EVOLUTION, HEREDITY, EUGENICS 545 



Negative Eugenics. — One important factor in negative eugenics 

 consists in the regulation of immigration by the exclusion of idiots, 

 insane, and otherwise inferior persons from our country. Segrega- 

 tion of some of our unfit, so that they are not menaces to society, 

 is another measure in favor at present. Sterilization of the most 

 defective individuals is now legal in a number of states. This 

 measure consists in either searing or severing the Fallopian tubes of 

 the female, and in the male the operation of vasectomy, i.e., severing 

 the vas deferens. In neither case does the person lose the benefits 

 of the internal secretions (page 444) but the defectives are unable to 

 reproduce. 



Positive Eugenics. — Education is the foremost agency in positive 

 eugenics. By lectures and tracts, the American Eugenics Society 

 is attempting to have as many persons as possible fill out records of 

 their family pedigrees and send them to the Eugenics Record Office, 

 Cold Spring Harbor, L. I. It is also encouraging those best fitted 

 to do so to produce four children per family. 



