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It will be noticed that in the case of those dealt with under the Mental Deficiency
Acts, the average intelligence of the unmarried mothers is distinctly below that of the
other groups, and there is no material difference between that of married male
defectives under the Mental Deficiency Acts and of married male defectives who
attended special schools, but in the case of married women the children of those who
had only attended special schools are distinctly above those of the others, though
in view of the small number involved the figures may not have great statistical
significance.
The degree of scattering of the results is most marked in the case of unmarried
mothers, where it seems possible that at the lower end of the scale it was the lack
of mentality that led to the seduction of the defective, and that at the higher end it
was the birth of the illegitimate child that brought the defective to notice, when
she was forced to seek public assistance and thus to become a subject to be dealt
with under the Acts.
From the standpoint of a study of heredity the figures are naturally very much
depreciated in value owing to the lack of the quantitative analysis of the mentality
of the second parent.
Table V compares the intelligence quotients of the 274 parents who had been
dealt with under the Mental Deficiency Acts, and of their 364 children. This, like
previous tables, indicates that the intelligence of the children is usually superior to
that of the parents, but the correlation between the two does not appear to be
significant.