ID# 697:
H.B. Webster letter to L.F. Barker, about two Maine families
Date:
1915
Pages: (1|2|3|4|5|6|7)
Source:
American Philosophical Society, ERO, MSC77,SerVIII,Box2

H.B. Webster letter to L.F. Barker, about two Maine families

[stamped on letter] H. B. Webster V. C. II Jan 7 1916 [end stamped on letter] H. B. Webster. M. D. OFFICE HOURS 1 TO 3 AND 7 TO 8 P.M. AND BY APPOINTMENT Castine, Me., Dec. 31 1915 Mr. L. F. Barker Eugenics Record Office Cold Springs [sic] Harbor Long Island. N. Y. Dear Sir, I am sending you the data that I have collected in regard to some defectives that I have had opportunity to observe in my practice here. I regret that the data is not more complete and that the exact dates of birth etc, have not been obtained in more instances. However, I hope that I may gradually acquire some more data regarding the individuals not traced. If some one who had time to go back over the town records of births and deaths of Castine, Brooksville, and Penobscot would take this up, those deficiencies could be supplied. I have not filled out many of the minute trait record blanks for these individuals, but may be able later to do this for some of the more important and central members of this group. The data collected convinced me that further progeny of this breed is undesirable. [handwritten insertion] In one instance [end handwritten insertion] IV, 9, have/obtained consent to sterilization on eugenic as well as personal grounds. This instance may help to combat the argument that sterilization of the defectives, is necessarily a cruel and unjustifiable requirement, to demand of them in return for the protection and support which they all obtain either by public charity, or private beneficence and tolerance. It is a sound eugenic tenet, that normal persons owe a debt to the community, that can only be discharged by the breeding and rearing of another generation as desirable as themselves. Conversely, those defectives who are practically certain to breed principally defectives, owe a debt to the community that can be discharged only by an adequate guarrantee [sic] that they shall not contribute to the next generation. Please keep my name on your lists of those who receive notice of the publications of your office. Sincerely yours, H. B. Webster.

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