EUGENICS RECORD OFFICE.* 



C. B. Davenport, Director. 

 STAFF. 



During the year ending September 1, 1919, the work of the Eugenics 

 Record Office was seriously interrupted by the war. The extensive 

 investigations of Captain A. H. Estabrook into the great family of 

 Ishmaelites of Indiana and adjacent States have not been continued, 

 owing to the fact that Dr. Estabrook remained, up to the time of 

 report, in the United States Army in the psychological, and later in 

 the reconstruction, service. Dr. Wilhelmine E. Key left March 1 to 

 undertake the organization of a State girls' industrial school near 

 East Lyme, Connecticut. Despite these limitations, progress has been 

 made in several matters. 



HEREDITY IN ARISTOGENIC FAMILIES. 



First may be mentioned the work of Professor Howard J. Banker, 

 who has for some years been engaged in a study as far removed as 

 feasible from that of the defective stocks in which most of our studies 

 have been made. No excuse or apology is necessary for having, hith- 

 erto, devoted the energies of the Office so largely to the cacogenic side. 

 First of all, social needs seemed more pressing in this line than any 

 other. Secondly, this aspect of eugenics brought us into close relations 

 with superintendents of institutions and we thus secured the entree 

 into many homes and the cooperation of the State in the expense of 

 the investigation. 



It is an unfortunate result, however, of laying too much emphasis 

 on this aspect of eugenics, that the term has come to have so largely 

 a cacogenic connotation. To this situation the investigations of Dr. 

 Banker wdll, it is believed, serve as a corrective. The characters that 

 are popularly called "normal" are as clearly hereditarj^ as any others; 

 indeed, the very fact that they are so common in the race that they 

 are taken for granted is the best evidence that they form the basal 

 heritage of the race. As Doctor Banker says : 



"The study of human heredity can never be complete, or even satisfactory, 

 until these 'normal' traits are compiled and classified and their distribution 

 through families and races are accurately described. But there are few 

 accumulations of data on this phase of the general subject. The physician 

 does not record the 'normal' reactions of his patient; they are assumed. 

 'Normal' individuals have not been segregated in institutions and had their 

 behavior and reactions keenly observed, accurately recorded, and scientifically 

 classified. Here, then, is an important and extensive field for observation 

 which must be explored in order to lay a real foundation for all studies in 

 heredity. The fact that the progress of civiHzation has developed no natural 



♦Situated at Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island, New York. 



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