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89
Massed for
Number of
Examinations.
Numbers
Examined.
Mentally
Defective.
Physically
Defective.
Blind.
Deaf.
Elementary
School.
Imbecile.
invalids and
Epileptics.
April 25 322 104 54 — 6 79 10 69
May 39 444 126 61 4 6 137 14 96
June 27 392 132 56 6 7 93 12 86
July 24 363 108 58 2 7 88 16 84
September 40 528 136 104 6 3 143 15 121
October 44 688 272 90 12 11 164 20 119
November 52 740 262 103 11 19 187 21 137
December 37 472 169 66 3 4 120 12 98
January 37 388 140 57 5 6 104 10 66
February 44 536 185 82 2 17 167 12 71
March 46 681 204 88 6 28 222 21 112
Total 415 5,554 1.838 819 57 114 1,504 163 1,059
1903- 4 170 2,531 1,046 372 30 32 702 119 230
1904- 5 339 5,048 1,761 776 61 60 1,216 148 1,026
1905- 6 415 5,554 1,838 819 57 114 1,504 163 1,059
Last year + or - +76 + 506 + 77 + 43 - 4 + 54 +288 +15 j 33
Certain cases are either examined at once at the head office, or when referred there for more detailed
investigation, not always possible at the various centres. There were 837 such individual examinations,
but excluding cases seen in connection with transfers to or from residential schools and a few
cases seen two or more times, there were 615 cases educationally disposed of as follows:—
Deaf.
Blind.
Mentally Defective.
Deaf. I Blind.
Imbecile
and
Blind.
Elementary
Invalids
and Epileptics.
Mentally
Defective
Imbecile.
High
Myopia.
Industrial
Schools.
Boys 43 24 8 6 — 88 52 20 4 7 13
Girls 39 34 7 5 1 133 79 18 2 13 11
Total 82 58 15 11 1 221 131 38 6 20 24
There is an immense amount of work in the recording of over 5,000 cases of all variety of
defects and anomalies. Under our present system much of this is lost, as for the purposes of study or
analysis the handling of the material becomes so laborious, and it is proposed in future to file these
records on cards with the detailed notes taken.
The cases seen at the office have been gone through and notes made on the groups arranged
under the following headings:—
Heredit.—Heredity referred to in connection with feeble-mindedness on p. 42, is also
apparent on looking through the notes of these cases seen at the office.
It is a subject which may have very important sociological bearings in the near future.
Neglecting cases where a brother and sister, or two of the same sex in a family are affected, there
are still sufficient marked cases to indicate the frequency of heredity in degenerative conditions.
The first case noted is that of a boy of 12½, deaf and somewhat defective mentally, his sister
is deaf and dumb, his brother of 14 is strongly suspected of having drowned a younger sister to pawn
some of her clothes and was a few days later caught in the act of attempting murder on a small boy.
He is now in a criminal lunatic asylum.
The next family is a mother with myopia and her three daughters with some myopia, degenerative
retinal (macular) changes and associated nervous troubles, all the ten brothers of these three girls are
healthy. In another family three out of six children have retinal degeneration, associated with mental
defect.
A boy blind with cataract has his father, three unmarried aunts and grandfather in a similar
condition.
Then occur a mother and three daughters with congenital cataracts.
Congenital or hereditary deaf mutism is represented during the past year by notes of families
where deafness is common among parents or relatives, and where sixteen families include 46 children
who are deaf mutes.
The "Institutions for the Deaf," which bring deaf people together, are chiefly responsible for
the marriages of deaf mutes, and a considerable proportion of the resulting deaf mutism in children.
The subscribers to such institutions are really aiding the increase of conditions which they hope to
alleviate. Every obstacle should, therefore, be raised to prevent the operation of these mischievous
establishments.
Deafness.—Deaf children submitted for examination at the office numbered 285; of these 141
were girls and 144 boys. Girls to the number of 26 and 44 boys were transfers—that is, cases submitted