Irwinton bulletin. (Irwinton, Wilkinson County, Ga.) 1894-1911, October 20, 1911, Image 1

Irwinton bulletin., October 20, 1911, Image 1

About Irwinton bulletin. (Irwinton, Wilkinson County, Ga.) 1894-1911 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 20, 1911)

Page of 8

Prev Issue Next Issue

Text PDF JP2 (3.7 MB) Clip/Print Image

Page of 8

Prev Issue Next Issue

Return to Top

Newspaper Page TextVOLUME XVU. THE CURSE OF HEREDITY HREE HUNDRED THOU sand feeble-minded per sons are running at large in the United States. Eighty per cent of the feeble-minded chil dren come from 19 per cent of the community. Idiocy — feeble-minded- ness, is simply another name for it — is a matter of heredity. “There has been a terrible increase in the number of feeble-minded chil dren in the past few years. "Feeble-minded mothers are twice as prolific as normal women. “The country cannot build institu tions rapidly enough to house and take care of the feeble-minded. “The only solution of the problem is the unsexing of all feeble-minded per sons to prevent them from breeding more feeble-minded children, and the training of the feeble-minded who are now here to be self-supporting.” These are a few of the conclusions reached by Prof. E. R. Johnstone and Dr. Henry H. Goddard of the training school for feeble minded chil dren at Vineland, N. J., after a care ful study of more than 250 families in which feeble-minded children have been born for several generations. In four of these families the records of 2,700 individuals were traced, of which number 687 were feeble-minded, or nearly one-fourth of the entire num ber. At the present time Dr. Goddard, who is in charge of the research de partment of the institution,' is engaged in tracing the records of the members of a single family which promises to rival if not actually to surpass the rec ord of the notorious Jukes family. Jukes, it will be remembered, is the famous family of criminals usually cited as the most glaring example of heredity in crime. More than two thirds of the descendants of the orig- How the ancestry of 1,146 brothers, sisters and cousins, of whom 530 were insane, others criminals or epileptics and the remainder normal, has been traced back through seven generations to the parent stock —a sane father and a feeble-minded mother. Inal founder of the family, a criminal who came to America in. the latter part of the seventeenth century, were criminals, feeble-minded persons or degenerates. This family being stud ied by Prof. Goddard shows an even higher percentage of feeble-mind ed members. Dr. Goddard has already spent three years in compiling and classifying the information about this family, gathered by seven trained in vestigators who have been constantly In the field. Another year will elapse before the record of every member of the family is traced and the work completed, but the facts gathered so far enable Dr. Goddard to declare the case of the Jukeses is not an isolated one —as many have believed —but a typical one. In fact, every state in the Union will furnish several fam ilies, he declares. For obvipus reasons It is Impossible to give the name of the family, but in 1782 a young man of a proud New Jer sey family wronged a feeble-minded girl tn the village near his home. Then he went his way, married a girl of fine family, reared children and died, high ly respected. In 1837. But the feeble-minded girl gave birth to a son of feeble mind, and this son became the father of 13 children, seven of whom were idiots. One of the feeble minded sons married a feeble-minded woman and all their children were idiots. In the next gen eration one of their feeble-minded 3rmtntim Sullettn. NUMBER 4. sons (to follow only one branch of tne family) fell in love with a feeble-mind ed woman. Nobody prevented them from marrying. They brought 11 chil dren into the world. And one of their idiot daughters bore 11 children. And the last in the direct line of horrors Is a girl of 14 in the train ing school at Vineland who has the mind of a child of two. Thia, mind you, is tracing only one member of the family in each generation. iThat one youth who wronged that feeble-minded girl more than a century ago became the ancestor through her of 1,146 hu man beings. Dr. Goddard’s assistants have investigated the records of near ly every one of these descendants only to discover that 580 of them —or more than half—-were feeble-minded, many of them with criminal records. Among the others were numerous epileptics —showing conclusively the terrible consequences of that unfortunate union. Dr. Goddard's assistants have traced nearly a thousand of the same young man's legitimate descendants —the re sult of his union to a normal woman. Not a single case of feeble-minded ness has been found among them. When this great work is completed. Dr. Goddard believes it will be the most powerful argument ever present ed for the unsexing of all feeble-mind ed persons. The state of New Jer sey fias already passed a law which provides for the unsexing of all in mates of institutions for the feeble-minded. However, this will only prevent those who are already in the institutions from breeding more feeble-minded children. More effective measures are necessary, and to that end I?rof. Johnstone, who is superintendent of the training school, has outlined a plan which, if adopted, will, he believes, do more to solve the problem than anything that has been attempted so far. "All that we have yet done has been to house the feeble-minded,” said Prof. Johnstone the other day. "Now we are finding that they are in creasing with such rapidity that this plan is impossible. We have got to igo a step further. Special classes must be organized in every school for all children who are be hind in their work. These children must be examined carefully by physi cians. We are standardizing tests for feeble-mindedness, and so accurate are these tests that every feeble minded child can be detected with absolute certainty. If morally suitable these backward children can be kept in school and live at their homes until the age of puberty. If they are not morally suitable they should be sent to training schools for the feeble-mind ed. There they should be unsexed and taught some useful occupation. Thirty to fifty per cent, can be made entirely self-supporting after ten years’ training. When they grow up they can be placed in homes and farms for feeble-minded adults. The men can work in shops and on the farms. The women can sew and work In the orchards. Many of them can be permitted to return to their own homes. The greatest danger today is that feeble-minded persons when they are allowed to return to their homes bring more feeble-minded people into the world. But unsexing them will re move this danger and wtihin a few decades the community will have to deal only with the occasional feeble minded child who Is born to normal parents. We are not ready to adopt the old Spartan custom of putting to death the feeble-minded and the physically unfit, although there are some per sons who believe this should be done. We cannot continue to bouse them. IRWINTON, WILKINSON COUNTY, GEORGIA, FRIDAY. OCTOBER 20, 1911. The expense is already greater than the state can bear. We must put an end to the breeding of feeble-mind ed children as far as possible and train those we have and those that are bound to come to be self-supporting. The training school at Vineland is the only institution in America that is scientifically and systematically studying the problem of checking the increase of feeble-mindedness. Elab orate experiments are constantly be ing conducted there with a view to bet tering the condition of the Inmates, who number approximately 400. A few years ago it was discovered that the cretin type lacked the thyroid gland, and that feeding them the thy roid gland of a sheep produced a dis tinct improvement. It is now be lieved, in fact, it has been demon strated in many Institutions, that if the thyroid gland be fed to the cretin type at an early age their efficiency is greatly Increased. At the present many feebleminded children of the Mongolian type (so called from their slant eyes) are be ing fed with pituitary glands and oth ers with mixtures of the pituitary and thyroid glands in the hope that it will improve their physical and mental con ditions. These glands, which are ob tained from sheep and other animals, are fed to the children three times a day In tablet form. The experiment has been under way for about three months, but at least a year must elapse before any definite conclusions can be reached as to its value. The experiment Is being made on the the ory that some chemical element is missing from these children, and that to correct their condition it is neces sary to find out what this is. These studies are directed by Dr. W. S. Cor nell, who is in charge of the medical research. Another selected group of 20 feeble minded, children of different grades are being fed with the pineal gland, also in the form of capsules. Their condition is being compared with that of 20 children of the same grade who are not being given the gland. Very little is known of the uses of these ductless glands, but the discovery that feeding the thyroid gland to the cre tin type improves their condition has led several investigators to believe that the feeding of pituitary and pineal glands may have similar effects. The pituitary gland is situated near the base of the nose. When it is dis eased it causes a disease commonly known as giantism. The pineal gland in a small conical structure found above the third verticle of the brain. Os course, these experiments may re sult in nothing, but so far the results have been most encouraging. COULDN’T BE CONVERTED Pastor of Church Confesses His Inabil ity to Pass a Counterfeit Sil- ver Dollar. The minister walked solemnly to the front of the platform, and after gazing Intently at the congregation for some moments he cleared his throat and spoke. “I am sorry to have to announce,” he said slowly, "that some member of this congregation on Sunday last put a counterfeit silver dollar in the con tribution box. What his motive was I know not. He may have assumed that for the heathen a spurious dol lar was as good as a real one, but it should not be understood that the actual money we take in here does not go directly to them, and I hope that the individual who gave the spurious coin will be good enough to redeem it. I am sorry to have to make the request, but the fact is that I have tried three times to pass the dollar In question off myself, and in every case unsuccessfully, wherefore I consider that it Is up to the donor to make good.” “I am the guilty party, parson,” said a little red-headed individual sit ting In the third row of pews, rising and taking a genuine dollar out of his pocket. “I had hoped, sir, that a man of your strong powers of ex hortation. who has made a good man out of such unpromising material as myself, would be able to convert that dollar—” “You will please resume your seat, Mr. Skinnerton." said the clergyman. "The treasurer will negotiate the ex change at the conclusion of the serv ice. The ushers will now proceed with the collection, and while they are about it please let me say that, as be tween counterfeit money and suspend er buttons for the collection plate. I most unquestionably prefer the latter. The suspender button can be made useful, but spurious money is not only useless, but involves the clerical con science in too great a strain, consider ing the size of the average minis terial salary.”—Harper’s Weekly. Good Guess. “I can see you standing alone be fore a crowd of people," said the trance medium. "They are fighting and struggling to be placed In your care, and before you there gleams the bright light of leadership that seems to point ever onward." “That’s me all right,” replied her patron as he shoved out a quarter; "I am a motorman.’’ A LITTLE BETTER FOR A LITTLE LESS Our New Home WORTH Coming to See You want to see this new home of ours™ a store that has several stores in one yon don’t have to go all over town to find . what you want We are are told on all sides we have just what Milledgeville has long needed™a store that is a store complete. We know you will like this store of ours. Our sole idea has been to make this store a store where shop ping is easy. First, we have the goods™ everything to wear-Ladies’, Men’s, Boys’, Girls’ and Children’s. If it’s a shoe our Shoe Department can supply you. In fact, if it’s anything to wear we have it. A phone in each department. A convenient cash and parcel system gets your packages to you quick. “ Our Ladies Room” is nice and cozy and we want you to FEEL FREE TO USE IT AT ANY TIME. Don’t Fail to Come to Milledgeville and Don’t Fail to See Us. Your Friends, W. S. MYRICK & CO. MILLEDGEVILLE’S ONLY DEPARTMENT STORE SI.OO A YEAR.