]
The consequences of this for race progress are significant. Is it
desired to eliminate feeble-mindedness? Then it must be borne in mind
that there is no sharp distinction between feeble-mindedness and the
normal mind. One can not divide sheep from goats, saying "A is
feeble-minded. B is normal. C is feeble-minded. D is normal," and so on.
If one took a scale of a hundred numbers, letting 1 stand for an idiot
and 100 for a genius, one would find individuals corresponding to every
single number on the scale. The only course possible would be a somewhat
arbitrary one; say to consider every individual corresponding to a grade
under seven as feeble-minded. It would have to be recognized that those
graded eight were not much better than those graded seven, but the
drawing of the line at seven would be justified on the ground that it
had to be drawn somewhere, and seven seemed to be the most satisfactory
point.
In practice of course, students of retardation test children by
standardized scales. Testing a hundred 10-year-old children, the
examiner might find a number who were able to do only those tests which
are passed by a normal six-year-old child. He might properly decide to
put all who thus showed four years of retardation, in the class of
feeble-minded; and he might justifiably decide that those who tested
seven years (i.
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