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The purpose of this survey was to assess the intellectual and social status of 150 children of 73 certified mental defectives. It is proposed to discuss the mothers in this paper and the children in a further one. The mothers in this group were all at one time patients at the Fountain Hospital. Much of the initial work was done by Mrs. L. Mundy, the Senior Psychologist, who had already tested most of the mothers, and Miss Kerry, the social worker, who had maintained contact with many of the discharged mothers and their children. One of the main factors which have made the research easier has been the general good feeling towards the Fountain felt by our ex-patients. They want the Fountain in general and the Physician Superintendent in particular to know how they are and what they are doing. Dr. Hilliard's “somewhatunorthodox procedure with difficult cases” (1956) and his views on feeblemindedness have now become fairly generally accepted. His view that many of these women can work successfully in the community has been substantiated already. It is hoped that this survey will help to avoid the inhuman and expensive administration process whereby an allegedly feebleminded mother is permanently separated from her child.

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Smallness of the cranium is one of the commonest findings in severe mental defect. Ashby and Stuart (1933 and 1934) found a correlation between brain weight and mental age of +0.15, but they regarded this as part of the more general positive correlation of +0.24 which they observed between body weight and mental age. In discussing this subject elsewhere (Hilliard and Kirman, 1957), Crome and Kirman have taken a more definite stand on this matter in so far as idiocy and imbecility are concerned and regard reduced brain weight, which is so often associated with a small cranium, as one of the major factors in reduced intelligence. Crome (1957) found marked reduction in size to be the commonest abnormality in brains of low-grade defectives.