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60
to suggest that the level of intelligence as measured by mental age tends to remain
constant.
The educational levels were also compared, being marked as A—education
practically nil, B—attainments well below Standard I., and then in Standards from
I. upwards. These educational levels were less constant than the level of intelligence,
but in 15 persons the figure was roughly identical. In 11 it had fallen, but in 3 it
seemed higher. Evidently there was a tendency to forget what had been learnt in
school, but this tendency was overcome when the employment or some other factor
opposed it.
Blind
training.
During the year 122 persons were seen. Of these, 56 males and 33 females
were found to be capable of benefiting by training, and 11 males and 15 females
were rejected either because they were not certifiable as blind within the meaning
of the Act, or were physically or mentally unfit for training. One case was referred
for re-examination which will take place in 1929. Advice was given as to the grades
in which the persons should severally be trained, having regard to the prospects
of future employment.
Medical
certificates
furnished in
connection
with grants
from public
funds.
In connection with the arrangements for the welfare of the blind in England
and Wales medical certificates of blindness may be required for the following purposes:—
(1) To support a claim for a pension under the Blind Persons Act,
1920.

Note.—The van boys include errand boys, odd men and similar occupations.
The factory work was unskilled. Schools include reformatories, etc.
Some of the younger offenders were still at some schools for older pupils, such
as reformatory schools, industrial schools, or M.D. schools for older boys and girls.
The history of the others was usually that they went to unskilled work as errand
boys, shop boys, or (favourite occupations of mentally deficient boys) van boys,
kitchen boys or into glass-blowing works where they did the unskilled tasks. Even
in these positions their inefficiency soon showed itself, and it is rare to find that a
post was kept for 12 months. Two young men gave the Army as their only occupation,
and both had been ultimately discharged "as not likely to make efficient
soldiers." Many of the older men had served in the war (1914-18), but had been soon
transferred to the Labour Corps and later discharged unfit. Often the discharge
had been accompanied by a temporary pension for "aggravation of congenital
mental deficiency by war service." The feeble-minded are in fact made somewhat
worse by shell shock, but the effect is diminished by time. Two men had been
deck hands in the merchant service, both inefficient, and one of them had caused
trouble to the Mission to Seamen, which had repeatedly paid his passage home
from foreign parts. Nine lads had left school, but never obtained employment.
Higher mental ages were found in 9 men whose work was not completely unskilled—1
film actor, 2 tailor's assistants, 1 gardener, 1 barman, 3 pugilists, 1 trainer
of Alsatian dogs. In these cases employment was usually of brief duration, and failure
was due not only to inefficiency but to laziness, carelessness, quarrelling and other
effects of mental instability. The occupations of the women were practically all
unskilled, the domestic work being usually scrubbing. In these instances also
loss of employment was apparently caused not by the lack of intelligence which
their employers accepted as inevitable, but by their troublesome behaviour.
Blind Persons Act.