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
Two daughters of Jemima lived in B----. A little study of Chart V,
sections A and B, will place them in their relation to the rest of the
family and give the chief facts of their lives. Little more need be added.
One of them was early put out to service and later married a cobbler to
whom she has borne many children. She is not known to have had any
illegitimate offspring, but if she escaped, her daughter has made up for
her deficiency in this respect. The other sister grew up in the mountain
hut with her mother, and was living there when her grandfather died. Her
husband and most of her children are defective, but there are two by
unknown fathers who are normal. One of these, a girl of considerable
ability, supports herself and mother in a decent way and is respected by
her townspeople. The mother is tall, lean, angular, much resembling
Jemima, except that the latter was even more masculine. Many are the
living inhabitants of B---- to whom the old woman was a well-known figure,
for she often came down into the town bringing berries to sell, her large
feet shod with heavy boots, her skirts short, while her sharp, angular
features were hidden in the depths of a huge sunbonnet. She thus formed a
striking picture that could not easily be forgotten.
A third daughter of Jemima had gone to Brooklyn to live, and the question
kept repeating itself, “What will she be like?” and this all the more
because of the uncertainty of the parentage on the father’s side. Perhaps
he was a normal man. Perhaps this will prove to be a normal woman and so
break the dead monotony of this line of defectives.
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