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(c) Gladys W—, 9½ years.
"Has impediment in her speech; seems very simple.
Although 9 years of age, does not know two lettered words,
and cannot put together simple numbers, e.g., 2 + 1."
(d) Margaret C—, 9 years.
"Working in lowest class, but cannot keep up with
even the slow ones. Is up to the level of a very medium
7 year old."
(e) Vera G—, 13 years.
"Mentally unstable. Has periods when she can do
nothing at all."
(f) Three boys, aged 8 years.
"These boys are definitely very retarded, and are a serious
drawback in a class of forty children. They are able to
copy from a blackboard, but the work is obviously of a parrotlike
nature, and they have little conception of its meaning.
They can write their names, but cannot tell me the names of
the letters comprising them. On the other hand, they are
capable of assimilating knowledge, but the progress would
be very slow and needing a lot of special individual teaching."
(g) Ivy M—, 12 years.
"Although we are able to classify the A, B, C and D
classes, and though girls in the 'D' group are generally speaking,
dull and backward, Ivy is unable to follow the work of
the class, and has to be treated separately. She presents no
behaviour problem, and is most persevering and patient."
(h) Leonard W—, 13 years.
"This boy was submitted as M.D. when 7 years of age,
but was not regarded as suitable for admission to a M.D.
School. During' the last eighteen months, when he has been
working in a 'C' group, he has made some slight progress.
He is decidedly unable to keep up with the ordinary dull and
backward pupils."
After they have left the ordinary elementary schools many
such cases as the above come to my notice as Medical Officer of
Health, often through the Police Court, the illegitimate birth
register, or because of abnormal behaviour of some sort. These
cases reveal evidence of a sub-normal mind usuallv of prolonged
standing, and of abnormal impulses which, in many instances,
had they been dealt with in childhood, would have been subjugated.
There is no scientific way of gauging- exactlv the degree of
intelligence or lack of intelligence in a person. The intelligence
tests usually applied, are admittedly only a guide; moreover, the
activity of a subnormal mind is prone to even greater degrees of
changes of latitude than a normal mind.
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