The Minneapolis journal., 1906-08-09
KNIFE TO CHECK
CRIMINAL TREND
MINNEAPOLIS PEOPLE WATCH
ING WORK OF SURGEONS.
Juvenile Court Workers Interested In
Operations on Deficient Children
Minneapolis Surgeon Declares His
Experience Proves Value Of Such
Experiments. --..

Charity and juvenile court workers
in Minneapolis are watching with in
terest the surgical operations for the
correction of criminal tendencies in
children which are being performed in
Philadelphia under the direction of the
Pennsylvania society. for the preyen-
adelphia onerations are being per-
formed at the order of the Juvenile
court. They consist of the removal Of
adenoid growths in the throat and nose,
the correction of spinal curvature and
trepanning the skull to change the
shape of acknowledgement heads and
relieve pressure on the brain. Many
minor ailments are also treated.
"We are watching the Philadelphia
experiments with great Interest," said
Miss Marie Jamme, chief visiting nurse
for the Associated Charities, today.
"While we have no law which en-
powers the juvenile court to order. the
correction of physical defects as a
means Of reforming Juvenile delin-
quents, we are fully aware that many
cases of stupidity, laziness and even
moral obliquity are directly traceable
to physical defects. Whenever we can
secure parental consent we have these
defects remedied.
Little Growths in Throat.
"Adenoid growths, which interfere
| with free breathing and deprive the
| child of it's needed supply of oxygen,
tend to stunt it's physical, mental and
moral development. The doctors and
specialists of Minneapolis never fail to
! treat these cases free of charge at our
| request and our only difficulty is to
! persuade parents that an operation :s
proper. Of course we have not tried
| any of the skull operations.
| EThru the school months the visit
ing nurses make a regular weekly kim
| dergarten inspection. This results in the
discovery and cure of many incipient
diseases which might otherwise develop
| into serious defects which would pre-
vent the child from reaching its best
development.
. That skull operations are effective
for the correction of mental deficiency
has been demonstrated in the private
practice of at least one of the leading
surgeons of Minneapolis, who says that
he has performed several such opera
tions on children of arrested mental de-
velopment and that they had shown i'm.
mediate Improvement.
Relieves Brain Pressure.
"The operation consists of removing
two strips of bone, one on either side
of the skull,' said the surgeon. This
relieves the pressure on the brain
which has been cramped by the pre-
mature joining of the sections of, the
brain-casing. The skulls Of newborn
babies are open in several places to
permit further brain development: Il
the bones knit too soon the child is
likely TO be mentally deficient.
HTho I have never had an opportun
ity to follow up the cases which have
come under my observation, think
that the operation, which is absolutely
safe and harmless, is efficient. In the
cases I have seen, children who, on en-
mo, papa and 'mama,' developed
vocabularies Of dozen or more words
before leaving.
GAS arrested mental developmen
!, and physical deficiency of any sort ar
: among the causes Of criminality, j
seems to me that much can be done fo
delinquent children thru intelligen
surgical treatment"