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
But in view of such conditions as are shown in the defective side of the
Kallikak family, we begin to realize that the idiot is not our greatest
problem. He is indeed loathsome; he is somewhat difficult to take care of;
nevertheless, he lives his life and is done. He does not continue the race
with a line of children like himself. Because of his very low-grade
condition, he never becomes a parent.
It is the moron type that makes for us our great problem. And when we face
the question, “What is to be done with them--with such people as make up a
large proportion of the bad side of the Kallikak family?” we realize that
we have a huge problem.
The career of Martin Kallikak Sr. is a powerful sermon against sowing wild
oats. Martin Kallikak did what unfortunately many a young man like him has
done before and since, and which, still more unfortunately, society has
too often winked at, as being merely a side step in accordance with a
natural instinct, bearing no serious results. It is quite possible that
Martin Kallikak himself never gave any serious thought to his act, or if
he did, it may have been merely to realize that in his youth he had been
indiscreet and had done that for which he was sorry. And being sorry he
may have thought it was atoned for, as he never suffered from it any
serious consequences.
Even the people of his generation, however much they may have known about
the circumstances, could not have begun to realize the evil that had been
done. Undoubtedly, it was only looked upon as a sin because it was a
violation of the moral law. The real sin of peopling the world with a
race of defective degenerates who would probably commit his sin a thousand
times over, was doubtless not perceived or realized. It is only after the
lapse of six generations that we are able to look back, count up and see
the havoc that was wrought by that one thoughtless act.
Now that the facts are known, let the lesson be learned; let the sermons
be preached; let it be impressed upon our young men of good family that
they dare not step aside for even a moment. Let all possible use be made
of these facts, and something will be accomplished.
But even so the real problem will not be solved. Had Martin Kallikak
remained in the paths of virtue, there still remained the nameless
feeble-minded girl, and there were other people, other young men, perhaps
not of as good a family as Martin, perhaps feeble-minded like herself,
capable of the same act and without Martin’s respectability, so that the
race would have come down even worse if possible than it was, because of
having a worse father.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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