308 



The Journal of Heredity 



would be of interest from the stand- 

 point of current discussions, but a sin- 

 gle example must suffice. A complete 

 negative is given to an idea frequently 

 indulged by writers on the oriental 

 problem, that a solution may be found 

 in emigration, to relieve the pressure 



of population. This l)^lief a])pears al- 

 together unwarranted when account is 

 taken of the rapid rate of increase that 

 must be expected and the very brief 

 period that would be required to fill up 

 Japan or China, or the whole of Asia, 

 and the other continents as well. 



EUGENICAL STERILIZATION 



A Review 



ORGANIZED interest in eugenics 

 in the United States goes back 

 little more than twenty years. 

 As an outgrowth of the activity start- 

 ed by the rediscovery of Mendel's 

 Laws, the American Breeders' Asso- 

 ciation was organized in 1905 (its 

 name being changed in 1913 to Amer- 

 ican Genetic Association) ; and in the 

 following year it created a committee 

 on eugenics, which a few years later 

 was elevated to the position of a 

 section. 



Even before this — namely, in the 

 first part of 1905 — the Pennsylvania 

 Legislature had passed the first steril- 

 ization law, and thus started a move- 

 ment which has ever since been, in 

 the minds of some people, largely syn- 

 onymous with eugenics. 



The Pennsylvania bill was vetoed 

 in an ignorant and facetious message 

 from Gov. Samuel W. Pennybacker ; 

 but two years later Indiana adopted 

 a similar measure which was put 

 into effect. 



In 1911 the eugenics section of this 

 association formed a committee "to 

 study and report on the best practical 

 means for cutting off the defective 

 germ-plasm in the American popula- 

 tion." The late Bleecker Van Wag- 



enen was chairman of this committee : 

 H. H. Laughlin, superintendent of 

 the Eugenics Record Office at Cold 

 Spring Harbor, Long Island, as secre- 

 tary of the committee immediately 

 began a study of the subject,^ which 

 he has continued for the past twelve 

 years, until the body of material he 

 has accumulated has been published," 

 in the form of a report of the psycho- 

 pathic laboratory of the municipal 

 court of Chicago. It forms by far 

 the most complete and factual study 

 of the subject that has been made, 

 and must stand for a long time as 

 the standard work of reference in 

 this field. 



Meanwhile, fifteen states have adopt- 

 ed sterilization laws at one time or 

 another, and in a dozen of these 

 states, operations, to the total number 

 of 3,233 (data as of Jan. 1, 1921) 

 have been performed. Dr. Laughlin 

 summarizes the status of the laws as 

 follows : 



Among the 1.5 states which have enacted 

 eugenical sterilization statutes the law is 

 still on the statute books, unattacked by the 

 courts and therefore available for use, in the 

 following nine states: California, Connecti- 

 cut, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, 

 South Dakota, Washington, and Wisconsin. 

 California, Connecticut, Kansas, Iowa, and 



^ A preliminary report was made by Mr. Van Wagenen at the First International Con- 

 gress of Eugenics (London, 1912) ; a second report was published in two bulletins of the 

 Eugenics Record Office in February, 1914: "The Scope of the Committee's Work" (Bulletin 

 10-a), and "The Legal, Legislative and Administrative Aspects of Sterilization" (Bulletin 

 10-b), both written by Dr. Laughlin. 



* Eugenical Sterilization in the United States, by Harry Hamilton Laughlin, 

 D. Sc. Pp. 502. Published by the Psychopathic Laboratory of the Municipal Court of 

 Chicago, December, 1922. 



