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VONDERLEAR

Doctor ReAsVonderlehr
Seales :

Cobb, Irel ands

Dear ae Vonderlehes :

I congratulate you on your pleasant voyage and your serious |
ing of the problem before you as indicated by your letters
I hope thet 2 may be able to throw some light on the questions

» you ask but they have to do with a problem about which there

must always be some vagueness of definitione This is because
of the numerous factors that influence the performance of mental
aa CC eee

I am inclosing a shebt containing two sets of definitionse Our
regulations governing medical Anapentian of aliens contain

 

another set which is goods

"Moron" a¢ used in America is synonymous with feeblemindedness,
thet is with the grades above idiocy and imbesility, but “noron"

- ghould net be used in a certificate because the tion lew.

does not mention ite “Moron” is merely an American word applied

to the higher grades of feeblemindedness and it can be ignored,
but it should be borne in mind that the word always means :
pres promi ary Baik grcapareacagningrintt ad pai ge lige Skew sr
atupidity that is not so severe as to be clagsed as i

"wental deficiency" when used in medical readings always means
some grade of foeblemindedness wiless the words specifically refer
to a deficiency brought about by deterioration, such as occurs
in cerebral arteriosclerosis, senile dementia, paresis, etc. |
In these instances the deficiency constitutes @ psychosis or one
of the symptoms of ite However, the immigration law says that
persons certified as mentally defective are to be excluded even
though they do not come under the classification: insanity,
idiecy, imbecility, or cavlalan parent oo er, adds
a grade of deficiency 7 ons more intelligence

: medieally class gradese If it does not do
this it does nothing and the words are meaningless.

i tah .
a as
grades, 4¢ is probable that the freners of the lew 4i4 not know

what they were doing when they added this grades In other words,
they did net understand that any medically recognized mentally defective
ee ee ee ee ee ea ee eee ee ie

then used for Seah onl aeh aaaaaek aor See teohariien: ;

and its use obvieted the necessity of saying whether or not the

‘ease certified wes one that the p company should heave
detected and for which they should finede There was no
ee es ee ee eee nee ee
bringing in the fecbleminded, otce

ap nie: bul (hhaaes de annie Gettin ne 4 een ts
oe tinue ha tee Gate SEK er Ah Oe

ccmathbenaeh cookaemh catmuen Ue can Yes Tou mill find by eonstihhing
Terman that about 2% of his cases fall within this range and he is —
a 2

I want to strongly ¢ = been said about the intelligwnes

s native inte. but that Terman's scale, and all
Solis caseemtes es as an: ae Oe