Sterilization for human betterment : a summary of results of 6,000 operations in California, 1909-1929 / by E.S. Gosney ... and Paul Popenoe.

  • Gosney, E. S. (Ezra Seymour), 1855-1942.
Date:
1929
Catalogue details

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

Credit: Sterilization for human betterment : a summary of results of 6,000 operations in California, 1909-1929 / by E.S. Gosney ... and Paul Popenoe. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    11/232 (page VII)
    INTRODUCTION Just how much insanity may be traced to inher¬ itance is a difficult problem, because there is often an exciting cause, an injury, shock, or sickness. The latent heredity develops: family and friends place the blame entirely on the exciting cause. In the feeble-minded, heredity is more appar¬ ent. Some noted families exhibit this in a striking manner, such as the Kallikak family, in which the founder had an illegitimate son by a feeble-minded woman. From this son in five generations were traced 480 offspring, only forty-six of whom were known to be normal. The same father subse¬ quently married a normal woman, from whom in six generations were descended 496 offspring, only one of whom was known not to be normal. In the first family, there were all forms of feeble-minded- ness, degeneracy, and crime; in the second there were tradesmen, teachers, preachers, lawyers, judges, and a high quality of citizenship gen¬ erally. We might mention other families such as the Jukes, with six generations and 1200 defectives; the Nam family, with 90% feeble-minded; the Zeros, tribe of Ishmael, etc. each family costing its respective state from one to three million dol¬ lars. Ohio, some years ago, published a statement showing that it was then expending $5,000,000 [vii]