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
We now return to the third born of this family, Justin Kallikak, the
grandfather of our Deborah (Chart IX, section E). He was feeble-minded,
alcoholic, and sexually immoral. He married Eunice Barrah, who belonged to
a family of dull mentality. Her mother and paternal grandfather were
feeble-minded, and the grandfather had a brother that was feeble-minded.
That brother had at least six descendants who were feeble-minded. The
father, also, had a brother feeble-minded who had eleven children,
grandchildren, and great-grandchildren who were feeble-minded. (Not
shown).
The children of Deborah’s grandparents, Justin and Eunice, were as
follows: first, Martha, the mother of our Deborah, whose story has already
been partly told. This woman is supposed to have had three illegitimate
children before Deborah was born. They died in infancy. The next younger
half sister of Deborah was placed out by a charitable organization when
very young. From their records we learn that in five years she had been
tried in thirteen different families and by all found impossible. In one
of these she set the barn on fire. When found by our field worker, she had
grown to be a girl of twenty, pretty, graceful, but of low mentality. She
had already followed the instinct implanted in her by her mother, and was
on the point of giving birth to an illegitimate child. She was sent to a
hospital. The child died, and then the girl was placed permanently in a
home for feeble-minded. An own brother of this girl was placed out in a
private family. When a little under sixteen, his foster mother died and
her husband married again. Thus the boy was turned adrift. Having been
well trained, and being naturally of an agreeable disposition, he easily
found employment. Bad company, however, soon led to his discharge. He has
now drifted into one of our big cities. It requires no prophet to predict
his future.
The last family of half brothers and sisters of Deborah are, at present,
living with the mother and her second husband. The oldest three of these
are distinctly feeble-minded. Between them and the two younger children
there was a stillbirth and a miscarriage. The little ones appear normal
and test normal for their ages, but there is good reason to believe that
they will develop the same defect as they grow older.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
The Kallikak Family: A Study in the Heredity of Feeble-Mindedness — John Shaqi
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