The fertility of the unfit / [W.A. Chapple].

  • Chapple, W. A.
Date:
1903
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: The fertility of the unfit / [W.A. Chapple]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    CHAPTER IX. The Multiplication of the Unfit in Relation to the State. Ancient Viethods of preventing the fertility of the unfit.—Christian sentiment suppressed inhuman practices—Christian care brings many defectives to the child-bearing period of life. — The association of mental and physical defects. — Who are the unfit. — The tendency of relatives to cast their degenerate kinsfolk on the State.—Our social conditions manufactu7'e defectives and foster their fertility. — The only moral force that limits families is inhibition ivith prudence.—Defective self-control transmitted hereditarily.—Dr. MacGregot^s cases.—The transmission of insanity.—Celibacy of the insane is the prophylaxis of insanity in the race.—The environment of the unfit.—Defectives snatched from Naturels clutch.—At the age of maturity they are left to propogate their kind. The humanitarian spirit, born 1900 years ago, effectually checked all inhuman practices for disposal of the unfit. Christ is the Author of this spirit. The noisy triumph of His perse¬ cutors had scarcely died away before His conception of the sanctity of human life found expression in the mission of those Roman maidens who in His name devoted their lives to collecting exposed infants from the environs of their city—that they might rear and educate them and bring them to the Church. Not only has it done this, but it has taught society that its first and highest duty is to its weaker brethren, who constitute the unfit.