HUMAN CONSERVATION 253 



to society. "We have become so used to crime, 

 disease and degeneracy that we take them for nec- 

 essary evils. That they were in the world's igno- 

 rance, is granted. That they must remain so, is 

 denied" (Davenport). 



"The great horde of defectives once in the world 

 have the right to live and enjoy as best they may 

 whatever freedom is compatible with the lives and 

 freedom of other members of society," says Kellicott, 

 but society has a right to protect itself against repe- 

 titions of hereditary blunders. 



There is one grave danger connected with the 

 administration of our humane and commendable 

 philanthropies toward the unfortunate, for it fre- 

 quently happens that defectives are kept in insti- 

 tutions until they are sexually mature or are partly 

 self-supporting, when they are liberated only to add 

 to the burden of society by reproducing their like. 



Furthermore, if defectives of the same sort are 

 collected together in the same institutions, unless 

 sexual segregation is strictly maintained, they may 

 by the very circumstance of proximity tend to re- 

 produce their kind just as defectives in any isolated 

 community tend to multiply. 



David Starr Jordan cites the interesting case of 

 cretinism which occurs in the valley of Aosta in 

 northern Italy, to prove the wisdom of the sexual 

 segregation of defectives. Cretinism is an hereditary 

 defect connected with an abnormal development of 

 the thyroid gland which results in a peculiar form of 

 idiocy usually associated with goitre. 



