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149
Social status
of parent.
or mercantile marine, police, and the like, and fewer belonging to the artisan or
unskilled labour classes, and poverty is evidently not a factor in the causation.
Social class.
Families with a
Mongol child.
Per cent.
Normal
families.
Per cant.
1. Middle
2. Distributing
3. Skilled Artisan
4. Mixed Occupations
5. Unskilled Labourers
Totals
12.1
22.1
25.8
22.4
17.6
100.0
11.8
18.9
29.0
20.1
20.2
100.0
It is often stated that mongols die at or about the age of puberty and that in
the survivors, as they grow older, the characteristic features become less obvious.
48 cases are known to have died; their ages at death and the causes of death being
as shown below :—
1-3. 4-6. 7-9. 10-12. 13-55. 16-18 years. Total.
4 0 20 11 8 5 48
Cause of Death. No.
Tuberculosis 5
Rheumatism 1
Bronchitis 2
Scarlet Fever 3
Pneumonia 9
Influenza 1
Meningitis 2
Heart 2
Measles 1
Cause of Death. No.
Diphtheria 1
Congestion of Lungs 1
Cerebral Haemorrhage 1
Tumour on Brain
Brain Disease 1
Not known 17
Total 48
Family
history.
The family histories throw comparatively little light on the aetiology of the
condition. The most important features in the history of 210 instances being as
follow •
History of. No. of cases.
Acquired Insanity34
Mental Deficiency12
Epilepsy 14
Hysteria, Neurasthenia, Asthma, Chorea 33
History of. No. of cases.
Deaf Mutism 8
Intemperance 31
Tuberculosis 78
Total 210
At the beginning of the year the position of 254 of the survivors who have been
followed up since their date of ascertainment was as follows:—Under supervision,
167; in Mental Hospitals, 3; in certified institutions, or Poor Law Institutions, 57;
removed from London. 27.
Incidence of
heart disease
in P.D.
schools.
During the year special inquiry has been made into the incidence of heart
disease as revealed by cases seen at examinations for admission of children to schools
for the physically defective.
The heart cases in the special schools may be divided into two main categories.
Those in which the condition is one of congenital malformation, whether as a result
of imperfect development or of some ante-natal disease, and those in which the
heart is affected as a result of disease during childhood, chiefly following rheumatic
fever, scarlet fever, or diphtheria. Of those children who suffer from congenital malformations,
a considerable number never attain to the compulsory school age and
many others are so cyanosed and short of breath that any form of school attendance
is impossible. In this class no form of treatment is of any avail, and all that can
be done is to keep them under conditions which avoid strain and protect them so far
as is possible from acquiring other illnesses. The worst cases usually die in early
adolescence, though some survive to the middle period of life. In a few, the physical