ID# 1235:
Mendel's Law Poem, by Joseph DeJarnette, MD, witness in Buck vs. Bell case
Date:
1921
Pages: 1 of 1
Source:
Cold Spring Harbor, ,

Mendel's Law Poem, by Joseph DeJarnette, MD, witness in Buck vs. Bell case

Image 1235 MENDEL'S LAW. A Plea For a Better Race of Men. Oh, why are you men so foolish - You breeders who breed our men Let the fools, the weaklings and crazy Keep breeding and breeding again? The criminal, deformed, and the misfit, Dependent, diseased, and the rest - As we breed the human family The worst is as good as the best. Go to the house of some farmer, Look through his barns and sheds, Look at his horses and cattle, Even his hogs are thorough breds; Then look at his stamp on his children, Low browed with the monkey jaw, Ape handed, and silly, and foolish - Bred true to Mendel's law. Go to some homes in the village, Look at the garden beds, The cabbage, the lettuce and turnips, Even the beets are thoroughbreds; Then look at the many children With hands like the monkey's paw, Bowlegged, flat headed, and foolish - Bred true to Mendel's law. This is the law of Mendel, And often he makes it plain, Defectives will breed defectives And the insane breed insane. Oh, why do we allow these people To breed back to the monkey's nest, To increase our country's burdens When we should only breed the best? Oh, you wise men take up the burden, And make this you[sic] loudest creed, Sterilize the misfits promptly - All not fit to breed; Then our race will be strengthened and bettered, And our men and our women be blest, Not apish, repulsive and foolish, For the best will breed the best. [end]

Copyright 1999-2004: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory; American Philosophical Society; Truman State University; Rockefeller Archive Center/Rockefeller University; University of Albany, State University of New York; National Park Service, Statue of Liberty National Monument; University College, London; International Center of Photography; Archiv zur Geschichte der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Berlin-Dahlem; and Special Collections, University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
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