EUGENICS RECORD OFFICE. Bulletin No. 10 A. Report of the Committee to study and to report on the best practical means to cut off the defective germ-plasm in the American population. The scope of the Committee’s work. By Harry H. Laughlin, Secretary to the Committee. Cold Spring Harbor, N. Y. 1914.
According to the last census, 1910, .914% of the total population, or 841,244 persons, were inmates of institutions in the anti-social and the unfortunate classes in the U. S. Besides these persons who have been committed to institutions, there are many others of equally unworthy personality and hereditary qualities, who have, through the caprice of circumstances never been committed to institutions. In so far as the defective traits of the members of these varieties are inborn, they are to be cut off only by cutting off the inheritance lines of the strains that produce them. This is the natural outcome of an awakened social conscience, which is in keeping, not only with humanitarianism, but with law and order and national efficiency. Society must look upon germ-plasm as belonging to Society, and not solely to the individual who carries it. Humanitarianism demands that every individual born be given every opportunity for decent and effective life that our civilization can offer. Racial instinct demands that defectives shall not continue their unworthy traits to menace Society. There appears to be no compatibility between the two ideals and demands. P. 15–16.
J. H. KELLOGG, LLD., M.D., Superintendent of Battle Creek Sanitarium, Battle Creek, Mich.
A careful study of the returns of the Registrar General of England, according to Dr. Tredgold, an eminent English authority shows that out of every 1,000 children born to-day, as many infants die from “innate defects of constitution” as 50 years ago, and this notwithstanding that the total death rate of infants has been diminished nearly ⅓. The increase of insanity, is cited by Dr. Tredgold, as another evidence of race degeneracy. While the increase of the population of England and Wales in 52 years has been 85.8%, the increase of the certified insane has been 262.2%. At present there is one insane person to 275 of the normal population of England and Wales. Tredgold shows that mental unsoundness, lunacy, idiocy, imbecility and feeble-mindedness may be traced to hereditary influence in 90% of the cases. Mr. David Heron and others have shown that while there has been a marked decline in the birth rate in the population in general, the diminution is almost entirely confined to the healthy and thrifty class. In a section of population numbering a million and a quarter persons, thrifty and healthy artisans, the decline in the birth rate in 24 years, 1889—1904 was over 52%, or three times that in England and Wales as a whole. Study of a large number of families of the working class of incompetent and parasitic character found that the average number of children to the family was 7.4, while in thrifty and competent working families, the number was 3.7. In other words, the incompetent and defective classes are multiplying much more rapidly than are the competent and efficient. P. 440.
THE INCREASE OF INSANITY. James T. Searcy, A.B., M.D., LLD., Superintendent Alabama Hospitals for Insane. First National Conference on Race Betterment. January, 1914.
The population of the State of Alabama, according to the census during the ten years which the census includes, insanity increased 16%; the admissions into the insane hospitals increased 45%. These are appalling figures, and we can parallel them all over the U. S., not like them exactly in each state, for they differ. The general population of the U. S. increased 18%, and that of the insane hospitals increased 28% during the years of the census. P. 167.
EPILEPSY
THE PRACTICE OF OBSTETRICS. Joseph De Lee, M.D.
Epilepsy may practically be regarded as an in-hereditary affection, and children of one subject to this disorder are almost sure to be epileptic. Under no circumstances should parents who are both epileptics bring children into the world.
THE PRACTICE OF OBSTETRICS. In Original Contributions by American Authors. Edited by Reuben Peterson, A.B., M.D., Prof. of Obstetrics and Gynecology in the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich.; Obstetrician and Gynecologist-in-Chief to the University of Michigan Hospital. Lea Bros. & Co., Phil. and New York. 1907. Chapter XIX.