That the clearly insane and the plainly feeble-minded should not be punished would doubtless be admitted by all who speak in public or write for others to read.  Many persons speaking in private, acting on juries and connected with the machinery of “justice” say that these should be punished like the rest.  Still for a starting point, it may be assumed that most men would agree that these classes should be restrained rather than punished.

The chief difficulty is that between the most violently insane and the least emotional man are infinite numbers of gradations blending so closely that no one can mathematically or scientifically classify all the various individual units.  While there are cases of insanity that can be clearly traced to injury or disease, the degree of sanity in most cases is still impossible to determine.  Most insane people are sane on some things, generally on most things and are sane a part or most of the time.  The periods of sanity and insanity can be distinguished only by conduct.  How far any specific insanity may impair the brain and affect the inhibitions, is impossible to foretell.

When it comes to the defective, the problem is still more difficult.  No two persons have the same degree of intelligence.  Some are clearly lacking in mentality.  Others are manifestly intelligent.  The great mass range all along between these extremes.  Various arbitrary rules have been laid down to aid in classifying different grades of defectives.  Generally the feeble-minded can be sorted out.  The defectives are supposed, if young, to be two years or more below the normal scholar in development; if older, three or more below.  Their standing is fixed by asking certain test questions.  Furthermore, a list of questions has been commonly used for an “intelligence test.”  These queries have nothing to do with the school work of the child, but are supposed to reveal only his native intelligence.

No doubt in a broad way such tests throw considerable light on the mentality of those who submit to the examination.  Ordinary experience, however, shows that they cannot be fully relied on.  Some children develop very slowly, others very rapidly.  Some are much quicker, others slower in their perceptions and responses.  No two children or grown-ups have the same turn of mind.  One may be very bright in business affairs and very dull in books.  One may be clever in arithmetic and hopeless in grammar.  One may have marked mechanical ability and no taste for school.  These tests are only valuable if given by well qualified examiners, and the method is so new that few have had the chance to thoroughly prepare for the work.  For the most part the tests are given by people who are wholly unfit for so important a task.