Local authorities are required to provide certified institutions for defectives ; they can also send defectives to institutions pro vided by other committees. The War prevented the development of institutions and a number of poor law institutions have been approved for the reception of defectives under orders. The Royal Commission estimated that there were 4.6 per thousand defectives in the population. Some 60,234 or 1.59 per thousand have been ascertained but only 20,091 defectives were in institutions or under guardianship under the act in Jan. 1927, many being found in institutions and homes as rescue cases, paupers, etc.
The difficulties are : incomplete ascertainment of defective chil dren, which handicaps preventive measures ; lack of special edu cational facilities for training defectives ; lack of institution accom modation for adult defectives ; lack of recognition of mental defect in cases coming before the courts. Greater efforts are being made to safeguard the community and the defective by segregation of defectives with anti-social tendencies in institutions.
Scotland.—The Mental Deficiency act for Scotland, 1913, does not differ very materially from the English act but the local authorities are local boards of control and the parish councils. There were 2,764 certified mental defectives on Jan. 1, 1927. A Scottish Association for Mental Welfare was established in 1922. There is also an active movement for the establishment of a large colony for the feebleminded.
Ireland.—The Mental Deficiency act does not apply to North ern Ireland. There is only one institution for defectives in the whole of Ireland but certain religious communities intend opening others.
British Empire.—Legislation in other parts of the British Commonwealth is generally modelled on the English Mental Deficiency act, 1913.
In South Australia a Mental Deficiency act was passed in 1913 in Tasmania in 1920. The Mental Deficiency board, then estab lished, published in 1925 a report on a mental survey of the prisoners in Hobart gaol. In Melbourne and Sydney special schools and classes for mentally defectives and backward children are being established.
The Mental Disorders act of 1916 regulates the care of defec tives in the Union of South Africa. A national council for the care of the feebleminded watches over the interests of individual defec tives and guides public opinion.
In Canada a Federal act dealing with immigration prohibits the entry of mental defectives into the country. Each provincial government provides grants for the organisation of special classes for mentally deficient children in school attendance. Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Nova Scotia have made institutional accommodation for 1,500 cases. Several of the larger cities including Toronto, Winnipeg and Vancouver provide routine mental examinations for school children and for juvenile court cases, and since 1928 the Canadian national committee for mental hygiene has been conducting surveys throughout the Dominion to determine the prevalence and significance of the problem. Alberta has recently passed an act for the sterilisation of the feebleminded.
In New Zealand the Mental Defectives act of 1911 and the Education act of 1914 are the acts under which day schools, one or two residential schools and some institutions are established. A committee of enquiry (1925) under the Ministry of Health recom mended the establishment of a eugenic board for the compilation of a register of mental defectives and made recommendations for the sterilisation of certain mentally defective persons.
European Countries.—The work among mentally defective persons in other countries follows much the same lines as are indi cated in the description given below. The classification of defect differs somewhat in different countries, and a class of "moral defectives" is not universally recognised. Almost all countries have now made some provision for mentally defective persons, but the problem is still inadequately met.
In France, mental defectives are dealt with under the law for the alienes passed as long ago as 1838 which has not been amended.
Under this law persons can be placed in institutions at the request of their families, or by order of the prefect, if they are considered dangerous or in need of protection. Some difficulty is found in dealing with cases needing treatment but not institutional care but the work of treating the feebleminded at psychiatric clinics is likely to develop since the establishment of a clinic at Paris in 1921. A law passed in 1919 recommends special classes for chil dren but does not make them compulsory.