The Kallikak Family: A Study in the Heredity of Feeble-MindednessGoddard, Henry Herbert
Science
The Kallikak Family: A Study in the Heredity of Feeble-Mindedness
Goddard, Henry Herbert
Heredity, Human; Mental retardation; People with mental disabilities
The next born of Martin Jr. was Nathan, known in the community as “Daddy”
(see Chart III),[2] who died at the advanced age of ninety-three. He was
the father of six children. One of his sons was a criminal, a horse thief,
who also stole a flock of sheep which the owner all unwittingly helped him
to drive away. Three other children of “Daddy” married and themselves had
children. These are all families about whose mentality it is difficult to
decide. They are all peculiar, but more respectable than some other
branches of this family. One is dead. The sixth, a daughter, is
feeble-minded and sexually immoral. She married a man who was
feeble-minded and alcoholic. Of her six children, two at least are
feeble-minded. Whether her husband is the father of all of the children is
very doubtful. Sexual immorality and alcoholism are prevalent in this
family. One of the sons married a feeble-minded woman who came from
feeble-minded stock. They had six children, all of whom were
feeble-minded. One of these is of the Mongolian type, an interesting fact,
as it shows that this particular form of arrest of development may occur
in a defective family.
[2] It is important to trace out in detail these relationships on
the charts.
[Illustration: LAST HOME OF MILLARD KALLIKAK.]
[Illustration: ESTHER, DAUGHTER OF “DADDY” KALLIKAK.]
Martin Jr.’s third child was James (Chart II), who went away, and we know
nothing about him.
Martin Jr.’s fourth child, “Old Sal” (Chart IV), was feeble-minded and she
married a feeble-minded man. Two of their children are undetermined, but
one of these had at least one feeble-minded grandchild; the other, an
alcoholic man, had three feeble-minded grandchildren, one of whom is in
the Training School at Vineland. She is thus a cousin of Deborah--a fact
not known until this study was made. The two other children of Old Sal
were feeble-minded, married feeble-minded wives, and had large families of
defective children and grandchildren, as will be seen in the chart.
The fifth child of Martin Jr. was Jemima (Chart V), feeble-minded and
sexually immoral. She lived with a feeble-minded man named Horser, to whom
she was supposed to have been married. Of her five children, three are
known to have been feeble-minded, two are undetermined. From these again,
have come a large number of feeble-minded children and grandchildren.
Jemima had an illegitimate son by a man who was high in the Nation’s
offices. This son married a feeble-minded girl and they had feeble-minded
children, and grandchildren.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account