A Scale, Based on the Work at Ellis Island, for Estimating Mental Defect

From different sources have come many requests for a description of the tests worked out and conclusions reached in the practical work that has been done at Ellis Island on mental defectives. For this reason I present this paper, based on tests which I have made on over 4,000 suspected defectives in the last eighteen months and many more made by my associates. It must be remembered that our cases were suspected of being deficient and were therefore not representative of the normal, although all were considered sufficiently. near the required standard to be allowed to pass, except about 400 certified as feeble-minded and (in a few cases) as imbeciles. The tests, questions and other details of examination were arrived at as a result of work on persons that were less bright than the average of the various races (illiterates) from which they came. It is evident, therefore, that if