(a) Traumatism or Injury (b) Drink or Abuse (c) Dirt or Unhygienic surroundings (d) Depravity or Ignorance Factors entering into acquired tendencies affecting offspring direct are divided into three classes, those: I. Before Birth such as (a) Abnormal condition of mother’s health during pregnancy as in disease of any nature, mental or physical or (b) Injury to fetus direct by blow, fall of parent, or instrument. II. During Birth from: (a) Abnormal labor from any cause. (b) Primogeniture. (c) Premature birth. III. After Birth. (a) Traumatism. (b) Toxic causes such as scarlet fever, whooping cough, meningitis, measles, mumps and exanthemata. (c) Convulsions. (d) Nutritional disturbances. Consanguinity or intermarrying of blood relations, or in-breeding results in: 1. Instability of the nervous system. 2. Intensifying of constitutional defects. 3. Decrease in size of offspring. 4. Predisposition to disease through lowered vitality. 5. Impairment of reproductive function. Immediate consanguinous offspring may manifest a high degree of intellectual or physical attainment but successive processes tend to neurotic types and are prone to physical weaknesses and insanity. This practice is found among Quakers and Jewish peoples, inhabitants of the Islands north of Scotland, in isolated rural localities, and among African tribes. Mental Deficiency in Children =Synonyms.=—Amentia; feeble-mindedness. There are three grades of amentia: =1. Morons:= those whose mental age corresponds closely to their chronological age or is nearly normal. =2. Imbeciles:= those in whom there is a wide disparity between the mental age and the chronological age. =3. Idiots:= the lowest form of arrested mentality or those whom it is impossible to teach. =Definition.=—Mental deficiency is a pathological stage in which the mind has failed to attain normal development. =Various degrees of intelligence= or mental capacity in man lie between: (=1=) =Genius= such as Bacon, Newton, Plato, Galileo, Shakespeare. (=2=) =Lesser Ability= but still conspicuous in development such as our great leaders in science, literature, reform and the arts and medicine, furthering, each their respective causes. These merge easily into (=3=) =Average= mass of mankind. (=4=) =Dullards= or those of inferior intelligence. (=5=) =Feeble minded=, merging imperceptibly into (=6=) =Imbeciles= and by insensible gradation into (=7=) =Idiots= and gross idiots. The mentally defective is wholly incapable at maturity of adapting himself to his environment or local conditions in order to maintain existence independent of any external support. =Dementia= is a disease of the mind or that which was once possessed, and by some neuronic disturbance is lost totally or partially. =Insanity= is a disturbance of neuronic function which may or may not end in degeneration of brain tissue.