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and need of detention under the provisions of the Act; one was hard-of-hearing,
and, being the son of foreign parents, was additionally handicapped by bilingual
demands.
(c) The three who had been in poor-law schools were all high grade defectives
reported to have been backward and troublesome at school.
(d) Of the two detained in schools for the deaf, one was reported to be almost
unteachable and to have bad home circumstances, yet the parents would not permit
the child to be sent to a school suited to children who are both deaf and mentally
subnormal; in the other case the deficiency was brought to notice by his great
instability in the more varied environment of the working world.
(e) Those who had been in industrial schools were of relatively high grade but
of increasing irresponsibility after leaving school.
With regard to the environmental conditions, the history showed the home
circumstances were good in six cases, fair in four, unfavourable in thirty-seven,
whilst in the remaining three cases adequate history was not available. In eighteen
cases the parents were of doubtful character or poor mentality, three of the cases
being known as having one parent notoriously alcoholic, whilst in two of the cases
the mother had been in a mental hospital. In four cases both parents were dead,
and in eleven cases one was dead and the other too busy to exercise suitable control.
In two instances only were the defectives illegitimate.
The major portion of the cases, viz., forty, were disposed of by way of an order
for institutional care. Of the remaining cases; one whose offence was not punishable
by imprisonment was discharged, but taken to a place of safety pending presentation
of a petition; in one the charge was dismissed as being trivial; and seven high
grade defectives who were in work or had fair prospects of employment and good
homes, were placed on probation to see if they could "float." In another, the
mother averted institutional care by making a successful appeal to the magistrate,
but she herself has since reversed her attitude and has requested the local authority
to send her son to a suitable home.
The variety of institutions provided by the Council has proved of great benefit,
in that it enables classification to be made in terms of grade, attainments, mental
stability and criminal antecedents. In this connection it may be stated that one
defective declared that, having had experience of many institutions and "having
tried most of such places in England," he had found that "of them all the one at
Farmfield was undoubtedly the best."
Darenth
training
colony.
In 1930 Dr. E. J. Boome and Dr. A. C. Williams, under the Mental Deficiency
Acts, ascertained 1,452 cases at Darenth who had been sent there under section 24 or
25 of the Lunacy Acts or under the Feebleminded Persons Order, 1911. Of these
22 were deemed not defective, 25 others were still under consideration on 31st
December, 1931, and 200 children were found to be feebleminded but educable.
Of the remaining 1,205 they have analysed a random sample of 200, mostly
adults. The range of mental age was found to vary very greatly from imbeciles at
3 to very high grade cases with a mental age of 12 years. The physical condition
also differed widely, 151 being healthy and 49 having defects, viz.:—
Epileptic 16
Paralytic 9
Blind and partially blind 4
Deaf and hard of hearing 11
Cardiac diseases 3
Respiratory diseases 1
Miscellaneous 5
Total 49