awaiting such a h o m e . At approximately the same time as Kerlin was con­ sidering these measures,

the Board of Trustees

of the New

York State Asylum for Idiots at Syracuse was discussing the possibility of creating a separate custodial institution. Four years prior to this, was noted that

in the Annual Report of 1865,

57

it

the age at which a pupil had to be discharged,

might have to be extended.

The age limitation had originally

been established in reference to the ages of development of normal children,

but it was later ascertained that the feeble-

minded developed more slowly over a longer period of time.

58

This policy of abolishing the upper age limit,- as well as that of ending the annual vacations, attempts

could be interpreted as

to strengthen the educational capabilities of the

“^Nineteenth Annual Report of the Pennsylvania Training School for Feeble-minded Children (Philadelphia, 1872), 6. 57

Eighteenth Annual Report of the Trustees of the New York Asylum for Idiots (Senate Document No. 14, Albany, 1869), 8. 58 Fourteenth Annual Report of the Trustees of the New York Asylum for Idiots (Senate Document No. 54, Albany, 1865).

school. ever,

As they were actually implemented in the 1870's,

ho w ­

they reinforced the budding custodialism of the insti­

tutions.

Henceforth the retarded were to remain in full-time

residency with no statutory limitation of their retention. The type of custodial institution envisioned was similar to one for,the insane poor at Ovid,

New York.

It required

a healthy environment and sufficient land for all future pur­ poses.

Two classes of inmates would be received.

One would

be the estimated twenty percent of all the feeble-minded who could not be educated but only improved in habits. group was generally not admitted to the school or,

This

if inad­

vertently accepted, were retained only for the want of an appro priate institution.

The second class would be those "graduates

of the school who could not successfully function in the com­ munity, but who had undergone all the training that the school afforded them.

Recognition of the existence of this second

class, who were accumulating in increasing numbers,

provided

the impetus for the planning of a custodial institution.

59

The legislature of New York and of other states did not favor the creation of separate custodial institutions; instead,

they supported the enlargement and differentiation of

the already existing physical plants. 59 Nineteenth Annual Report of the Trustees of the New York Asylum for Idiots (Assembly Document No. 26, Albany, 1870), 11. ^Twentieth Annual Report of the Trustees of the New York Asylum for Idiots (Assembly Document No. 26, Albany, 1871), 22.

72 In many cases this was the preference of the superintendents as well.

Almost from the time of their establishment,

schools practiced some form of student segregation. times it was on the basis of sex,

the

Some­

or the separation of the

excitable and noisy from the quiet and timid, or keeping sleeping quarters trained.

the

of the incontinent apart from the toilet

Most often it was a combination of these considera­

tions that produced a separation of those students possessed with a greater capacity for education from those who did not. This important,

type of segregation was

considered especially

as it was believed

the feeble-minded were

that

highly imitative and that the well

trained pupils

into poor habits if they were kept

in close contact with the

less capable. scheduling,

could relapse

This separation could be achieved by careful

so that the different

rooms,

gymnasium,

playgrounds,

time.

Not only was

classes never used the school

and dining rooms,

this difficult

at the same

to achieve in practice,

the problem of keeping the s t u d e n t s 1 dormitories

but

separate

while making the necessary fire precautions for quick exit still r e m a i n e d . ^

The simplest solution was the abandonment

of the solitary structure that housed all classes all functions in favor of separate buildings and

and served facilities

^Fear of fire was ever present in the minds of the superintendents. Almost every school had at least one serious fire. But as a reflection of the dedication of the schools' employees, there were very few fatalities.

73 for the sole use of each different tive.

In this way pupils

type of mentally defec­

could interact with others equal

in development to themselves and, when their condition warranted it, they could change services. This process of internal segregation proceeded at different rates in the various schools. had more land at their disposal found it easier to expand.

Elwyn and Syracuse

than South Boston and

The larger schools,

they

such as

Columbus, had a greater number and variety of students

to

form into classes and grades than did the smaller schools like Jacksonville and Frankfort. multiplied their facilities,

Moreover,

as the schools

new needs appeared.

The neces­

sity of a separate hospital became evident at one school during an attack of infectious disease,

62

was apparent at an earlier date elsewhere,

but its usefulness simply because of

the poor physical condition of the students.

63

There were

some pupils who required continuous hospital care since they were confined to bed, or in more helpless cases,

to cribs.

64

When the superintendents began to realize that the schools would have to make some provision for the life-long guardianship of large numbers of the mentally defective, 62 Fourteenth Annual Report of the Trustees and Superintendent of the Ohio Asylum for the Education of Idiotic and Imbecile Youth (Columbus, 1870), 9. ^Eighth Pennsylvania (1861), 9. ^Se e Isaac N. Kerlin, "Provisions for Idiotic and Feeble-minded Children," N.C.C.C., XI (1884), 246-263, for the results of this process of differentiation.

74 the existence of this pattern of internal segregation greatly facilitated the arrangement of custodial accommo­ dations.

In many ways it was easier and, from the legis­

lat o r s ’ point of view,

cheaper to enlarge the schools than

to establish completely new and separate institutions custodial c a r e . ^ the institutions

In the following years,

for

the inmates of

for the mentally retarded were divided

into three groups:

the highest and most educable were known

as the school grade;

those who were trainable

the custodial grade;

and the most helpless and dependent

became the hospital or asylum g r a d e . T h e

to some degree,

superintendents

had committed themselves to the care of a wider variety of mentally defectives, sidered incurable. was

specifically those who had been con­ The tripartite division of the schools

their reaction to the new s i t u a t i o n . ^ The admission and retention of an ever growing number of

the custodial and asylum grade feeble-minded

created the two

interrelated problems of proper care and excessive costs. solution of these difficulties was utilization of inmate labor.

The

to be found in the increased

Most schools had for years

employed some of their pupils in small farms or gardens.

This

^ Sixteenth New York (1867), 13. ^There was little variation in the terms employed in the different schools. ^Seventh Ohio (1874), 19.

75 work was considered as an adjunct to the formal training in the class room and gymnasium. means of exercise,

It provided a healthful

instilled discipline and developed

coordination, while incidentally serving as a source of revenue.

68

Since the object of the school was to return the

student to the community, especially agricultural,

some form of occupational training, seemed appropriate.

For the winter

months, when outdoor activities were impractical, New York and Massachusetts introduced shoemaking

to keep the pupils

occupied and to test their mechanical a b i l i t i e s . G r a d u a l l y other simple forms of manufacturing were tried in an effort to suit the tasks to the students'

capabilities.

When it was recognized that many of the students who were trainable would never live in society, dents were able to employ them,

the superinten­

to some degree, within the

school.

Men assisted in various forms of institutional mai n ­

tenance,

in farming,

making brooms, chairs.

and in the rudimentary industries of

mats, brushes,

mattresses and cane bottomed

Women worked in the kitchens and laundries or were

68 See Seventh New York (1858), 2 5 ; Eighth Annual Report Trustees of the New York Asylum for Idiots (Assembly Document Albany, 1859), 11; Twentieth Annual Report of the Trustees of chusetts School for Idiotic and Feeble-minded Youth (Document Boston, 1859); Sixth Ohio (1863), 9. 69

of the No. 115, the Massa­ No. 32,

Ninth Annual Report of the Trustees of the New York Asylum for Idiots (Assembly Document No. 41, Albany, 1860), 18; and Fifteenth Annual Report of the Trustees of the Massachusetts School for Idiotic and Feeble-minded Youth (Document No. 34, Boston, 1863).

76 employed in the sewing of linens or clothing.

The inmates

participated in all of the chores necessary for the running of a large pre-industrial household.

In addition, many of

the custodial grade inmates proved most useful in the capacity of nurses and attendants lum grade.

The superintendents were aware of the transforma­

tion of their schools. school exercises, prominent

for the more helpless asy­

As Hervey Wilbur remarked,

in the early days of the Asylum,

feature,

"the its most

still fulfill their proper function,

but

now in subordination to the more practical objects of the institution."^

There was no discussion concerning the value

of these developments. chusetts,

The only controversy arose in Massa­

over the relative merits of manufacturing versus

.

4 1 71 agriculture.

By the middle of the 1870's,

the schools for the mentally

retarded were not fully developed custodial institutions, but neither were they wholly educationally oriented schools of the past.

The realization that many of the mentally defective

could not be brought intendents

to self-sufficiency had caused the super­

to shift the emphasis of their curricula away from

the physiological education of Seguin, which was to foster 70 Eleventh New York (1861), 13. ^Se e the Fourth Annual Report of the Board of State Charities (Boston, 1863), lxxiv. Most schools developed a combination of farming and industry; Massachusetts, because of limited space, emphasized manufac­ turing.

77 intelligence,

towards a reliance upon industrial or agricul­

tural training,

designed to promote the development of

useful skills.

Kerlin felt it was "obvious

that a large per

centage of children admitted to institutions of this become

their permanent wards."

72

character

He estimated that perhaps

ten to fifteen percent could be fully educated,

twenty to

thirty percent would be returned home, while fifty-five to seventy percent would have a lifetime home in the institution.

73

It was evident that for those who would remain in the schools useful occupational skills rather than abstract concepts of learning would prove to be the most economical and best suited preparation. Almost every one of the superintendents trends

in the development of their schools.

was Samuel G. Howe.

The exception

Howe recognized the failure of the schools

to educate many of the feeble-minded. less,

accepted these

He believed,

nonethe­

that close congregation and life long association of

large numbers of the mentally retarded was medically and socially wrong:

medically wrong because the defective needed exposure

to people of normal mentality;

socially wrong because it

implied "social and moral isolation and ostracism."

74

Howe's

72

Twentieth Annual Report of the Pennsylvania Training School for Feeble-minded Children (West Chester, Pennsylvania, 1873), 9. 73

For Kerlin's observations of similar transformations in the other schools, see Twenty-second Annual Report of the Pennsylvania Training School for Feeble-minded Children (West Chester, 1874), 13-18. ^ Twenty-seventh Massachusetts (1874), 22; Eleventh Annual Report of the Board of State Charities (Boston, 1874), lxxvii.

solution was to board out custodial cases with families and appoint guardians of the feeble-minded, of the poor,

in every town.

like the guardians

Kerlin disagreed,

pointing out

that boarding could never be properly supervised,

and that a

central institution, with all its facilities, was necessary. He

concluded by saying,

"it is not invidious

to declare

that the most economical and the most humane provision that can be made for the idiot and imbecile classes, the General Asylum or I n s t i t u t i o n . " ^

is that of

Kerlin's reply to Howe

temporarily satisfied the superintendents, but ultimately Howe's ideas would prevail. The schools were changing their methods and their goals, yet the superintendents were not sure they could control or guide the change.

As many must have realized,

the transforma­

tion came about because they had failed in their educational purpose.

It was

incumbent upon them to define a social problem

of great importance and agitate for its solution.

They had

already aroused interest in hereditary debilitation and extra­ mural guidelines

for healthy living.

There had previously

been little mention of consequences of having in society,

the feeble-minded

76 merely discussion of the disruption they caused

within the family.

If most mental defectives were unsuited

for a non-institutional life and only a small percentage were Twenty-second Pennsylvania (1874), 18. ^See Eleventh New York (1862), 18; and Sixth Ohio (1863), 9, for the possibility of damage to property, or violence caused by the retarded.

79 actually In the proper Institutions, some adverse effect on society.

they must be having

In 1870, Doren of Ohio,

while discussing the usefulness of the school, pointed the way to future institutional importance: As a protection to society, we believe such insti­ tutions have a value far transcending their cost, but the faculties afforded in such institutions to learn the causes which produce such a sad deteriora­ tion of humanity, and so suggest the appropriate means for prevention will, we presume, be generally recognized as a still more important benefit.77 As the institutions continued to grow,

the superintendents

placed increasing importance on the protection of society and the prevention of mental retardation.

^Fourteenth Ohio (1870), 7-8.

CHAPTER IV THE EMERGENCE OF CUSTODIALISM 1875-1885

By the end of this period,

1875-1885,

the superinten­

dents had reached a consensus that greater custodial p r o ­ vision had

to be made for the feeble-minded.

This was

considered necessary for the m u t u a l •protection of both the mentally retarded and society at large.

The institutions

entrusted with the care of the mentally defective never totally abandoned their educational ambitions, but the role of formal education did decline,

as it was supplanted by

the industrial or manual training necessary for an economi­ cal custodial operation.

The feeble-minded were less fre­

quently thought of as helpless

children, needing the

ministrations of Christian charity. tions,

Scientific investiga­

combined with the superintendents'

purpose,

increasingly identified

new sense of

the mentally defective as

potential sources of disruption to the fabric of American social life.

While these tendencies were evident in 1875, they were by no means

fully developed.

American history,

As was frequently the case in

interested foreign visitors provided some

81 of the most informative observations of American activities. In the summer of 1876, worth,

two Englishmen, George E. Shuttle-

the medical superintendent of the Royal Albert Asylum

[for idiots],

and Fletcher Beach,

the superintendent of the

Metropolitan District Asylum for Imbecile Children, to all nine of the American institutions minded.

traveled

for the feeble­

His account began, with a brief history of the

founding of each school,

"from this account it will be seen

that in the States there are no Institutions for Idiots sup­ ported by voluntary contributions independently of aid from public f u n d s . H e

divided the schools into two main types.

One was the private incorporated institution which,

however,

relied principally upon state funds made available to them for the care of a specific number of students known as state beneficiaries and nominated by state officials. schools

(Massachusetts,

These

Connecticut and Pennsylvania)

also

accepted private pupils whose parents paid up to $500 per year.

The second type of school was the state institution

(Ohio, Kentucky,

Illinois and New York),

founded by the legis­

lature primarily for the state beneficiaries, but which also accepted some paying students, state.

Shuttleworth

the accommodations

generally from outside of the

found little difference in the care or

given to the various classes of pupils.

^"George E. Shuttleworth, Notes of a Visit to American Institutions for Idiots and Imbeciles (Lancaster, England, n.d.), p. 4.

82

He did mention that profits from the Pennsylvania Training School for high payment cases,

combined with benevolent

contributions, were being used to purchase an adjoining farm which was to be established as a custodial branch of the institution.

2

What clearly impressed the two Englishmen were the mani­ fold educational aspects of the schools; said,

"the excellent

for as Shuttleworth

school arrangements are perhaps

the most

3

noteworthy feature in American institutions." were established,

like those for the blind,

The schools

deaf and dumb,

as

part of the public educational machinery primarily for the reception of educable cases.

Shuttleworth recognized this

and quoted the by-laws of the New York State Asylum for Idiots as an example of the probationary periods employed to ensure the educational character of the schools: The effect of careful selection, and of the weeding out of bad cases, is that in the State Institution generally the physical and mental condition of the inmates presents a higher average than that seen in British Institutions, and consequently the deathrate is lower, and standards of scholastic education higher. The class of "Feeble­ minded Children" would indeed appear to preponderate over that of the pure Idiot in the American Institutions. However, sylvania,

some schools, notably Connecticut,

Kentucky and Penn­

did not rigidly exclude epileptics,

suffering from a mild form.

In fact,

o Shuttleworth, Notes of a Visit, p. 4. ^I.bid., p . 6. ^Ibid., p . 5.

especially those

at Pennsylvania

83 approximately ten percent of the student body were epilep­ tics. Much favorable comment was given to the "large and intelligent staff of Teachers, Schoolrooms and Gymnasia.""*

and admirably appointed

The student-teacher ratio was

one to twenty-five and women teachers were employed almost exclusively.

At this time the sexes were not segregated

into a separate class;

each class of boys and girls had its

own room and its own teacher.

The classes were frequently

subdivided into smaller groups--devoted to writing, manual occupations,

or simple imitation exercises— in an effort to

individualize the instruction. as desks,

horseshoe tables,

Many of the facilities,

such

and blackboards were employed

in public elementary schools,

as well as in institutions

for

the mentally defective, but what Shuttleworth found "of special interest were various ingenious devices in use in the latter for quickening the perceptions, senses of the Feeble-minded."^

and educating the

Reading was

taught by the word

method, whereby pupils were first shown that a certain picture denotes a certain definite object and then,

that the word

printed under the picture also denotes the same object.

For

many pupils speaking and articulation lessons were also neces­ sary .

^Shuttleworth, Notes of a Visit, p. 6. 6Ibid.

Shuttleworth made the excellent observation that "the Gymnasium is everywhere regarded as an important preliminary and adjunct to the school exercises p r o p e r . T h i s

was due

to the emphasis placed on the functional relationship of a healthy body and mind.

The gymnasia were large,

close to the

school rooms and equipped with gymnastic ladders, various types of wands, plest

dumbbells, rings and Indian clubs.

The sim­

type of exercise began with the teacher throwing soft

objects at the pupil in an effort to fix his attention and arouse some form of voluntary movement, By imitating

the teacher,

the student attempted simple exten­

sion movements of the arms and legs. gymnastic ladder, tion,

even in self-protection.

More advanced use of the

by climbing or walking, would fix the atten­

develop the will and strengthen the muscular system.

Ultimately the pupils would begin to perform rhythmic drills with wands or Indian clubs to music.

The use of musical instru­

ments, weekly dances and marching corps, were found to be highly successful by all

the schools.

These amusements and others,

like plays and assemblies, were good diversions for the students and excellent advertising for the schools on visiting or national holidays. These observers described the administrative organization of the American institutions in detail. vested in a Board of Trustees.

The management was

This Board elected a President,

^Shuttleworth, Notes on a Visit, p. 7.

85 Secretary and Treasurer and,

through its executive committees,

supervised the affairs of the school.

Entire responsibility

for internal administration rested with the superintendent, a qualified physician appointed by the board.

The matron,

"looked upon as the Mother of the Family," advised the atten­ dants— mainly women, older boys--and care.

except for the few male attendants for

controlled nursing,

clothing and out of school

The housekeeper was in charge of the strictly domestic

duties, while the steward kept the stores and occasionally directed the male attendants

and other servants.

and their assistants were ranked by seniority, of schools,

since there was no head teacher,

sible to the superintendent.

The teachers

but in a number

each was respon­

In general the ratio of staff

to pupils was one to four or five, dants to pupils was one to ten.

and the ratio of atten­

Shuttleworth found the food,

clothing and housing perfectly adequate. that the yearly cost of maintenance,

He also remarked

averaging

$200 per pupil, g

declined as the size of the institutions increased. Besides

their interest in the educational and organiza­

tional features of the American schools,

the Englishmen com­

mented on other important developments.

Shuttleworth noted

the preponderance of "Feeble-minded Children" over the "pure Idiot" in American institutions,

and continued:

D Shuttleworth, Notes of a Visit, pp. 8, 9.

Great stress is very properly laid upon the importance of keeping the two classes just named entirely distinct. This is effected in several instances by providing accommodation for the low-grade cases in a building detached from the main-block, with separate exercising ground &c. At the Ohio Institution this class is pro­ vided for in connection with the detached Infirmary. With regard to the higher grade cases, precautions are taken to prevent unsuitable association out of school hours; and Dr. H. B. Wilbur, of the New York State Asy­ lum, makes a point of providing "a multiplicity of play­ rooms of moderate size instead of a few large ones."^ The admission,

retention and segregation of different classes

was thus already in practice and obviously accepted. The diversity of industrial and agricultural occupations also met with S h u t t leworth's approval. the cane-seating of chairs, mats,

He reported mat-making

plaiting hemp,

the making of chair

and brush-making had been introduced with

"good result."

Most of the men were engaged in some phase of farming, because "the majority of their

[the superintendents']

come from agricultural districts,

male patients

the most appropriate indus­

trial training is such as will fit them for working on the land."'*''*'

Every school,

den— some quite large,

except South Boston,

had a farm or gar

like the four hundred acres at Columbus

Women were employed in the several branches try or in sewing and fancy work.

Training

of domestic indus­ for specific func­

tions appeared as important as acquiring a general education. Shuttleworth reserved the most controversial issues, 9

Shuttleworth, Notes of a Visit, p. 5.

10Ibid., p. 8. ■*■■*■Ibid., pp. 7-8.

custodial care and the success of the schools, remarks.

"In America,

for his final

as in Great Britain," he wrote of

the first, the question how best to provide for unteachable and adult idiots— whether in connection with existing Schools, or in entirely separate custodial institu­ tions— is the subject of considerable diversity of opinion.^ It is important to note that the question in doubt was a matter of what type of provision, not whether any provision at all should be made.

Concerning the success of the schools,

Shuttleworth believed, it was satisfactory however to note that the public utility of the several Training Institutions was regarded as a demonstrated fact wherever they had been sufficiently long in operation to produce results. The statistics he quotes

to support this contention reveal that

only a small portion of the pupils were returned to the com­ munity:

26% in Connecticut,

25% in Ohio,

and in Pennsylvania

only 70 of 700 patients were earning their own living. Shuttleworth believed,

"facts like these are of course the most

striking results of t r a i n i n g . H o w e v e r ,

the restoration of

from ten to twenty-five percent of the mentally defective in the institutions to a useful place in society was not the ori­ ginal objective of the schools.

Their founders optimistically

88 expected almost all of their charges to rejoin their com­ munities.

What clearly had occurred was a change in the

criteria for success. school operation,

In over twenty-five years of actual

the superintendents had come to accept

the fact that only a minority of their pupils could safely be discharged.

Their new source of pride was in the size

of that minority.

Although the original intentions of those interested in the care of the feeble-minded were not fully realized, they did witness an expansion in the number of state insti­ tutions.

In 1875,

The oldest, newest,

Shuttleworth had visited nine schools.

Massachusetts,

the

the New York City Idiot Asylum at Randalls Island,

was occupied in 1870. visit,

had been founded in 1848;

In the twenty years following his

ten state institutions and one private school were estab­

lished.

This was an average of more than one every two years.

The Iowa Institution for Feeble-minded Children was organized in 1876 at Glenwood, Orphans Home.'*'"’ Solders'

in what previously had been the Soldiers'

Indiana also utilized, the facilities of its

and Sailors'

Orphanage at Knightstown to hold the

■^See the First Biennial Report of the Trustees, Superintendent, Treasurer, of the Iowa Institution for Feeble-minded Children at Glenwood (Des Moines, 1879); and, Henry M. Hurd, The Institutional Care of the Insane in the United States and Canada (3 vols., Baltimore, 1916), III, pp. 424-426.

89 Indiana School for Feeble-minded Youth in 187,9^— the same year in which Minnesota opened a School for the Feeble­ minded in conjunction with the institutions dumb and blind at Faribault.

17

for the deaf,

The first state university

building at Lawrence was used in 1881 to house the Kansas State School for Feeble-minded Youth.

18

The year 1885

saw both the state assumption of responsibility for the California Home for Care of Feeble-minded. Children,

19

and

the establishment of the New York Custodial Asylum for Feeble-minded Women at Newark as an independent institution apart from the control of Syracuse.

20

Three years

later in 1888, New Jersey created its State Institution for Feeble-minded Women at Vinceland, where the private New Jersey Home for the Education and Care of Feebleminded Children had already been established for a year.

21

^Se e "Reports from the States— Indiana," N.C.C.C., VI (1879), 19; and Hurd, Institutional Care, III, pp. 386-388. 17

See the First Biennial Report of the Superintendent of the Minnesota School for the Feeble-minded and Colony for Epileptics (Minneapolis, 1881); and Hurd, Institutional Care, III, pp. 863-867. 18

See the First Biennial Report of the Kansas State School for Feeble-minded Youth (Topeka, 1881); and Hurd, Institutional Care, II. pp. 448-449. ^Se e "Reports from the States— California,11 N.C.C.C., XII (1885), 29; and Hurd, Institutional Care, II, pp. 55-58. 20

See the First Annual Report of the Trustees of the New York State Custodial Asylum for Feeble-minded Women (Albany, 1885); "Reports from the States— New York," N.C.C.C., XII (1885), 69; and Hurd, Insti­ tutional Care, III, pp. 250-251. 21

See the Firct Annual Report of the New Jersey Home for the

90 The Nebraska legislature authorized the building of the Nebraska Institution for Feeble-minded Youth at Beatrice in 1887

22

and the Maryland Asylum and Training School for

the Feeble-minded at Owings Mills started operations as a state supported school the following year.

23

Finally,

in 1892 the State of Washington built an Institution for Feeble-minded at Medical Lake.

24

The newly established schools shared patterns institutional maturation with older institutions. situated in temporary sites,

of Many were

generally either a private

residence or in another public institution. were given small legislative appropriations with their experimental status.

At first they commensurate

Over a period of years,

the schools demonstrated their competence,

as

they attracted

increasing number of students necessitating relocation and construction of permanent facilities.

The schools asked

for and received increased financial support from the state. Education and Care of Feeble-minded Children (Camden, 1889); and James Leiby, Charity and Correction in New Jersey: A History of State Welfare Institutions (New Brunswick, 1967), pp. 102-104. 22

See the Second Biennial Report of the Nebraska Institution for Feeble-minded Youth (Lincoln, 1888); "Reports from the States— Nebraska," N.C.C.C., XIV (1887), 58. 23 See the First Annual Report of the Visitors of the Asylum and Training School for the Feeble-minded of the State of Maryland at Owings Mills, Baltimore County to the Governor of Maryland (Baltimore, 1889); "Reports from the States— Maryland," N.C.C.C., XV (1888), 332; and Hurd, Institutional Care, II, pp. 575-577. 24 -Hurd, Institutional Care, III, pp. 800-801.

This aid provided a wide variety of specialized buildings* utilized as classrooms, pitals,

laundries,

gymnasiums,

industrial shops, hos­

dormitories and custodial residences.

The men chosen as the schools'

executive officers frequently

had teaching or administrative experience in the older schools, while a few had previously worked with the insane. Regardless of their backgrounds,

they all quickly became

adept at impressing legislatures with the same proven argu25 ments used by their colleagues in the Annual R e p o r t s .

Naturally

the superintendents derived

their beliefs

about the treatment of the mentally retarded from their own experiences and backgrounds, with one another.

as well as from their contacts

After 1876,

communication among them was

greatly enhanced by the creation of two professional societies The Association of Medical Officers of American Institutions for Idiots and Feeble-minded Persons

26

ference of Charities and Corrections.

and the National Con­ The formation of both

of these groups served to facilitate the exchange,

collection

and amplification of professional opinion concerning

the m e n ­

tally defective in the United States. 25

See Chapter III, pp. for examples. Since the schools all developed in much the same way, as attested by the similarity of their Annual Reports, little would be gained by a recapitulation of their indi­ vidual histories; instead, the growth of the Illinois Institution, which was most fully discussed, can serve as useful archetype. 26

Hereafter cited as: Association of Medical Officers (A.M.O.).

92 Although he was modest about his role in founding the Association of Medical Officers,

Isaac N. Kerlinplayed

a significant part in its organization. who recognized

27

It was Kerlin

the time was right for acting on Seguin's

ten year old proposal: Every year the Superintendents of the various schools for idiots should meet, to impart to one another the difficulties they have encountered, the results of their experience, and mostly to compare the books con­ taining their orders and regulations._^8 Kerlin used the celebration of the American Revolution Cen­ tennial at Philadelphia as his opportunity to suggest a meeting of superintendents at the Pennsylvania Training School for discussions on topics of mutual interest. From all areas of the country,

prominent men in the field

responded in person to K e r l i n ’s invitation. the first day of the meeting were Seguin, Wilbur brothers.

In attendance on

Doren, Knight and the

The gathering proved to be most successful;

for on the day after their initial meeting at Elwyn 1876),

the superintendents decided

to adopt a constitution and

form a permanent professional association. Association of Medical Officers was tions relating

to the causes,

(June 6,

The object of the

the discussion of all ques­

conditions and statistics of

27 Kerlin merely notes that the first meeting took place at Elwyn during the Centennial Exposition; see the Twenty-fourth Annual Report of the Pennsylvania Training School for Feeble-minded Children (West Chester, 1876). 28 Edward Seguin, Idiocy and Its Treatment by the Physiological Method (Albany, 1907), p. 200.

93 idiocy,

the management,

training,

and education of idiots,

as well as sustained 'efforts in the agitation for the creation of new institutions for the feeble-minded.

Meetings

were to take place yearly at the different schools and m e m ­ bership was limited to the medical heads of institutions

for

the mentally retarded and such persons who distinguish themselves in work for the defective.

29

Affiliation with the National Conference of Charities and Corrections

introduced

the superintendents to other p r o ­

fessionals in the field of social welfare, while acquainting them with a wider

spectrum of social problems.

The N.C.C.C.

was founded on May 20, 1874, when the Boards of Public Charities of Massachusetts,

Connecticut,

New York and Wisconsin gathered

together in New York to organize Public Charities. called in 1875,

30

the Conference of Boards of

The Conference of Charities,

as it was

continued to meet in conjunction with the

American Social Science Association until 1879, after which it assembled independent of its parent organization and adopted the more descriptive name, tions.

Finally,

in 1882,

Charities and Corrections.

Conference of Charities and Correc­ it became the National Conference of 31

29

Proceedings of the Association of Medical Officers of American Institutions for Idiotic and Feeble-minded Persons 1876 (Philadelphia, 1877); hereafter cited as: Proceedings of the A.M.O. N.C.C.C., I (1874), 3. 31

For a fuller discussion of the leading personalities involved in the establishment of the N.C.C.C., see Frank J. Bruno, Trends in Social

»

94 Almost all the original members were active on their respective State Boards of Public Charities and it was belief that

their

the Conference should serve as a clearinghouse

for ideas and information of mutual interest. It has been understood that the Conference is simply an exchange for the comparison of views and experiences, not a convention for the adoption of any creed or plat­ form, nor a body organized to accomplish any scheme or undertaking. The application, in practice, of the views and recommendations of individuals, whether in the majority or in the minority, is left to those who accept them, upon whom the responsibility of their practical application must rest.^2 The Conference's orientation was

toward the practical prob­

lems encountered in daily administration of the varied institutions controlled by the State Boards. were devoted

33

Thus its meetings

to a wide variety of concerns,

ranging from

provisions for the insane and feeble-minded

to plans for

penal reform and the difficulties of outdoor poor relief. Because of the catholicity of its interests, overlapped the work of other organizations, can Health Association Association Societies

(founded in 1872),

the N.C.C.C. notably the Ameri­

the National Prison

(organized in 1870), various Charity Organization

(started after 1877) and,

of course,

the Association

of Medical Officers. Work as Reflected in the Proceedings of the National Conference of Social Work, 1874-1946 (New York, 1948), pp. 1-24. 32N.C.C.C., XI (1884), iv. 33

See Chapter III, pp. of public charity.

for the duties of the state boards

95 The creation of both the A.M.O.

and the N.C.C.C. were

important to developing a sense of identity and common pur­ pose among the superintendents. of institutions

The chief executive officers

for the mentally retarded, who had heretofore

been only a group of like situated

individuals bound

together

by informal correspondence,

could now enjoy the benefits of

professional organization.

By establishing the standards

of membership in their guild, announcing the criteria, sion.

the superintendents were implicitly

if not the creation,

of their profes­

Their organization was avowedly modeled after the older

Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane,

34

which had already established--with

some success— the standards of entry into and practice within the profession, institutions,

a degree of autonomy in the operation of their

and the position of spokesman for itself for

the profession to state government and the general public. The superintendents

employed

the A.M.O.

in a dual

capacity as a service organization for themselves and propa­ gandist for their profession.

This duality was inherent in

the objectives of the Association at the time of its founding: discussion of relevant issues and agitation for more institutions. 3/

This organization was founded in 1844, and published the Ameri­ can Journal of Insanity. For a perceptive evaluation of the role of this Association, see Ruth B. Caplan, Psychiatry and the Community in Nineteenth Century America: The Recurring Concern with the Environment in the Prevention and Treatment of Mental Illness (New York, 1969), pp. 106-115.

96 At the second meeting of the A.M.O., for the creation of committees coming year's report,

provisions were made

for the preparation of the

as well as for an official stenog­

rapher to aid in the publication of papers presented at future meetings.

The activities of the Association of

Medical Officers was best summarized in the Presidential Address of F. M. Powell of Iowa: Here interchange of ideas and experience take place; our own methods are confirmed or corrected, as well as new plans and impressions received. The benefit of acquaintance with co-workers establishes confi­ dence and prepares the way for concerted action.^5 Powell made the nature clear,

of this "concerted action" perfectly

saying that because "other classes of defectives

have largely monopolized philanthropic movements, private,"

36

it was

the duty of the A.M.O.

fulclaim of the feeble-minded In their efforts

public and

to press the right­

for proper care.

through the A.M.O. and the N.C.C.C.

draw attention to the importance of provisions for the men­ tally defective,

the superintendents did not ignore the

usefulness of their Annual R e p o r t s .

As Kerlin pointed out,

public opinion is shaping a decision that most of the diseases, sufferings and ills of life are not to be attributed to accidental and fatalistic, but to avert­ ible and removable causes; if this doctrine can be sustained by the honest testimony of our Institutions for Charity, Reformatories and Prisons— a testimony ^Proceedings of the A.M.O.,(1886),387.

to

97 that gives its figures and that cannot be gainsaid— they will furnish a valuable aid to the arguments for such legislation and education as will correct or abate all tendencies, habits and practices that can be reached by those means.^7

For this reason,

Kerlin and a number of other superintendents

included a detailed statistical analysis of institutional admissions,

discharges and inmate conditions.

38

The value of

this information was formally recognized by the Association of Medical Officers when it established a committee to devise a system of descriptive admission blanks and institu­ tional records

for the "uniform and exhaustive inquiry into,

and record of,

the phenomena and causes of idiocy."

39

The causes of idiocy and its prevention were matters of increasing concern to the superintendents.

They remained

dedicated to ameliorating the condition of the feeble-minded while accepting the fact that the educational techniques of the previous

twenty-five years had not produced the results

that were anticipated.

Two courses of inquiry and action were

then pursued by the superintendents. mutually exclusive.

They were not, however,

One, was to devise and implement new

37 Twenty-sixth Annual Report of the Pennsylvania Training School for Feeble-minded Children (West Chester, 1878), 5. 38 Also see the Seventeenth Annual Report of the Trustees and Super­ intendent of the Ohio Asylum for Education of Idiotic and Imbecile Youth (Columbus, 1874), 22. qq Proceedings of the A.M.O., (1878), 41.

instructional methods and institutional facilities

for those

mentally retarded individuals who were incapable of selfsupport and self-control.

These innovations

took the form of

specialized industrial or manual training and the creation of separate custodial departments within the schools.

The

other was to identify the causes of feeble-mindedness and, if possible,

negate

their effects.

This resulted in increased

emphasis on the responsibility of hereditary influences the creation and perpetuation of mental defects. approaches were responses

in

Both

to the realization that the tradi­

tional educational methodology by itself was inadequate. the superintendents

If

could no longer rely on education alone

to restore the feeble-minded, terious impact on society,

and thus lessen their dele­

they could only hope to economically

care for those who were already afflicted, while trying to prevent any further increase in their numbers. The significance of the relationship between heredity and mental retardation had been commented upon almost from the time of the first efforts widely believed that

to establish schools.

40

It was

"no fact in science is better established

than that there is a most intimate mental as well as physical relation between the parent and the child--between each genera­ tion and the succeeding o n e , " ^ 40

See Chapter III, pp. especially that of Samuel G. Howe. 41

Concerning the importance of for a summary of this opinion,

Fourteenth Annual Report of the Massachusetts Board of State Charities (Boston, 1876-1877), xiv.

99 heredity as a contributory agent in retardation, intendents agreed with Kerlin's summary,

most super­

"idiocy and

imbecility are dependent generally on hereditary and prenatal causes,

occasionally on the diseases or accidents of infancy,

rarely also, upon certain debilitating influences of child^2 hood." Despite the popularity of these opinions and beliefs, there had been very little,

if any,

the actual long term effects

detailed investigation of

of heredity by anyone who

claimed to be in any way qualified. It was partly because of the lack of work done on the social effects of heredity that Robert L. Dugdale's book, The Jukes:

A Study in Crime,

had such a dramatic impact. penologist or social worker.

Pauperism,

Disease and Heredity

Dugdale was not a professional He was rather a merchant whose

avocation was the investigation of social problems.

44

This

^Isaac N. Kerlin, "The Organization of Establishments for the Idiotic and Imbecile Classes," Proceedings of the A.M.O. (1877), 20. 43

The work was first published in 1875, as an appendix to the Thirty-first Annual Report of the New York Prison Association (New York, 1875), and was titled, "A Record and Study of the Relations of Crime, Pau­ perism, and Disease." I have used the fourth edition, published by G. P. Putnam's Sons in 1910, as I could not locate any earlier editions. I believe there was little change between editions, as I have compared passages of the fourth edition with those from an earlier edition cited by Dugdale in his article, "Hereditary Pauperism as Illustrated in the Juke Family," N.C.C.C., IV (1877), 84. The fourth edition is the one also used by Mark Haller in his book, Eugenics: Hereditarian Attitudes in American Thought (New Brunswick, 1963), p. 201, footnote number three. In the fourth edition there is a preface, dated 1877, from the third edition, and an introduction by Franklin H. Giddings, dated 1910, which indicated (as Giddings states) that the book was out of print for a long time, and that possibly there are few copies of the earlier editions in existence. 44

See Haller, Eugenics, pp. 21-22, for an excellent summary of Dugdale's life and work. I am much indebted to it.

100 combination of interests was not at all unusual in the nine­ teenth century.

Many businessmen and professionals

regularly

served in some capacity on the executive boards of various state and private institutions. of rural jails

While on an inspection trip

for the New York Prison Association,

found in a rural Ulster County jail,

"six persons,

Dugdale under

four family names, who turned out to be blood relatives in some degree."

45

This appeared to be more than a coincidence

and aroused his curiosity.

He then undertook a full scale

study of the family back to its origins.

These investigations

revealed six persons belonged to a long lineage, reaching back to the early colonists, and had intermarried so slightly with the emigrant population of the old world that they may be called a strictly American family. They had lived in the same locality for generations, and were so despised by the reputable community that their family name had come to be used generically as a term of reproach. ^ Dugdale used the word

'Juke' as a synonym for the family name

in his study which became

"the most influential American work

on heredity during the nineteenth century."

A7

Dugdale began his research with the aid of two life long residents of Ulster County, town physician.

one of whom was

He supplemented

^Dugdale, Jukes, p. 7. ^ I b i d ., p. 8. ^Haller, Eugenics, p. 21.

for many years

the

their recollections with the

101 records of the sheriff, state agencies.

court,

poorhouse and various other

He described his method of study as

one of historico-biographical synthesis united to statistical analysis, enabling us to estimate the cumulative effects of any condition which has operated through successive generations: heredity giving us those elements of character which are derived from the parent as a birthright, environment all the events and conditions occurring after birth which have contri­ buted to shape the individual career or deflect its primitive tendency.40 From careful study of the life of each member of each suc­ ceeding generation of Jukes, Dugdale hoped

to be able to

determine the responsibility of heredity and environment in the formation of criminals, paupers,

alcoholics,

prostitutes

and mental incompetents. Dugdale identified a descendant of the early Dutch set­ tlers,

a colonial backwoodsman born between 1720 and 1740

whom he called Max as the founder of the Juke family. was described as

"'a hunter and fisher,

and companionable,

a hard drinker,

averse to steady toil,'"

blind in his later years.

Two of Max's

family of six sisters and it was traced for five generations.

Max

49

jolly

who became

sons married into a

their progeny that Dugdale

There were 540 individuals who

were related by blood and 169 by marriage or cohabitation, total of 709 people.

Dugdale was aware that "the aggregate

48 Dugdale, Jukes, p. 12. ^ Ibid., p. 14.

a

102 of this lineage reaches probably 1,200 persons, but the dis­ persions

that have occurred at different

times have prevented

the following up and enumeration of the lateral branches . Neither he nor any contemporary reader expressed

the opinion

that that this underenumeration might invalidate or at least qualify his conclusions. What Dugdale did discover about the 709 Jukes was enough to occupy his and anyone else's attention. 20% of all children were illegitimate; 18 kept brothels; perate; relief.

Among the Jukes,

128 were prostitutes;

76 were convicted criminals;

45 were intem­

85 were diseased or defective and 208 received poor 51

Instead of finding a random distribution of

criminals or paupers

in each branch of the family, Dugdale

d i scovered, in surveying the whole family, as is mapped out in the [pedigree] Charts, . . . groups which may be considered distinctively industrious, distinctively uncriminal, distinctively paper, and specifically diseased. These features run along lines of descent so that you can fol­ low them from generation to generation, the breaks in the line at certain points indicating with great precision the modifying effects of disease, training, or fortuitous circumstance which have intervened and changed the current of the career.52 Thus one of the original six sisters was known locally as "Margret,

the mother of criminals," because of the propensity

50Ibid., p. 15 51Ibid., pp. 19, 26, 30, 40, 43, 69. 52lbid., p. 16.

103 of her descendants for crime. In accounting for these anti-social careers or vocations,

53

Dugdale placed an approximately equal emphasis

on the contribution of heredity and environment.

He

believed that certain types of behavior and affliction, as harlotry,

pauperism,

capable of being To support

crime,

tuberculosis and idiocy, were

transmitted from one generation to another.

this belief,

Dugdale pointed to four or five

generations of prostitutes,

criminals or paupers in one

branch of the Jukes as compared largely honest and industrious. the importance of environment and balanced

such

the references

to another wing that was 54

Dugdale also recognized

in the formation of character

to heredity with statements like

the following: Where there is heredity of any characteristic, it would seem there is a tendency, and it might almost be said, a certainty to produce an environment for the next generation corresponding to that heredity, with the effect of perpetuating it. Where the environment changes in youth the characteristics of heredity may be measurably altered. Hence the importance of education.^5 53 Dugdale uses both terms in much the same way as they are employed by sociologists today; see Ibid., p. 16; and see, "The explanation is, perhaps, that the tendency of human beings is to obtain their living in the direction of least resistance according to their own views as to what that direction is, and as that direction for men of this class seems to them to be either in pauperism or in crime, the brothers enter these vocations. The sisters finding in prostitution a more lucrative career than pauperism, and a more safe and easy one than crime, thus avoid both in a measurable degree," (Ibid., pp. 25-26.) "^Dugdale, Jukes, pp. 50-53. 55Ibid., p. 55.

104 This last sentence Is significant, The Jukes was

as the basic thrust of

to call attention to a serious social problem

while attempting to provide a program for its alleviation. In a number of instances,

Dugdale indicated

that an

alteration of the environment could and did curtail prostitution,

pauperism and crime,

though success or failure

in reform depended greatly on the individual's mental and physical

capabilities.

porary belief

Dugdale subscribed to the contem­

that "the educational management of crime, vice,

and pauperism rests strictly and fundamentally upon a physio­ logical basis

. . . ;""*7

physical defect

that is,

there was some underlying

that was responsible for these activities

and which had to be rectified before the offending behavior could be altered.

He wrote that disease,

tions and educational neglect, development at some point,

unsanitary condi­

caused an "arrest of cerebral

so that

the individual fails

the exigencies of the civilization of his

to meet

time and country."

The only effective "cure for unbalanced lives is a training which will affect the cerebral tissue, ding change of career."

producing a correspon-

58

Up to a certain age--the middle thirties— such a change was

thought to be possible.

nervous system,

The maturation of the brain and

along with the development

~*^Ibid., pp. 26, 38, 49. 57Ibid., p. 55. ^Ibid., p. 55.

of what

is today

105 called the personality,

Dugdale believed to be an ongoing

process of growth which began with

the cultivation of the

senses and culminated in the control of a moral nature. Within this framework,

there was a continuous

interaction

between somatic development and the mental processes affected behavior.

that

The proper sensory or environmental

influences could alter the cerebral

tissues and thus produce

different patterns of thought and action.

Dugdale p o s t u ­

lated: We must therefore distinctly accept as an established educational axiom, that the moral nature— which really means the holding of the emotions and passions under the domination of the judgment by the exercise of will— is the last developed of the elements of character, and, for this reason, is most modifiable by the nature of the environment.^ Obviously,

many of the Jukes

never had the opportunity

to be

benefited by a change in environment, while those who had generally escaped D u g d a l e ’s notice. Dugdale's suggestions for reform were principally environmental.

Remove the Jukes from their "ancestral breeding

spot" where they occupied overcrowded shanties of one or two rooms that encouraged sleeping or "bunking"together with no provision for privacy or modesty.

Move them into decent

housing or, if young, board them with good families who would encourage them to learn a trade through industrial training. 59

Dugdale, Jukes, pp. 56-57.

106 This productive labor would divert

their "vital force" or

energies into constructive channels rather than into sexual or criminal a c t i v i t i e s .^ State institutions criticized by Dugdale,

chiefly

prisons and reformatories, would have to modify their opera­ tions in accordance with new educational goals. been strongly influenced by Seguin,

Dugdale had

declaring "our Reforma­

tories must reform and develop the senses of touch, hearing, sight,

smell and taste,

the knowledge of things,

so that the mind shall be filled with instead of being left vacant of

everything except a memorizing of words.

He further

insisted: Every reformatory should take for its model of school training, either the kindergarten education or the method of object lessons . . . for the potential thief, if not a moral imbecile, is a moral infant. The advantake of the kindergarten instruction rests in this, that it coherently trains the senses and quickens the spirit of moral accountibility, building them into cerebral tissues. It thus organizes new channels of activity through which vitality may spread itself for the advan­ tage of the individual and the benefit of society, con- ^ currently endowing each individual with a governing will. Only through this type of comprehensive effort could the bl i g h t ­ ing influences of heredity be overcome.

^ I b i d ., pp. 59-65. ^ I b i d ., pp. 61-62. Dugdale quotes Seguin at one point (p.32), and makes numerous references to Seguin's ideas of "arrest of development" and physiological education. 62Ibid., p. 62.

107 As a summary and conclusion, Dugdale provided a type of "human cost accounting"

that purported to calculate

the expense caused by the Jukes to New York State. grand total,

The

$1,308,000— a figure much quoted by his

readers— was caused by 1200 people over a period of 75 years.

Some of his data were undoubtedly accurate,

such

as the cost of poor relief or of trial and imprisonment. Other figures are merely rough estimates,, like wages lost due to illness,

and occasionally ludicrous,

per year of debauch by prostitutes. the manner in which Dugdale estimated

like the cost

No one criticized that syphillis was

responsible for $600,000 in lost wages or questioned why the entire sum was charged as a cost to New York.

Indeed

Dugdale and most of his readers believed that he was being conservative and that if better records existed and the study continued,

the total cost would have been much higher.^

The Jukes became the model for the study of "defec­ tive families."

Despite Dugdale's disclaimers

study here presented is largely tentative, taken that the conclusions nately . . .

that "the

and care should be

drawn be not applied indiscrimi­

to the general questions of crime and pauperism both his methods

copied and accepted. 63Ibid., pp. 67-70. ^ Ibid., p . 66.

and his conclusions were widely

All such future studies would have

108 long pedigree charts of genealogies, sets of abbreviations

to record

complete with full

the failures and short­

comings of individual family members.

There was something

at once alarming and fascinating about the thought of whole families off in the hinterlands--even entire communities— as the breeding grounds of crime,

vice,

pauperism and

degeneracy. Almost from the time of the first publication, work was

cited

Dugdale's

to lend scientific sanction to the belief in

the primarily hereditary origin of many social ills.

Dugdale

himself was more circumspect in attributing the responsibility for social blight solely to heredity. "the logical induction seems to be,

In fact, he concluded,

that environment

ultimate controlling factor in determining careers,

is the placing

heredity itself as an organized result of invariable environ­ ment."^

Yet to most people,

including

the officials who had

to care for the numerous institutionalized Jukes, was evident.

"If the original parents of the Jukes had been

prevented from breeding, much crime,

one lesson

prostitution,

the state would have been spared disease,

and pauperism,

payers would have saved $1,308,000."

66

and the tax-

Dugdale certainly

did little to lessen interest in timely preventive measures by remarking that the Jukes

^~*Ibid., p. 66. ^Haller, Eugenics, p. 22.

"are not an exceptional class

109 of people:

their like may be found in every county in the

State. Dugdale's study quickly became the subject of widespread professional interest.

Besides being one of the first works

with a claim to scientific exactness,

The Jukes also had the

not inconsiderable merit of informing its readers they had traditionally believed about the sins being visited on their sons

that what

of the fathers

was substantially true.

Massachusetts Board of State Charities tary relation has, we believe,

concluded,

As the

"the heredi­

a far greater agency in pro-

ducing social evils than has generally been conceived," "the more evident it becomes of pauperism,

the remedy must be applied

In short,

degenerates,

to

some effective method had

to be devised and implemented to halt the ceaseless tion of lunatics,

and

that in order to check the increase

crime and insanity,

their primary s o u r c e s . " ^

68

reproduc­

paupers and criminals.

Although Dugdale could only establish that one Juke was f e e b l e - m i n d e d , ^ it was a common assumption that mental 67 Dugdale, Jukes, p. 66. 68

Fourteenth Massachusetts Charities (1876-1877), xv; and see L. P. Alden, "Hereditary Transmission: Can the Vicious Tendencies of Bad Heredity be Arrested by the Judicious Training of the Child?" Fourth Biennial Report of the Board of State Commissioners for the General Supervision of Charitable, Penal, Pauper and Reformatory Institutions, 1877-1878 (Lansing, 1878). ^ Fourteenth Massachusetts ^Dugdale, Jukes, p. 30.

Charities

(1876-1877),

xviii.

110 retardation was merely another variant, licentiousness,

or tuberculosis,

like laziness,

of a hereditarily defec­

tive constitution which was a legacy from one generation to the next.

The same prophylactic measures

proposed to lessen the burden that families imposed on the state appeared

that were like the Jukes

to be equally serviceable

when applied to the mentally defective.

In 1878, Josephine

Shaw Lowell the first woman member of the New York State Board of Charities and the spokeswoman for its Committee on the Condition of Poor Houses,

suggested

the creation of

a separate custodial institution for feeble-minded women of childbearing age.

71

Her recommendation was prompted

by investigations of county poor houses,

where she encoun­

tered weak-minded women — licentious and irresponsible— who repeatedly bore illegitimate children fathered either by male inmates or other unscrupulous men only too willing to take advantage of such women.

The children of these

unions seemed destined to inherit the weaknesses and propen­ sities of their parents, of the state.

thus becoming additional liabilities

After a meeting of Mrs. Lowell's committee

with the board of trustees of Syracuse,

it was decided to

operate an experimental home for these women at Newark, York.

In 1878,

New

$18,000 was appropriated and the New York

71 For a most interesting biographical portrait of Mrs. Lowell, see the memorial number of Charities and the Commons, XV (December 2, 1905), 309-335.

Ill State Custodial Asylum for Feeble-minded Women opened.

It

remained under the control of the officials at Syracuse until 1885, when it became fully independent.

72

During the first years of Newark's existence, Wilbur complained that well meaning but over-zealous officials per­ sisted in sending wanton, institution.

not feeble-minded women to the

The proper destination for these merely profli-

gate women, he declared, was the reformatory.

73

The goals

of the Newark asylum were the custody and maintenance of feeble-minded women, ment,

their physical, mental,

and moral improve­

and the prevention of the continual "raisassociation of

the sexes," which would ultimately reduce the number of the defective and the d e p e n d e n t . ^

It is understandable that there

was some degree of confusion because Newark was such an inno­ vative and novel institution.

It was to function as a tradi­

tional institution for the mentally defective, but at the same time it had an avowedly custodial purpose— a dedication to the retention of its inmates until

they were no longer

72

See: the Twenty-eighth Annual Report of the Trustees of the New York Asylum for Idiots (Albany, 1878), 14; the First Annual Report of the Trustees of the New York State Custodial Asylum for Feeble-minded Women (Albany, 1885), 6; and the Proceedings of the A.M.O., 1878, 100; James C. Carson, "A History and Plea for State Provision for the Feeble-minded," Proceedings of the Twenty-first Annual Convention of the New York State County Superintendent of the Poor (Albany, 1891), 45. 73 Thirty-second Annual Report of the Trustees of the New York Asylum for Idiots (Assembly Document No. 23, Albany, 1882), 6. ^ Third Annual Report of the Trustees of the New York State Custodial Asylum for Feeble-minded Women (Albany, 1887), 6.

112 capable of adversely affecting society.

The difficulty

of selecting the proper inmates— those who were feeble-minded, not just licentious— was further compounded by the belief that promiscuous behavior was one indication of retardation. The women who were placed in Newark appeared and easily yielding to lust, good,

"ungoverned

denied the power to choose the

or the aid of the golden rule."

75

It obviously was

extremely difficult to determine if the cause of immorality was feeble-mindedness or perversity. these two possible explanations

The distinction between

for degenerate behavior

seemed constantly in danger of breaking down. The rapid creation and acceptance of Newark as a cus­ todial institution was one indication of the degree to which the prevention of mental retardation, of potential hereditary sources,

through the segregation

was considered important.

Certainly part of the appeal of Newark was the insistence that the chastity of helpless, protected; America.

defenseless women had to be

this was a powerful argument in nineteenth century Equally compelling was

the thought that another

long standing abuse of poor house management might finally be corrected. ^

Feeble-minded women would be removed from the

^Second Annual Report of the Trustees of the New York State Custodial Asylum for Feeble-minded Women (Albany, 1886), 7. 76 Kerlin, in particular, was upset about what he termed the lack of "sexual separateness" in county poor houses; he angrily declared, "The laws of heredity are undeviating here, and too well known to allow any trifling or neglect." Twenty-sixth Pennsylvania (1878), 11.

113 unsavory Influences of unprincipled men and placed in an environment where both they and society would be protected. Once Newark was established, dents of institutions

almost all the superinten­

for the mentally retarded utilized

its existence as part of their continued agitation for the creation of comparable facilities in their own s t a t e s . ^ They did not generally appeal for special institutions females;

instead,

for

they attempted to gain .acceptance for the

concept that the state had an obligation to care for all the mentally defective.

This obligation extended even to

those individuals who could no longer directly benefit from an educational environment, but who might pose a hereditary or even a more direct threat to the community. The superintendents had numerous motives for their efforts to secure a more comprehensive commitment variety of the mentally retarded.

to a wider

The construction of proper

accommodations would permit better classification and more economical care of the custodial grade. 77

The operation of

See the Thirtieth Annual Report of the Trustees of the Massa­ chusetts School for Idiotic and Feeble-minded Youth (Document No. 28, Boston, 1877), 14; the Twenty-seventh Annual Report of the Board of Direc­ tors of the Pennsylvania Training School for Feeble-minded Children (West Chester, 1879); the Eighth Biennial Report of the Illinois Asylum for Feeble-minded Children (Springfield, 1880), 8, 16; the Twenty-second Annual Report of the Directors and Superintendent of the Connecticut School fot Imbeciles (Hartford, 1880), 6; the Twenty-fifth Annual Report of the Trustees and Superintendent of the Ohio Asylum for the Education of Idiotic and Imbecile Youth (Columbus, 1881); and Thirtieth New York (1880), 17.

114 Newark demonstrated

that custodial facilities were less

expensive than the existing schools. dial environment,

In a supervised custo­

the higher grade inmates could provide

services for the less able or they could work in the fields and shops,

further reducing costs.

Thus,

the more capable,

but not dischargeable mental defectives were provided with lifetime employment.

When the hereditary potentialities

of the feeble-minded were more fully recognized, more urgent

for the superintendents,

it became

not only to retain those

known to be afflicted, but also provide for those individuals who had previously been denied admittance to the institu­ tions . The superintendents'

desire to establish custodial

care on a large scale was expressed in the various ways in which they modified

the character of their institutions.

Although the Illinois Asylum was mandated to accept only the teachable,

Charles T. Wilbur proposed

training of the feeble-minded. cost of lifetime supervision.

to attach a farm for the

Their own labor would pay the Such care would be extended to

those mental defectives who could not function in society and who,

as Wilbur wrote,

"must always be under guardianship."

Up to 1876 the Massachusetts institutions,

School,

the most urban of all the

had been molded by Howe's belief

remain predominantly an educational facility. 78Eighth Illinois (1880), 16.

78

that it should In 1878,

following Howe's death and the speedy resignation of his successor,

Dr. Henry Tuck,

Tarbell,

realized

changes.

Tarbell

the new superintendent,

George G.

the desirability of making some needed introduced sewing as a source of employ­

ment and found it quite successful.

He had traveled

to other

schools in 1879 and was impressed by their farms, which he believed both educational and economical. farm-named

ironically for Howe— was purchased to serve as a

custodial facility for overage men because, mented,

In 1881 a small

as Tarbell com­

no "more than a very small proportion of our chil­

dren will ever advance to the point of being self-sufficient." Also in 1881 New York acquired a farm for manual improvement and the Kentucky institution was already renowned for its program of industrial training.

80

Hervey B. Wilbur believed

that New York's had developed to the point where, name school is applied at all, for idiots."

81

fire in 1881,

"if the

it should be industrial school

When the Ohio Asylum suffered a disastrous Doren recommended the purchase of 1000 acres of

good agricultural land, which he felt would fully support the inmate population if the value of their labor in repairing the school was any indication.

82

Amidst these efforts

79

to

Thirty-fourth Annual Report of the Trustees of the Massachusetts School for Idiotic and Feeble-minded Youth (Document No. 28, Boston, 1881), 23. 80 See, "Status of the Work," Proceedings of the A.M.O., 1880. 0*1

Thirty-second New York (1882), 6. Twenty-fifth Ohio (1882).

116 acquire land and provide inmate employment, the first superintendent

Kerlin became

to coax the state legislature into

appropriating funds for the purchase of land used specifically for a Department of the Asylum.

83

The increased emphasis on custodialism in institutional organization had corresponding effects on educational methods and goals.

As the superintendents abandoned

the older scheme

of educating the retarded for eventual return to society, they began to alter the nature of the training offered by their institutions.

They still worked for the physical, mental and

moral improvement of their charges.

Now, however,

their objec­

tive was to educate them to self-sufficiency within an insti­ tutional environment.

As Kerlin forcefully wrote,

It is hard to convince parents that old forms of letters and numbers do not constitute an education for an imbecile child, even when they may be acquired. The best end attained in his training, is in reality to introduce in him the simplest conformity to the habits and actions of normal people. The superintendents soon came to agree that it was "useless to attempt to arouse these dormant facilities by forcing upon them the abstract truths of ready-made knowledge. simple,

and practical.

85

Our teaching must be direct,

They had traditionally urged the early

83 . Twenty-ninth Annual Report of the Pennsylvania Training School for Feeble-minded Children (West Chester, 1881). 84

Thirtieth Annual Report of the Pennsylvania Training School for Feeble-minded Children (West Chester, 1882), 16. 85

Forty-fifth Annual Report of the Trustees of the Massachusetts School for the Feeble-minded (Document No. 28, Boston, 1892), 19.

117

admission and retention of the mentally retarded in the schools primarily for educational purposes. the longer instruction was undertaken, it proved.

The earlier and

the more beneficial

Without setting aside these pedagogical motives,

the superintendents stressed

that since

the feeble-minded

were destined to become public charges of one kind or another, it was true statesmanship and economy to begin training and control before they acquired vicious habits or reproduced.

Justification for concern with expansion and custodial care was ably provided by Kerlin in his report to the National Conference of Charities and Corrections

in 1884.

This was

the first publication by his committee,

the Standing Committee

on Provisions for Idiotic and Feeble-minded Children.

He

bitterly remarked: It is not strange that the claims of idiotic feeble­ minded children should have waited a hearing until your twelfth conference; for this clientage is almost always a voiceless one, hidden away often from its nearest neighborhood, shunned of companionship, and until the last census, but half reported.®^ Indeed,

it was

the Census of 1880— inaccurate as Kerlin believed

it to b e — that perturbed the superintendents. reported

the total number of feeble-minded

only some 2,429 in institutions. 86

The census

to be 76,895, with

While the population as a

Isaac N. Kerlin, "Provisions for Idiotic and Feeble-minded Children," N.C.C.C., XI (1884), 246.

118 whole increased about 30%, , increased more than 155%. ties,

the number of the retarded Despite the expansion in facili­

the institutions were able to provide for only a little

more than 3% of the known mentally defective and Kerlin believed that there was an underenumeration of from 20 to 30%.

87

After a brief discussion of "the degrees and grades of idiocy," and "the susceptibility to improvement" which drew upon the work of his colleagues,

88

Kerlin proceeded to

examine "the obligations of society to its defective members."

89

This was done from two perspectives: 1.

2.

That of the preservation of society itself from a baneful, hindering, or disturbing element generated within itself and too often from avoid­ able causes. The right inherently existing in a defective and irresponsible member of society to protection from the body in exact ratio to his necessities.90

What Kerlin saw the need for was government the relation of parent to subject,

that would assume

"abridging personal liberty

where its exercise is attended with a crusade against the rights of the peaceable

. . . ."

91

For an example he turned

O7

Kerlin, "Provision for Idiots," 247.

88

See Hervey B. Wilbur, "The Classifications of Idiocy," Proceedings of the A.M.O., 1877, 29-35; and Hervey B. Wilbur, "Some of the Abnormali­ ties of Idiocy and the Methods Adopted in Obviating Them," Proceedings of the A.M.O., 1881, 190-201. 89

This was the subject of the second paper prepared by Kerlin*s commit­ tee; see H. M. Greene, "The Obligation of Civilized Society to Idiotic and Feeble-minded Children," N.C.C.C., XI (1884), 264-277. 90

Kerlin, Provision for Idiots," 253.

91Ibid., 254.

119 to "Max and Ada Juke

[who] rarely fall of an introduction

in these Conferences" and expressed the hope that their grandchildren "might have been recognized as unfit members, and very consistently with the public welfare and their own best interests,

have been detained for the better part of

their lives in jails or sequestered in asylums."

92

Kerlin had a ready explanation to account for the low incidence of retardation found by Dugdale in the Jukes. believed that the Jukes,

He

like Blacks, were so mentally

enfeebled as a class that only the most profound cases of idiocy were recognized for what they were.

Kerlin also felt

that other classes of social problem m akers--criminals, tramps, prostitutes, same manner.

alcoholics— were defective in much the

One way of identifying their heretofore unde­

tected disabilities was through pathological examinations. Kerlin noted the similarity between the findings of Moriz Benedikt in his examination of criminal brains and those of Alfred W. Wilmarth,

the pathologist at Elwyn, who studied the

brains of feeble-minded children.

93

The existence of similar

convolutions on the surface of criminal and feeble-minded brains,

lead Kerlin to the conclusion that there was definite

relationship between crime and mental retardation.

94

92Ibid., 255. See A. W. Wilmarth, "Notes on the Anatomy of the Idiot Brain," Proceedings of the A.M.O., 1884. QL

Kerlin, “Provision for Idiots," 256.

120 Kerlin did not require the results of any pathological examination to ask,

"how many of your criminals,

and prostitutes are congenital idiots?"

95

inebriates

Simple observation

was enough to reveal that the tramp--"the stamp of his intellectual weakness is clear in his features" tute--'^ class so feeble in will power, such uncontrolled emotions that and irresponsible"

97

96

--or the prosti­

so ignorant,

and of

. . . very many are unsound

— were mentally defective.

Kerlin called

for the early recognition and permanent sequestration of the "special,

upper,

and more dangerous

with little probability of release.

forms" of retardation This would prevent

assuming social relations under marriage,

"their

or becoming sowers

of moral and physical disease under the garb of professional tramps or degraded prostitutes."

98

In stating that "there is no field in political economy which can be worked to better advantage for the diminution of crime,

pauperism and insanity than that of idiocy,"

was shifting the perspective from which viewed.

95

Ibid., 258.

96 * Ibid., 256. Ibid., 257.

98Ibid., 257-258. 99

Kerlin

treatment had been

Previously it had been accepted that mental deficiency

in itself was deserving of care.

97

99

Ibid., 257.

With the failure of the

121 schools to restore a significant number of their pupils society,

to

the superintendents could no longer urge institu­

tionalization for educational reasons alone.

They had

to

persuade their state legislatures and the general public that their institutions fare.

truly were contributing to the general wel­

Naturally they continued to expound the benefits

bestowed upon the retarded, in which they lived.

their families and the communities

At the same time,

they alluded to the

civic and Christian obligations of the state to provide for its most helpless and needy citizens.

The identification

of the importance of heredity and feeble-mindedness in numerous social problems provided

the superintendents,

for

the first time, with the opportunity of promoting their insti­ tutions as solutions

to crime, pauperism,

disease, prostitution,

alcoholism and vagrancy. Kerlin devoted the last portion of his report to a description of an ideal institution, which would suit broadly defined goals of the superintendents.

the more

Much of his

plan was based upon the facilities already existing at Elwyn. The future institution would be able to accommodate 1200 inmates,

divided into seven grades.

Hundreds of acres

should

be provided for the central buildings of the school and indus­ trial departments,

the nursery department,

the asylum depart­

ment and the colonizing of adults as they passed the school age. An abundance of pure water,

strong light and fresh air,

122 combined with a homelike setting would be necessary for the buildings as well as a gymnasium and an auditorium. Naturally the best fire escapes,

sewers,

construction tech­

niques and storage and sanitary facilities porated.

should be incor­

The site should allow for the seclusion and privacy

of the various classes and have sufficient arable land for the raising of the institution's

food supply.

an institution or, more accurately, be to provide comprehensive,

The goal of such

such a.community would

self-contained and lifelong

care for all the mentally def e c t i v e . Kerlin recognized the initial expense of such an estab­ lishment, but he believed that the state would ultimately save money.

"Only the education of the people and perhaps

some prohibitory legislation," he felt, was necessary

"to

diminish the number of the wards of any Commonwealth by choking the sources whence they spring."'*'^

By gathering statistics

and investigating the cause of retardation, might urge citizens

to convert

to natural marriage, ture."

102

"to better

normal birthood

the institutions

forms of living--

[sic] and noble child cul-

The increased utility of institutions for the

mentally retarded had such promise that, to the N.C.C.C.,

in his 1885

Kerlin rhapsodized about the future.

100Ibid., 258-262. 101Ibid., 262. 102Ibid., 263.

report Speaking

123 for all the superintendents, he wrote: The future of this work contemplates far more than the gathering into training schools of a few hundred imper­ fect children. . . . The correlation of idiocy, insanity, pauperism, and crime will be understood as it is not now. There will be fewer almshouses, but more workhouses. Jails, criminal courts, and grog-shops will correspondingly decrease; and here and there, scattered over the country, may be "villages of the simple," made up of the warped, twisted, and incorrigible, happily contributing to their own and the support of those more lowly,— "cities of refuge," in truth; havens in which all shall live con­ tentedly, because no longer misunderstood nor taxed with exactions beyond their mental or moral capacity. They "shall go out no more" and "they shall neither marry nor be given in marriage" in those havens dedicated to incom­ petency .103

103

Isaac N. Kerlin, "Report of the Standing Committee: Provision for Idiots," N.C.C.C., XII (1885), 174.

CHAPTER V THE BURDEN OF THE FEEBLE-MINDED 1885-1908

By 1885— with growing accord — the superintendents of state schools

for the mentally defective were defining their

function as actively preventing,

rather than passively

responding to the host of social problems retardation.

engendered by

Changes among the ranks of executive offi­

cials and greater knowledge about

the variety and the extent

of mental defect were partly responsible for this aggressive posture.

The budding eugenics movement and the special pro­

grams for backward and retarded children in the public schools emphasized to professionals and concerned citizens alike,

the necessity of adequate provision for the feeble­

minded . The superintendents reacted with innovative measures to a situation they now perceived as "the menace of the feeble-minded."

They insisted repeatedly that the institu­

tion of permanent,

custodial segregation— although it denied

the mentally defective the opportunity to marry or have chil­ dren— was the qiost humane and effective procedure

to protect

society from the proliferation of Juke-like families. emergence of a safe,

reliable surgical technique for

124

The

125 sterilization^ transformed the society's alternatives. For many,

sterilization became a eugenic imperative.

If

the superintendents hoped to forestall genetic disaster, the only choices were segregation and surgery.

in the 1880's and 1890's,

the institutions experienced

a number of significant operational and personnel changes. Many of the original leaders and founders of the movement to educate the mentally retarded were dying: Seguin and Henry M. Knight in 1880, 1883, and Edward Jarvis in 1884. brought

Howe in 1876,

Hervey B. Wilbur in

The following decade.?

the deaths of Joseph Parrish in 1891, George Brown

in 1892,

followed by Kerlin in 1893.

This left only Doren

as the last active founder of the Association of Medical Officers of American Institutions for Idiotic and Feeble­ minded Persons.

He served as superintendent of the Ohio

Institution for Feeble-minded Youth, the impressive 1905.

as it was re-named,

for

total of forty-six years until his death in

These men were often replaced by their subordinates

or by others

trained in the same or allied fields and,

at least two instances, by their sons.

in

2

^"Sterilization refers to the cutting of the fallopian tubes (salpingectomy), or the severing of the seminal ducts (vasectomy), while castration is the removal of the testes or ovaries. 2

The Connecticut School for Imbeciles, which was renamed the Connecticut Training School for the Feeble-minded when it moved to Mans­ field, Connecticut, was under the control of the Knight family from 1858

126 The second generation of superintendents began their work in a somewhat different atmosphere than the first. institutions were no longer small,

tentative,

The

experimental

schools that sought to educate a few carefully selected pupils;

they had matured into large, permanent, multipurpose

facilities

that were committed to custodialism as well as to

education.

These younger men possessed a certain degree of

historical detachment from the earlier pioneering days.

More

capable of objectively surveying their profession's past, they were astutely critical of some aspects of it. Carson, Wilbur's successor at Syracuse,

James C.

found that

when the training and education of the feeble-minded were first attempted and the benefits attained were so obvious that certain enthusiasts were led to hope and even to believe and predict that many could be raised to a mental status which would enable them to pass unnoticed in the outside world.^

Carson and his associates rejected such grandiose aspirations, preferring to concentrate on the preparation of their inmates for useful labor once the period of education had passed. Carson attributed the optimistic hopes of the earlier period to the mistaken belief that the powers of mind and reason would develop with age, but unfortunately the opposite proved true. to 1914. The Elm Hill School, located in Barre, Massachusetts, was the original school for the retarded that was founded by Hervey B. Wilbur in 1848; when Wilbur left to become the superintendent in New York, its super­ vision passed to George Brown, and then to his son, George H. Brown. 3

Thirty-ninth Annual Report of the Trustees of the New York Asylum for Idiots (Senate Document No. 6, Albany, 1889), 26.

127

The lower the grade of the retarded,

the shorter was the

period for reaching the height of achievement.

4

As the institutions acquired custodial facilities and increased their inmate populations

(See Table 1) , they assumed

the appearance and function of small villages.

In their Annual

Reports the superintendents requested legislative appropria­ tions for such capital improvements as railroad sidings, reservoirs and water supplies,

electrical generators and

wiring, boilers and heating systems, communication devices.

even telephones and other

This was all in addition to the

regular demands for more farming,

laundry,

and industrial machinery supplies. improvements were necessary

food processing

In many cases the capital

to replace or update twenty or

thirty year old equipment that was inadequate to meet the demands placed on it by the growing numbers of inmates and staff. It was believed to be more expedient for the institutions supply their own vital services, ities.

men.

By producing

(mattresses,

to serve as

firemen and a variety of other crafts­

their own food

vegetables), making their shoes, goods

than rely upon municipal facil­

The institutions trained their inmates

painters, bakers, masons,

to

brushes,

(cereals, meat,

clothing,

dairy products,

linens and household

furniture), and retailing the

4 Thirty-ninth New York (1889), 26-27; also see the Forty-sixth Annual Report of the Trustees of the Massachusetts School for the Feeble­ minded (Boston (1893), 13.

128

TABLE 1 INMATE POPULATION IN PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS FOR THE RETARDED

Connecticut Illinois Indiana Iowa Kentucky Massachusetts Minnesota New York-Syracuse New York-Newark New Y o r k - R a n d a l l 's Island Ohio Pennsylvania

1880

1890

81 306 49 155 131 113 19 295 95 21 549 323

130 441 272 423 154 267 300 466 274 334 848 713

1905 235 1359 1017 1029 156 861 995 550a 550 429 1248b 998°

Sources: for 1880, Department of the Interior , Census Office, Fredrick H. Wines, Report on the Defective, Dependent, and Delinquent Classes of the Population of the United States at the Tenth Census (July 1, 1880) (Washington., 1888), 216 ; for 1890 , Departmei of the Interior, Census Office, John S. Billings, Report on the Insane, Feeble-minded, Deaf and Dumb, and Blind in the United States at the Eleventh Census: 1890 (Washington, 1895), 294; for 1905, Department of Commerce and Labor, Bureau of the Census, Special Reports, Insane and Feeble-minded in Hospitals and Institutions: 1904 (Washington, 1906), 218-219. Census data must be used with extreme care, as it underenumerates the retarded, an error that was recognized at the time; see the note by Fredrick H. Wines in Department of the Interior, Census Office, A Compendium of the Ninth Census: 1870 (Washington, 1872), 630-633. This underenumeration was so severe that starting with the Census of 1900, the only figure that was attempted was the number of mental defectives known to be in institutions (see Ibid., p. 205). Does not include the 710 inmates of the Rome State Custodial Asylum, who previously would have been at Syracuse. ^Does not include the 1018 inmates of the State Institution for the Feeble-minded of Western Pennsylvania, who previously would have been at Elwyn.

129 surpluses,

the institutions were becoming increasingly

self-sufficient.

All of these activities not only

lessened the cost of maintenance, but also provided use­ ful employment in a sheltered environment for the inmates. In this manner the superintendents

could justify their

claims that the mentally defective could be properly, economically,

cared for.

In addition to continual expansion, produced some notable innovations. chusetts

yet

the institutions

In 1883 the Massa­

School for Idiotic and Feeble-minded Youth at

South Boston,

changed its name

for the Feeble-minded.

to the Massachusetts

School

This change typified the more com­

prehensive care being offered to individuals of all ages; other states followed Massachusetts,

substituting "school"

for "asylum," and replacing the term "idiotic" or "imbecile" with

"feeble-minded.

Also in 1883,

the Massachusetts

School began a three-year experiment placing it on the same economic basis as the state's lunatic asylums.

Direct

appropriations from the state treasury were halted,

and the

school was made responsible for collecting its operating costs from its pupils'

place of settlement.

highly unsatisfactory arrangement.

This proved a

The counties were

"*In this regard, Ohio and Connecticut have already been mentioned; in 1890, the New York State Asylum for Idiots became the Syracuse State Institution for the Feeble-minded. These name changes occurred over many years; however, the name cited in the Annual Report will be that at time of issue.

130 reluctant to subsidize any but the asylum grade mentally retarded. state policy,

Partly in reaction to this shift in

George C. Tarbell resigned and he was

replaced by Asbury G. Smith.^

In 1886 the school was reor­

ganized into two separate departments, custodial.

(lowest)

educational and

The educational department was funded by

the State Department of Education, while the custodial department was supported by parents, or the state.

place of settlement

The custodial department was expressly

’’for the care and custody of those feeble-minded persons who are beyond the school-age or not capable of being bene­ fited by school instruction

. . .

Expenditures were

budgeted on a per pupil basis of three dollars and twentyfive cents per week.

A similar provision for custodial

care was amended to the charter of the Pennsylvania Train­ ing School for Feeble-minded Children in 1887, providing that no more than $100 per year be spent for the maintenance of an inmate.

8

South Boston had previously suffered from two major defects.

Despite its healthy seaside location,

it had

^Thirty-sixth Annual Report of the Trustees of the Massachusetts School for the Feeble-minded (Document No. 28, Boston, 1883). ^Isaac N. Kerlin, "Report of the Committee on Provision for the Idiotic and Feeble-minded Person," N.C.C.C., XIII (1886), 289; and see the Thirty-ninth Annual Report of the Trustees of the Massachusetts School for the Feeble-minded (Document No. 28, Boston, 1886). g

Thirty-eighth Annual Report of the Pennsylvania Training School for Feeble-minded Children (West Chester, 1890).

131 lacked the space to expand.

In addition,

it had no per­

manent resident superintendent to supervise any expansion. Both of these deficiencies were remedied in 1887 when the state legislature voted $20,000 to begin the construc­ tion of new buildings in Waltham,

a Boston suburb,

and

Walter E. Fernald was appointed as the first resident £ superintendent. Fernald's background, education and work experience was similar to that of other executive offi­ cials.

He was born February 11, 1859 in Kettery, Maine,

was a graduate of the Medical School of Maine and had served as the assistant physician of the Mendota, Wisconsin State Insane Hospital,

for the five years prior to his

appointment at Massachusetts."^

He quickly established

an excellent working relationship with his board of trus­ tees and within a relatively short time was considered a leading spokesman for his profession.

While the superintendents attempted

to establish the

proper institutional accommodations for an increasing variety and number of mental defectives, of another type of mental defect.

they became aware

In 1884 Kerlin was

9 Fortieth Annual Report of the Trustees of the Massachusetts School for the Feeble-minded (Document No. 28, Boston, 1887). "^See George M. Kline, ed., Bulletin of the Massachusetts Depart­ ment of Mental Diseases, XIV (nos. 1 & 2, April, 1930), Fernald Memorial Number.

132 among the first to identify these individuals as moral imbeciles.^ 1889)

His subsequent Annual Reports

(1886,

and papers presented to both the A.M.O.

the N.C.C.C.

(1890)

1887,

(1887) and

elaborated their characteristics.

Kerlin found: The fundamental disorder is manifested in derange­ ment of the moral perceptions or emotional nature rather than in the intellectual life, which not infrequently is precocious. Unaccountable and unreasonable frenzies, long periods of sulks, and comfort in sulking, motiveless and persistent lying; thieving, generally without acquisitiveness; a blind and headlong impulse toward arson; delight in cruelty, first toward domestic pets, and later toward helpless or young companions; self-inflicted violence, even to pain and the drawing of blood; occasionally, delight in the sight of blood; habitual wilfullness and defiance, even in the face of certain punishment; a singular tolerance to surgical pain and hebetude or insensibility under disciplinary inflictions,— these are some of the forms in which the congenital deficiency of the moral sense evi­ dences itself. ^ Moral imbecility was considered analogous to other forms of retardation;

it was believed

that the moral imbecile suf­

fered from an irreparable defect of his moral faculties, comparable to the affliction of the intellectual faculties sustained by the feeble-minded.

The same sense of irreversi­

bility that had developed concerning other types of mental defect was extended to moral imbeciles.

While the extent of

Thirty-second Annual Report of the Pennsylvania Training School for Feeble-minded Children (West Chester, 1884), 10; see Chapter II, p. for Howe's statements on the moral imbecile. 12Isaac N. Kerlin, "The Moral Imbecile," N.C.C.C., XVII (1890), 244-245.

133 the disability could vary, of moral idiocy,

thus producing different grades

the defect itself,

was permanent and incurable.

like color blindness,

13

Kerlin was certainly aware of the contemporary debate that raged over the similar concept of moral insanity,

14

but he was confident enough of his position to state: During the thirty years' contemplation of the sub­ ject, a marked change in professional opinion has been noted, so that it is no longer hazardous to reputation to believe in the existence of a condition termed 'moral insanity' nor to refer to it as of com­ monly congenital origin, and hence better denomi­ nated 'moral imbecility.'15 The moral imbecile was identified and defined entirely through his actions, behavior and attitudes. vable symptomatology.

There was no other obser­

Kerlin recognized that it is "hard to

answer'What is there in all this to distinguish from simple wickedness or badness?'"

He could only reply,

"the answer is

contained in the persistency of the trait and the utter desti­ tution of any reason for it, as is indicated in the confessed 13 Thirty-fourth Annual Report of the Pennsylvania Training School for Feeble-minded Children (West Chester, 1886), 8-10. 14 Moral insanity was thought to be a distinct disease entity, responsible for "certain types of compulsive and asocial behavior" without overt psychosis; see Charles E. Rosenberg, The Trial of Assassin Guiteau: Psychiatry and Law in the Gilded Age (Chicago, 1968), p. 68. Rosenberg pre­ sents an excellent discussion of this issue. Also see Eric T. Carlson and Norman Dain, "The Meaning of Moral Insanity," Bull. Hist, of Med., XXXVI (1962), 130-140; and Arthur E. Fink, Causes of Crime: Biological Theories in the United States, 1800-1915 (Philadelphia, 1938), pp. 48-75; and Isaac N. Kerlin, "Moral Imbecility," Proceedings of the A.M.Q., 1888, 30. ^Kerlin, "The Moral Imbecile," (1890), 245.

helplessness of the child to do d i f f e r e n t l y . " ^

There was

an element of tautology in this reasoning, as the moral imbe­ cile was defined as an individual who could not act in any other way. behavior,

Since no other explanation could account for his a moral

Britain--"as

imbecile was defined— officially in Great

'a person who displays from an early age, and in

spite of careful upbringing,

strong vicious or criminal propen­

sities, on which punishment has little or no deterrent e f f e c t . 1 Much of the evidence marshalled by Kerlin to endorse and support the concept of moral imbecility was of criminal anthropology.

from the field

In his report to the N.C.C.C.

(1890)

Kerlin quoted extensively from "the recent Second International Congress of Criminal Anthropology in Paris, at which were assembled distinguished representatives of science, cine,

and the administrated

anthropologists,

[sic] world.

. . ."

18

law, mediCriminal

although a factious group, generally agreed

that hereditary degeneration— a type of regressive evolution that produced continually more adverse mental, moral and p hysi­ cal effects in each generation— was at the heart of much antisocial activity.

19

16Ibid. ^This definition was adopted by the Royal Commission on the Care and Control of the Feeble-minded (1908) and was cited in Alfred F. Tredgold, Mental Deficiency (Amentia) (London, 1908), p. 76. 18

19

Kerlin, "The Moral Imbecile," (1890), 246, and see, 246-248.

Mark H. Haller, Eugenics: Hereditarian Attitudes in American Thought (New Brunswick, 1963), pp. 14-17, 40-44, provides an incisive

135 Degeneration originated with some mental or physical excess, but once introduced into a family, inheritance.

it was subject to

The presence of degeneration was revealed by

various stigmata— mental or physical aberrations that skilled observers could detect and interpret— although there was no widespread agreement as to what specific stigmata was corre­ lated with what instance of degeneration.

When they described

the consequences of hereditary degeneration, pologists most frequently employed

criminal anthro­

such terms as atavism,

arrested development or reversion to type,

all of which referred

to a return to the supposedly instinctual behavior of primitive man.

In effect,

degeneration was a stripping away of those

qualities and abilities developed over the ages by the con­ tinual process of human evolution.

Since Kerlin, with many

others, believed "the moral sense being the latest and the highest attribute of our rising humanity it is thus

first and

most to suffer from the law of reversion to lower type.

. . ."

20

He interpreted moral imbecility as a product of the degenera­ tion of man's moral nature. Kerlin identified four classes of moral imbeciles: alcoholics,

tramps,

prostitutes and habitual

criminals.

He

found "these four classes correspond in one character defect summary of this thought; Fink, Causes of Crime, pp. 99-150, comprehensively reviews the criminal anthropologists and their theories. on

Kerlin, "Moral Imbecility," (1887), 37; and see Chapter IV, pp. 27-28, for Dugdale's statements on the development of man's moral nature.

136 e.g.

[sic] there is a radical lack of will power to be other

than they are,

to do otherwise than they do."

21

The incorri­

gible nature of the moral imbecile was subject to endless comment.

"There is," wrote a superintendent in 1887,

of proper moral impulse, and wrong."

22

"a lack

or a perversion of the sense of right

Another commented,

"with a moral imbecile

it is not a question of yielding to temptation, but rather a question of yielding to his natural instincts, which are almost, without exception,

instincts

for evil."

23

The best

provision for the moral imbecile was life-long custodial care, which prevented "those who are congenitally unfit to mingle their lives and blood with the general community."

24

Kerlin

also believed that they should not be taught to read and write, rather "intellectual entertainment for these people is best provided in the exercises of the shop,

the field,

Kerlin concluded his report to the N.C.C.C.

the garden."

25

with this appeal:

21Kerlin, "Moral Imbecility," (1887), 35. 22

Sixth Biennial Report of the Trustees, Superintendent, Treasurer of the Iowa Institution for Feeble-minded Children at Glenwood (Des Moines, 1887), 20; the same sentences were used by F. M. Powell, the superintendent at Glenwood, in his paper, "The Care and Training of Feeble-minded Children," N.C.C.C., XIV (1887), 255. This type of repetition was not uncommon. 23

Thirty-fifth Annual Report of the Directors and Superintendent of the Connecticut School for Imbeciles (Hartford, 1893), 6. 24Kerlin, "The Moral Imbecile," (1890), 249. 25Ibid., 250.

137 I trust that there are some— yes, many— In this Conference who may see in these suggestions a line which followed will lead to the relief of many of our institutions, to a better understanding of this worst form of moral perversion, and to a partial arrest of the apparently increasing degradation of our race.26 The Conference responded by placing on record the following resolution:

"Resolved,

That any person who is aware of the

moral imbecility of a child shall not place that child either at board,

or free of expense in the community."

27

The detection and classification of moral imbecility gave an added impetus to the superintendents ' appeals the addition of comprehensive facilities

for

to accommodate all

classes of the mentally handicapped within their institutions. Kerlin incorporated an admonition for the proper care of moral imbeciles into the 1888 report of his committee to the National Conference of Charities and Corrections. the report, he took the opportunity

28

In making

"to formula.te a series of

propositions which may represent to this body the status of w ork in America,

and to suggest the principles on which

its further development may be wisely directed."

29

. . .

Kerlin

^Kerlin, "Moral Imbeciles," (1890), 250. ^"Minutes and Discussion," N.C.C.C., XVII (1890), 445. 28

Isaac N. Kerlin, "Report of the Committee on the Care and Training of the Feeble-minded," N.C.C.C., XV (1888)99-101; the recommen- ■ dations of this report were very similar to the resolutions adopted by the A.M.O. in the same year. These resolutions were read to the N.C.C.C. in con­ junction with the presentation of Kerlin's report; see "Minutes and Dis­ cussion," N.C.C.C., XV (1888), 395. ^Kerlin, '.'Report," (1888), 99.

138 began by reasserting the value of education for the improve­ ment of feeble-minded children and their right to this instruction, cation.

as guaranteed by the laws concerning public edu­

The only suitable place for this training,

it was

widely agreed, were proper institutions and asylum homes, not jails,

county infirmaries or hospitals for the insane.

on his earlier research,

30

Based

Kerlin estimated that only one-fifth

of those requiring special provision had adequate financial resources, while three-fifths came from the middle and poorer classes.

The remainder were paupers,

"but the sadness and

burden are found to be especially severe in the families of mechanics and artisans, who are bravely striving to keep themselves above pauperism."

31

Much of the first part of the report was a summation of the rhetoric employed in almost all public statements issued by the superintendents.

Kerlin then proclaimed:

The experience of the past thirty years proves that . . . ten to twenty per cent are so improved as to be able to enter life as bread-winners; that from thirty to forty per cent are returned to their fami­ lies so improved as to be self-helpful . . . and further, and of greater importance, that one-half the whole number will need custodial care so long as they live.32 He divided individuals requiring custodial care into two groups: 30

See Chapter III, pp. 27-28, for Kerlin's source and data.

31Kerlin, "Report," (1888), 99-100. 32Ibid., 100.

139

First, those who, by reason of physical infirmities, such as epilepsy and paralysis, associated with their profound idiocy, are so dependent as to need the same protection as we administer to infancy; second, those who possess excellent physical powers, but are yet so lacking in judgement and in moral sense as to be unsafe members of the community, and, if discharged into it, contribute largely to the criminal classes, or falling victims to the depraved, are adding to the bulk of sexual offense and to the census of incompetency. ^ Kerlin recommended

that this

"large class of the permanently

disabled" be accommodated in the custodial departments of institutions for the mentally retarded, but in buildings removed from the educational and industrial departments. organization of institutions

Such

under a single administration

would permit "the employment of the so-called moral idiot, thereby diminishing greatly the burden b o the charitable . . . i,3 A and the tax-payer. Although the severely retarded and moral imbeciles were both classified as deserving custodial care, a different rationale existed for each group.

It was evident that the pro­

foundly retarded were incapable of self-support and would be enormous burdens if retained in their homes. Pennsylvania, permanent

Starting with

an increasing number of states began to provide

care for this class, not only in institutions for the

feeble-minded, their care.

35

but also in specialized facilities devoted to Moral imbeciles,

although they needed to be

33Ibid. 34Ibid. 35 See William P. Letchworth, "Provision for Epileptics," N.C.C.C., XXI (1894), 193-200.

I 140

protected from the consequences of their irresponsible actions, were candidates for custodial treatment chiefly because of the danger their presence posed in the community. Moral imbeciles were less obvious in behavior and appearance than other grades of the retarded and were thus free to travel at will. and will power,

Being congenitally deficient in judgement they were unable to exercise self-control

and hence were dominated by emotional desires and unrestrained egos. nosed.

Their condition was frequently misunderstood or undiag­ Some were treated as criminals or prostitutes, while

others became will-less alcoholics, debauched paupers.

wandering tramps or

Unless they were recognized for what they

were and retained in the proper institutions, would be discharged from the jails,

they generally

infirmaries or alm s ­

houses to continue both their anti-social careers and repro­ duction of their own kind.

The research of the Rev. Oscar C. McCulloch on yet another degenerate family,

the tribe of Ishmael, provided

additional data that confirmed the need for stringent measures of social control.

McCulloch was a Congregationalist pastor,

very active in the Charity Organization Soc-i-ety, the National Conference of Charities and Corrections and other programs of social welfare.

36

McCulloch's investigation was indebted to

36 He drafted the law establishing the Indiana Board of State Chari­ ties, was a member of it, founded the Charity Organization Society in 1878,

141 Dugdale's work.

As he frankly admitted,

It resembles the study of Dr. Dugdale into the Jukes, and was suggested by that. It extends, however, over a larger field, comprising over two hundred and fifty known families, thirty of which have been taken out as typical cases, and diagramed here. The name, "the tribe of Ishmael," is given because that is the name of the central, the oldest, and the most widely rami­ fied family.^7 McCulloch traced 1,692 individuals, over a period of 8 years, involved

from the 30 families

but he estimated the total number

to be over 5,000.

38

Like the Jukes,

the same baleful chronicle of pauperism,

there was

illegitimacy, pros­

titution and crime. McCulloch identified four principal factors that influ­ enced the family's decline: weakness,

physical depravity,

heredity and public relief.

physical

The first manifested

itself in the form of prostitution and illegitimacy, a depravation of nature,

to crowded conditions,

decencies and cleanliness." continued,

39

to absence of

"The physical depravity," he

"is followed by physical weakness.

the frequent deaths,

11 due to

the still-born children,

Out of this come and the general

incapacity to endure hard work or bad c l i m a t e . T h e

power

and was president of the N.C.C.C. in 1891; see, "Oscar C. McCulloch," D.A.B., XII, p. 8; and, "Tributes to Oscar C. McCulloch," N.C.C.C., XIX (1892), 230-250. 37

Oscar C. McCulloch, "The Tribe of Ishmael: Degradation," N.C.C.C., XV (1888), 154. 38Ibid., 155-157. 39

Ibid., 158.

\

A Study in Social

142 of heredity was obvious as "each child life,

reverts when taken o u t . " ^

tends to the same

To McCulloch,

the most sig­

nificant aspect of the degradation of the tribe of Ishmael was the contribution that unregulated private and public charity made to their survival. by the township

trustee,

Public relief was distributed

a public officer,

and "about the time

of nomination and election the amounts increased largely."

42

McCulloch insisted that fcharity— falsely so called— covers a multitude of sins, and sends the pauper out with the benediction, "Be fruitful and multiply." Such charity has made this element, has brought children to birth, and insured them a life of misery, cold, hunger, sick­ ness. So-:called charity joins public relief in pro­ ducing still-born children, raising prostitutes, and educating criminals. ^ Without systematic method or permanent supervision,

indiscrimi2

nate benevolence enabled the tribe of Ishmael to survive and reproduce.

Like professionals in allied fields, McCulloch

called for comprehensive care within specialized institutions, staffed by those trained especially for their job and familiar with its problems.

The tribe of Ishmael— along with the Jukes—

warned of the high cost exacted against both public welfare and the state treasury when hereditary defectives went unregu­ lated . 41Ibid. ^2Ibid. 43Ibid., 158-159.

143

To the superintendents it was a constant source of irritation that the existence of that class is in part accounted for by the neglect of the state properly to legislate in the interest of morality and hygiene which is a branch of morality. Hereditary taint, sensual-excess, drunkenness, intermarriage of relatives,the disabilities of extreme poverty, are all factors in the propagation of idiocy, and all of them, to some extent are within the purview of intelligent legislation.^4 They were seeking to have the state remedy the conditions it created through negligence.

To achieve this,

the superinten­

dents alerted the legislatures and public to the possibilities of positive state action.

They repeatedly emphasized that

it is not enough that the state provide temporarily for this division of unfortunates: it must be a life school for its inmates, thereby preventing the trans­ mission of infirmities to a still more degraded progeny.45 The superintendents agreed that "where it is possible for pro­ fessional interference to obviate the conditions favoring a degenerated offspring,

it should engage our earnest atten-

While the superintendents were beginning to consider such issues as marriage regulation, manent segregation,

public education and per­

they were also considerably broadening

the scope of their institutions.

The training school,

never

44William N. Ashman, "A Medico-Legal Study of Idiocy," Proceedings of the A.M.O., 1887, 28. 4”*F. M. Powell, "Presidential Address," Proceedings of the A.M.O., 1886, 390. 46Ibid., 391.

144 entirely abandoned, became the nucleus of a comprehensive institution offering a variety of services to the various grades of the retarded.

As Arthur C. Rogers,

47

superinten­

dent of the Minnesota School for the Feeble-minded, wrote: The institution for feeble-minded should perform for the public certain definite functions, the most important of which are:1. To make imbeciles, so far as possible, respectable, self-supporting members of society. 2. To improve and render efficient as helpers those who cannot be made self-supporting. 3. To place and retain under proper guardianship the latter, and those who cannot be improved, thereby relieving our American homes of the demoralizing influence of their presence, and limiting the pro­ duction of inherited idiocy. 4. To investigate the nature, distinctive characteris­ tics, and etiology of feeble-mindedness.48 For the next thirty years,

,

the institutions for the mentally

defective would assume the character of a combination school, home,

shop and laboratory for the study of retardation.

49

Such large, multipurpose institutions were divided into

Rogers was a second generation superintendent, who had become interested in medicine while he served as steward of the Iowa Institution for Feeble-minded Children; he received his M.D. from the State University of Iowa, was assistant physician at Glenwood, and was serving as chief physician of the government training school for Indians near Salem, Oregon, at the time he was called to Minnesota; see, "Arthur C. Rogers," National Cyclopedia of American Biography (New York, 1920), XVII, 248. 48 Arthur C. Rogers, "Functions of a School for Feeble-minded," N.C.C.C., XV (1888), 101-102. 49 At this time, A. W. Wilmarth, the pathologist at Elwyn, was the best known in this field; in addition to the articles already cited in the Proceedings of the A.M.O. (1884, 1886), see, A. W. Wilmarth, "Notes on the Pathology of Idiocy," Alienist and Neitrology, VI (1885), 382-392, VII (1887), 287-304, and XII (1890), 543-547.

145 different services for the appropriate classes of inmates under the same administration along what was called the colony plan of o r g a n i z a t i o n . ^

The term colony was also applied

to the farms purchased or leased by the institutions for the higher grade feeble-minded.

These frequently provided

various foodstuffs for home consumption and market.

The super­

intendents had entertained hopes of removing some qualified inmates

to non-institutional surroundings..

however,

They worried,

that their's was

a busy, practical, money-getting age, when the satis­ factory placing of children of normal faculties is no easy task, and only under favorable circumstances to be advised. This being true of normal persons, how small the field for those lacking in judgement and the higher qualifications for success!-^ The farm colony became a practical way to provide economic custodial accommodations

for greater numbers.

The farm colony at Templeton, Massachusetts was one of the best known of its type.

52

In 1897 the state authorized

"^See William B. Fish, "Report of Committee on Custodial Care of Adult Idiots," N.C.C.C., XVIII (1891), 98-106; "The Colony Plan," N.C.C.C., XIX (1892), 161-165; George H. Knight, "Colony Care for Adult Idiots," N.C.C.C., XVIII (1891), 107-108; "The Colony Plan for All Grades of Feeble­ minded," N.C.C.C., XIX (1892), 155-60. "^Rogers, "Functions of a School," 102; these individuals were described by the superintendents as, "what we call our highest grade, who are capable of acquiring almost everything but that indispensible some­ thing known in the world as good, plain common sense," Knight, "Colony Plan for All Grades," 158. 52

See Walter E. Fernald, "The Massachusetts Farm Colony for the Feeble-minded," N.C.C.C., XXIX (1902), 487-496; and "The Templeton Farm Colony for the Feeble-minded," The Survey, XXVII (March 2, 1912), 18731877; also well known there those in Indiana, Ohio, California, and New York; see Stanley P. Davies, Social Control of the Feeble-minded (New York, 1923), pp. 108-170.

146

the purchase of a large tract lated farmland, an acre.

(2000 acres)

of somewhat Iso­

at the cost of approximately ten dollars

The first inmates,

transferred from Waltham in 1900,

were housed in temporary accommodations while they worked on the rough construction of permanent dwellings The colony,

themselves.

about sixty miles on the same railroad from Waltham,

was amply provided with good water, and other building materials.

drainage,

timber,

stone

In the winter the colonists

stored ice, hauled supplies and cut wood, while the summer was devoted to land clearing and building activities. ble, adult inmates accumulated,

they were transferred

As capa­ to the

farm colony and the construction cycle was repeated.

Waltham

would provide

and

"a market for the milk, beef, potatoes,

other vegetables,

fruit, poultry,

eggs,

produced by this farming community."

and other food products

53

The farm colonies both removed inmates from the central institution, where their presence denied others on the lengthy waiting list the opportunity to enter,

and allowed them to

furnish sufficient manual labor to pay for their support.

54

The colonies were economical because land costs were low, staffing was light,

and useful goods were produced.

rhetorically asked,

"what intrinsic reason is there for building

more expensive structures 53

than middle-class people build for

Fernald, Massachusetts Farm Colony," 490.

54Ibid., 489.

As Fernald

147

their own dwellings in the same community?"

55

The farm

colonies were not only economical and custodial, but also remedial.

Fernald noticed "improvement in the mental condi­

tion of our colonists. ciably more intelligent,

Nearly every boy has become apprecapable,

and self-reliant."

56

These detached agricultural institutions appeared to satisfy the needs of both the superintendents and the retarded. Fernald described Templeton in an almost idyllic manner, sa y ­ ing,

"we have created a little community suited to the need

and capacity of these feeble-minded boys,

or men,--a little

world made for them, where they live the natural life of a country b o y ."

57

The superintendents agreed

that a majority of the men­

tally retarded belonged in "a little world made for them." Discussing reasons for public support of their work,

Rogers

decla r e d : If you ask why, the answer is found in the simple state­ ment that it reaches the homes, the primary units of society, upon the perfection of which the highest type of civilization depends. Whatever affect the homes whether for good or evil affects the community, the state, and the nation.-’® The effort of attempting to provide adequate care for a me n ­ tally defective child could exhaust a mother, 55Ibid., 490. 56Ibid. 53Ibid. 58 Proceedings of the A.M.O., 1890, 29.

forcing her to

148 slight her responsibilities

to other members of the

family resulting in the disruption of the entire household. If familial dislocation was severe enough,

the family first

might be demoralized and soon become pauperized. ing the integrity of the family,

Protect­

"the primary unit of society,"

was accepted as an important responsibility of institutions for the feeble-minded.

59

The superintendents also felt that it was equally important to institutionalize those retarded who were a perennial source of crime, pauperism and moral indecency. The detection of moral imbecility revealed the brighter class of the feeble-minded, with their weak will power and deficient judgement, are easily influenced for evil, and are prone to become vagrants, drunkards, and thieves. The modern scientific study of the deficient and delinquent classes as a whole has demonstrated that a large proportion of our criminals, inebriates, and prostitutes are really congenital imbe­ ciles, who have been allowed to grow up without any attempt being made to improve or discipline them. Society suffers the penalty of this neglect in an increase of pau­ perism and vice, and finally at a greatly increased cost, is compelled to take charge of adult Idiots in almshouses and hospitals, and of imbecile criminals in jails and prisons, generally during the remainder of their natural lives. As a matter of mere economy, it is now believed that it is better and cheaper for the community to assume the permanent care of this class before they have carried out a long career of expensive crime.60 59

See Albert M. Salisbury, "The Education of the Feeble-minded," Proceedings of the A.M.O., 1891, 220. ^Walter E. Fernald, "The History of the Treatment of the Feeble­ minded," N.C.C.C., XX (1893), 211. The entire proceedings of the N.C.C.C. for 1893 were devoted to a historical review of the many facets of the Conference's work; Fernald's paper is an excellent source for the super­ intendents' beliefs concerning the progress and problems of their profes­ sion.

149

Permanent segregation would relieve society of this burden by removing an important cause of social problems at consid­ erable financial saving. While protection of the home and society were valued objectives,

the superintendents did not ignore the benefits

to the retarded themselves.

They would no longer be subjected

to disappointment and repeated failure due to the impossible demands of competing as equals in society..

They would learn,

live, and work with those of the same potential and--depending on their capabilities— might derive pleasure from caring for themselves or the less able. protected.

The feeble-minded would also be

Superintendents widely believed

that

a feeble-minded girl is exposed as no other girl in the world is exposed. She has not sense enough to protect her­ self from the perils to which women are subjected. Often bright and attractive, if at large they either marry and bring forth in geometrical ratio a new generation of defec­ tives and dependents, or become irresponsible sources of g^ corruption and debauchery in the communities where they live. Mentally defective men would no longer be the "town fools," the guileless dupes of brighter criminals or the perpetrators of senseless, b r u t a l .crimes. By the 1 8 9 0 ’s, there was an overwhelming demand for permanent custodial care for the mentally retarded.

62

^Fernald, "History of the Treatment," 212; and see C. W. Winspear, "The Protection and Training of Feeble-minded Women," N.C.C.C., XXII (1895), 160-163. 62 For representative statements, see: Forty-fifth Annual Report of the Trustees of the Massachusetts School for the Feeble-minded (Document No. 28, Boston, 1892), 12; Forty-second Annual Report of the Pennsylvania

150 Superintendents repeatedly emphasized that "the state should hasten to care for its feeble-minded as a measure of social self-preservation,

for the greater health,

physical and

moral,

of the body social."

They mentioned that the Eleventh

Census

(1890) recorded a total of 95,609 mental defectives,

which only 5254 were in special institutions.

of

Census

figures

were always used with caution by the superintendents,

as many

observers agreed that significant under-enumeration occurred due to the reluctance of family members and friends tify the feeble-minded.

The Tenth Census

to iden­

(1880) had sought

to negate this difficulty by requesting physicians to report all known cases of mental retardation to the Census Office; this procedure was directly responsible for the counting of 29 per cent of the 76,895 feeble-minded reported in 1880. Eleventh Census physicians'

The

(1890) did not, however, utilize these special

reports.

Its totals of the mentally retarded

still at large— disturbing as they w e r e — may therefore have been less accurate than those of 1880.

64

Generally the

Training School for Feeble-minded Children (Philadelphia, 1894), 11; Fifty-third Annual Report of the Syracuse State Institution for the Feeble­ minded (Assembly Document No. 17, Albany, 1904), 11; Fifteenth Annual Report of the Indiana School for Feeble-minded Youth (Indianapolis, 1893), 8, 19; Sixth Biennial Report of the Maryland Asylum and Training School for the Feeble-minded (Baltimore, 1899), 18; First Report of the Board of Control of the Michigan Home for the Feeble-minded and Epileptic at Lapeer (Lansing, 1896), 22; Forty-fourth Annual Report of the Trustees and Super­ intendent of the Ohio Institution for Feeble-minded Youth (Columbus, 1900)

11. go

Salisbury, "Education of the Feeble-minded," 229. 64 Billings, Report on the Insane, Feeble-minded, p. 69; and, Department of Commerce and Labor, Insane and Feeble-minded, p. 206.

151 superintendents employed the census data merely to indicate the extent of the problem facing society,

and the necessity

of reducing the percentage of feeble-minded who were under no form of strict s u p e r v i s i o n . ^

In response to the superintendents1 urgings,

a number

of states established their first institutions: Michigan (1895), Wisconsin

(1896), Missouri

(1901), North Dakota Furthermore,

(1899), New Hampshire

(1902), Rhode Island and Oregon

(1907).^

a few state legislatures were impressed

enough by the superintendents or specialized facilities.

that they created additional

In 1895, New Yorkj-provided for

the Rome State Custodial Asylum, able adult retarded;

reserved for the unteach-

Pennsylvania built the Western Pennsyl­

vania State Institution for the Feeble-minded at Polk in 1896; and Massachusetts added the Wrentham State School in 1907.

67

^See Alexander Johnson, "Permanent Custodial Care," N.C.C.C., XXIII (1896), 214, for an illustration of this technique. 66

See: the First Michigan (1896); the Fourth Biennial Report of the Wisconsin State Board of Control (Madison, 1899); the First Biennial Report of the Missouri Colony for the Feeble-minded and Epileptic (Marshall, 1901); the First Biennial Report of the Trustees and Superintendent of the New Hampshire School for the Feeble-minded (Manchester, 1902); First Biennial Report of the Board of Trustees and the Superintendent of the Insti­ tution for the Feeble-minded of the State of Oregon (Salem, 1909); Henry M. Hurd, The Institutional Care of the Insane in the Unites States and Canada (4 vols., Baltimore, 1916), II, 759; III, 850; II, 888; III, 45, 294, 571-572, 380; and Walter E. Fernald, "Care of the Feeble-minded," N.C.C.C., XXXI (1904), 38. 67 See: the First Annual Report of the Board of Managers of the Rome State Custodial Asylum (Albany, 1896); the First Biennial Report of the

152 All of these new institutions provided the A.M.O. with addi­ tional members.

At this time membership was still primarily

restricted to the chief medical officers of institutions for the mentally defective and prominent persons interested in the feeble-minded whom the Association wished to honor. Following the death of Isaac N. Kerlin in 1893, A.M.O. began to undergo a subtle transformation. been held in great esteem by the Association.

the

Kerlin had

He had served

as its Secretary virtually every year since its inception and had been among its foremost spokesmen. President of the A.M.O.

in 1892.

he mentioned his title,

"the old man,"

He was elected

In his presidential address, concluding with a

touching quotation from Robert Browning's

"Rabbi Ben Ezra,"

Come grow old with me gg The best is yet to be. The reaction of the A.M.O. fied by A. E. Osborne,

to Kerlin's death was typi­

its President the following year and

superintendent of the California Home for Care and Training of Feeble-minded Children, who simply stated, Kerlin marked an epoch in our work. Barr,

"the passing of

At Elwyn Martin W.

the assistant physician since his graduation from the

Western Pennsylvania Institution for the Feeble-minded (Pittsburg, 1898); and the First Annual Report of the Wrentham State School (Boston, 1908). 68

Isaac N. Kerlin, "Presidential Address," Proceedings of the A.M.O., 1892, passim. 69 Antrim E. Osborne, "Presidential Address," Proceedings of the A.M.O., 1894, 387.

153 University of Pennsylvania's Medical School in 1884, was appointed chief physician;

the administrative responsibility

for the institution was then divided among the Medical, Educational and Household d e p a r tments.^

The death of one

of their most distinguished leaders and the attendant sense of being cut off from the past permitted the superintendents to appreciate the danger of the Association's becoming narrow and inwardly focused— too much praise for the departed greats and not enough involvement with the challenges of the present. They recognized the Association should do more to arouse the interest of others in its work and publish more information about its methods with more emphasis on research and p r o g r e s s . ^ Barr perfectly expressed these sentiments when,

in his presi­

dential address, he called for a modernization of the Asso­ ciation.

He suggested three reforms:

a change in name,

accomplished in 1906 when the Association became the American Association for the Study of the Feeble-minded formation of committees of specialists custodians)

(A.A.S.F.);

the

(e.g., pathologists,

to hold their own meetings and issue their own

reports concurrently with those of the Association; lication of a quarterly periodical,

and the pub­

the Journal of Psycho-

Asthenics begun in 1896 under the editorship of A. C. Rogers. 70 Forty-second Pennsylvania (1894). 71 See the discussion following Isabel Barrow, "What's Next— An Editor's Suggestions," Proceedings of the A.M.O., 1895, passim.

154 These changes made the Association of Medical Officers better able to call and hold the attention of the general public and fellow professionals.

72

While the superintendents were improving efficiency and communications within their own association,

contempo­

rary developments in education were arousing considerable public interest in mental retardation.

Within a ten year

period beginning in 1896, a number of public school systems organized special classes for mentally defective children. Providence,

Rhode Island,

field, Massachusetts New York Detroit

(1900),

the first, was followed by Spring­

(1897),

Philadelphia

(1903), Washington,

Rochester,

Chicago

New York (1906).

(1901),

(1898),

Los Angeles

Bridgeport, 73

Boston

(1899),

(1902),

Connecticut,

and

In 1893 Providence established

special disciplinary schools for troublesome pupils.

"The

teachers in the regular grades experienced so much relief when their disorderly pupils were removed,

that they soon urged

the transference of those who were mentally d e f i c i e n t . 72 Martin.W. Barr, "Presidential Address," J.P.A., I (September 1896) 23-33. ^J. E. Wallace Wallin, The Mental Health of the School Child (New Haven, 1914), p. 389, and see Tables II-VI, pp. 405-420. 7/ Lydia Gardiner Chace, "Public School Classes for Mentally Defi­ cient Children," N.C.C.C., XXXI (1904), 394; Miss Chace, a Providence resident, appeared to follow the Report of the School Committee, Providence, 1899-1900, pp. 212, 222, which she cites.

155

J

Partly as a consequence of the enforcement of compulsory school attendance laws,

educationally handicapped children

attended in greater numbers.

75

Other school systems fol­

lowed a similar pattern of d e v e l o p m e n t . ^ Teachers were requested to notify school authorities of any students who appeared feeble-minded.

The students

would be examined by the school physician or in diagnostic clinics.

77

Any physical impediment--eyesight, hearing,

tonsils— would first be corrected. work persisted, class.

If retardation in school

the student would be transferred to a special

These classes relied primarily on manual training.

The .teacher adjusted the substance and tempo of instruction to suit the individual student's potential. The rapid expansion of these special classes, sented retardation specialists, with a variety of issues.

78

pre­

educators and the public

Educators,

after failing to act in

75 Lawrence A. Cremin, The Transformation of the School: Progressivism in American Education, 1876-1957 (New York, 1964), pp. 127-128. ^See J. E. Wallace Wallin, Problems of Subnormality (Yonkers-onHudson, 1917), pp. 59-109; J. E. Wallace Wallin, The Education of Handi­ capped Children (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1924). Wallin was considered a leading contemporary authority. ^Wallin, Mental Health, pp. 397-399; the first was established at the University of Pennsylvania in 1896. 78 James H. Van Sickle, Lightner Witner, and Leonard Ayres, Provision for Exceptional Children in Public Schools, United States Bureau of Educa­ tion Bulletin, 1911, No. 14 (Washington, 1911), p. 33, reports 99 cities as having special classes for the mentally defective, 220 with ungraded classes for backward children.

1 56

1896, accepted a "Department Blind,

for the Education of the Deaf,

and Feeble-minded" as an element of the National

Education Association in 1897. papers were read before it, cation,

80

79

Although a few important

the Department of Special Edu-

as it was renamed in 1902, was too diverse a group

to achieve any significant results.

Superintendents of insti­

tutions for the mentally defective recognized the value of special classes

81

average teacher.

and the difficulties

they presented to the

In 1902 the New Jersey Training School for

Feeble-minded Children became the first institution to offer a summer school course to train teachers classes.

82

for the special

In general the superintendents approved of the

ungraded classes designed to restore the pedagogically b a c k ­ ward child to his proper level, but they had more serious reservations about the future of those feeble-minded children enrolled in the special classes. ences in professional opinion,

83

Despite the slight differ­

the public schools functioned

79 National Educational Association, Journal of Proceedings and Address of the Thirty-sixth Annual Meeting, 1898 (Chicago, 1897), 36-37 (hereafter cited as N.E.A.) 80N.E.A., 1902, 826. 81 Fernald appears to have been the first; see Walter Fernald, Feeble-minded Children (Boston, 1897); this was a paper read before the New England Association of School Superintendents. 82

Eighteenth Annual Report of the New Jersey Training School for Feeble-minded Children (n.p., 1905). 83

See Walter E. Fernald, "Mentally Defective Children in the Public Schools," J.P.A., VIII (December 1903), 33-35; Fernald makes the point that while feeble-minded children might be tolerated in the community, adults would not.

157

as rudimentary detectors of retardation. tive estimates

The most conserva­

indicated that one percent of the school popu-

lation w a s — in some w a y — defective

84

and the general public

became increasingly aware of the f e e ble-mindeds' presence in the community.

While attempting to account

for what seemed an increase

in the numbers of the mentally retarded, usually advanced two explanations.

the superintendents

Both were mentioned by

A. E. Osborne: It is well to bear in mind that feeble-mindedness represents a comparative condition of the mental faculties, and that the demands of our age, the various requirements of the time are largely respon­ sible (aside from heredity) for the vast number of incompetents that exist. It was apparent to the superintendents a more urban,

industrial,

that— as America became

distended society— it required a

more demanding style of mental life.

Some individuals who pre­

viously could have coped with the slower paced,

rustic,

agricul­

turally oriented community of the past were now incapable of either supporting or controlling themselves. 84

The feeble-minded

Chace, "Public School Classes," 397. These estimates were based on the number of children reported to school authorities as being retarded; later observers noted that the estimates could not include those children not in school, due to parental negligence, or, the desire to escape com­ munity notice, nor could the estimates include the higher grade retarded who escaped the teachers' and authorities' observation. O C

Osborne, "Presidential Address," 395.

158 were characterized as those who of normal society,"

86

and are

"interfere with the harmony

"less able to work harmoniously

as cogs in the social machine."

87

The superintendents

placed such strong emphasis on the inability of the mentally defective to accommodate themselves— to "fit in"— precisely because,

as society became more complex,

it became corres­

pondingly more important to adhere to cooperative, and conforming patterns of behavior.

integrative

Those who did not

"fit

in" were likely to be exposed by the new forms of social discipline--compulsory school attendance, of the factory,

the industrial obedience

the proximity of urban life.

Thus,

the

"results of education and training," as Carson of New York pointed out, short,

"marvellous as they are in many cases,

as we have seen,

fall

of developing that indescribable

something which removes the stigma of feeble-mindedness."

88

There is a certain degree of irony in the complaint of the superintendents

that their educational methodology was

unable to remove the stigma of retardation,

since it was their

emphasis on the moral imbecile's role in crime, pauperism, prostitution,

vagrancy and alcoholism that was responsible

86 F. M. Powell, "Report of the Standing Committee," N.C.C.C., XXVIII (1900), 71. 87 Albert 0. Wright, "The Defective Class," Proceedings of the Fourth Minnesota State Conference of Charities and Corrections (St. Paul, 1895), 17 (hereafter cited as Minn. C .C .C .). Wright, who was President of the N.C.C.C., also used the term "troublesome tumors of the body poli­ tic," to describe the defective class. (Ibid., 14). 88

James C. Carson, "Prevention of the Feeble-minded from a Moral and Legal Standpoint," N.C.C.C., XXV (1898), 296 (emphasis mine).

159 for this stigmatization.

The superintendents

continued to

warn society that the great neuropathic family which springs from degeneracy and throws out degeneracy is undoubtedly increasing, and society must give permanent custody to the insane, epileptics, feeble-minded, the neurotic tramps, criminals, paupers, blind, deaf, and consump­ tives, so as to stop the stream at its source, or we must expect an increase.89 The feeble-minded were included in a large,

amorphous, more

threatening group--the " n e u ropathic.family" or the defective class.

There were few distinctions made among the different

components of this class, but there was a sense of almost absolute differentness between the defective class and the remainder of humanity: In dealing with the defective class, we are not dealing with average humanity under unfortunate circumstances, but with humanity of low grade, less able to grapple with the stress of honest self-support and less able to work harmoniously as cogs in the social machine.^ The "dependent,

defective,

and delinquent" classes even became

an accepted field for scholarly research. As noted earlier,

91

the superintendents,

especially

those

of the second generation, were self-consciously aware of the changes

that had occurred in both their institutional and pro­

fessional roles.

Barr depicted this consciousness of change:

89

Sixtieth Annual Report of the New Jersey Training School for Feeble-minded Children (n.p., 1903), 22-23. ^Wright, "Defective Class," 17. 91 See Charles R. Henderson, Introduction to the Study of the Depen­ dent, Defective and Delinquent Classes and Their Social Treatment (2nd ed., rev., Boston, 1901).

160 Work among the mental defectives, having its birth with the nineteenth century, has grown with it. Enriched by its thought and discoveries, and adapt­ ing itself to its ever-increasing demands, it has so modified until its character and aims are alike changed. What, in the beginning, was a philanthropic purpose pure and simple, having for its object the most needy, and therefore naturally directed towards paupers and idiots, now assumes the proportions of a socialistic reform as a matter of self-preservation, a necessity to preserve the nation from the encroach­ ments of imbecility, of- crime, and of all the fateful heredities of a highly nervous a g e . 92

Fernald pointed to another factor--immigration--which also affected the institutions'

changing functions.

Pre­

viously men like Howe believed idiocy to be a didactic form of divine punishment.

After a few years of instruction,

the

idiot would return to his home or parish and serve as an example to other members of his community. did not want

This was why Howe

the school to become custodial,

although,

in

addition, he believed that residence in the New England vil­ lage of the 1840's was itself a partial curative. however, had changed.

As Fernald stated,

"the Doctor wrote

before the tide of immigration had set so strongly shores.

The times,

to our

. . . What is to be done with the feeble-minded pro­

geny of the foreign hordes that have settled and are settling among us?"

93

92 Martin W. Barr, "The How, the Why, and the Wherefore of the Training of Feeble-minded Children," N.E.A., 1898, 1048-1049. 93

Fifty-sixth Annual Report of the Massachusetts School for the

Feeble-minded (Document No. 28, Boston, 1903), 13, 14.

161 Increasing immigration and a decline in inmates identifi­ able as New Englanders

(See Table 2) precluded the possi­

bility of returning large numbers of mental defectives a remedial environment.

In addition urbanization,

to

indus­

trialization and immigration had corrupted the environment itself. TABLE 2 NATIVITY OF WHITE PARENTS OF MASSACHUSETTS INMATES TOTAL

NATIVE BORN

FOREIGN BORN

MIXED PARENTAGE

% OF NATIVE BORN 88%

1880

113

100

13

1890

267

126

28

112

47%

1903

861a

347

172

154

51%

Sources: for 1880, Department of the Interior, Defective, Dependent, and Delinquent Classes, p. 216; for 1890, Department of the Interior, Insane Feeble-minded, p. 294; for 1903, Department of Commerce and Labor, Insane and Feeble-minded, p. 220. Nationwide, data only exists for the years 1880 and 1890, when ninety-four percent and sixty-six percent, respectively, of the inmates were native born. aIncludes the inmates of the private Elm Hill School, who were most likely to have native born parents. Excluding their total enrollment— seventy— the percentage of white inmates at Waltham with native born parents in 1903 was forty-five percent.

Fernald and his fellow professionals were also acutely aware of the power of inheritance,

the foremost agent for them

in the perpetuation of mental defect.

This factor also fore­

stalled any mass return of the feeble-minded communities. tendents'

Interest in heredity,

to their homes and

as typified by the superin­

concern for the adverse influence of defective families

162 on society, was very much in evidence. asked,

"shall we isolate those who,

dition,

Barr rhetorically

seemingly in a normal con­

may, nay w i l l , through the stern laws of heredity,

pour such a flood of imbecility upon the nation as is shown in the record of the Tribe of Ishmael. flatly declared, of both sexes,

. .

"retain in our institutions

94

While Fernald

the feeble-minded

and there will be no more Juke families."

95

After 1900, as biologists rediscovered Gregor Mendel's laws of h e r e d i t y , ^ the superintendents of institutions for the mentally retarded experienced a surge of interest in the relationship of heredity to retardation. forming biological studies,

97

Rather than per­

the superintendents' work

used compilations of statistics— taken from inmate admission blanks — to argue a causal relationship between heredity and mental defect. tion since 1884,

Carson, who had been recording such informa­ found that of 2,000 applications to Syracuse

only 673, or less than 33 percent, were wholly free of parental 94

Forty-second Pennsylvania (1894), 11.

^5Forty-fifth Massachusetts (1892), 12; Seventh Annual Report of the Trustees of the New York State Custodial Asylum for Feeble-minded Women, 1891 (Albany, 1892), 7. ^ See Haller, Eugenics, pp. 58-75; and William E. Castle, "The Beginnings of Mendelisra in America," Genetics in the 20th Century, ed., L. C. Dunn (New York, 1951). 97 See Martin W. Barr, "The Influence of Heredity on Idiocy," Jour. Nerv. Ment. Pis., XX (June, 1895), 344-353; "Some Studies in Heredity," J.P.A., I (September 1896), 1-7; "Feeble-mindedness and Viciousness in Chil­ dren: An Inheritance," Proceedings of the Association of Directors of the Poor and Charities and Corrections of the State of Pennsylvania, VIII (Phila­ delphia, 1897), 131-137; Ernest Bicknell, "Feeble-mindedness as an Inheri­ tance ," N^CX^C. , XXIII (1897), 219-226.

163 degeneracy or hereditary taint. tives;

98

Barr,

in Mental Defec­

Their History, Treatment and T r a i n i n g , which was

first comprehensive text in the field since Seguin's,

the

drew

his conclusions from "the records of no less than 15,745 cases,

the results of years of study and research of men engaged

in the work."

99

He found,

"heredity is herein proven law, as

inexorable in its descending as it is beneficient in the ascending scale; heredity— whether it be direct from parent to child,

collateral as from other relatives,

or reversional

reappearing ever and anon through generations--which none may i.lOO escape. There was little mention in the J .P .A . of the leading figures of biological and genetic inquiry until after 1 9 0 6 , ^ ^ although the superintendents were definitely exposed to August Weismann's ideas as early as 1895.

102

The Superinten­

dents inherited some notions about the mechanics of heredity. Rogers had formulated four laws that appeared to govern the transmission of defective heredities: of health lead to degeneracy;

1) violation of the laws

2) latent degenerative tendencies

98

Fifty-fifth Annual Report of the Syracuse State Institution for the Feeble-minded (Assembly Document No. 18, Albany, 1905). 99 Martin W. Barr, Mental Defectives: Training (Philadelphia, 1904), p. 122.

Their History, Treatment and

100Ibid., p. 123. 101See "Editorial," J.P.A., XI (September 1906), 31-32. 102

See the discussion focusing on M. H. Brewer's rejection of Weismann, Proceedings of the A.M.O., 1895, 607. Brewer was given a vote of thanks by the Association.

164 can be directly inherited or varied, proclivities;

depending on parental

3) parents with the same traits intensify

those qualities in their children;

4) only by intermarriage

with individuals of sound constitutions and heredities

can

the malignant effects of a defective heredity be dissipated.

io:

While it was commonly accepted that "of all the neu­ rotic conditions,

no one is perhaps

as easily transmissible

to succeeding generations as feeble-mindedness,

it was

also recognized that it is not necessarily a specific neurosis that is transmitted, but may be such insta­ bility or disorder in arrangement of nerve tissues as may evidence itself by different types in various generations according to the degree of prepotency in the mingling of the parental elements. Thus,

a variety of conditions--insanity, alcoholism, blind­

ness,

tuberculosis--which appeared in the families of the

mentally defective were interpreted as confirmations of some fundamental genetic defect that was transmitted from generation to generation.

The superintendents became increas­

ingly aware that "heredity is not a freakish and occasional thing,

showing itself only by peculiarities of feature or of

conduct, but is a steady and constant element,

that gives a

trend to the whole of a man's c o ndition. 103 Arthur C. Rogers, "The Future cf the Feeble-minded and Epilep­ tic ," Thirdjiirm^^ 102. 104

Sixteenth New Jersey (1903), 22.

^"*Barr, "Some Studies in Heredity," 2. ^^Robert M. Phelps, "The Prevention of Defectiveness," Fourth Minn. C.C.C. (1895), 38.

165 Developing a heightened appreciation of the impor­ tance of heredity was a major concern of the nascent American eugenics movement and its foremost champion, Davenport.

Charles B.

Eugenics— "the effort to improve the inborn

characteristics of man by the study of human heredity and the application of those studies to human propagation"— had been given form and direction by the work of Francis Galton and Karl Pearson, his disciple. Yankee and Harvard Ph.D. the English eugenists' of statistics,

Davenpor t , -an old-stock

in biology, was deeply impressed by

attempts to enumerate,

through the use

the pedigree of human inheritance.

1.0 8

In 1902,

while affiliated with the Zoological Laboratory of the Uni­ versity of Chicago, he made an application to the Carnegie Institution of Washington to be appointed director of an experimental study of evolution.

Although he was in competi­

tion with Roswell H. Johnson, his ex-student,

Davenport was

established in 1903 as Director of the Station for Experimental Evolution at Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island.

i 09

^■^Haller, Eugenics, p. 3; and see pp. 8-14, 17-20. I have bene­ fited greatly from Haller's work, and am large indebted to it for my entire treatment of eugenics. 108

See E. Carleton MacDowell, "Charles Benedict Davenport, 18661944; A Study in Conflicting Influences," Bios, XVII (March 1946), 3-50. 109

See the Carnegie Institution of Washington, Yearbook No. 1, 1902 (Washington, 1903); Johnson submitted a detailed application, seek­ ing to locate the station in Baltimore, and to settle the outstanding disputes among biologists— inheritance of acquired characteristics, modification of the germ plasm— by the "dynamic" experimental study of evolution; Davenport, somewhat more sketchily, referred to an "analytic and experimental study of the causes of specific differentiation— of race changes."

166 Davenport began his research with studies of animals, insects and plants.

By 1907,

however, he had become secretary

of the Committee on Eugenics of the American Breeders Asso­ ciation and was more interested in investigating the applica­ tion of Mendel's laws to human h e r e d i t y .

Davenport saw

his "main work" as "the discovery of general principles or laws."

111

He was to become a rigid biological mechanist,

believing that every aspect of human behavior had its origin in definite physiological and anatomical mechanisms

subject to

scientific classification and explanation through the use of simple Mendeliaii ratios.

112

Many superintendents were receptive to the analytic techniques and the goals of the eugenics movement, eugenic research reinforced their own long-held on the necessity of preventing festly defective.

since

convictions

the propagation of the mani­

The superintendents continued to advocate

the adoption of custodial provisions.

It was well known that

a great many of the mentally defective were outside the proper institutions, hence beyond the reach of segregation.

As a

^"^The American Breeders Association was organized in 1903 by stockmen and biologists; its Committee on Eugenics, established in 1906 "was the first group in the United States to advocate eugenics under the name eugenics," and included among its members: David Starr Jordan, Alexander Graham Bell, Charles R. Henderson, Luther Burbank, Roswell H. Johnson, Vernon L. Kellogg, and William E. Castle; Haller, 'Eugenics, pp. 62-63. ... Carnegie Institution of Washington, Yearbook No. 5, 1906 (Washington, 1907), 93. 112

See the excellent article, Charles E. Rosenberg, "Charles B. Davenport and the Beginning of Human Genetics," Bull. Hist. Med., XXXV (May-June 1961), 266-276.

167 measure of eugenic control for this large, class,

ever increasing

the superintendents recommended the passage of

restrictive marriage laws that would of the retarded. lowed by Kansas

113

Connecticut acted first

(1903), New Jersey and Ohio

and Indiana (1905). enforcement,

114

To overcome

Kate G. Wells asked,

national marriage law, insane,

forbid the legal union (1896),

fol­

(1904) , Michigan

the difficulty of uneven

"should there not be a

forbidding the marriage of all idiots,

arid feeble-minded persons.

. .?"

115

A demand for

stricter regulation of marriages became a regular part of Conference of Charities and Corrections appeals for limita­ tions on defective procreation.^"''^ The superintendents realized that such measures as 113

See A. W. Wilmarth, "Presidential Address," Proceedings of the A.M.O., 1895, 518; the Tenth Biennial Report of the Trustees, Superinten­ dent, Treasurer of the Iowa Institution for Feeble-minded Children at Glenwood (Des Moines, 1895), 32; Thirty-ninth Annual Report of the Direc­ tors and Superintendent of the Connecticut Training School for the Feeble­ minded (Hartford, 1897); Third Biennial Report of the Wisconsin Home for the Feeble-minded (Madison, 1902), 355. 114

See Stevenson Smith, e£ al., A Summary of the Laws of the Several States Governing I.— Marriage and Divorce of the Feeble-minded, the Epileptic, and the Insane. . Bulletin of the University of Washington, No. 82 (Seattle, 1914); Jessie S. Smith, "Marriage, Sterilization and Commitment Laws Aimed at Decreasing Mental Deficiency," Jour. Crim. Law & Criminology, V (September 1914), 364-369. 115Kate G. Wells, "State Regulation of Marriage," N.C.C.C., XXIV (1897), 301. "'"^See Carson, "Prevention of Feeble-mindedness," 303; George H. Knight, "Prevention from ?. Legal and Moral Standpoint," N.C.C.C., XXV (1898), 364-368; Arthur C. Rogers, "Recent Attempts at Restrictive Marriage Legis­ lation," N.C.C.C., XXVIII (1901), 200-203; L. G. Kinne, "Prevention of the Propagation and Increase of Defectives, Delinquents, and Criminals," Tenth Minn. C .C .C. (1901), 68; A. W. Wilmarth, "Report on the Committee on Feeble-

168 segregation and marriage restrictions were only partly effective. retarded,

Since both methods required supervision of the their success was a function of the degree of con­

trol ,p r o v i d e d .

Segregation for eugenic purposes required

custody until the individual was incapable of conception, not merely until a certain level of education or skill was achieved.

Even with the improvement of farm colonies,

this

was a lengthy and expensive undertaking. As the superintendents understood more fully the genetic hazards presented by the feeble-minded,

they began

to question the desirability of releasing many ostensibly trained inmates,

even to their parents.

Barr commented:

The sudden removal from a paternalism, which pro­ tects while it also supports the weak, is a drop from freedom into license. With a class in which the moral sense is stultified if not altogether absent, the emotional nature exalted, the sexual impulse exaggerated, what is more natural than just such a r e s u l t . 117 The superintendents complained that the public did not completely comprehend the disabilities of the retarded.

Parents believed

that mental defectives entered the institutions and that trained workers,

able to assist the family finances,

came out.

Fre­

quently inmates were removed from the institutions when their guardians mistook slight improvements for total cures.

Although

minded and Epileptic," N.C.C.C., XXXIX (1902), 152-161; Edward R. Johnstone, "Defectives: Report of the Committee," N.C.C.C., XXXIII (1906), 240-241. 117

Forty-eighth Annual Report of the Pennsylvania Training School for Feeble-minded Children (Philadelphia, 1900), 9-10.

169 the superintendents had always maintained that since mental retardation was a defect,

a cure was impossible,

they now

appeared to be strenuously asserting their inability to effect any but the most modest improvements.

118

These changed attitudes are best exemplified in a peper read to the National Conference of Charities and Cor­ rections by Walter E. Fernald in 1904. institutions,

as Fernald observed,

Admission to the

is

based upon the relief needed for the mother, the family or the neighborhood, with the prospective educational benefit to the child himself as a secondary consideration. A feeble-minded child is a foreign body in a family or a modern American community.

A retarded child could worry a mother into a nervous breakdown or an early grave,

drive a father to drink,

a brother to the

"gang" and a sister to the streets. The problem [moreover] does not lessen when adult life is reached. The adult males become the town loafers and incapables, the irresponsible pests of the neighborhood, petty thieves, purposeless destroyers of property, incendiaries, and very fre­ quently violators of women and little girls. It is well known that feeble-minded women and girls are very liable to become sources of unspeakable debauch­ ery and licentiousness which pollutes the whole life of the young boys and youth of the community. They frequently disseminate in a wholesale way the most loathsome and deadly diseases, permanently poisoning 118

See the Fifty-first Annual Report of the Pennsylvania Training School for Feeble-minded Children (Elwyn, 1903), and the Fifty-second Annual Report of the Pennsylvania Training School for Feeble-minded Children (Elwyn, 1904). ^■■^Walter E. Fernald, "The Care of the Feeble-minded," N.C.C.C., XXXI (1904), 382.

the minds and bodies of thoughtless youth at the very threshold of manhood. Almost every country town has one or more of these defective women each having one to four ot more illegitimate chil­ dren, every one of whom is predestined to be defective mentally, criminal, or an outcast of some sort.^20 Fernald's sense of indignation at the community's pollution through the unrestricted presence of the mentally defective indicates how much professional opinion had changed.

Once

this expression of outrage had been reserved for those who mistreated or ignored the retarded;

the feeble-minded had been

characterized as the most helpless,

pitiful and deserving of

God's creatures. its relationship

After the detection of moral imbecility and to a host of social problems,

the superin­

tendents were condemning the mentally handicapped--especially the moral imbecile— as primary sources of social disruption that the community dare not neglect. The community could not disregard the feeble-minded, Fernald believed,

because "under any conditions

tives must always be supported by the public. always pays the b i l l s ."

121

. . . The public

Looked at as a "simple business

proposition," it was a wise investment women from reproducing.

these defec­

to prevent feeble-minded

He quoted examples like the Jukes to

demonstrate that the savings realized in a few generations

1?n Fernald, "Care of the Feeble-minded," 383.

1 71

would amply repay the cost of maintenance.

These were

well known considerations, but Fernald pointed out that the superintendents

"have only begun to apply our knowledge of

obvious defectives to the study and treatment of juvenile incorrigibles and adult criminals."

122

•

This was a relatively

new field of social investigation in which the superinten­ dents could play a substantive role. Observation of the inmates of prisons and truant, industrial or reform schools suggested that a considerable number were "defectives where

the intellectual defect is

relatively slight and is overshadowed by the moral deficiency. Fernald's full description of this class reveals how adversely professionals viewed the moral imbecile. While they generally present definite physical evi­ dences of degeneracy they are physically superior to the ordinary imbecile. Their school work is not equal to that of normal boys of the same age but they are often abnormally bright in certain directions. They may be idle, thievish, cruel to animals or smaller children, wantonly and senselessly destructive and law­ less generally. They are often precocious sexually and after puberty almost always show marked sexual delinquency or perversion. They are often wonderfully shrewd and crafty in carrying out their plans for mis­ chief. They instinctively seek low company and quickly learn everything that is bad. They have little or no fear of possible consequences in the way of punishment. They acquire a certain spurious keenness and brightness and possess a fund of general information which is very

3 22

Fernald, "Care of the Feeble-minded," 385.

123

Ibid; and see the Fifty-fifth Annual Report of the Massachusetts School for the Feeble-minded (Boston, 1902), 17; and the Fifty-eighth Annual Report of the Massachusetts School for the Feeble-minded (Document No. 28, Boston, 1905), 18.

123

172

deceiving on first acquaintance. They are apt to be accomplished liars. The great army of police court chronic criminals, vagrants and low prostitutes is largely recruited from this class of "moral imbeciles." These children are not simply bad and incorrigible but are irresponsible by reason of the underlying mental defect. The mental defect and the moral lack are alike the visible effects of incurable affection of the cerebral cortex. No method of training or dis­ cipline can fit them to become safe or desirable mem­ bers of society. They cannot be "placed out" without great moral risk to innocent people. These cases should be recognized at an early age before they have acquired facility in actual crime and permanently be taken out of the community to be trained to habits of industry and as far as possible contribute to their own support under direction and supervision. They are not influenced by the simple system of rewards and deprivations which easily serve to control the conduct of the feeble-minded. They do not class well with the rather simple types of ordinary imbecility. When the actual number of this dangerously potential [sic] class of moral imbeciles is fully realized they will be given life-long care and supervision in special institutions combining the educational and developmental methods of a school for the feeble-minded and the industry and security of a modern penal institution.-*-24 Fernald portrayed the moral imbecile as possessing all of the vices of the feeble-minded and the criminal with none of their redeeming virtues. mind,

They were distinctive enough,

in Fernald's

to require their own special institutions, which would

combine the educational and correctional features of a school with the custodial and security arrangements of a prison. In discussing moral imbecility, as well as other varieties of mental defect, versible aspects.

Fernald emphasized the permanent and irre­ He vigorously contended that

^■^Fernald, "Care of the Feeble-minded," 385-386.

173 all degrees of congenital mental defect from the merely feeble-minded child to the profound idiot, are the result of certain definite structural defects or inferiority of the brain, or the result of brain disease or injury occurring before, at, or soon after birth. These brain abnormalities are permanent conditions.125 The most

that could be expected from the superintendents and

their staffs was to improve the retarded so that they achieved their full potential, diminished though it was.

Given the

irremediable nature of mental handicaps, the hope of the pioneer teachers in this work that many of the slightly feeble-minded could be edu­ cated and developed to the point of supporting themselves, has not been realized. A certain very small proportion do actually leave the schools and lead useful, harmless lives, supporting themselves in a precarious way by their own efforts. Of the majority of these trained pupils it has been well said that they may become "self-supporting, but not self-controlling" . . . . Under the best conditions, feeble-minded persons do not become desirable mem­ bers of a modern American community.126 While the superintendents agreed that society was best protected by the life-long care of the feeble-minded,

especially

those of childbearing age, several problems militated against permanent segregation.

Wilmarth discussed a particularly

troublesome one— the premature removal of inmates by their par­ ents— in his report

(1902)

to the N.C.C.C.

Some parents were

willing almost to abandon their retarded progeny until

125Ibid., 387. 126Ibid., 387-388.

the children were sufficiently developed as to promise to become a source of revenue, the affec­ tion for them was rekindled with a suddenness and violence that was almost startling; and the parents have insisted that their children no longer be subjected to the "deprivation and confinement" of the institution.-*-^ Wilmarth further suggested that the reason why rules regarding removals are not more stringent may be from the fact that many of the old institutions were opened as schools, when their object was to instruct children as thoroughly as possible, with a view to dismissal to their homes at a fixed period.128 The superintendents argued--for a combination of professional, educational,

and eugenic reasons— that they alone should deter­

mine when and if an inmate should be discharged.

They recog­

nized that "institutions have changed their character, to furnish a permanent residence. tions were to succeed, inmates.

..."

129

largely,

If che institu­

they must have the power to retain their

The superintendents maintained that their profes­

sional experience and continued observation of inmates made them not the courts or the parents— the best arbiters of retention policy.

They further argued

that many mental defectives could

be content and self-supporting only within the sheltered environ ment of the custodial institution, where they would also be

127 Wilmarth, "Report of Committee," 157-158; and see the Fiftysecond Pennsylvania (1904), 15. 128 Wilmarth,"Report of Committee," 157. 129Ibid.

175 prevented from reproducing any more social problems

for

. 130 soci e t y . Advocating such measures as marriage restriction and involuntary retention,

the superintendents'were conscious of

potential conflicts that might arise with those who held a traditional view of individual rights. restriction Knight said,

Speaking of marriage

"I am well aware that this suggestion

carried out,would

strike a blow directly at the root of

what

is called the law

of individual right,"

ho w ­

ever,

He maintained,

"that the mentally unfit have no individual right to

reproduce themselves."

131

Previously state regulations per­

tained to age, ordegrees of consanguinity; epileptic,

the insane,

the

and the idiotic were barred from marriage because

they could -lot legally enter into contracts.

Since these

restrictions were made on the basis of public policy,

the

superintendents wanted to extend the principle to apply to hereditary defectives. officials'

position:

Barr aptly summarized his fellow "The spirit of out Constitution protects

every man in his inalienable right of the pursuit of happiness, it is true, but only when that pursuit does not conflict with 130

See the Sixth Biennial Report of the Visitors of the Asylum and Training School for Feeble-minded Children of the State of Maryland at Owings Mills, Baltimore County, to the Governor (Baltimore, 1899), 18; and see Smith, Laws of the Several States, pp. 79-81, for a summary of the institutional commitment and discharge laws. Michigan was the first state, in 1905, to. vest the power of detention solely in the superintendent. 131

Knight, "Prevention from a Legal and Moral Standpoint," 306.

176

the rights of his neighbor."

1 32

The superintendents insisted

that the community had

the primary

right to safeguard itself:

"Guiteau and Czolgosz,

terrible in

their work, were only

warning signals thrown

up from the

great volcano of irrespon­

sibility, which,

extinct,

sure to have its periodic

never

outburst, bringing destruction

is

to life and property."

The

conflict between society's demands and the citizen's rights was judged to be largely illusory, since "it must be remembered that we are dealing not with men, but with an arrested develop­ ment which constitutes a perpetual childhood,

as incapable

of the responsibilities of parenthood as it is of intelligent £r 1)133 suffrage. One of the most formidable obstacles to achieving the large scale permanent segregation of the mentally defec­ tive was the lack of proper institutional facilities.

Despite

the propaganda efforts of the superintendents and their imple­ mentation of the colony plan,

there still were only accommoda­

tions for approximately one defective in ten.

The superinten­

dents likened the situation of the feeble-minded to that of the insane. yet

They believed

the numbers of each group to be equal,

there were far better provisions for the mentally ill.

Alexander Johnson,

the superintendent of the Indiana School for

the Feeble-minded,

explained that "the average citizen is

132 Martin W. Barr, "The Imbecile and Epileptic versus the Tax­ payer and the Community," N.C.C.C., XXIX (1902), 163. 133

Ibid., 163.

177 afraid of the Insane.

A few among them are so dangerous

that the whole class Is feared. Idiotic are less o b v i o u s .

. . .

The dangers of the

Johnson suggested that the pub­

lic had to be made more conscious of the claims of the feeble-minded; when this was accomplished,

the institutions

would receive the appropriate degree of public consideration. The superintendents were determined to make the best use of the limited space available until funds for expansion were found.

Due to the policy of custodial care, many insti­

tutions found that they were accumulating large numbers of less improvable older inmates yet, cation,

the young were believed the most susceptible to

improvement. in 1893. dents,

as in other fields of edu­

Fernald recognized the dimensions of the problem

It was his belief,

soon shared by other superinten­

that if more state aid was not forthcoming,

sacrifices had to be made.

some

He suggested that the older inmates

be returned to the county workhouses

to allow the younger men­

tally retarded to benefit from the educational programs of the training schools,

still very much a part of institutional

X3AAlexander Johnson, "Concerning a Form of Degeneracy: I," Amer.Jour.Soc., IV (July 1898-May, 1899), 469. Johnson was very active in charity organization, was secretary of the Indiana State Board of Chari­ ties, became superintendent without a medical degree, then was general secretary for the N.C.C.C.; see his autobiography, Alexander Johnson, Adventures in Social Welfare (Fort Wayne, Indiana, 1923). 135

See the Forty-sixth Massachusetts (1893), 13; Fernald noted that Waltham had 46 inmates over 20 years old, out of a total inmate popu­ lation of 420, while the number of the feeble-minded in Massachusetts was

178

Returning the feeble-minded to workhouses or even to their homes would have created additional institutional v acan­ cies, but it also would have allowed the retarded to escape competent supervision and increased the possibilities of sexual relations. means

to prevent

What the superintendents needed was some the defective from reproducing while they

were not subjected to exacting custodial care. If was partly for these reasons

that some of the super­

intendents began to advocate asexualization. of sterilization techniques,

The perfection

as distinct from castration, was

a relatively modern development.

In America the castration

of criminals had been suggested by Orpheus Everts In 1887. Its use was

the subject of a lively debate between those who

favored it for punitive,

therapeutic and eugenic reasons and

those who considered the physical and emotional effects i

severe and doubted Its legality.

too

o/:

In 1892 Kerlin expressed

estimated to be at least 3000. Also see the Forty-seventh Annual Report of the Pennsylvania Training School for Feeble-minded Children (Philadel­ phia, 1899), 13, for Barr's comments on the need to balance the training school population with that of the custodial department, and Arthur C. Rogers, "The Relation of the Institutions for Defectives to the Public School System," N.C.C.C.), XXXIV (1907), 469-477; Edward R. Johnstone, "The Institution as a Laboratory for the Public School," N.C.C.C., XXXIV (1907), 477-486. 136

Orpheus Everts, "Asexualization as a Penalty for Crime and the Reformation of Criminals," Cincinnati Lancet-Clinic, XX (March 1888), 377-380, cited in Fink, Causes of Crime, p. 189. Fink provides an excel­ lent narrative of this debate, as well as a comprehensive bibliography, especially of medical journals; see ibid., pp. 188-210.

179 his own long held belief: While considering the help that advanced surgery [craniectomy] is to give us, I will refer to a con­ viction I have that life long salutary results to many of our boys and girls, would be realized if before adolescence the procreative organs were removed.*37 Kerlin was recommending castration primarily peutic benefits, bation.

for its thera­

one of which was the prevention.of mastur­

Acting on this basis,

F. Hoyt Pilcher,

superinten­

dent of the Kansas State Home for the Feeble-minded, ten inmates between 1894 and 1895.

By 1899 he had castrated

an additional forty-four males and fourteen females, posedly for eugenic reasons as well.

castrated

He proceeded,

sup­ however,

without any legal authority and was forced to halt by the adverse public opinion.

138

Despite Martin W. Barr's assur­

ances that castration would provide a "double release" for the retarded--freeing them from the possibility of harming them­ selves

and society as well as lessening the need for strict

segregation--publ'ic sentiment

demanded something less spartan.

137

Kerlin, "Presidential Address," 278; for other early statements favoring asexualization see Martin W. Barr, "Moral Parania," Proceedings of the A.M.O., 1895, 531; and the Fourth Biennial Report of the Visitors of the Asylum and Training School for the Feeble-minded of the State of Maryland at Owings Mills, Baltimore County.to the Governor (Baltimore, 1895),

21. 138

See the Ninth Biennial Report of the Kansas Board of Charities; and Corrections (Topeka, 1896); the Eleventh Biennial Report of the Kansas Board of Charities and Corrections (Topeka, 1900); F. C. Cave, "Report of Sterilization in the Kansas State Home for the Feeble-minded," J.P.A., XV (March and June, 1911), 123-125; and Barr, Mental Defectives, pp. 195-196. 1 39

Martin W. Barr, "Presidential Address," J.P.A., II (September 1897), 6; and "Results of Asexualization," J.P.A., IX (June, 1905), 129.

180 Two operations,

the salpingectomy and the vasectomy,

achieved the desired result--prevention of procreation— but did not have severe physiological and psychological side effects.

140

Vasectomy was first adopted by Harry C. Sharp,

physician at the Indiana Reformatory, of incessant masturbation.

to help cure an inmate

The operation was successful

and Sharp noted "it was then that it occurred to me that this would be a good method of preventing procreation in the defec­ tive and physically unfit.

To Sharp and others,

importance of such work was crystal clear.

the

Sharp believed

that the survival of the nation was at stake: Idiots, imbeciles and degenerate criminals are pro­ lific, and their defects are transmissible. Each person is a unit of the nation, and the nation is strong and pure and sane, or weak and corrupt and insane in proportion that the mentally and physically healthy exceed the diseased. Nor can any nation live if there is a reverse ratio. So we owe it not only to ourselves, but the future of our race and nation, to see that the defective and diseased do not mul-

A. J. Ochsner, "Surgical Treatment of Habitual Criminals," J.A.M.A., XXXII (April 1899), 867-868, first discussed the utilization of vasectomy as a eugenic measure; also see Daniel R. Brower, "Medical Aspects of Crime," Bos. Med. Surg. Jour., CXL (June 1899), 570-574. ^^Harry C. Sharp, "Rendering Sterile of Confirmed Criminals and Mental Defectives," Proceedings of the Annual Congress of the National Prison Association, 1907, 178; and see "The Severing of the Vas Deferentia and its Relation to the Neuropathic Constitution," N. Y. Med. Jour., LXXV (March 1902), 411-414; "Vasectomy as a Means of Preventing Procreation in Defectives," J.A.M.A., LIII (December 1909), 1897-1902; and The Steriliza­ tion of Degenerates [n.p., n.d. (1910?)]. ^^Sharp, "Rendering Sterile," 180.

181 Because sterilization was less drastic than castration, officials for it. ever,

found that they could arouse more public support Even before the popularization of vasectomy, how­

there had been attempts in Michigan

Pennsylvania

(1901)

(1897) and

to pass laws for the asexualization of

criminals and defectives.

143

Among the superintendents, Martin W. Barr'was the foremost advocate of asexualization for eugenic and institu­ tional reasons.

In 1897 he addressed a questionnaire to the

heads of sixty-one institutions for the retarded, American and thirty-six foreign,

twenty-five

asking their opinions on

asexualization and prevention of defective reproduction. Although he received a dishearteningly small response

(twelve),

Barr concluded that "all agree that procreation is not advis­ able— that defect must breed defect— there is evident cautious­ ness in advocating asexualization in all grades, but a con­ sensus as to the necessity being greatest for those of high grade.

Together with Samuel'D.

Risley and De Forest Willard,

Barr recommended the passage of a "Bill for the Prevention of Idiocy" which would have empowered a committee of experts neurologist,

a surgeon,

and the chief physician)

accordance with the board of trustees

(a

acting in

"to perform [on inmates

3 G. H. Makuen, "Some Measures for the Prevention of Crime, Pauperism, and Mental Deficiency," Bull. Amer. Acad. Med., V (August 1900), 1-15; "Asexualization of Criminals and Degenerates," Mich. Law Jour., VI December 1897), 284-316; Barr, Mental Defectives, 193-195. 144

Barr, Mental Defectives, p. 192.

judged incurable] such operation

[sic]

for the prevention of

procreation as shall be decided safest and most effective. Unfortunately after passing both Houses by the governor for,

.

the bill was returned

as Barr put it, some "trifling techni­

c a l i t y ."145 Supporters of asexualization legislation saw it as a means

to restore the process of natural selection, which

they believed had been badly hampered by the misguided philanthropic and charitable efforts of man.

146

In their

rhetoric one can almost detect a certain sense of regret as they related how the defective or less-fit were no longer allowed to die off and thus reduce their numbers.

Asexuali­

zation appealed to them as a scientific means by which man could partly undo the damage that he had done. could be done about

Very little

the large class of defectives who were

already living, but asexualization could prevent any further increase.

The primary cause of the already too-large number

degenerates was confidently believed

to be heredity and the

surest way to eliminate a defective heredity was reproduction.

147

to prevent

Nevertheless, when the Barr bill was again

passed by the Pennsylvania legislature in 1905,

it was vetoed

145Ibid., p. 195. 145See Samuel D. Risley, "Is Asexualization ever Justified in the Case of Imbecile Children," J.P.A., (June 1905), 92-98. 14^The preamble of the bill read: "Whereas: Heredity plays a most important part in the transmission of idiocy and imbecility;" Barr, Mental Defectives, p. 195.

183 The text of the governor's veto message made It clear that he felt that there was little scientific evidence to warrant such drastic acts, which seemed cruel experiments beyond the state's authority and performed without the consent of the imbecile children or their guardians.

148

Although the pro­

ponents of the measure could cite a number of instances where the governor was misinformed and made certain changes in the bill,

the governor's attitudes represented a sizable

body of public opinion.

149

The failure of Pennsylvania to pass the nation's

first

asexualization law allowed Sharp to win that distinction for Indiana.

A bill similar to Pennsylvania's was introduced into

the House of Representatives in 1905 and died in committee, only to be passed in 1907 and signed by Governor Hanly

"whose

administration has been noted for its efforts at race purity and civic righteousness. than Pennsylvania's, rapists,

The act was more comprehensive

applying to "confirmed criminals,

idiots,

and imbeciles," who, when found to be unimprovable

148

Harry H. Laughlin, Eugenical Sterilization in the United States (Chicago, 1922), pp. 35-36. 149

For example, see the discussion, pro and con, following Harry C. Sharp, "The Indiana Plan," Proceedings of the Annual Congress of the American Prison Association, 1901, 40-48. 150

Sharp, "Rendering Sterile," 179; and see the Eighteenth Report of the Board of State Charities made to the Legislature of Indiana for One Year, 1907 (Indianapolis, 1908), 9, 11.

184 by a committee of experts, would be rendered Incapable of reproduction. Although superintendents of institutions for the m e n ­ tally retarded were among the first to call for the asexuali­ zation of hereditary defectives, no means unanimous

in favoring these measures.

of thought among those and

professional opinion was by The division

concerned with the defective, dependent

delinquent classes on the question of sterilization was

best illustrated by the majority and minority reports of the Committee on Colonies for Segregation of Defectives, the N.C.C.C. mittee,

in 1903.

Alexander Johnson,

read to

chairman of the com­

stated the majority view: It has long seemed to many people that the wisest course the state can take is to separate all true degenerates from society and keep them in carefully classified groups, under circumstances which shall insure that they shall do as little harm to them­ selves and their fellows as possible and that they shall not entail upon the next generation the burden which the present one has borne. This is what we mean by "segregation."152

Colonization was the best possible plan to achieve the goals of segregation.

It was cheaper than the collection of

various institutions

currently maintained by the state and

had the additional bonus of promising future economy as the defective declined in numbers. 151

To many this seemed the ideal

Laughlin, Eugenical Sterilization, p. 15.

152 Alexander Johnson, "Report of Committee on Colonies for Segregation of Defectives," N.C.C.C., XXX (1903), 248-249.

185 appeal to state legislatures and tax-payers who had first been promised results from schools and who now were asked to spend far more on custodial care.

Officials promised

that, while immediate expenses might be high,

they would

soon be almost self-liquidating. Johnson was abrupt in dismissing the possible imple­ mentation of sterilization: Whether some day or other in the future,' science may so far conquer sentiment that the physically and mentally unfit shall be removed, or shall be sterilized, is not a matter that needs concern us today. If it is to come it is far in the future. Either proposition is a dreadful o n e . 153 Johnson discussed neither the legality nor the appropriate­ ness of sterilization, but removed the examination of the issue to the realm of sentiment and emotion. basis

It was on this

that Mary E. Perry, Vice President of the Missouri State

Board of Charities and Corrections, use of sterilization.

ultimately justified the

She took issue with Johnson

in thinking the millenium must come before we are able to put a stop to the fast-increasing population of the epileptics and feeble-minded. I believe the remedy is largely in the hands of this conference . . . it would now be well to prepare our several states to call to our assistance the surgeon's knife to prevent the entailing of this curse upon innocent numbers of yet unborn children. . . . It is time we looked this question squarely in the face and as it 153

Johnson, "Report of Committee," 249; there were other occasional hints of euthanasia; see Mauken, "Some Means for Prevention," 5; and C. C. Vanderbeck, Resume of the History, Classification, Causation, Diagnosis, and Treatment of the Feeble-minded Defective (n.p., 1899), p. 27; George Mogridge, "State Care of the Feeble-minded," Bulletin of Iowa Institutions, IX (July 1907), 166.

186 Is humane, so It Is righteous if resorted to for the sake of the child.154

Segregation and sterilization were both initially endorsed by executive officials for reasons of institutional policy.

Segregation evolved out of the failure of the schools

to restore a significant number of their pupils places in society. tion,

to productive

At the conclusion of a student's instruc­

superintendents discovered,

the only useful role many

pupils could assume was within the institution.

Schools

began to replace much of their academically-oriented curricu­ lum with vocational instruction and to train the feeble­ minded for a lifetime of custodial service. type of instruction offered, were not at all academic,

In describing

the

Barr claimed that the classes

"rather do they partake of the indus­

trial and manual

training given in the ante-bellum days on

the plantations,

which were,

in fact,— as the world is fast

acknowledging— training schools for a backward race, many of whom were feeble-minded. troublesome, backward race,

The image of dealing with a genetically inferior but capable

of prodigious reproduction, was not far from the minds of the superintendents.

An editorial in the Journal of Psycho-

Asthenics proclaimed: ^■■^Mary E. Perry, "Minority Report," N.C.C.C., XXX (1903), 253254. ^’’■’Martin W. Barr, "State Care of the Feeble-minded," N.Y. Med. Jour., LXXV1I (June 1903), 1159.

187 If the day ever comes— let us say bravely when the day comes— that all or nearly all, the degen­ erates are gathered into industrial, celibate communities, how rapidly the "White Man's Burden" of distress, pauperism and disease, which he must be taxed to support, begins to diminish.^56

Sterilization appealed to some superintendents as a means of insuring the celibacy of the feeble-minded, regardless of whether or not they were institutionalized. The importance of preventing reproduction by the defective was also emphasized in the eugenics movement.

That large

numbers of defectives already existed was demonstrated by the proliferation of special classes in the nation's public schools.

After the discovery of the moral imbecile,

detected ever increasing threats to society.

observers

In his presi­

dential Address to the National Conference of Charities and Corrections— the first ever devoted solely to the feeble­ minded,

Amos W. Butler quoted Indiana hereditary studies,

then

de c l a r e d : This record is doubtless nothing more than typical of what can be gathered, by care, in other states. It shows one of the most potentially destructive factors in our civilization; one of the most terrible forces acting against society; a fact we have to face, a condition to meet, a power that must be kept under.

156"Editorial," J.P.A., Ill (March 1899), 144. ^"^Amos W. Butler, "The Burden of Feeble-mindedness," N.C.C.C., XXXIV (1907), 8, (emphasis mine).

CHAPTER VI SEGREGATION OR SURGERY 1908-1920

The development of intelligence testing helped trans­ form superintendents*

attitudes from concerned awareness

the burden of feeble-mindedness menace of the feeble-minded.^

of

to strident anxiety over the Although it had bee n widely

recognized that the mentally retarded were especially s u s c e p ­ tible to becoming social problems and that mental handicaps were highly subject

to hereditary transmission,

the super­

intendents had no clear understanding of the true incidence of retardation in the general population,

nor of the role of

heredity and mental defect in the causation of anti-social behavior.

These deficiencies had been noted as early as 1895,

when Isabel Barrows,

editor of the Proceedings of the A s s o c i a ­

tion of Medical Officials of American Institutions

for Idiotic

and Feeble-minded P e r s o n s , expressed the following hope:

For the significance of intelligence testing, see: Mark H. Haller, Eugenics: Hereditarian Attitudes in American Thought (Rutgers, 1963), pp. 95-110; Albert Deutsch, The Mentally 111 in America: A History of Their Care and Treatment from Colonial Times (New York, 1949), pp. 354-362; Stanley P. Davies, Social Control of the Feeble-minded (New York, 1923), pp. 43-55; Leo Kanner, A History of the Care and Study of the Mentally Retarded (Springfield, Illinois, 1964), pp. 117-137; Margret Adams, Mental Retardation and its Social Dimensions (New York, 1971), pp. 30-36; Arthur E. Fink, Causes of Crime: Biological Theories in the United States (Phila­ delphia, 1938), pp. 214-234.

188

189 If some way could be devised by which our public schools could be examined . . . there would be ample material in the report for the consideration of legislatures. If prisoners and inmates of reformatories could in the same way be subjected to a careful analysis and the result presented to the public through this Association it would enlighten the people wonderfully. If institutes of heredity could be induced to make imbecility a more frequent branch of investigation, that too, might help. . . .^ Subsequent events proved Barrows to be remarkably accurate in foretelling both the early direction and impact of intel­ ligence testing.

From the late 1890's onward,

superintendents of insti­

tutions for the mentally defective became interested in psychological testing and measurement.

In 1900 Barr estab­

lished an "anthropometric" laboratory at Elwyn, premised on the belief

that various measurements of human ability and

anatomy--lung capacity,

grip, muscular control, head size—

could be utilized as indices of an physical development.

3

individual's mental and

It was along these lines that Henry

H. Goddard proceeded when he was appointed Director of the newly-created Research Department of the Vineland, Training School for Boys and Girls in 1906.

New Jersey

The decision to

2

Isabel Barrows, "What's Next— An Editor's Suggestions," Pro­ ceedings of the A.M.O., 1895, 542. 3 See the Forty-eighth Annual Report of the Pennsylvania Training School for Feeble-minded Children (Philadelphia, 1900); for the early his­ tory of intelligence testing, see Joseph Peterson, Early Conceptions and Tests of Intelligence (Yonlcers-on-Hudson, New York, 1925), pp. 72-96.

190 create the department and appoint .Goddard was made by Edward R. Johnstone, Vineland's Superintendent.

Johnstone's

background was more academic than medical, but when he estab­ lished

the Vineland Summer School for special class teachers,

he immediately faced questions he could not answer.

He

sought the advice of a group of colleagues informally organ­ ized as the "Paidological Staff" or the "Feeble-minded Club." They suggested establishment of a research department and G. Stanley Hall recommended Goddard, with a Clark Ph.D.

an old student of his

currently holding the chair of Psychology

and Pedagogy at the West Chester, Pennsylvania Normal School.

4

Goddard began his research in an institutional atmos­ phere arranged "for proper study and investigation,

with a

view to finding the cause and prevention of defectiveness, so aim to dry up the stream at its source.""*

and

He conducted: a

variety of experiments, many of them employing the learning of numbers,

in an attempt to gauge the abilities and poten­

tialities of the retarded.**

Goddard became aware of the work

4 For Johnstone, see the Eighteenth Annual Report of the New Jersey Training School for Boys and Girls (Camden, 1905), and Alexander Johnson, Adventures in Social Welfare (Fort Wayne, Indiana, 1923), pp. 180-187; for Vineland and Goddard, see: Joseph B. Byers, The Village of Happiness: the Story of the Training School (Vineland, 1934); Edgar Doll, ed., Twenty-fifth Anniversary: Vineland Laboratory, 1906-1931 (Vineland, 1932); and James Leiby, Charity and Correction in New Jersey: A History of State Welfare Institutions (Rutgers, 1967), pp. 104-109. ^Eighteenth New Jersey (1905), 27; research departments were seen as great aids in the struggle for prevention of mental defect; by 1912, Illinois, Iowa, and Minnesota had research laboratories. **See Henry H. Goddard, "The Research Work," in Supplement to Training School Bulletin, I (December 1907), 1-13; "A Side Light on the

191 of Alfred Binet and Thomas Simon only during a trip to Europe in the spring of 1908.^

Biriet and Simon,

at the request of

the French Ministry of Public Instruction in 1904, had devised a series of tests to identify and classify feeble­ minded children for placement in special classes. were compiled

from empirical studies which sought to deter­

mine exactly what plish.

The tests

tasks children of different ages could accom­

When they found that a majority of children of the

same age could successfully complete a given task,

they incor­

porated that task into their schema for the measurement of intelligence.

Binet and Simon offered revisions of their

1905 tests in 1908, and again in 1911. product of additional research,

Each new scale was the

as they sought to perfect a

testing procedure that could evaluate innate intelligence and g

not be influenced by education or environment. Development of the Number Concept," in Supplement to Training School Bulle­ tin, I (December 1907), 20-25; "A Group of Feeble-minded Children with Special Regard to their Number Concepts," in Supplement to Training School Bulletin, II (March 1908), 1-16; Goddard was a prolific author: Doll, Twenty-fifth Anniversary, pp. 112-119, lists thirty-six "Research Articles," sixty-one "General Articles," and six books produced by Goddard from 1907 to 1918, many of which were published in the Training School Bulletin, which gave full reports of institutional development, research in progress, and current events. ^Henry H. Goddard, "Two Months Among European Institutions for the Mentally Defective," Training School Bulletin, V (July 1908), 11-16. Goddard learned of their work in Brussels, and published a short account of their 1905 series of tests, "The Binet-Simon Tests of Intellectual Capacity," Training School Bulletin, V (December 1908), 3-9. 8 i Goddard collected their work from L'Annee Psychologique and had it published as Alfred Binet and Thomas Simon, The Development of Intelli­ gence in Children, trans. by Elizabeth S. Kite, Publications of the Train­ ing School at Vinceland, New Jersey, Department of Research, No. 11, May 1916 (Baltimore, 1916); the three versions are also available in Peterson,

i

192 When Goddard learned of the Improved 1908 scale, he felt that "It seemed Impossible

to grade intelligence in 9

that way.

It was too easy,

too simple;"

yet he realized

that we have great need for some sort of classi­ fication which will tell us at the outset very closely where the child is in mental development and what we may expect from him and what methods of treatment shall be applied. After using the Binet scale with every inmate at Vineland, Goddard reported the Feeble-minded

to the American Association for the Study of (A.A.S.F.)

that it was remarkably accurate.

Because of his initial doubts', Goddard employed some addi­ tional controls such as duplicate testing with the older methods and a group conference of staff members where the development of each inmate was appraised according

to the tradi­

tional criteria,- all of which confirmed the results of the Binet tests. 11 Goddard reached a number of important conclusions as a result of his successful use of the Binet scale.

He

established an apparently objective set of criteria for the Early Conceptions and Tests, pp. 172-175, 193-195, 234-235. Binet and Simon were not dogmatic about their tests; they believed that they could be improved further, and that they should be used in conjunction with other testing methods. 9

Binet and Simon, Development of Intelligence, Introduction by Henry H. Goddard, p. 5. Goddard published this version in 1910, "A Measuring Scale of Intelligence," Training School Bulletin, VI (January 1910), 146-155. ^Henry H. Goddard, "Suggestions for a Prognostical Classifica­ tion of Mental Defectives," J.P.A., XIV (June 1910), 49. ^See Henry H. Goddard, "Four Hundred Children Classified by the Binet Method," J.P.A., XV (September 1910), 17-30.

193 evaluation of varying degrees of mental defect.

He deter­

mined that a mental age of twelve was the upper limit of retarded development,

since none of the Vineland inmates

whom he examined passed many of the tests designated for normal twelve year old children.

12

Henceforth,

any adult

who failed to score a mental age above twelve was highly suspect as being feeble-minded,

as was any child who was two

or more years mentally below his chronological age. found that

Goddard

the tests achieved a tripartite division of the

Vineland inmates.

Idiots with a mental age of less than

two years were the lowest, from two to seven,

followed by imbeciles ranging

and then a third group whom Goddard first

referred to as "proximates," (meaning they were nearly nor­ mal) and later named morons

(from the Greek for slow,

gish) who were mentally eight to twelve.

slug­

This terminology

received official approval and adoption by the A.A.S.F.'s committee on the classification of the feeble-minded in 1910. 12

See the Twenty-fourth Biennial Report of the Lincoln State School and Colony (Springfield, 1912), for the work of Edmund B. Huey, the head of Illinois’ Research Department; also see, Edmund B. Huey, "Retardation and the Mental Examination of Retarded Children," J.P.A., XV (September-December 1910), 31-43; and Edmund B. Huey, Backward and Feeble-minded Children (Baltimore, 1912), p. 19, where Huey stresses the importance of the twelve year division. The 1908 Binet scale called for the subject to pass five tests: repeat seven digits, find in one minute three rimes for a given word, repeat a sentence of twenty-six syllables, answer problem questions, and give interpretation of pictures— at this time all Binet tests were given by personal interview, and were variously interpreted by different examiners; the 1911 revision made these tests serve for the measurement of normal fifteen year mentality. 13

"Report of the Committee on Classification of the FeebleMinded," J.P.A., (September-December 1910), 61-67.

13

194 At the sane time that Goddard and the A.A.S.F. were deter­ mining the parameters of retardation,

the prestigious

British Royal Commission on the Care and Control of the Feeble-minded was defining the different grades in an entirely social context.

The highest

type defective was

one who is capable of earning a living under favorable circumstances, but is incapable, from mental defect existing from birth, (a) of com­ peting on equal terms with his normal fellows; or (b) of managing himself and his affairs with ordinary prudence. The imbecile was "one who, by reason of mental defect exist­ ing from birth,

or from early age, is incapable of earning

his own living,

but is capable of guarding himself against

common physical dangers."

Finally,

deeply defective in mind from birth,

an idiot was

"a person so

or an early age,

that he

is unable to guard himself against common physical d a n g e r s . " ^ To many observers

these definitions appeared to correspond

with those established on the basis of mental age. example,

For

a two year old child could not guard himself against

common physical dangers but a seven year old could.

Although

the Binet scale classifications were made on the basis of 14

Quoted by Alfred E. Tredgold, Mental Deficiency (Amentia) (London, 1908), pp. 75-76; Tredgold was a medical expert to the Royal Com­ mission on the Feeble-minded and his work was well known in America. In 1904 the Commission undertook its investigation, and by 1908 it had examined 248 witnesses, conducted 16 detailed surveys of urban and rural districts in Great Britain, and finally issued its findings as, Report of the Royal Commission on the Care and Control of the Feeble-minded, 5 vols. (London, 1908).

195 mental age,

they were frequently conceptualized in terms

of chronological age.

Superintendents accepted this type

of oversimplification because they believed "the new classi­ fication based upon mental tests will give something definite and tangible and something readily understood by the non­ professional mind." terms

One observer summarized the results in

that anyone could understand:

"These defectives are

always children regardless of years or stature. processes have been arrested,

Their mental

and though an adult in stature,

they have the mind, judgement and impulses of a child. Goddard and his fellow researchers had established the utility of Binet intelligence testing for the categoriza­ tion of those mentally retarded already confined institutions; application."^

to special

the Binet testers were eager to expand its In 1911 Goddard reported his findings after

testing 2,000 normal children by the Binet method;

he concluded

that the tests were highly accurate for use in schools and that they did not measure conscious learning but actually gauged basic mental processes.

He suggested that all students be tested

upon entrance to insure placement

in the proper grade thus

maximizing efficiency and educational benefits.

Goddard

R. T. Wylie, "President's Annual Address," J.P.A., XVI (September 1911), 4; Frank L. Christian, "The Defective Delinquent," Albany Medical Annals, XXXIV (May 1913), 281. ^See Fred Kuhlmann, "The Binet-Simon Tests of Intelligence in Grading Feeble-minded Children," J.P.A., XVI (June 1912), 173-194; Kuhlmann was research director at Faribault. ^Henry H. Goddard, "Two Thousand Children Tested by the Binet

196 investigated the New York City public school system and revealed that two percent

(15,000) of the enrollment were

feeble-minded and fifteen percent dull.

18

This disclosure

prompted him to institute training in the administration of intelligence tests

to the public school teachers attend­

ing the Vineland Summer School.

The advent of intelligence testing provided public officials with a scientifically approved means of ascertain­ ing what the superintendents of institutions defective had been asserting for generations: tion was responsible for a great deal, of crime, prostitution, problems.

for the mentally mental retarda­

if not the majority,

vagrancy and other assorted social

In numerous experiments

the role of mental retarda­

tion in the causation of anti-social behavior was inferred Measuring Scale for Intelligence," N.E.A., XXXXIX (1911), 870-877; as a result of this large scale testing Goddard was able to revise the Binet tests to suit American conditions. He published this as, "A Revision of the Binet Scale," Training School Bulletin, VIII (June 1911), 56-62.

18 Henry H. Goddard, "Ungraded Classes," Report on Educational Aspects of the Public School System of the City of Hew York, Part II, SubDivision I, Section E, 1911-1912 (New York, 1912); also see the Thirteenth Annual Report of the City Superintendent of Schools, 1910-1911, "Reports on Defective Children" (n.p., 1911). Goddard expanded his views in School Training of Defective Children (Yonkers, 1914); and see the further report, City of New York, Board of Education, "Ungraded Classes (Document No. 2, n.p., 1914). At the time of Goddard's initial investigation there was another of equal significance and publicity, Anne Moore, The Feeble-minded in New York: A Report Prepared for the Public Education Association of New York, Special Committee on Provision for the Feeble-minded of the State Charity Aid Association (New York, 1911). To facilitate further research the New York State Board of Charities, Department of State and Alien Poor organized a Bureau of Analysis and Investigation which published a series

197 from the results of Binet testing, which revealed that a large percentage of inmates or known offenders of various types failed to pass the twelve year level while many scored even lower.

19

A well publicized example of this technique

was the Massachusetts Report of the Commission for the Investigation of the White Slave Traffic,

S o -Called, appar­

ently written by Walter E. Ferhald in 1914. found in its examination of 300 prostitutes

The commission that 154 were me n ­

tally defective enough to warrant institutionalization, average mental age was 9-1/2 years, rated as normal,

their

and of those who were

"no more than six of the entire number seemed

to have really good minds.1 "^0

There was little uniformity

in the figures presented by these various

researchers.

Goddard

noted "it is the most discouraging to discover that the more expert is the examiner of these groups, centage of feeble-minded found."

21

the higher is the per-

Goddard did not see this

of Eugenics and Social Welfare Bulletins from 1912 to 1917, the Bulletin was taken over by the newly organized State Division of Mental Defect and Delinquency in 1917; see the Fifty-first Annual Report of the New York State Board of Charities (Albany, 1917). 19 J. E. Wallace Wallin, The Problem of Subnormality (Yonkers-onHudson, New York, 1917), pp. 123-188 reviews forty-three of the most promi­ nent investigations that were undertaken in prisons, courts, reformatories, homes for the wayward, industrial schools, juvenile courts and detention homes, hospitals for the insane, and public school systems. As Binet testing was popularized, there were literally thousands of these examina­ tions . 20

. Report of the Commission for the Investigation of the White Slave Traffic, So-Called (Boston, 1914), 30. 21

Henry H. Goddard, Feeble-mindedness: Its Causes and Conse­ quences (New York, 1914), p. 8; among criminals, Goddard cites percentages of retardation varying from twenty-eight to eighty-nine percent (ibid., p. 9).

198 as a reflection of the manifold variables inherent in intelligence testing, nor did it lead to a questioning of the testing procedure. presence of retardation.

Rather it confirmed the widespread Discovery was unfortunately

dependent upon the abilities of the examiner. Criminals and juvenile delinquents were among the groups of "social debtors" most often examined and found with alarmingly high percentages of mental defectives.

22

The Massachusetts state legislature passed a resolve in April, 1910 empowering a commission "to investigate the question of the increase of criminals, mental defectives, and degenerates."

23

epileptics

The commission determined that the grow­

ing population of state institutions was not the result of an increase in absolute numbers of defectives, and delinquents; understanding,

dependents

rather it was a product of better public

simplified identification and a general desire

to provide more comprehensive facilities

for the unfortunate.

22

24

See Victor V. Anderson, "Mental Disease and Delinquency: A Report of a Special Committee of the New York State Commission of Prisons," Mental Hygiene, III (April 1914), 177-198; Anderson presents in tabular form the results of twenty-one investigations which revealed that between eleven and fifty percent of prison, reformatory, penitentiary, workhouse and indus­ trial training school inmates were feeble-minded; another table indicates that an average of thirty percent of drug users, immoral women, shoplifters, drunken women and vagrants were retarded. Fink, Causes of Crime, pp. 217234 has extensive bibliographic citations to studies of the mentality of criminals, delinquents, and other offenders. 23 Report of the Commission to Investigate the Question of the Increase of Criminals, Mental Defectives, Epileptics and Degenerates (Boston, 1911); Fernald appeared to direct this commission. 24Ibid., 27.

199 *

The possibly comforting effect of these conclusions was off­ set by the discussion of a newly identified menace to society— the defective delinquent.

For a number of years Fernald had remarked that Waltham was receiving an increasing number of inmates in who m mental deficiency was more pronounced than mental defect. These individuals appeared especially prone to committing destructive and criminal acts and were a bad influence on their more impressionable and mentally weaker fellow inmates.

25

In 1910 Fernald urged that the term "defective delinquent" be adopted to identify those cases where is relatively slight,

"the mental defect

and the immoral and criminal tendencies

are strongly developed, but the mental weakness is the cause of the moral delinquency,

s

and is a permanent condition'.'

Fernald personally drafted the bill,

26

passed in 1911, pro­

viding for the establishment of custodial facilities to care specifically for the defective delinquents.

These institutions

were to combine the security features of a penal institution with the educational programs of an industrial training school; inmates could be transferred from existing institutions or be 25

See the Fifty-fifth Annual Report of the Massachusetts School for the Feeble-minded (Boston, 1902), 11-17;.and the Fifty-eighth Annual Report of the Massachusetts School for the Feeble-minded (Document No. 28, Boston, 1905), 18-19. 26

Sixty-third Annual Report of the Massachusetts School for the Feeble-minded (Document No. 28, Boston, 1910), 18.

200

committed directly from court.

In either instance,

they

were subject to an indeterminate sentence and were only given liberty at the discretion of institutional officials.

27

.Previously, defective delinquents were' described as moral imbeciles,

high-grade defectives,

psychopaths,

imbeciles or imbeciles with criminal instincts.

criminal

Intelligence

testing was responsible for their identification as true mental defectives.

28

Fernald noted:

The field of mental defect has been so broadened and extended as to include large groups of persons who would not have been included even a decade ago. Naturally this extension has been almost entirely in the higher grades of defect.^ Defective delinquents were generally classified as morons or borderline cases, which meant that they scored higher on Binet

tests than the obviously retarded but lower than the

normal individual.

Without intelligence testing they would

rarely have been diagnosed as mental defectives in the past. 27 The act was not operational until 1922, as the legislature did not appropriate any funds for the institutions for eleven years. Fer­ nald 's role in drafting the bill is revealed by his correspondence that is contained in a collection of contemporary newspaper stories, speeches and other memorabilia that was compiled by Fernald, and is on deposit with the Librarian at the Walter E. Fernald State School, Waverly, Massa­ chusetts. This material, bound in loose-leaf scrap-books, was most help­ ful in allowing me to form a judgement of the state of public reaction to the mentally retarded. 28 Massachusetts, Commission to Investigate, 32; and see Walter E. Fernald, "The Imbecile with Criminal Instincts," Amer.Jour.Insan., LXV (April 1909), 731-749; a more precise terminology was suggested in Victor V. Anderson, "A Classification of Borderline Mental Cases Among Offenders," Jour. Crim. Law, Critninol., VI (January 1916), 689-696. 29 Walter E. Fernald, "The Diagnosis of the Higher Grades of Mental Defect," J.P.A., XVIII (December 1913), 73.

201

Since they were unable to learn from past mistakes, ment had little or no deterrent effect.

punish­

There appeared to

be a "close analogy between the defective delinquent and the 'instinctive criminals' who formed a large proportion of the 'prison rounder type.'"

30

Further studies revealed that defective delinquents were responsible for a wide range of crime,

from petty

thievery, prostitution and vagrancy to arson, murder and rape.

31

These findings led many to concur with Goddard's

judgement that "every feeble-minded person is a potential criminal

. . . since the feeble-minded lacks one or the other

of the factors essential to a moral life— an understanding 30

Sixty-fourth Annual Report of the Massachusetts School for the Feeble-minded (Document No. 28, Boston, 1911), 10. For further com­ ment on the link between retardation and crime, see William Healy, "Mental Defects and Delinquency," N.C.C.C., XXXVIII (1911), 59-63; Henry H. Goddard, "Mental Defectives Who Are Also Delinquent," N.C.C.C., XXXVIII (1911), 64-65; Frank Moore, "Mentally Defective Delinquents," N.C.C.C., XXXVIII (1911), 65-68; Ernest K. Coulter, "Mentally Defective Delinquents and the Law," N.C.C.C., XXXVIII (1911), 68-70; 0. F. Lewis, "The Feeble-minded Delinquent," Twelfth Annual New York State Conference of Charities and Corrections (Albany, 1911), 190-204; Henry H. Goddard and Helen F. Hill, "Feeble-mindedness and Criminality," Training School Bulletin, VIII (March 1911), 3-6; Henry H. Goddard, "Feeble-mindedness and Crime," Proceedings of the Annual Congress of the American Prison Association (1912), 353-357; Olga Bridgman, "Mental Defi­ ciency and Delinquency," J.A.M.A., LXI (September 1914), 471-472; and Mary Storer, "The Defective Delinquent Girl," J.P.A., XIX (September 1914), 23-30. 31 For the possibilities of brutal and senseless crimes, see Henry H. Goddard, The Criminal Imbecile; An Analysis of Three Remarkable Murder Cases (New York, 1915); for studies of juveniles and lesser offenders, see William G. Eynon, l'The Mental Measurement of Four Hundred Juvenile Delin­ quents by the Binet-Simon System," N.Y. Med. Jour., XCVIII (July 1913); 175178; Clinton P. McCord, "One Hundred Female Offenders: A Study of the Men­ tality of Prostitutes and 'Wayward Girls,'" Jour. Crim. Law, Criminol., VI (September 1915), 385-407; and Victor V. Anderson, "An Analysis of One Hundred Cases Studied in Connection with the Municipal Court of Boston," Bos. Med. Surg. Jour., CLXXI (August 1914), 341-346.

202

of right and wrong,

and the power of control."

32

The exact

percentage of criminals who were feeble-minded was subject to debate— Goddard maintained that twenty-five to fifty p e r ­ cent was a conservative minimum— but few questioned that the retarded were responsible for a disproportionate share of criminal activities. we find the defectives

One student noted that "in the courts forming the very backbone of recidi­

vism, appearing for disposition over and oyer again, apparently unable to profit by what is done for them." agreed

that education, not punishment,

treatment for defective delinquents.

33

Authorities

constituted proper Mass a c h u s e t t 's program

of control was viewed as an excellent short

term solution

but in the long run stronger measures were required.

"In

order to restrain and ultimately put an end to the production of defective delinquents," an expert concluded,

"it is n e c e s ­

sary to restrict the propagation of the feeble-minded variety , .. , „34 of the human race. 32

Goddard, "Feeble-mindedness," p. 514.

33 Victor V. Anderson, The Relationship of. Mental Defect and Disorder to Delinquency, Massachusetts Commission on Probation (Boston, 1918), p. 3; on the role of mental defect and recidivism, see Paul E. Bowers, "The Recidivist," Jour. Crim. Law, Criminol., V (September 1914), 404-419; and Victor V. Anderson, "Feeble-mindedness as Seen in Court," Mental Hygiene, I (Ajril 1917), 260-265. The conclusion was reached that the parole system was successful with normal criminals, but not with the mentally defective. 34 Hastings H. Hart, The Extinction of the Defective Delinquent, Russell Sage Foundation, Department of Child Helping Publication No. 10 (New York, 1913), p. 6; Hart was Director of the Department, and delivered this paper before the American Prison Association in 1912. For more

203

Although the defective delinquent presented insti­ tutional officials with some unique difficulties, question of their disposition was with that of the larger, minded.

the

generally considered along

overall problem of the feeble­

The combined efforts of Goddard and leading American

eugenicists brought this question to sharper focus.

In 1910

Goddard presented a paper to a meeting of the American Breeders Association which dealt with the relationship of heredity to mental retardation.

Goddard's research was the

result of his curiosity to know more of the family history of his Vineland patients.

He devised a special "after

admission blank" that was used by two field workers employed to work on the project.

Utilizing this research,

Goddard

displayed striking charts that showed the appearance of m e n ­ tal handicaps in generation after generation.

Many inter-

preted this as indicative of Mendelian transmission.

35

extensive plans concerning the defective delinquent, see New York Committee on Feeble-mindedness and Mental Health Committee, State Charities Aid Asso­ ciation, Defective Delinquents: Facts about Defective Delinquents, their Nature, Prevalence, Institutional and Legislative Needs in the State of New York, Memorandum submitted to the Hospital Development Commission, November 1917; LeRoy Bauman, A Program of State Provision for the Feeble­ minded, New York Committee on Feeble-mindedness (New York, 1917); and George H. Hastings, What Shall Be Done with Defective Delinquents, New York Committee on Feeble-raindedness (New York, 1918). 35 Henry H. Goddard, "Heredity of Feeble-mindedness," Eugenics Record Office, Bulletin No. 1 (Cold Springs Harbor, 1911), reprinted from American Breeders Magazine, I (1910), 165-178.

204 Goddard's early research was highly suggestive to Charles B. Davenport, who by 1909 had turned his primary interest to studies of human heredity. funding of Mrs. E. H. Harriman,

36

Through the generous

Davenport had established

the Eugenics Record Office in 1910 as a center and clearing­ house for American eugenic research.

Each summer,

Davenport

would personally deliver a series of twenty-five lectures train field workers in the principles of eugenics.

to

Some of

these students would be dispatched to cooperating institu­ tions to conduct heredity and background studies of inmate families, while others would remain directly associated with the Eugenics Record Office, working under Davenport and h e l p ­ ing to organize the masses of data that poured in from the f i e l d .37 Socially conservative men like Davenport were con­ vinced that "social progress is largely, to socially desirable fecund matings

if not chiefly,

due

. . . permanent social

improvement is got only by better breeding." to secure innate capacity," he declared,

"The only way

"was by breeding it."

38

36

See Haller, Eugenics, pp. 64-66; Carnegie Institution of Washington, Yearbook No. 8 , 1909 (Washington, 1910). 37

Carnegie Institution of Washington, Yearbook No. 17, 1918 (Washington, 1919); Harry H. Laughlin, Eugenics Record Office, Report No. 1 (Cold Springs Harbor, 1913). Davenport was director of the Office, while Laughlin was superintendent; by 1920, Eugenical News, begun in 1916 as the Eugenics Research Association's house organ, had a circulation of 1,000, and 205 field workers had been trained. 38 Charles B. Davenport, "Some Social Applications of Modern Principles of Heredity," Transactions of the Fifteenth Annual International

205 That society heed eugenic warnings was of paramount impor­ tance.

The future of America lay in the nation's germ plasm.

Socially beneficial traits

(aristogenic)

had to be multi­

plied through the encouragement of the breeding and raising of large healthy families, while those that were debilitative and degenerative

(cacogenic)

should be suppressed and destroyed.

Many eugenicists accepted "eugenics as a religion" and Laugh­ lin stated

that if the eugenics movement was

to succeed it

must become "a part of the American civic religion."

39

Davenport believed that eugenics provided scientists with "a clear insight into the hereditary basis of conduct," by which he meant that virtually all of human behavior was genetically determined.

40

In the case of retardation,

low mentality is due to the absence of some factor, and if this factor that determines normal development is lacking in both parents, it will be Congress on Hygiene and Demography (Washington, 1912), 2; and "Eugenics and Charity," N.C.C.C., XXXIX (1912), 281. Both of these statements were made to audiences composed of those who believed in some measure of environmen­ talism! An earlier statement on charity had brought Davenport the singular distinction of having the editor of the N.C.C.C. add: "This is probably the furthest from an accurate statement of the position of organized charity, that has ever appeared in the Proceedings of the National Conference." (Ibid.) 39 Harry H. Laughlin, "The Legal, Legislative and Administrative Aspects of Sterilization," Eugenics Record Office Bulletin No. 10B, Report of the Committee to Study and to Report on the Best Practical Means of Cutting Off the Defective Germ-Plasm in the American Population (Cold Springs Harbor, 1914), 59; Davenport used the phrase in a lecture delivered at the "Golden Jubilee Celebration of the Battle Creek Sanitarium," (n.p.,

n .d.j 40

Carnegie Institution of Washington, Yearbook No. 13, 1914 (Washington, 1915), 125; and see Charles E. Rosenberg, "Charles Benedict Davenport and the Beginnings of Human Genetics," Bull. Hist. Med., XXXV (May-June 1961), 271-272.

206 lacking in all of their offspring. Two mentally defective parents will produce only mentally defective offspring. Davenport's belief that feeble-mindedness was a simple reces­ sive trait— a unit character— was given strong support by two of Goddard's books,

The Kallikak Family:

A Study in the

Heredity of Feeble-mindedness and later Feeble-mindedness;

Its

Causes and Consequences. Working in the Dugdale tradition, interested in the Kallikak family

Goddard became

(a word meaning

"good-bad

family") after deciding to investigate the ancestry of Deborah Kallikak,

one of his patients.

He engaged Elizabeth

S. Kite as a researcher and together they discovered a remarkable story. Sr.,

The founder of the family, Martin Kallikak,

fathered two half-brothers,

one by a promiscuous tavern

maid and the other by his legally wedded wife who came from a good family.

Goddard was able to trace 496 descendants of the

legitimate union and found all of them to be normal, many in distinguished positions in their communities. descendants of Deborah's

But the 480

great-grandfather, Martin Kallikak, Jr.,

known as "Old Horror," presented an almost unbroken line of degeneration: mate,

143 feeble-minded,

33 immoral persons,

of 82 who died in infancy.

only 46 normal,

24 alcoholics, 42

8 pimps,

36 illegiti­ and a total

Goddard believed that the Kallikak

41

Charles B. Davenport, Heredity in Relation to Eugenics (New York, 1911), pp. 66-67; and for Davenport's more precise biological explanation, see Charles B. Davenport, "Feeble Inhibitionless," J.P.A., XVIII (March 1914), 147-149. 42 Henry H. Goddard, The Kallikak Family; A Study in the Heredity of Feeble-mindedness (New York, 1912), pp. 17-19, 29-30; on the significance

207 family constituted

"a natural experiment in heredity" since

both branches of the family lived "out their lives in the same environment,

except i n s o f a r as they themselves,

because of their different characters changed that environ-

In the Kallikak Family Goddard was willing to suspend his judgment on the utility of Mendel's laws: studies lead us to believe that it in the case of feeble-mindedness, in a latter work

. . .

44

"Our own

[Mendel's law] also applies but this will be taken up

Goddard reserved this more com­

prehensive treatment for Feeble-Mindedness:

Its Causes and

Consequences, where he and his field workers

investigated the

the families of 327 Vineland patients.

His conclusions, based

on the 300 families for which sufficient data was available, of the infant mortality rate, see Henry H. Goddard, "Infant Mortality in Relation to Hereditary Effects of Mental Deficiency," An Address Delivered Before the American Association for the Study and Prevention of Infant Mortality, Cleveland, October 3, 1912 (n.p., n.d.). 43 Goddard, Kallikak, p. 50. Goddard faulted such earlier studies as A. E. Winship, The Jukes - Edwards: A Study in Education and Heredity (Harrisburg, 1900) because of the divergence in environments of the two families involved; as for the Jukes, the lack of a control group made it difficult to say if the work proved the hereditary nature of crime, although feeble-mindedness was the best material for making criminal careers (Goddard, Kallikak, p. 54). 44 Goddard, Kallikak, p. 111. Goddard attempted to impress the reader with his objectivity, "we have preferred to err on the other side and have not marked people feeble-minded unless the case was such that we could substantiate it beyond a reasonable doubt (ibid. ix); vet he admitted (unwittingly) the basic unsoundness of his research methods "in determining the mental condition of people in the earlier generations. . . , one pro­ ceeds in the same way as one does to determine the character of a Washing­ ton or a Lincoln or any other man of the past," (ibid., p. 14, emphasis mine). As other critics were to note, there is a considerable difference between the determination of character and mental defect.

208 were that 164 cases were definitely hereditary, hereditary,

37 had neuropathic ancestry,

34 probably

51 were accident

caused, and in 8 no cause could be discovered.

These figures

indicated that seventy-seven percent of feeble-mindedness was hereditary, a ccidental.

and only nineteen percent could be considered After a recapitulation of Mendel's laws

and

their application .to his data, Goddard concluded: Since our figures agree so closely with' Mendelian expectation and since there are few if any cases where the Mendelian formula does not fit the facts, the hypothesis seems to stand: viz., normalminded­ ness is, or at least behaves like, a unit character; is dominant and is transmitted in accordance with the Mendelian law of inheritance. ° Goddard's work also appeared to confirm another impor­ tant assertion concerning the reproductive characteristics of the mentally retarded.

Tredgold had maintained for at least

ten years that "the average number of children in a mentally defective family was

7.3, or considerably more than half as

many again as the general average for the whole p o p u l a t i o n ."A7 In New Jersey,

the 287 mothers

that the Vineland researchers

investigated had a total of 1,781 children, 6.2 per female.

48

or an average of

These statistics made all the more meaningful

45 Goddard, Feeble-mindedness, pp. 438-465. A6Ibid., p. 556. 47A. F. Tredgold, "The Feeble-minded," Contemporary Review, XCVII (June 1910), 720; for an excellent contemporary opinion of the importance of birth rates see, Edward A. Ross, "The Causes of Race Superiority," Annals, XVIII (July 1910), 67-89. Ross helped popularize the term "race suicide." 48 Goddard, Feeble-mindedness, pp. 472-473.

209 G o d d a r d ’s earlier warning that "there are Kallikak families all about us.

They are multiplying at twice the rate of

the general population.

49 . . .11

The study of def e c t i v e vfamilies

lured other researchers—

many of them trained at the Eugenics Record Office— to undertake investigations

similar to Goddard's."*^

Generally the depopu­

lated rural areas of the states proved the ancestral homes and breeding grounds for such groups as the Hill Folk, Family,

the Dacks,

of Sam Sixty, many backwoods

the Jukes

(restudied in 1915),

or the "C: family. counties,

the Nam the Family

Fernald explained that in

the vigorous and enterprising moved,

"while the inefficient and the feeble are apt to be left at home

. . . with the result that if something is not done, we

49 Goddard, Kallikak, p. 71; and see Henry H. Goddard, Heredity as a Factor in the Problem of the Feeble-minded Child," Troisieme Con­ gress International D'Hygiene Scolaire (Paris, 1910); "Mental Deficiency from the Standpoint of Heredity," Massachusetts Society for Mental Hygiene Publication No. 15 (Boston, 1915). "^See Charles B. Davenport, et al, "The Study of Human Heredity," Eugenics Record Office, Bulletin No. 2 (Cold Springs Harbor, 1911), and Charles B. Davenport, "The Trait Book," Eugenics Record Office, Bulletin No. 6 (Cold Springs Harbor, 1912); the Trait Book listed virtually every conceivable human characteristic with handy symbols. "^See Florence H. Danielson and Charles B. Davenport, "The Hill Folk: Report on a Rural Community of Hereditary Defectives," Eugenics Record Office, Memoir No. 1 (Cold Springs Harbor, 1912); Arthur H. Esterbrook and Charles B. Davenport, "The Nam Family: A Study in Cacogenics," Eugenics Record Office, Memoir No. 2 (Cold Springs Harbor, 1912); Anna Finlayson, "The Dack Family: A Study in Hereditary Lack of Emotional Con­ trol," Eugenics Record Office, Bulletin No. 15 (Cold Springs Harbor, 1916); Arthur H. Esterbrook, The Jukes in 1915 (Washington, 1916); Mary S. Kostir, "The Family of Sam Sixty," Ohio Board of Administration, Publication No. 8 (Columbus, 1916); Amos W. Butler, "The 1C ' Family," Proceedings of the Indiana Academy of Science (Indianapolis, 1915); and Nina Sessions, "The Feeble-minded in a Rural County of Ohio,: Ohio Board of Administration, Publication No. 12 (Columbus, 1918).

210

are to have intensified breeding of the less desirable elements in our native stock," in these isolated areas "where the entire population is below p a r — shiftless, immoral,

drunken, with illegitimate children, nests of

criminals."

52

countryside,

Although the problem was not confined to the it was more serious there.

While the feeble-minded of our cities are promptly recognized and could be cared for by segregating, those of the ’'ural communities are for the most part allowed to reproduce their traits unhindered . and to create and send forth prostitutes, thieves and drunkards that flock to our cities. 3 These studies confirmed the professionals’ worst fears. numerous

Instances,

In

society's most important institutions

of social control--the family and the community— failed to operate as a check on mental retardation. of the laws of Inheritance,

Indeed, because

they actually served to perpetuate

mental defect and deviant behavior. Eugenicists like Davenport and Laughlin were among the foremost in demanding that society take positive action to prevent its being overwhelmed by a stream of bad germ Pi asm and degeneracy.

Laughlin insisted,

52 Walter E. Fernald, "Menace of the Feeble-minded," Report of the Fifteenth Annual Meeting of the New Hampshire Conference of Charities and Corrections (Concord, 1915), 122; and see Guy G. Fernald, Report of the Maine Commissioner for the Feeble-minded and of the Survey by the National Committee for Mental Hygiene (Augusta, 1918), 16-18; for other references to this condition, especially in New England. "^Danielson and Davenport, "Hill Folk," 18.

21 1

It now behooves society in consonance with both humanitarianism and race efficiency to provide more humana ^eans for cutting off defectives. Society must look upon germ-plasm as belonging to society and not solely to the individual who carries it. Humanitarianism demands that every individual born be given every opportunity for decent and effective life that our civilization can offer. Racial instinct demands that defec­ tives shall not continue their unworthy traits to menace society.

'

Laughlin listed ten classes of cacogenic elements in society, including the feeble-minded, class,

the pauper class,

the criminal

the deformed class, and the caaesthenic class

of an organ).

He also suggested ten possible remedies

ranging from segregation, marriage laws,

(loss

sterilization and restrictive

to polygamy,

euthanasia,

and l a i s sez-faire.

The most widely accepted appeal of the eugenicists was "to the right of the child to be well-born," bringing agreement from a variety of social workers, physicians,

and adminis-

„ _ 56 trators. "In this day of conservation," Davenport declared that "protoplasm is our most valuable national r e s o u r c e . " ^ Denial of rights to the defective,

which received a warm,

if

"^Laughlin, "Aspects of Sterilization," 16. 55Ibid., 18-57. ’ ■^See Franklin B. Kirkbride, "The Right to be Well Born," Survey, XXVII (March 1912), 1838-1840; Edward B. Pollard, The Rights of the Unborn Race, American Baptist Publication Society (Philadelphia, 1914); Michael F. Guyer, Being Well Born: An Introduction to Eugenics (Indianapo­ lis, 1916); and E. J. Emerick, "Segregation of the Mentally Defective," Ohio Bulletin of Charities and Corrections, XIX (April 1913), 10-20. 57

Charles B. Davenport, "Influence of Heredity on Human Society," Annals, XXXIV (July 1909), 20.

212

limited response, was justified by this argument.

Many con­

tentions of the eugenicists had been aired as early as 1909, when the Rev. Karl Schwartz of Syracuse addressed the A.A.S.F. He inveighed against misguided philanthropy which kept alive those defectives

that nature would reject.

our philanthropies," he declared,

"We are directing

"toward a perpetuation of

the unfit and the multiplication of their numbers." gested,

"it is the disease that proves

He sug­

fatal that becomes

the

greatest agency in the maintenance and the progression of the race."

He brushed aside any ethical reservations because

"ethics are rightly applied only when the social interest is made paramount."

58

In any case,

ethics were only applicable

in dealing with similar beings and, as Davenport pointed out, the differences between the mentally handicapped and the average man "are not incidental,

due to some accident of

environment— they are fundamental, they are the marks of a different species, ferences,

for these differences are inheritable dif-

and may be traced through the generations."

59

The

mentally defective were to be denied their rights of liberty and of reproduction on the basis of the superior rights of the nation,

of the race,

and of the future.

"Eugenics is supremely

the business of the state, for a government must consider not 58 Karl Schwartz, "Nature's Corrective Principle in Social Evo­ lution, " JJ^A. , XIII (March 1909), 83, 76, 88. 59

Charles B. Davenport, "Medico-Legal Aspects of Eugenics," Medical Times. XLII (October 1914), 300.

213 only the present good of Its citizens but the future we l ­ fare of the r a c e . " ^ The superintendents of institutions for the mentally retarded were definitely aware of these attitudes their inmates and in many cases shared them.

towards

J . M. Murdock,

superintendent of the State Institution for the Feeble­ minded of Western Pennsylvania

(Polk), very ably summarized:

We talk less of pathology and therapeutics and physical training and industrial occupations for the feeble-minded and more of eugenics, segrega­ tion and sterilization; not so much of the individual, but more of the larger problem, the group; of prevention— and in our zeal to push forward to the goal, sometimes of extinction. To most superintendents,

the feeble-mindeds' basic inability

to act like other people was at the heart of their problem. "They are not only deficient in mind, blit they are weak and unstable in will,

lacking in self-control and motivated by

unconventional standards of b e h a v i o r ."

62

Even when their

abilities enabled them to act in pursuit of some goal, did not follow conventional forms of behavior. could never compete equally in the community.

they

Thus the retarded E. J. Emerick,

Doren's successor at Ohio, phrased it cogently: ^ Forty-sixth Annual Report of the New York State Board of Charities (Albany, 1912), 167. ^J. M. Murdock, "State Care for the Feeble-minded," J,P.A., XVIII (September 1913), 34; and see J. M. Murdock, "Quarantine Mental Defectives," N.C.C.C., XXXVI (1909), 64-67. 62

Report of the Commission on the Segregation, Care and Treat­ ment of Feeble-minded and Epileptic Persons in the Commonwealth of Penn­ sylvania (n.p., 1913), 43 (emphasis mine).

214

The feeble-minded individual is a menace to society because he is incapable of social develop­ ment. We must understand that the feeble-minded person cannot be made into a normal citizen. . He lacks the judgement, will power, and comprehension of situa­ tions necessary to enable him to react to his sur­ roundings aright.^3 Social performance was the basic criterion for feeble-minded­ ness.

If any Individual exhibited indications of incompe­

tency, he was likely to be considered feeble-minded,

regard­

less of the specific nature of the anti-social action.

Mental

retardation seemed to be the basic cause of almost all deviant behavior.

As Fernald noted,

Massachusetts Commission,

concerning the findings of the

"the commission was impressed by

the fact that in considering the different

forms of degeneracy

we were merely studying different phases of the same fundamental condition."

64

This concern for the menace

of the feeble-minded

reached a peak in the years 1912-1917.

Committees devoted

go E. J. Emerick, "Problem of the Feeble-minded," Ohio Board of Administration, Publication No. 5 (Columbus, 1915), 3,'4; Emerick was partly responsible for the establishment of the Bureau of Juvenile Research in 1914 under the Board of Administration. The Bureau's goal was "to find the defectives and psychopaths while they are yet young . . . to devise ways and means to control their lives." (Ibid, 11.) ^Walter E. Fernald, "Some Phases of Feeble-mindedness," Pro­ ceedings of the Third Annual New York City Conference of Charities and Corrections (New York, 1912), 157; Fernald makes the same point in "The Burden of Feeble-mindedness," Massachusetts Society for Mental Hygiene, Publication No. 4 (Boston, 1912), 5; and see for this issue of common causation, Charles H. Cooley, Human Nature and the Social Order (New York, 1902), p. 375.

2 15

expressly to that purpose cultivated public opinion.

In

1910 Johnstone organized the friends and families of chil­ dren awaiting entrance to Vineland into a committee on provision for the feeble-minded.

Through an extensive letter

writing campaign, pressure was brought

to bear on the New

Jersey legislature to pass bills providing for mental and physical examinations in the schools

(1909);

special classes and a sterilization law ment of farm colonies Defectives

(1914).

for other states,

(1913);

creation of

(1911); establish­

and a Commission on the Care of

Realizing the value of such campaigns Johnstone utilized the resources of the com­

mittee in 1912 to create the Vineland extension department, a lecture and propaganda bureau. ander Johnson,

His brother-in-law,

became its director.

Alex­

The extension department

was enlarged in 1914 to a national Committee on Provision for the Feeble-minded,

headquartered in Philadelphia with

Joseph P. Byers as executive secretary.

As field secretary,

Johnson made a number of extensive lecture trips across the country,

especially in the South,

to impress all who heard him

with the necessity of adequately providing fpr the mentally m 54 defective.

R. Bayard Cutting organized the New York Committee on

See Leiby, Charity and Correction, pp. 108-109; Byers, Village of Happiness, pp. 76-80; Johnson, Adventures, pp. 391-417; Edward R. Johnstone, "Stimulating Public Interest in the Feeble-minded," N.C.C.C., XLIII (1916), 205-215; Joseph P. Byers, "State Plan for the Care of the Feeble-minded," N.C.C.C., XLIII (1916), 223-229; and the Report of the New Jersey Commission on the Care of Mental Defectives (Trenton, 1914).

Feeble-mindedness in 1916 for a similar purpose.

The com­

mittee distributed literature which recounted the "hurt of feeble-mindedness to society," called attention to the large number of retarded

(33,000)

estimated to be in the state

and the relatively small number institutions.

(5,399) who were in the proper

A special objective of the committee was to

prod the state legislature into granting sufficient funds for the completion of Letchworth Village.

This facility,

planned to accommodate 3,000 and authorized in 1907, had not yet received significant numbers in 1917.

66

Pamphlets much

like those of the New York Committee were issued by the Phila­ delphia Department of Public Health and Charity.

They bore

disturbing titles— The Degenerate Children of Feeble-minded Women or The Feeble-minded W o r l d — and were prone to exaggerated statements.

"Practically all poor Feeble-minded Women at

large," declared one,

"become mothers of illegitimate chil­

dren soon after reaching the age of p u b e r t y . M a n y tional forums helped transmit

the message.

addi­

A symposium on

"The Right to be Well-Born" composed an entire issue of the S urvev and included articles by Davenport,

Goddard, Kite and

66

See New York Committee on Feeble-mindedness, "Facts About the Feeble-minded: The Need for Additional Accommodations for the Feeble­ minded in the State of New York," (New York, 1917), and the First Annual Report of the New York Committee on Feeble-mindedness (New York, 1917). ^Philadelphia, Department of Public Health and Charities, "The Degenerate Children of Feeble-minded Women," (Philadelphia, 1910).

217 others.

A whole Issue of the State Charities Aid Association

News consisted of a single article by Homer Folks— "State Knows How to Deal With the Feeble-minded But Doesn't Do It."

68

In addition to the National Conference of Charities and Corrections

(which changed its name in 1917 to Conference of

Social Work),

state conferences— like the Indiana Conference

on Mental Deficiency and Child Welfare or the 1916 session of the Wisconsin State Conference of Charities and Corrections— were instrumental in informing local administrators and offi-

< i 69 cials. Reactions to this agitation varied from state to state. In a few states,

commissions were formed to survey the needs

of the retarded and to report recommendations for dealing with them.

New York's commission was fairly typical in both its

organization and final suggestions. appointed chairman.

Robert W. Hubbard was

With an appropriation of $10,000, he

visited all the state institutions and also traveled in New Jersey,

Pennsylvania,

Maryland, Virginia and Massachusetts.

The Commission had five major recommendations,

several of which

were ultimately adopted in New York and elsewhere. mission proposed:

The Com­

1 ) state-wide standardization of the principles

68

The Survey, XXVII (March 1912); State Charities Aid Association News, II (April 1914). ^"Indiana Conference on Mental. Deficiency and Child Welfare," State Board of Charities of Indiana, The Indiana Bulletin, CVII (December 1916), 378-450, three sessions on "Mental Defect as a Home and School Problem," "Mental Defect as a Medical Problem," and "Mental Defect as a Legal Problem;" Proceedings of the Wisconsin Conference of Charities and Corrections, Sheboygan, October 17 to October 19, 1916 (Madison, 1917).

218 of diagnosing retardation with the responsibility for such diagnosis in the hands of competent state authorities;

2)

adequate and separate state provision for the custodial care of defective and dependent delinquents;

3) character build­

ing and vocational training in state training schools with special ungraded classes for the education of defectives returned to the community;

4) further research into the etio­

logical and social causes of feeble-mindedness;

and 5) estab­

lishment of a system of friendly supervision for high-grade defectives who should also be trained to maintain themselves in the community. ings,

70

As a result of the Commission's find­

a Hospital Development Commission was established to

further study the issues.

This Commission urged the creation

of a permanent State Commission for Mental Defectives which began operations in 1 9 1 8 . ^

70

See the Report of the State Commission to Investigate Pro­ vision for the Mentally Defective (Albany, 1915), 113; the commissions of New Jersey, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania have already been cited; in addition see: Mental Defectives in Indiana: Report of the Committee on Mental Defectives Appointed by Governor Samuel M. Rolston (Indianapolis, 1916); Lillian C. Streeter, "Existing Conditions Relating to Defectives and Feeble-mindedness in New Hampshire," Report of New Hampshire Chil­ dren's Commission,to the Governor and the Legislature (n.p., 1915); Fernald suggested a program similar to that of New York's, see Walter E. Fernald, "What's Practicable in the Way of Preventing Mental Defect," N.C.C.C., XVII (1915), 289-298. The National Committee for Mental Hygiene, working with a grant from t^he Rockefeller Foundation, carried out thirtyfive surveys of this nature, see Clifford W. Beers, A Mind that Found Itself, Twenty-fifth Anniversary Edition Issued March, 1935, with Addi­ tions (New York, 1908), pp. 330-332. ^See Report of the Hospital Development Commission (Albany, 1918), and First Annual Report of the State Commission for Mental Defec­ tives, July 1, 1918 to June 30, 1919 (Albany, 1920).

219 Sterilization laws were passed and many states Increased their institutional provisions for the mentally retarded.

At least sixteen states and the District of

Columbia established their first facilities for the feeble­ minded and the number of inmates in these institutions increased from 20,731 in 1910 to 42,954 in 1 9 2 3 . ^

By 1917

the following fifteen states had enacted some variety of eugenical sterilization law: Connecticut and Washington Jersey Dakota,

(1911); New York

(1909);

(1912);

Oregon and Wisconsin

South Dakota

(1917).

73

Indiana

(1907);

California,

Iowa, Nevada and New

Kansas, Michigan,

(1913);

Nebraska

North

(1915);

and

These laws varied greatly in content,

scope and purpose, but they generally required that, before sterilization, feeble-minded

an individual be certified as hereditarially (or insane,

epileptic,

by a consulting board of examiners.

74

criminal or whatever) Although many laws

were never or rarely used and some ruled unconstitutional as 72 Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Feeble-minded and Epileptic in Institutions (Washington, 1923), pp. 17-19, 25. 73

See Harry H. Laughlin, Eugenical Sterilization in the United States (Chicago, 1922), pp. 1-4; and see Ezra S. Gosney and Paul Popenoe, Sterilization for Human Betterment (New York, 1929); Collected Papers on Eugenical Sterilization in California (Pasadena, 1930), Introduction by Ezra S. Gosney; J. H. Landsman, Human Sterilization: A History of the Sexual Sterilization Movement (New York, 1932); Leon F. Whitney, The Case for Sterilization (New York“ 1934); and Abraham Myerson, e£ al_, Eugenical Sterilization: A Re-Orientation of the Problem (New York, 1936). ^See Laughlin, Eugenical Sterilization, pp. 52-92, 99-140, for a detailed examination of the laws, methods of sterilization, groups eligible, executive agencies, court procedures and family studies.

220

class legislation or denial of due process,

3,233 steriliza-

tions were performed on all classes prior to 1921.

75

Eugenicists figured strongly among the supporters of sterilization but opinions of custodial officials were mixed.

Eugenicists like Davenport endorsed marriage restric­

tion laws in principle,

but questioned their practicality.

"Laws against the marriage .of the feeble-minded are futile in any case. legislation,

It would be as sensible to hope to control by the mating of rabbits."7^

Many superintendents

agreed with Goddard's position that sterilization should be used in conjunction with segregation and not as a substitute for it.

77

Sterilization appeared to have the greatest utility

in dealing with the borderline cases,

Goddard maintained,

"it may be that we shall be willing to sterilize all of the 75Ibid., pp. 96, 142-289. 7fi Charles B. Davenport, "Marriage Laws and Customs," First International Congress of Eugenics. Problems in Eugenics (London, 1912) , p. 154; for representative pro-sterilization, see: M. E. Von Meter, "Stamping Out Hereditary Diseases by Sterilizing the Sexes," Amer.Jour. Surg., XXI (January 1907), 18-22; J. Ewring Mears, The Problem of Race Betterment (Philadelphia, 1910); Theodore Diller, "Some Practical Prob­ lems Relating to the Feeble-minded," J.P.A., XVI (September 1911), 20-26; R. H. Grube, "Sterilization of Defectives for the Betterment of the Human Race," Ohio State Board of Health, Monthly Bulletin (August 1911); Hastings H. Hart, Sterilization as a Practical Measure, Russell Sage Foundation, Department of Child Helping (New York, 1913); Bleecker van Wagenen, "Surgical Sterilization as a Eugenics Measure," J.P.A., XVIII (June 1914), 185-197; J. T. Haynes, Vasectomy, Ohio Board of Administra­ tion, Publication No. 13 (Columbus, 1919); Charles H. Clark, The Preven­ tion of Racial Deterioration and Degeneracy, Ohio Board of Administration, Publication No. 15 (Columbus, 1920). 77

See Henry H. Goddard, Sterilization and Segregation, Russell Sage Foundation, Department of Child Helping (New York, 1913).

0

221

borderline cases, and then there will be no longer any objection to their marrying."

78

Among the ranks of the superintendents Fernald was the most prominent figure opposing sterilization. He con­ tended : The normal "carriers" of defect would not be affected. The presence of these sterile people in the community,- with unimpaired sexual desire and capacity, would be a direct encouragement ^ of vice and a prolific source of venereal disease. Alexander Johnson originally opposed sterilization but came to appreciate the difficulties of providing custodial facilities for approximately 1 person in 250.

He changed

his mind about sterilization because it seemed to threaten new dangers in place of those it was meant to avert. I have only been brought to it now by the conviction that it is a real necessity from the impossibility of segregating all the morons. 78 Goddard. Feeble-mindedness, pp. 588-589; for the question of what to do with borderline cases, see Samuel C. Kohs, "The Borderline of Mental Deficiency," N.C.C.C., XLIII (1916), 279-291. 79 80

Fernald, "Burden of Feeble-mindedness," 8.

"Discussion," Proceedings of the Twenty-fifth Minnesota State Conference of Charities and Corrections held in Steelwater, September 23Sept ember 26, 1916 (St. Paul, 1916), 49; for Johnson's earlier views, see Alexander Johnson, "Race Improvement by Control of Defectives," Annals, XXXIV (July 1909), 22-29; Johnson said, "I must consider it [steriliza­ tion] a most serious and dangerous attack on public morals," (ibid., 25). Estimates of retardation in the general population vared from 1 in 136 to 1 in 294, see Davies, Social Control, pp. 43-45.

Superintendents provided varing degrees of support for the sterilization laws.

A. W. Wilmarth,

superintendent

of the Wisconsin Home for the Feeble-minded,

strongly advo­

cated sterilization and was credited with greatly aiding the passage of the law in 1913. Homer Folks reported

81

In New York, however,

that the state's sterilization law "was

neither proposed nor urged, publicly,

at least, nor privately,

so far as I am aware by those who have been prominently con­ nected with social work in this state heretofore. was it opposed.

. . ."

82

Neither

In other states there generally

was a measure of custodial support for sterilization laws sufficient for their adoption. astutely noted, was

83

What was significant, Folks

that any lack of support

in the legislature

was more than compensated for by the absence of opposition. For years the state legislatures had been deluged with both expert and popular assertions

that retardation was responsible

81 See: Rudolph J. Vecoli, "Sterilization: A Progressive Measure?" Wis. Mag. Hist., XLIIl(Spring 1960), 190-202; and see: the Twelfth Biennial Report of the State Board of Control of Wisconsin— Reformatory, Charitable and Penal Institutions (Madison, 1914). 82 Homer Folks, "Report of the Committee on the Mentally Defec­ tive in Their Relation to the State," Proceedings of the Thirteenth Annual New York State Conference of Charities and Corrections (Albany, 1912), 176; and Folks, "State Knows," 7. 83

See: the Seventh Annual Report of the Department of Charities and Corrections, 1911, State of New Jersey (Burlington, 1912), 17; Harry A. Lindsay, "Sterilization.of Degenerates," Bulletin of Iowa State Insti­ tutions , XIV (January 1912), 52-60; and Edwin A. Down, "Sterilization of Degenerates— Connecticut's New Law," Proceedings of the First Annual Connecticut State Conference of Charities and Corrections (Hartford, 1911), 160-162.

223 for deviant behavior.

Sterilization appeared to be an

economical,

scientific and permanent measure to

safeguard

effective,

the public welfare.

There was a considerable body

of favorable expert opinion and there were few protests from the feeble-minded.

Penologists were among the first officials

to express

misgivings about the utility and justification of steriliza­ tion.

Thirteen of the fifteen state laws had authorized

operation for those criminals deemed habitual,

the

incorrigible,

hereditary or the perpetrators of heinous crimes.

84

A few

individuals raised damaging questions about the punitive and therapeutic value of sterilization,

but most reserved their

criticism for its supposedly eugenic benefits.

Arthur J. Todd

concluded that "the critics of such legislation are right in asserting that criminal inheritance remains yet to be proved."

85

Three committees were appointed by the American Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology to study the issue.

The gist of

their reports was that although sterilization might conceivably 84 Laughlin, Eugenical Sterilization, pp. 117-124. 85 Arthur J. Todd, "Sterilization and Criminal Heredity: An . Editorial." Jour. Crim. Law & Criminol., V (May 1914), 5; and see: Charles A. Boston, "Protest Against Laws Authorizing the Sterilization of Criminals and Imbeciles," Jour. Crim. Law & Criminol., IV (September 1913), 326-358; Fredrick A. Fanning, "Sterilization Laws from a Legal Standpoint," Jour. Crim. Law fi■Criminol., IV (March 1914), 804-815; American Medical Associa­ tion, "Sterilization of Criminals," prepared by the Medicolegal Bureau of the American Medical Association (Chicago, 1915).

224 have some eugenic value for the general population,

no

substantial proof justified reliance on sterilization to diminish crime. The uncritical use of Binet intelligence tests to diagnose mental retardation also came under examination. In 1913 Fernald contended that "the Binet tests corroborate where we do not need corroboration,

and are not decisive

where the differential diagnosis of the higher grade defective from the normal is in question."

87

He suggested a

combination of factors— physical condition,

family history,

record of school progress, personal and developmental his­ tory,

practical knowledge and economic efficiency— be

evaluated along with testing to determine mental defect.

88

Edgar A. Doll agreed that the intelligence test "is not in itself a complete diagnostic method," and cautioned his fellow professionals "that a little ground gained permanently 86 See Joel D. Hunter, "The Sterilization of Criminals," Report of Committee H of the Institute, Jour. Crim. Law & Criminol., V (Nov­ ember 1914), 514-540; Joel D. Hunter, "Sterilization of Criminals," Report of Committee F. of the Institute (New York, 1916); William A . • White, "Sterilization of Criminals," Report of Committee F of the Insti­ tute, Jour. Crim. Law & Criminol., VIII (November 1917), 499-502. For the questions of heredity, intelligence and .crime, see: Edith R. Spaulding and William Healy, "Inheritance as a Factor in Criminality," Jour. Crim. Law & Criminol., VI (March 1914), 837-859; and J. Harold Williams, "Intelligence and Delinquency: A Study of 215 Cases," Jour. Crim. Law & Criminol., VI (January 1916), 697-705. 87 Fernald, "Diagnosis of Higher Grades," 80. 88

See the Sixty-ninth Annual Report of the Massachusetts School for the Feeble-minded (Document No. 28, Boston, 1916),

225 is better than yards of territory that later must be given

i.89

up. 1

J. E. Wallace Wallin severely challenged

the credi­

bility of the tests when his examination of a group of successful Iowa farmers revealed all to be morons. findings,

if correct,

contradicted

a higher grade defective.

These

the social definition of

It was evident

that these pros­

perous individuals were managing their affairs with ordinary prudence and that the tests must be in error.

Wallin con­

cluded that levels of education were highly significant in intelligence testing and established that there was an inverse proportion between degree of education and success on the tests.

90

Lewis M. Terman,

the Stanford psychologist who

authored the most widely used version of the Binet test, attacked the social definition of retardation:

"The social

criterion is attractive and plausible only so long as it remains unanalyzed.

It is far too shifting and indefinite

to serve as a working concept in science."

91

89

Edgar A. Doll, "On the Use of Term 'Feeble-minded.'" Jour. Crim. Law & Criminol., VIII (July 1917), 216, 221. Doll ultimately succeeded Goddard at Vineland.

90

J. E. Wallace Wallin, "Who is Feeble-minded?" Jour. Crim. Law & Criminol., VI (January 1916), 706-717; Wallin entered into an extended literary argument with Samuel C. Kohs, see Jour. Crim. Law & Criminol., March to July 1916; for Wallin's summation, see: Wallin, Problems of Subnormality, pp. 110-277.

91Lewis M. Terman, "The Binet Scale and the Diagnosis of Feeble-mindedness," Jour. Crim. Law & Criminol,, VII (November 1916), 536. For additional information about the Stanford-Binet test, see Lewis M. Terman, The Measurement of Intelligence (Boston, 1916).

226 Further qualifications of the applicability and accuracy of intelligence testing did not deter the psychol­ ogists who administered the Army's program of testing in the First World War.

The tests revealed that 47.3 percent

of the white draft and 89 percent of the black draft had m e n ­ tal ages of 12 or lower.

Instead of questioning these results,

the report on the tests concluded "feeble-mindedness as at presently defined,

[sic]

is of much greater frequency of occurrence

than had been originally supposed."

92

Some individuals did

not doubt the findings because they coincided with their own preconceived ideas.

Goddard envisioned a future time when

everyone would be mentally

tested and assigned an appropriate

job depending on whether they were A, B, C+, C, D or E men.

93

While officials may have believed that mental defi­ ciency was widespread in^the general population,

there was

the growing conviction that "many feeble-minded persons can live their lives without the restraint of an institution and yet without injury to society."

94

Proof of this assertion

came from Fernald's study of the careers of 646 inmates who had 92 Robert M. Yerkes, ed., Psychological Examining in the United States Army, National Academy of Sciences, Memoirs, XV (Washington, 1921), p. 789. 93 See Henry H. Goddard, Human Efficiency and Levels of Intelli­ gence (Princeton, New Jersey, 1920). 94

Report of the Special Commission Relative to the Control, Custody and Treatment of Defectives, Criminals and Misdemeanants (House Document No. 1403, Boston, 1919), 33. Fernald chaired this commission.

227 left the Massachusetts School.

He found that more than half

of the men and women Investigated had been able to avoid legal difficulties and public relief.

He concluded that "the

survey shows that there are bad defectives and good defectives."

95

Additional evidence of the ability of the retarded

to succeed in less than custodial surroundings was by the work of Charles Bernstein, State Custodial Asylum.

furnished

superintendent of the Rome

In 1906 Bernstein began to place

inmates on small farm colonies with a very minimum of super­ vision.

These colonies were so troublefree that in 1911 he

established a parole system for able inmates which proved ii c i equally successful.

96

The results of these surveys and institutional experiments prompted a number of custodians their beliefs.

to reconsider

Fernald tentatively suggested:

It is beginning to be realized that we have been a little too ready, perhaps to make generalizations. There has been too great a tendency to regard feeble­ mindedness as a definite entity, and to assume that all defectives are equally dangerous as to the proba­ bility of dependency, immorality, or criminality, or as to the possibility of the transmission of their defect to their progeny.97 95 Walter E. Fernald, "After-Care Study of the Patients Discharged from Waverly for a Period of Twenty-five Years," Massachusetts Society for Mental Hygiene, Publication No. 39 (Boston, 1919), 8. ^ See the Seventeenth Annual Report of the Board of Managers of the Rome State Custodial Asylum, 1911 (Albany, 1912); and see Davies, Social Control, pp. 108-170. 97

Sixth-ninth Massachusetts (1916), 22. For a fuller admission of his hastiness, see Walter E. Fernald, "Thirty Years of Progress in the

228 An editorial in Mental Hygiene pointed out that "once we • admit the existence of a section of the feeble-minded popula­ tion which is so harmless, we must consider modifying any plan which contemplates wholesale and indiscriminate segrega-

Heredity studies and Goddard's work in particular came under criticism for their manipulation of data and their slipshod, haphazard research techniques. a Pennsylvania lawyer, provided

99

Edward Lindsay,

the most sophisticated

critique of the entire eugenics movement and the work that was based on it.

Lindsay asserted:

There seems to be a turning to the purely bio­ logical study of human development to find the explanation of social phenomena and as in bio­ logical thought there seems now current a return to the old preformist doctrines which are vir­ tually a denial of development, we see their influences on the views now advanced as to conduct and social relations in a metaphysical predetermina-^Q tion as rigid as the old theological predeterminism. Care of the Feeble-minded," Proceedings of the Forty-eighth Annual Session of the American Association for the Study of the Feeble-minded, Washing­ ton, May 30-June 2, 1924. 98

"Supervision of the Feeble-minded," Mental Hygiene, I (April

1917), 168. 99

See: Thomas Moore, "Types and Causes of Feeble-mindedness," in The Problem of Feeble-mindedness, ed., Thomas Moore (New York, 1917); and H. C. Stevens, "Eugenics and Feeble-mindedness," Jour. Crim. Law & Criminol., VI (July 1915), 190-197. "^Edward Lindsay, "Heredity and Responsibility: An Editorial," Jour. Crim. Law & Criminol., IV (May 1913), 3. Also see the editorial in Survey, XXXVI (June 1916), 266, which praised a paper by Adolf Mayer as "a welcome antidote to the doses given us in late years by semiscientific eugenic literature," (ibid.).

229 This determinism had been welcomed by those who sought an answer to persistent recidivism or continued reliance on public charity.

Belief in biological inevitability condoned the

abandonment of reform efforts and substituted a pervasive concern for control,

domination and mastery.

The stigmatization of the mentally defective as deviants served a dual function.

It allowed the majority of

social problems, many of which were symptomatic of i n d u s ­ trialization and urbanization, foundations tion.

to be thought of as having their

in individual failure and not social disorganiza­

Stigma.tization also promoted the professional custodians

into a position of prominence and importance.

The nature of

this process of stigmatization was grasped by Henry Somerville, a contemporary writer.

He was critical of the social defini­

tion of retardation because according to the definition the more society "progresses," the more complex life becomes, the higher will be the standard of intelligence required to be considered normal, and the greater will be the proportion of feeble-minded to segre­ gate or sterilize. The transitory nature of deviance— its change as the cultural boundaries of the community shift— was best revealed by the impact of the First World War on the status of

the

^^Henry Somerville, "Eugenics and the Feeble-minded," Catholic World, CV (1917), 213.

230 mentally defective. Syracuse,

0. H. Cobb,

Carson's successor at

commented that the "insistent demand for labor,

lowered efficiency and high wages, much

if permanent, would do

to solve the problem of the feeble-minded."

102

Many

who had been regarded as feeble-minded because of their inability to support themselves--revealing the importance of w o r k in the American psyche— could earn a living during the war.

"it has long been assumed that a feeble-minded

person could not support himself independently," Fernald declared, but problem,

"the war has taught us that this is not a static

for scores of our former patients are now working

£

i for high wages.

tt

103

What had happened to the mentally defective was probably no worse than what had been done to the Indians before or what would occur during the following Red Scare.

The me n ­

tally retarded were an ideal group for stigmatization and subsequent repression.

Robert B. Edgerton made the excellent

observation that intellectual incompetence is the most devas­ tating of all possible stigmas and that its victims

seek to

deny the reality of their condition by surrounding themselves in "a,cloak of competence.

What made the treatment of the

102

Sixty-ninth Annual Report of the Syracuse State Institution for the Feeble-minded (Document No. 42, Albany, 1919), 13. 103

Seventy-first Annual Report of the Massachusetts School for the Feeble-minded (Document No. 28, Boston, 1918), 14. 104 Robert B. Edgerton, The Cloak of Competence: Lives of the Mentally Retarded (Berkeley, 1967), v, vi.

Stigma in the

mentally handicappied so distasteful was that they— the most vulnerable group In society— were denied their feeble attempts to wear the emperor's new clothes.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY

This essay is a selective commentary on those sources which I found most informative and useful.

It

is not a comprehensive bibliography of all works con­ sulted and obviously does not purport to be a compilation of all materials in the field.

The primary sources for this dissertation are the reports of the superintendents and trustees of the American institutions for the mentally retarded. majority of these reports are annual, biennial.

The

the remainder are

I examined the Annual Reports of approxi­

mately thirty institutions in the period 1850-1920. Their contents and primary interests three distinct stages.

can be divided into

For the first thirty years of the

s c h o o l s 1 existence the Annual Reports provide invaluable insights into not only institutional operations but also the medical and educational theories of the superinten­ dents.

Especially useful are the early reports of Samuel

G. Howe, Hervey B. Wilbur, Richards,

Gustavius A. Doren,

James B.

Isaac N. Kerlin and Charles T. Wilbur.

As the

custodial role of the schools became more pronounced during the 1870's,

the reports assumed a more "institutional"

232

233 character.

Greater space and detail is devoted to the

agricultural,

the industrial and the physical aspects of

the institutions.

There were fewer discussions of indi­

viduals or of case historic trustees

and the reports of the

grew more perfunctory.

In addition to the

reports of Illinois, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, this trend. employed

those of Iowa,

New York, Ohio and

Indiana and Kentucky illustrate

Finally from 1900 onward,

the superintendents

their reports in propaganda efforts intended to

spur legislative and public interest in the menace of the feeble-minded.

The works of Henry H. Goddard, Walter E.

Fernald, Martin W. Barr, A. W. Wilmarth,

E. J. Emerick,

Alexander Johnson and Edward R. Johnstone are the most significant in this regard. After 1865 the Annual Reports can be supplemented by the yearly statements of the various state boards of charities which served as supervisory agencies for charita&le and correctional institutions.

The value of these reports

varies considerably as do their titles.

Among the most

informative of the thirty-four series of Reports which I examined are:

Massachusetts Board of State Charities

1879); Massachusetts

State Board of Health,

Charity

Massachusetts

(1879-1885);

and Charity Insanity

(1865-

Lunacy and

State Board of Lunacy

(1886-1898); Massachusetts State Board of

(1898/1899-1914/1915); Massachusetts Commission on

234 Mental Diseases Charities

(1917-

(1868-1920);

); New York State Board of and the Minutes of the Meetings

of the New York State Board of Charities

(1868-1918).

The State Boards of Charities and Corrections were generally renamed the State Department of Public Welfare after 1900.

Many of these departments issued detailed

quarterly bulletins of institutional operations: State Board of Charities and Corrections,

Colorado

The Quarterly

B u l l e t i n ; Illinois Department of Public Welfare,

The

Institutional Q u a rterly; Indiana Public Welfare Department, The Indiana Bulletin of Charities and Corrections; and Ohio Board of State Charities, ties and Corrections.

The Ohio Bulletin of Chari­

These bulletins supply useful

information about state policy, daily institutional life.

administrative opinion and

In addition,

states and munici­

palities published timely monographic series:

the Ohio

Public Welfare Department Publications; the Philadelphia Department of Public Health and Charities B u lletins; and the New York State Board of Charities,

Department of State

and Alien Poor, Bureau of Analysis and Investigation Eugenics and Social Welfare B u l l e t i n s . Other important state documents include the reports of the various commissions to investigate mental retarda­ tion.

The first and one of the most significant was the

Report of the Massachusetts Commission on Condition of

235 Idiots of the Commonwealth Boston,

(Senate Document No. 51,

1848) written by Samuel G. Howe.

The original

report and Howe's own notes and records are on deposit with the Library of the Walter E. Fernald State School, Waltham, Massachusetts.

Howe's other two reports

(1851,

1852) and that of the Commissioners on Idiocy to the General Assembly of Connecticut— May,

1856

(New Haven,

1856) are also helpful for this early period. years the states established commissions various aspects of retardation; the Reports from:

California

(1918),

(1911,

Jersey

1914), New Hampshire

1915) and Pennsylvania

to examine

particularly useful are

Massachusetts (1910,

1914,

In later

Indiana

1919), Michigan

(1916),

(1915), New

(1915), New York

(1908,

(1915) .

Especially noteworthy is the Report of the New York State Commission to Investigate Provisions tally Deficient pages),

scope,

(Albany,

for the Men­

1915) because of its size

(628

contents and excellent bibliography.

Two

additional good sources of contemporary bibliographic references are:

"Feeble-mindedness:

A Selective Bibliog­

raphy," Bulletin of the Russell Sage Foundation Library No. 15

(New York,

1916), and Leland C. Whitney,

"Bibliog­

raphy of Feeble-mindedness in Its Social Aspects," Journal of Psycho-Asthenics Monograph Supplements, I (No. 1917) .

3, March,

236

There are only a limited number of relevant Federal publications since there was no government insti­ tution for the retarded and most of the interest in the mentally defective remained at the state and local level until after 1920.

Beginning with the Census of 1850 and

continuing through the Census of 1890 there were attempts to enumerate all the mentally handicapped.

After 1890

the Census Bureau was instructed

to survey only those defec­

tives actually in institutions.

Prior to 1890 the Census

data must be used with extreme caution and is more suggestive than authoritative.

After 1910 the publications of the

Children's Bureau of the Department of Labor,

especially

those of Emma 0. Lundberg in the "Dependent, Defective and Delinquent Classes" series are worthwhile,

as are the

United States Public Health Reports and the Bulletins of the Bureau of Education.

The Government Printing Office and

the United States Commissioner of Education published a number of works by Arthur MacDonald in conjunction with his studies of "abnormal man;" they are cited in his bibliography attached to:

U.S. Congress, House,

Committee on the Judiciary,

Establishment of a Laboratory for the Study of the C r i m i n a l , Pauper and Defective Clas s e s . Hearings before the Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives, 57th Cong.,

on H.R.

14798,

1st s ess., 1902.

The records,

P r o c e e di n gs

and J o u rn a ls

of a n um be r of

237 international, national,

state and local organizations

are excellent sources of contemporary material.

The

Proceedings of the National Conference of Charities and Corrections has three directories :

Cumulative Index of

the Proceedings of the Proceedings of the National Con­ ference of Charities and Corrections, Compiled by Alexander Johnson (rev. ed., n.p.,

1907); A Guide to

the Study of Charities and Corrections by Means of the Proceedings of the National Conference of Charities and Corrections, Compiled by Alexander Johnson (n.p.,

1908);

and Proceedings of the National Conference of Social W o r k : [Formerly National Conference of Charities and Corrections] Index: to 1907,

1877-1933 (Chicago, 1935).

Although it only extends

Johnson's Guide is most comprehensive;

the other

two are little more than elaborate indexes of papers and par­ ticipants.

It should be noted that the National Conference

of Charities and Corrections changed its name in 1917 to the National Conference of Social Work;

Frank J. Bruno, Trends

in Social Work as Reflected in the Proceedings of the National Conference of Social Work,

1874-1946

(New York,

1948) pro­

vides routine information in an official history.

On the

local level, at least fourteen states and New York City had their own Conferences of Charities and Corrections which were modeled after the National Conference.

In their Proceedings

the importance of both the local officials and the visiting

238 nationally-known figures Johnson)

(such as Goddard, Fernald and

is clearly evident. The Proceedings of the Association of Medical Offi­

cers of American Institutions minded Persons

(1876-1896)

for Idiotic and Feeble­

and the succeeding Journal of

Psycho-Asthenics are essential for any understanding of the superintendents,

their institutions and their profession.

Also of importance are the Proceedings and Journals of these international and national associations:

International

Congress of Charity and Corrections and Philanthropy; International Congress on Hygiene and Demography; Associa­ tion of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane

(renamed the American Medico-Psychological

Association in 1893); American Medical Associat-ion; National Prison Association

(renamed the American Prison Association

in 1907); National Committee on Mental Hygiene; Educational Association.

The records and publications of

the more local or specialized groups, Research Association,

the

such as the Eugenics

the Eugenics Records Office,

Carnegie Institution of Washington, Association,

and National

[New York]

the

the Juvenile Protective

State Charities Aid Association,

the New York Committee on Feeble-mindedness,

the Massachusetts

Society for Mental Hygiene and the Committee on Provision for the Feeble-minded provide a wealth of material in the fields of eugenics, hygiene.

retardation,

charity organization and mental

239 There is a great deal of periodical literature, and much of it is in medical journals.

The finest guide

to these sources is the Index Catalogue of the Library of the Surgeon-General's Office and the Index M e d i c u s . some value for the more popular periodicals are:

Of

P o o l e 1s

Index to Periodical L i t e r a t u r e , Nineteenth Century Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature and Reader's Guide to Periodical L iterature.

These guides reflect

the changing

terminology of retardation and care must be taken to search not only the more modern terms like "mentally defective" and "mentally handicapped" but also the older categories of "idiocy," "imbecility," and "feeble-minded."

The fol­

lowing periodicals are most informative and justified a close examination of their contents for the years 1840-1920: Journal of Psycho-Asthenics, Training School B u l l e t i n , Me n ­ tal H y g i e n e , Journal of the American Medical A s s o c i a t i o n , Eugenical N e w s , Journal of H e r e d i t y , American Journal of I n s a n i t y , Journal of Nervous and Mental D i s e a s e s , Boston M edi­ cal and Surgical J o u r n a l , Bulletin of the History of M e d i c i n e , American Journal of Sociology, Bulletin of the American Academy of M e d i c i n e , Su r v e y , Popular Science Monthly and the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.

The early t re at m en t

of

the m e n t a l l y r e t a r d e d is

discussed with first-hand knowledge by Edward Seguin in "Origin of the Treatment and Training of Idiots," American Journal of Edu c a t i o n , II

(August 1856), 145-152;

Idiocy

and its Treatment by the Psychological M e t h o d , Columbia U n i v e r s i t y ;T e a c h e r 's College Educational Reprint Series, 1907

(New York,

cerning Idiocy

1866);

and New Facts and Remarks C o n ­

(New York,

1870).

Seguin's educational

theories are equally important as his historical comments. Linus P. Brockett,

"idiots and Institutions

for Their

Training," American Journal of Education, I (May 1856), 593-608,

and James B. Richards,

"Causes and Treatment of

Idiocy," New York Journal of M e d i c i n e , III

(1856),

378-387,

also comment on the first efforts to aid the retarded from personal experience. accounts

in Martin W. Barr, Mental Defectives:

Treatment and Training Davies,

There are serviceable secondary

(Philadelphia,

1 9 0 4 ) Stanley P.

Social Control of the Feeble-minded:

Social Progress

and Attitudes

of Mental Deficiency

in Relation to

(New York, 1923)

the Mentally Deficient

Their H i s t o r y ,

A Study of the Problems

and Social Control of

(New York, 1930); Albert Deutsch,

The Mentally 111 in America;

A History of Their Care and

Treatment from Colonial Times

(New York, 1949); and Leo Kanner,

A History of the Care and Study of the Mentally Retarded (Springfield,

Illinois,

1964).

Two works merit special atten­

tion as much for. their intellectual framework as for their

241 contents:

Margret Adams, Mental Retardation and Its Social

Dimensions

(New York,

1971),

Discovery of the Asylum: New Republic

(Boston,

and David J. Rothman,

The

Social Order and Disorder in the

1971).

Both appeared after I com­

pleted my research and, while not without faults,

each author

approaches his subject with freshness and originality. There are few adequate studies of the men who worked with the mentally handicapped.

The exception is the treat­

ment given to Seguin in William Boyd, (London, 1914);

Ivor Kraft,

From Locke to Montesspri

"Edward Seguin and the Nineteenth

Century Moral Treatment of Idiots," Bulletin of the History of M e d i c i n e , XXXV (September-October, 1961), Mabel E. Talbot,

Edward Seguin:

393-419;

and

A Study of an Educational

Approach to the Treatment of Mentally Defective Children (New York,

1964).

Social Reformer

Harold Schwartz,

Samuel Gridley H o w e :

(Cambridge, Massachusetts,

about Howe's role as a superintendent, "Dr.

1956) says little

as does F. E. Williams,

Samuel G. Howe and the Beginnings of Work with the Feeble­

minded in Massachusetts," Boston Medical and Surgical J o u r n a l , CLXXVII

(October 1917),

481-484.

Fortunately Howe was his

own best spokesman in The Letters and Journals of Samuel Gridley H o w e , Edited by Laura E. Richards, 1909).

For the other superintendents

2 vols-.

(Boston,

there is the rather cur­

sory information supplied in the standard reference works: Dictionary of American Biography; Appleton's Cyclopedia of

242 American Bio g r a p h y ; National Cyclopedia of American Biography and Who's W h o .

On a par with these materials is the Biography

File of the Library of the New York Academy of Medicine and the memorial tributes of fellow superintendents in the Pro­ ceedings of the Association of Medical Officers of American Institutions for Idiotic and Feeble-minded Persons and the Journal of Psycho-Asthenics.

Standing by itself is the aut o ­

biography of Alexander Johnson, Adventures in Social W e l f a r e : Being Reminiscences of Things, Forty Years of Social Work

Thoughts and Folks During

(Fort Wayne,

1923) .

Johnson

fully discusses his tenure as superintendent of the Indiana School for the Feeble-minded and his association with the National Conference of Charities and Corrections and the Com­ mittee on Provision for the Feeble-minded. There are no professional histories of the institu­ tions for the mentally defective. such works are Walter E. Fernald,

-The closest approaches

to

"The History of the Treat­

ment of the Feeble-minded," Proceedings of the National Conference of Charities and Corrections, XX (1893), Fred Kuhlmann,

203-221;

"One Hundred Years of Special Care and Train­

ing," American Journal of Mental Deficiency, XLV (1940-1941), 2-24;

and James Leiby,

Charity and Correction in New J e r s e y :

A History of State Welfare Institutions Basic data is supplied in Henry M. Hurd,

(New Brunswick,

1967).

Institutional Care

of the Insane in the United States and Ca n a d a , 4 vols.

243 (Baltimore,

1916),

and In a series of "Notes on Institutions

for the Mentally Defective," in the American Journal of Mental Deficiency, XLV (1940-1941), 187-189, 513; XLVI

(1941-1942, 161-164, 155-157,

293-294,

253-254,

340-342,

448-449,

XLVII

(1942-1943),

1-2.

Some helpful information is contained in:

Byers,

The Village of Happiness:

School

(Vineland,

1934);

362;

511-

450-452;

and L (1945-1946), Joseph P.

The Story of the Training

Twenty-fifth Anniversary:

L abo r a t o r y , 1906-1931, Edited by Edgar Doll

Vineland

(Vineland,

1932);

and "Fernald Memorial Number," Edited by George M. Kline, Bulletin of the Massachusetts Department of Mental D i s e a s e s , XIV (Nos. 1 & 2, April 1930). bibliographies.

The last two works have full

The institutions'

Annual Report and the

Report of the State Board of Charity are the best sources of information for the internal operations of the institutions but they may be supplemented with George E. Shuttleworth, Notes of a Visit Imbeciles

to American Institutions for Idiots and

(Lancaster,

Manual of Elwyn,

England, n.d.);

1864-1891

Isaac N. Kerlin,

(Philadelphia,

1891);

The

and New York

City Department of Public Charities and Corrections, Rules and Regulations of

the Randall's Island Hospital

(New York,

1894). The footnotes are the best guides to the literature of specific subjects such as intelligence testing, moral imbecility,

eugenics and crime.

Certain works, however,

deserve special mention. Hereditarian Attitudes

Mark H. Haller,

Eugenics;

in American Thought

(New Brunswick,

1963) is a constantly helpful book that skillfully incor­ porates insight and information concerning the manifold ramifications of eugenics. Donald K. Pickens, 1968)

Despite its mass of detail,

Eugenics and the Progressives

is of considerably less value.

(Nashville,

The same issues are

more ably discussed by Rudolph J. Vecoli, •"Sterilization: A Progressive Measure?" Wisconsin Magazine of H i s t o r y , XLIII

(Spring 1960),

190-202,

and Charles E. Rosenberg,

"Charles Benedict Davenport and the Beginnings of Human Genetics," Bulletin of the History of M e d i c i n e , XXXV June 1961),

266-276.

The importance of racial science

and racial thinking in this period Handling

(May-

is considered by:

Race and Nationality in American Life

Oscar

(Boston,

1947); David Spitz, Patterns of Anti-Democratic Thought (New York,

1949);

John Higham,

Patterns of American Nativism, and Barbara Solomon, New England Tradition

Strangers in the L a n d : 1860-1925

(New Brunswick,

Ancestors and Immigrants: (Cambridge,

1955)

A Changing

Massachusetts,

1956).

Although mental testing has an extensive bibliog­ raphy, Alfred Binet and Thomas Simon, The Development of Intelligence in C h i ldren, Translated by Elizabeth S. Kite (Baltimore,

1916); and The Intelligence of the Feeble-minded,

Translated by Elizabeth S. Kite

(Baltimore,

1916)

remain the

245 best introductions

to intelligence testing.

Early Conceptions and Tests of Intelligence Hudson,

New York,

Their History,

1925);

Joseph Peterson, (Yonkers-on-

and Frank K. Freeman, Mental Tests:

Principles and Applications

provide much background material but

(Boston,

1926)

they lack the critical

spirit of J. E. W a l l a c e - W a l l i n , The Problem of Subnormality (Yonkers-on-Hudson, New York,

1917).

Isaac N. Kerlin was primarily responsible for the detection of moral imbecility and its subsequent identifi­ cation with deviant acts. Isaac N. Kerlin,

His two pathbreaking r e p o r t s —

"Moral Imbecility," Proceedings of the A s s o ­

ciation of Medical Officers of American Institutions Idiotic and Feeble-minded P e r s o n s ,(1887),30-37 and

for

"The

Moral Imbecile," Proceedings of the National Conference of Charities and C o r r e c t i o n s , XVII basis of almost all later work.

(1890),

Martin W. Barr,

Career of a Moral Imbecile," Alienist

Medical T i m e s , XL

(July 1912),

(Chicago,

1968)

a closely analogous subject.

and N e u r o l o g y , XXXII

197-199.

Charles E. Rosenberg,

Psychiatry and Law in

is an excellent treatment of The relationship of mental

defect and crime 1 b well handled by Arthur E. Fink, of Crime:

"The

573-592 and "A Trio of Moral Imbeciles,"

The Trial of the Assassin Guiteau; the Gilded Age

formed the

Kerlin's influence was

especially strong on his successor,

(November 1911),

244-250,

Biological Theories in the United States,

Causes 1800-1915

2 46

(Philadelphia, cussion,

1938)

who also provides an e x t e n s i v e dis­

with full bibliography,

sterilization.

The most comprehensive

is William Healy,

(Boston,

Finally, deviance

for All Concerned

1966)

Kai T.

inspired me to investigate the

Howard S. Becker,

Outsiders;

(New York, (New York,

1966);

Concepts

concept of

Studies in the Sociology of

and Mark Lefton. editors,

D e v i a n c e and James

and Research Findings

Goffman,

Asylums:

Patients

and Other Inmates

institutions."

(New York,

(New York,

chusetts, Press,

1961);

1968)

Erving

and

Gresham M.

A Study of A M a x i m u m Security

1958) are critical analyses

of "total

A good bibliographic guide to the entire

field is Edwin D. Driver, Mental Illness;

to Deviance:

Essays on the Social S i t u a t i o n of Mental

Sykes, The Society of Captives; (Princeton,

K. Skipper,

Approaches

are important sources of theoretical concepts.

Prison

Erickson,

to the mentally retarded.

1963); Albert K. Cohen,

and Charles A. ^McCarthy,

Theories,

in Understanding

A Study in the Sociology of Deviance

deviance and its applicability

Deviance

A Text-Book

a number of works in the s o c i o l o g y of

are instructive and provocative.

(New York,

Jr.,

cont e m p o r a r y work

1915).

Wayward Puritans;

Control

i m becility and

The Individual Delinquent:

of Diagnosis and Prognosis Offenders

of moral

The Sociology and Anthropology of

A Reference Guide 1965).

(University

of Massa­

For an application of the concepts

of deviance to the present day retarded, The Cloak of Competence: Retarded

(Berkeley,

Robert B.

Gdgerton,

Stigma in the Lives of the Mentally

1967) is excellent.

Modern perceptions

of the mentally handicapped are contained in Norman R. Berstein,

editor, Diminished People:

the Mentally Retarded

(Boston,

1970).

Problems and Care of

VITA

Peter Lawrence Tyor was born in New Y o r k on December 26, 1944.

He graduated the Walden

School

In 1962 and attended the University of Rochester and the University of Nottingham receiving the A.B.

(England) before

from Rochester in 1966.

He

did his graduate work at Northwestern University, where he was granted the M.A. He and his wife, Hilary,

and Ph.D*

live in E v a n s t o n ,

1972. Illinois