London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
View report page
Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
London County Council 1929
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London County Council]
This page requires JavaScript
During the year, 941 cases were medically examined, with the following results:—
| Type. | Idiot. | Imbecile. | Feebleminded. | Moral defective. | Not defective. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Males | 7 | 131 | 326 | 1 | 20 |
| Females | 19 | 89 | 308 | — | 40 |
| Total | 26 | 220 | 634 | 1 | 60 |
The period of life at which the cases examined during 1929 were brought to notice were:—
| Age group. | Males. | Females. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under 7 | 7-16 | over 16 | under 7 | 7-16 | over 16 | |
| Idiot | 2 | 5 | — | 8 | 10 | 1 |
| Imbecile | 34 | 84 | 13 | 24 | 60 | 5 |
| Feeble-minded | 16 | 141 | 169 | 5 | 151 | 152 |
| Moral defective | — | — | 1 | — | — | — |
Practically all the feeble-minded in the age group 7-16 and a proportion of
those over 16, are cases for consideration by the Education Committee, with a view
to notification relative to supervision, guardianship, or institutional care on leaving
special schools for the mentally defective. Fifty-one out of the sixty persons
examined and deemed not to be mentally defective were over the age of 16 years.
It will be noted that by far the greater number of those children who require to be
dealt with before attaining the age of seven years are of the lower mental grades.
In 687 of the cases, the necessary inquiries into the family history had been sufficiently completed during the year to enable the subject to be assigned to a particular clinical type as well as class or grade of defect, the results being as Follows:—
| Grade of defect. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clinical type of defect. | Idiot. | Imbecile. | Feebleminded. | Moral defective. | Total. |
| Simple primary amentia | 7 | 114 | 403 | 1 | 525 |
| Mongolism | 3 | 37 | 4 | — | 44 |
| Cretinism | 1 | 2 | — | — | 3 |
| Hydrocephaly Microcephaly | 1 1 | 3 7 | 3 2 | — — | 7 10 |
| Post-encephalitic | 1 | 1 | 10 | — | 12 |
| Plegic | 7 | 19 | 15 | — | 41 |
| Plegic and epileptic | 1 | 3 | 4 | 8 | |
| Epileptic | 3 | 18 | 10 | — | 31 |
| Traumatic | 1 | 4 | 1 | — | 6 |
| 26 | 208 | 452 | 1 | 687 | |
In this connection, it is interesting to note the higher proportion of cases of
secondary amentia in those of lower mental status. Of the idiots, approximately 27
per cent, are instances of primary amentia, and in 73 per cent. the deficiency is due
to conditions arising in the course of the pre- or post-natal life of the individual.
Even if mongolism be regarded as due to inherited factors, a point on which there
is no decided agreement, the figures would still show the same variation, the proportion
of primary amentia in the different grades being:—Idiots 38 per cent.,
Imbeciles 72 per cent., Feeble-minded 90 per cent. The matter is of interest, in
hat amentia of the secondary type is generally held not to be hereditable.