world is entitled to a good home, to the love and fostering care of father and mother. To deprive it of this right unnecessarily is to do not only the parents an injustice but the child a great wrong, makes the state communistic in character, and tends to establish a paternalism which, in free America, is not to be tolerated.

SOME NOTES ON THE RECENT MEETING OF THE
AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF THE
FEEBLEMINDED.

Geo. Mogridge, M. D., Superintendent of Institution for
Feebleminded Children. Glenwood, Iowa.

The forty-seventh annual session of the American Association for the study of the Feebleminded was held this year at Detroit, Michigan, from June 15th to 18th inclusive. I had the privilege of attending this meeting as a representative of our state. The Association is unique in that it is the only one of its kind, no other organization having for its object the study of the mentally deficient being in existence. The association is almost fifty years old, the first session being held at the Pennsylvania Training School, at Media, Pa., in 1876, in the Centennial year.

At this first meeting there were gathered a few of the pioneers in the work of caring for the feebleminded in this country. The association at that time was given the name of the "Association of Medical Officers of American Institutions for Idiots and Feebleminded Persons." Among those present were Dr. I. N. Kerlin, of Pennsylvania; Dr. H. M. Knight, of Connecticut; Dr. C. T. Wilbur, of Illinois; Dr. Geo. A. Doren, of Ohio; Dr. H. B. Wilbur, of New York, and Dr. Geo. A, Brown, of Barre, Massachusetts. There was also present at this first meeting Dr. Edouard Seguin, who had recently arrived from Paris, France, and settled in New York state-Dr. Seguin's work, "Idiocy and Its Treatment by the Physiological Method" being the pioneer publication in regard to the feebleminded.

The second meeting was held in 1877, at Columbus, Ohio, the attendance being those named as attending the first meeting, and in addition Dr. Beaton, of Orillia, Canada, and Dr. O. W. Archibald, of Glenwood, Iowa, and from that time on during the entire history of the Association (which later changed its name) there have been in its membership representatives from the institution at Glenwood-Dr. O. W. Archibald, Dr. F. M. Powell, and the writer.

My first connection with the association, if I remember correctly, was in the year 1890, and I find on comparing notes with the secretary of the association, that there is only one member living at the present time that is an older member than myselfthat is Dr. W. E. Fernald, of Waverly, Mass., he having been a member of the association I think, for about thirty-six years, my record being thirty-three years.

The Detroit meeting was of particular interest to me, inasmuch as a special effort had been made to secure the attendance of the older members, and as a result there were present a number whose connection with the association was from twenty to thirty or more years. This fact gave an added interest to the meeting as it afforded an opportunity to renew old acquaintances with many who are getting gray in the work.

The particularly striking note to me in papers and discussions at the conference, was the gradual change in thoughts, ideas and policies that are gradually being evolved in the work with and for mental deficients. This is particularly striking to one who has followed the workings of the association during the past thirty years. In the early years, the uppermost thought seemed to be the ideal results that we hoped to attain: the education of all feebleminded children to a point where they could be returned to their homes as self supporting citizens. Later this ideal was found to be impractical and little by little the pendulum swung around until not many years ago permanent segregation by the state of all mental deficients was strongly advocated. This held the center of the stage for a number of years, and the deliberations of the association were pro and con from this view point.

Then the psychological feature was introduced and with examinations from the psychological standpoint another advance was made. And also it then began to dawn upon us, that this class were present in numbers previously not realized, until estiit became very evident that no state could carry out a plan of segmation of these numbers assumed such alarming proportions that regation of all types and classes of the mentally deficient. So that of late years we have been casting around for some form of procedure in regard to the class that would make for their best interests, and also for the best interests of their friends, and society at large.

With the development of psychological studies in regard to mentality there has also come to view a class of deficients that are variously named, for whom the term defective delinquents is as good as any. Those are the higher type morons, and so far as intellectual attainments are concerned, are not very much retarded, but their conduct is in varying degrees so antisocial that they are a menace in any community. The recognition of this class and type has complicated the educative machinery that we had in connection with the ordinary feebleminded, as we knew them years ago. Particularly is this true in the eastern states, and states in which there are large centers of populations.

It has been noticeable that many of the papers read at the recent sessions have reference to this particular type of children. For instance, some of the titles at the recent session were as follows: "Mental Defects as Seen in Criminal Courts", The Unstable Moron", "Feeblemindedness and Behavior", "Cases of

Feebleminded from the Viewpoint of the Courts", Report of Two Years' Work in the Education of Psychopaths", etc.

Another matter which occupied considerable time and attention at the meeting was the subnormal child in the public schools, and this phase of the problem of the feebleminded was intensely interesting. The following titles show somewhat in regard to this; "A Report of Two Years' Work in Observation Classes for Atypical Children" (Toronto, Canada); "A Study of 150 Ex-Pupils of Special Classes in Boston, Mass.", by a follow-up worker for special classes in that city; and "The Subnormal Child in the Public Schools", by Dr. Berry, Professor of Special Education in the University of Michigan.

In connection with this phase, the association attended, in groups some buildings of the Detroit Public Schools, to inspect the work being done by the department of special classes in the schools of the city. Incidently I might say that there are 150 such rooms maintained in that city, requiring a teaching corps of over two hundred.

The education of the feebleminded by a system of special classes in connection with the public school system is growing in importance and necessity and I am hopeful that some plan will be evolved in Iowa by which it will be possible that feebleminded children may be educated in their own neighborhoods in these special classes. This will not interfere with the state's work in its institutions but will relieve the rooms in the schools of a burden they should not carry and will permit of training for a large number of children that at present are unable to take advantage of educative processes in state institutions or in the public schools.

Another matter that was particularly interesting in this connection was the state work of a parole system that is gradually being evolved in various localities. The experiences of Dr. Chas. Bernstein, of Rome, N. Y., with his colonies, of which he now has about twenty, some in Rome and some outside of Rome in other towns, was extremely interesting, and the report by Dr. Cobb, of the Institution for Mental Defectives, at Syracuse, N. Y., and Dr. Sanger Brown, of the New York Commission for Mental Defectives, and some observations of the head social worker from the Wrentham School for the feebleminded in Massachusetts, were all interesting. In this connection an address by Judge Hulbert, at one of our sessions in connection with a special institution that the city of Detroit is now building, and in which he outlined the course that they expected to pursue in educating and paroling those who pass through their hands was full of interest. While the judge's ideas were somewhat those of an indealist, yet the work that they have in contemplation is practical to a great degree-the final results only of course being at present in doubt that is, the success of the parole system that they have in view.

In summing up my impressions of the meeting generally, I would say:

First, that the scope of the state's work for the feebleminded is enlarging in every state.

Second, that the difficulties for meeting the needs of the defective delinquent are not yet worked out.

Third, that the public schools are becoming alive more and more to the necessity of providing under their system for the training of this class.

Fourth, that a system of parole for state patients is finding favor and differing plans for such parole are being gradually evolved.