ID# 1719:
Eugenics: The Science of Human Improvement by Better Breeding, by Charles B. Davenport
Date:
1910
Pages: (1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9|10|11|12|13|14|15|16|17|18|19|20|21)
Source:
Cold Spring Harbor, ERO,

1719. [left side] Eugenics tor of the Department of Psychological Research at the New Jersey Training School for Feeble Minded Boys and Girls, as Secretary. At the present moment this committee is collecting answers to the question: "Do two imbecile parents ever beget normal children?" This committee has most important interests, since the number of feeble-minded in the United States alone is probably not less than 150,000 of which 15,000 are in institutions.[superior 1] A sub-committee on Insanity is being organized under the chairmanship of Dr. Adolf Meyer, for some time Director of the Pathological Institute of the New York State Commission in Lunacy and recently appointed head of the Phipps Psychiatric Institute at the Johns Hopkins University. The secretary of this Sub-Committee is Dr. E. E. Southard, Pathologist to the State Board of Insanity, Massachusetts. This sub-committee has important work to do, for there are over 150,000 insane in the institutions of the United States alone. [footnote][superior 1] Bureau of the Census. Special Reports: Insane and Feeble-minded in Hospitals and Institutions. 1904, p. 205. 28 [right side] A Plan for Further Work Other sub-committees are contemplated to study the protoplasmic basis of eye defects, deafness, predisposition toward lung and throat trouble, toward diseases of the excretory and circulatory organs; toward cancer, skin diseases, cripple appendages and so on. Still other sub-committees should deal with criminality and pauperism, with the effects of consanguineous marriages and of such mongrelization as is proceeding on a vast scale in this country. Perhaps other sub-committees, recruited from those who make physical examinations, will study inheritance of muscular strength, of sound wind and endurance. Possibly registrars of colleges will serve on sub-committees for the study of inheritance of various intellectual traits. Other sub-committees should be added as needed. A second class of investigation may better be undertaken by the central committee. It is the obtaining of records of the inheritance of characteristics of health, ability and temperament from typical American families. In the attempt to secure such records 5000 blanks have been distributed and about 300 Family Records re- 29 [end]
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