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.

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    STERILIZATION FOR HUMAN BETTERMENT CHAPTER I THE PROBLEM For half a century, since serious attempts were first made to get an accurate census of persons with mental diseases in the United States, the number has been found to be increasing, steadily and rapidly. The number of known mentally dis¬ eased persons is now three times as great, in pro¬ portion to the total population, as it was in 1880. Much of this increase is due to better diagnosis and the fact that more attention is being paid to the subject. Some of it is due to the fact that people are now living longer than formerly, hence mental diseases that appear only after middle life are more likely to be prominent. A significant part is due to the immigration of people who are mentally weak, or at least do not prove capable of adjusting themselves to the complicated surround¬ ings of city life in America, even though they [3]