The First International Eugenics Congress / by Edgar Schuster.

  • Schuster, Edgar.
Date:
[1912]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The First International Eugenics Congress / by Edgar Schuster. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    mother at its birth, but that its vitality tends to be lower the older the mother was at marriage. With the increasing age of the mother the number of still-births and miscarriages increases also. It is also shown that among lunatics, consumptives, and suicides the number of children born is less and their mortality is higher, and confirmation is given to the already ascertained facts that the number of offspring is correlated with the longevity of the parents and that longevity is inherited. (b) Parental Alcoholism. Drs. Magnan and Fillassier1 have concerned themselves less with the eugenic than with the clinical aspect of alcoholism. The only evidence offered as to its effect on the offspring are the statistics compiled by Bourneville. These are cited in a somewhat incomplete manner, namely, that Bourneville found among 3,271 children on his list 1,156 cases in which the father was an excessive drinker, and 100 cases in which the excess was on the part of the mother; as nothing is said about the nature of the children it is difficult to see what this statement proves. Some vivid sketches of the symptoms shown by degenerates follow, but no particulars concerning their parentage are given, except that we are told that they “ result from such unions ” (of parents given to alcoholism). The only specific fact as to parentage cited is that in one of the type cases the mother was insane. IV. The Contributions of History and Anthropology. (a) Anthropology. Among the anthropological contributions are those of Professor Sergi2 and Dr. Soren Hansen.3 The former main¬ tains that the two chief types of skull formation recognized by 1 Alcoolisme et Degenescence. Staristiques du Service Central d’admission des Alienes de la ville du Paris, et du department de la Seine de 1867 a 1912. M. Magnan, Medecin en Chef du Service Central d’Admission a l’Asile Ste Anne, membre de 1’Academie de Medecine et M. Fillassier, Membre de la Societe Clinique de Medecine Mentale, et de la Societe de Medecine de Paris. 2Variazione e Eredita nell’Uomo. Professor G. Sergi, Professor of Anthropology, University of Rome. 3 On the Increase of Stature in certain European Populations. By Soren Hansen, M.D., Director of the Danish Anthropological Survey, Copenhagen.