V. WHAT IS TO BE DONE? 101 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS DEBORAH KALLIKAK AS SHE APPEARS TO-DAY AT THE TRAINING SCHOOL _Frontispiece_ FACING PAGE DEBORAH AT THE SEWING MACHINE 4 DEBORAH AS WAITRESS 4 SPECIMENS OF DEBORAH’S HANDIWORK 6 DEBORAH, AGED FIFTEEN 8 DEBORAH, AGED SEVENTEEN 8 LAST HOME OF MILLARD KALLIKAK 20 ESTHER, DAUGHTER OF “DADDY” KALLIKAK 20 RUINS OF MOUNTAIN HUT BUILT BY MARTIN KALLIKAK, JR. 24 SITE OF MOUNTAIN HOME OF MILLARD KALLIKAK 24 GREAT-GRANDSON OF “DADDY” KALLIKAK 84 MELINDA, DAUGHTER OF “JEMIMA” 84 GREAT-GRANDCHILDREN OF “OLD SAL” 88 CHILDREN OF GUSS SAUNDERS, WITH THEIR GRANDMOTHER 88 THE KALLIKAK FAMILY A STUDY IN THE HEREDITY OF FEEBLE-MINDEDNESS CHAPTER I THE STORY OF DEBORAH One bright October day, fourteen years ago, there came to the Training School at Vineland, a little eight-year-old girl. She had been born in an almshouse. Her mother had afterwards married, not the father of this child, but the prospective father of another child, and later had divorced him and married another man, who was also the father of some of her children. She had been led to do this through the efforts of well-meaning people who felt that it was a great misfortune for a child to be born into the world illegitimately. From their standpoint the argument was good, because the mother with four or five younger children was unable to provide adequately for this little girl, whom both husbands refused to support. On the plea that the child did not get along well at school and might possibly be feeble-minded, she gained admission to the Training School, there to begin a career which has been interesting and valuable to the Institution, and which has led to an investigation that cannot fail to prove of great social import. The following are extracts from her history since she came to the Institution:--