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Twenty-one children presenting material physical defects were recommended
for guardianship or institutional care, and six were not so recommended.
It will be seen that the difference between the two groups is greatest in the
matter of stability, and in the home conditions ; the difference in the mental ages
is not so great as might have been expected, showing that among M.D. children
intelligence is not the greatest factor in making institutional care or guardianship
necessary. The reason for the recommendation was lowness of mental grade in
only 20 out of the 100 cases. More frequently it was instability of character or
poor home conditions, often a combination of the two. Marked incapacity for
handwork was sometimes given as a reason, but educational failure, in the narrower
sense, was never suggested as a ground for institutional treatment. In twenty-one
cases after-care was deemed necessary largely on account of combined defect, there
being physical illness, such as paralysis and epilepsy in addition to the mental
deficiency. There was a difference between the sex incidence in the two samples,
there being sixty-one girls and thirty-nine boys in the group of those recommended
for institutional care, as against forty-four girls and fifty-six boys in the group
from those not so recommended. This is due to the fact that feeble-minded girls
are more likely to be exposed to moral danger.
Cases over the age of sixteen years.—During the two years (1925 and 1926),
625 cases were notified for ascertainment from the sources mentioned:—London
Association, 138; Poor Law, 79; Police Courts (Section 8), 139 ; Prisons (Section 9),
10; Education Committee, nil; miscellaneous sources, 259. Miscellaneous sources
include—parents and friends of alleged defectives, private medical practitioners,
general hospitals, London Lock Hospital, relieving officers, charitable organisations
rescue workers, police court probation officers, etc.
On investigation of these 625 cases, it was found in 88 instances that either
the individual was not defective, or that the evidence available was insufficient to
bring him within the provisions of the Mental Deficiency Act, or that the person
was both defective and psychotic and better suited for treatment in a Mental
Hospital. The cases investigated during the period were graded as:—Moral
imbeciles, 6; feeble-minded, 497; imbecile, 33; idiot, 1.

In 49 cases the individual, although defective, was not subject to be dealt
with under the Act.
It is thus evident that the bulk of the cases come to notice within the first
decade after the termination of school life. The most important single group is
made up of delinquents. In later years the position is complicated by the fact
that the individuals may not only be suffering from a condition of mental defect
from an early age, but also, in many instances, from degeneration due to their mode
of life. An enquiry made some years back into the special circumstances of delinquents
showed that the type of offence was, to some extent, associated with the
degree of mentality. Wandering was often due to faulty orientation and lack of
ability on the part of the subject to ascertain his whereabouts, or to take the
necessary measures for returning home. Many cases of indecent exposure were
due to sheer lack of appreciation of their surroundings and of ordinary social conventions,
rather than of a deliberate desire to give offence. The average mental
age found for defective delinquents who have committed particular types of offence
agrees almost exactly with similar figures published by Dr. Norwood East from a
totally independent source of investigation.