"In the case of Roland Pennington, tried in Media last June, for aiding in the murder of a man, it was proven that the boy, although almost twenty in actual age, yet coming from a neurotic stock, with three first cousins imbecile, had mentally only attained some 11 or 12 years; still he was adjudged responsible, and murder in the first degree was the verdict. "Is it not a poor law that first permits a person to commit a crime, and then punishes him for it, not recognizing that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure? "Pennington had sufficient intelligence to comprehend the enormity of the deed, but, susceptible to suggestion in exaggerated degree, he had not sufficient inhibition to resist the volitional act. "Early recognition of his mental defect and separation would have protected him alike from tempter and temptation." It is unfortunate that Dr. Barr did not testify in the case, but his assistant did testify and was understood to express Dr. Barr's views. It was unfortunate, indeed, that men who really knew so little about the type of case before them were allowed to pass as experts and their opinion allowed to carry more weight with the jury than the opinion of those who have spent years in intimate association and study of the problem of high-grade imbecility. It should be recognized that there are very few persons who are expert with this type. The superintendents of our institutions for the feeble-minded, after a few years of experience, have a knowledge of this matter which far surpasses that of any physician who has not had institution experience, however great a specialist he may be in nerve diseases, in insanity or epilepsy. It is not enough to find out that a physician has had some experience with imbeciles. The real problem is: Has he had experience with this high-grade type? Is he able to pick them out? Is his knowledge as well as his experience confined to the medium and low grades, which every one meets? Failure to make this distinction had much to do with the verdict in the case of Pennington.