The Jukes : a study in crime, pauperism, disease, and heredity / by Robert L. Dugdale ; with a foreword by Elisha Harris ; and an introduction by Franklin H. Giddings.

Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The Jukes : a study in crime, pauperism, disease, and heredity / by Robert L. Dugdale ; with a foreword by Elisha Harris ; and an introduction by Franklin H. Giddings. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    lest I should unconsciously fall into the error of being dominated by fore- gone conclusions. I have therefore merely recorded in the order of their occurrence all the authenticated facts of each life brought to my notice, giving the age at which they took place, so that the sequence of phe- nomena could be distinctly traced and the nature of the accompanying environment be noted, to enable us to compare generation with generation and measure the relative importance of heredity and environment in the shaping of individual careers. Difficulties, most of them surmountable, prevented my including many topographical, political, social, economic, hygienic and other factors which belong to the inquiry, and this defective- ness in the range of facts presented precludes my offering any conclusions authoritatively ; but the accumulated testimony illustrates the application and justification of the treatment of the subject discussed. The second paper is the result of an examination of felon convicts on a very ample schedule, covering their physical, mental, moral and ances- tral traits to test the accuracy of what purports to be the public records of crime in this State ; to establish the value of expert work in making a minute census of the prison population, including the trustworthiness of convict testimony, and to lay the basis for a wider and more thorough ap plication of the method of research pursued in the study of the “ Jukes.” The effort to trace back the genealogy in these cases was sufficiently extended to fulfil some of the conditions of the present investigation, but no exhaustive prosecution of the subject was pushed, as no adequate means were at hand to that end. Thus, even the limited number of sched- ules (233) of criminals gathered remain in hand, till adequate authority and means shall warrant the further prosecution of the research to positive conclusions. 1 am informed that $28,000 was raised in two days to purchase a rare collection of antique jewelry and bronzes recently discovered in classic ground, forty feet below the dlbris. I do not hear of as many pence being offered to fathom the dlbris of our civilization, however rich the yield. I do not complain that men of wealth expend their means as they prefer, but it seems not captious that I should wish crime and pauperism were as rare as the exhumed treasures, that they might arouse equal zeal for deep research. There is, perhaps, yet hope, for these subjects have a claim to far greater antiquity inasmuch as they reach back to time immemorial, which assuredly antedates the bronzes. New York, May, 1871.