Chapter IV: Section II: Practical Eugenics

GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS UPON "EDUCATION BEFORE PROCREATION."

(Abstract.)

By Adolphe Pinard,

_Professor at the Faculty; Member of the Academy of Medicine of Paris._

Sir Francis Galton has entitled Eugenics the new science having for its object the study of the causes subject to social control which can improve or impair the racial qualities of future generations, whether physical or mental.

Eugenics, thus defined, is nothing else but "Education before Procreation," which has been studied in France for a number of years, and which constitutes the first part of child-culture, "a science having for its object the search for information relative to the reproduction, preservation, and improvement of the human species"([1]).

[Footnote 1: v. De la Puériculture in Revue Scientifique, 1897.]

The Congress ought then to have for its object to work for the investigation of the conditions necessary to secure a favourable procreation. Now, it appears that the word "Eugenics," from the etymological point of view, does not characterise either explicitly or sufficiently the proposed object, while the word "Eugénique," of [Greek: gennaô], at once recalls to the mind the idea of a favourable procreation([2]).

[Footnote 2: Besides, the word "Eugenics" recalls in France a chemical term: eugenic-acid.]

It is part of the duty of our first principal sitting to lay down a rule upon this point.

Certainly, biological, sociological, and historical researches, laws and social customs regarded in their relations with the science of Eugenics, are necessary and will undoubtedly result in extremely interesting data, but from now it is above all things urgent to establish and proclaim eugenic principles.

Researches relating to physiological heredity and pathological heredity ought to be pursued without interruption, but it is necessary to make known as soon as possible to the masses of the people the individual conditions, fully understood, which alone permit a favourable and healthy procreation. In a word, it is necessary, by every means and as soon as possible, to organise a great movement in order to show to the greatest number of human beings the absolute necessity for a conscientious, _i.e._, an enlightened procreation. We must bravely approach the civilising of _the reproductive instinct_, which alone has remained in a barbarous state amongst all the so-called civilised nations from the earliest times.

Then only, when societies have fulfilled this duty, will they have the right to investigate what they ought and can effect against those for whom future offspring would be recognised as fatally disastrous.

Finally, it is fully understood that researches relating to selection in the human species must be pursued in a parallel manner, as is now done with such fruitful results for animals and vegetables in Genetics, and in throwing light upon the constantly increasing conquests of this other science.

PRACTICAL ORGANIZATION OF EUGENIC ACTION.

(Abstract.)

By Dr. Louis Querton,

_Professor at the University of Brussels._

Now that many studies on the physiology and hygiene of reproduction of man have been made, and many investigations on degeneration have been conducted, we may face the problem of the betterment of the race, from a practical standpoint.

If the eugenic action cannot yet strive directly against hereditary transmission of anomalies, it can fight successfully against the causes of degeneration which act during the development of the individual.

Physical and social environment influences these causes, which, on account of their growing complexity, create more and more obstacles to the normal evolution of the individual, while at the same time they force him to acquire greater and more varied aptitudes.

To thwart the prejudicial action of the environment on the development of the individual, the systematic organization of this development seems to be of first importance.

The control of the development of the children, at the different phases of their evolution, is strictly necessary to assure the education of the individual and to check the degeneration of the race.

The control is already established for certain classes of children, and during limited periods of their development. Nurslings, school children, and labourers can already, sometimes compulsorily, be submitted to control.

But the insufficiency of the actual organization is very evident, and the results are, from the eugenic standpoint, unsatisfactory.

In order to be really effective and to contribute to the improvement of the individual and to the betterment of the race, the control of the development should, as far as possible, be exerted over all children, and it should last during the whole period of their evolution. This control should be compulsory, as well as education; it should be exercised by an institution, the frequentation of which, as well as that of school, might be forced upon all children whose development is not submitted to an effective control in their homes. Private initiative should create such institutions everywhere, and thus prepare legislative interference.

These methodically organized eugenic institutions should, in the future, be the development of the administrative institutions, which actually establish the civil state of individuals. They would tend to facilitate the education of individuals and public bodies; at the same time they would assure the strict application of the laws concerning the protection and education of childhood.

They would collect the documents necessary to the scientific knowledge of the facts of heredity, and would supply precise information concerning the effective work of different social institutions on transformation of the race.

MARRIAGE LAWS AND CUSTOMS.

(Abstract.)

By C. B. Davenport,

_Director, Eugenics Record Office, U.S.A._

Of the various laws limiting freedom of marriage three are of biological import. First, the limitation of relationship between the mates; second, the limitations in mental capacity of the mates; and third, limitations of race.

For the first there is a biological justification in so far as cousin marriages are apt to bring in from both sides of the house the same defect. For the second the justification is partial; but there is equal reason for forbidding the marriage of normal persons both of whom have mentally defective parents or other close relatives. The denial of marriage between races has this justification, that most other races have not, through selection, attained the social status of the Caucasian. In such cases the socially inadequate should be sterilized or segregated in other races as well as in the Caucasian.

EUGENIC SELECTION AND THE ORIGIN OF DEFECTS.

(Abstract.)

By Frédéric Houssay,

_Professor of Science, University of Paris._

Eugenics, which is a social application of biological science, cannot yet be judged by its results; it must be judged by its tendencies. To determine these, we must adjust them to principles generally admitted.

And inasmuch as it advocates practical rules and seeks to check the propagation of the unfit, by isolation or sterilization (voluntary or enforced), it is an artificial selection.

Its justification lies in the fact that, without intervention, the descendants of defectives or degenerates would, in a few generations, eliminate themselves by early death of children or by natural sterility. This would produce a natural selection which Eugenics simply proposes to anticipate by social economy.

It seems that, by applying Darwinian principles, the group of defectives, considered at a given moment, could be rapidly extinguished. But this group is continually reinforced by fresh degeneration of healthy stocks which become tainted.

Hence the need to keep our eye on the re-formation of the group as well as its elimination, and to keep in touch with Lamarckian principles. The study of the origin and hereditary conservation of defects points already as essential factors, to alcoholism, syphilis, and more generally every chronic ailment and diathesis, among which gout must be put in a leading position. Everything which will tend to restrain the action of these factors is of capital importance from our present point of view, whether it occurs in the ranks of rich or poor.

The questions, thus, which Eugenics seeks to answer would be on this view reduced to questions of hygiene and morals.

So that the different biological principles, which sometimes seem in mutual opposition, would become convergent, and would find in Eugenics a ready reconciliation and a field of useful co-operation.

PRELIMINARY REPORT TO THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL EUGENICS CONGRESS,

Of the Committee of the Eugenics Section of the American Breeders' Association to Study and Report on the Best Practical Means for Cutting Off the Defective Germ Plasm in the Human Population.

(Abstract.)

By Bleecker Van Wagenen, _Chairman_.

1. Brief history of the American Breeders' Association, the Eugenics Section and the Committee on Elimination of Defective Germ Plasm.

2. Concise statement of the problem before the Committee and reasons for the investigation.

3. History of legislation in the United States authorising or requiring the sterilization of certain classes of criminals, defectives and degenerates who are under the control of the State in institutions. Digest of the laws now in force. (This may be given as a lantern slide with greater effect.)

Legal views concerning the constitutionality of these laws.

4. Investigations of vasectomy in Indiana, Illinois, Massachusetts and elsewhere, with detailed reports of some typical cases. (With lantern slides.)

5. Reports of sterilization of females, both of normal and abnormal mentality, with a number of typical cases showing after-effects. (With lantern slides.)

6. Some observations in thremmatology suggesting important questions concerning the practical effectiveness of sterilization as a eugenic measure.

7. Technical description of several kinds of sterilizing operations as now performed. Vasectomy, ovariotomy and salpingectomy (with and without complete excision), castration.

8. Reports of several cases of persons, male and female, who having been completely sterilized for a time, recovered the power of procreation and actually did procreate thereafter.

9. State of public opinion regarding sterilization in the United States at the present time. Letters from Governors of States, views of Social Workers and Institution people. Conflicting views of Roman Catholics (as such). Digest of arguments set forth in a long controversy carried on in the American Ecclesiastical Review, chiefly in Latin.

10. Brief report of other data collected by the Committee and programme for future work, with a call for co-operation in securing further data pertinent to this inquiry.

EUGENICS AND THE NEW SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS.

(Abstract.)

By Samuel George Smith.

The new social consciousness is indicated; first, by the larger powers and duties assumed by the State: second, by the new sense of social solidarity affecting persons and groups of persons within the State. The exclusion from parenthood of such wards of the State as the feeble-minded, the insane, and the pauper has gone beyond debate; and for all that are legally excluded from parenthood, custodial care is required. There is need to develop a new ethical sense of the individual in regard to his own relations to the social group. We have not yet sufficient facts to establish a definite relation between physical fitness and social efficiency. This is the place for caution.

Questions of maternity among the poor: (_a_) Hard labour must be forbidden to the expectant mother; (_b_) she must have nourishing food; (_c_) surroundings must be wholesome. The economic problem is solved in the increased vitality and consequent earning power of the coming generation.

Problem of the parenthood of the better classes: just as important and more difficult. The question is not only vital and economic; it is also ethical.

The ignorance of parents and the defects of children. The State has invaded the home, and has set standards, both physical and moral, for the family. It is the duty of the State to secure the proper physical environment for the home. It is a municipal problem. It is a problem of public health. The whole movement looks to the triumph of a vital democracy, which is more important than either political or industrial democracy.

Relations of alcoholism to neurasthenia, of tuberculosis to feeble-mindedness, of bad social and labour conditions to both, indicate cross sections in the problem. Vices of the rich in most countries are greater than the vices of the poor. A vital democracy cannot be based upon physical tests and material comfort. Its deepest foundations are psychical and ethical.

PRACTICABLE EUGENICS IN EDUCATION.

(Abstract.)

By Dr. F. C. S. Schiller.

The danger to mankind arising from the preservation of the unfit under social conditions. The self-destructiveness of civilization. Its superiority dependent on the transmission of accumulated knowledge by education. The danger of failure in educational systems. Is the education of the rich necessarily a failure? The middle classes as providers of ability to man the professions; but the price they have to pay at present is too often racial extinction. The draining of ability from the lower classes.

The existing educational system and its potential value for eugenics. Its unintellectual character. The liberal endowment of a "liberal education." Commercialism and the scholarship system. The athletic system, the play instincts and moral training. Both systems are Darwinian and appeal to British character.

Suggested improvements: (1) in the athletic system; "fitness," not a merely physical ideal; (2) in the scholarship system; "liberal education" to be conceived as intrinsically useful, and not merely a game with intrinsically useless subjects.

Should scholarships be restricted to the needy? The educational dangers of this policy. The eugenical value of the existing system.

The possibility of infusing eugenical spirit into athletics. The appeal of eugenics to the upper classes. A real versus a sham nobility. The eugenical ideal essentially a matter of sentiment and not necessarily anti-democratic.