518 The Journal of Heredity 



a child's mental or physical character and scientific thou^^ht about those 



can be influenced in the slightest degree facts. 



for better or for worse in any definite Scientific thoujjjht, Clifford^ told us, 



way, by the mental attitude of the "is not an accompaniment or condition 



mother before its birth. of human progress, but it is human 



Maternal im]:)ressions and ]jre-natal progress itself." 



culture are not facts, but superstitions. No one, I venture to declare, has 



Thc\' owe their continued existence to a human progress more at heart than has 



lack of scientific thought. To realize the eugenist. It must, therefore, be 



their falsity, no deep researches are to the interest of every eugenist to 



neccssarv : nothing more is needed than see that the superstition of maternal 



a knowledge of some elementary facts, impression is driven out of existence. 



6 CliflFord, W. K. The Aim and Instruments of Scientific Thought. Address before the British 

 Association for the Advancement of Science, at Brighton, August 19, 1872. 



International Congress of Genealogy 



The International Congress of Genealogy which met in connection with the 

 Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco from July 27 to 30, 

 represented sixty-five genealogical, historical, patriotic, heraldic and family asso- 

 ciations and had accredited to it about 275 delegates elected by these organizations. 

 In addition, there were many others interested in genealogy, but not officially 

 accredited, who attended the congress. The Utah Genealogical Society sent to 

 the meeting a special train carrying 269 persons from Utah. 



The program provided that the congress should meet the week following the 

 national convention of the American Historical Association and the week preceding 

 the annual meeting of the American Genetic Association and the Second Inter- 

 national Conference of Race Betterment. It also provided for meetings in 

 San Francisco of family associations during or as near as possible to the time of the 

 genealogical congress. Some of the latter were held. 



This jjlan and the genealogical congress, first of its kind e\'er held, were proposed 

 by the Hon. Boutwell Dunlap, of San Francisco, recording secretary of the Cali- 

 fornia Genealogical Society. He first proposed an International Congress of 

 Genealogy and Eugenics. Not desiring to conflict with other eugenic organiza- 

 tions, the name of the congress was later restricted to the International Congress of 

 Genealogy. The invitations to the congress and family associations were issued 

 jointly in the names of the Panama-Pacific International Exi)ositi()n and the Cali- 

 fornia Genealogical Society. 



Some of the (organizations that elected delegates to the congress were the National 

 Societ}' of Americans of Rcjyal Descent, Societ\' for the Preservation of New I^ig- 

 land Antiquities, College of Arms and Seigncural Court of Canada, American 

 Society of Colonial Families, New England Historic Genealogical vSociety, Huguenot 

 Society of America, Louisiana Historical Society, Maine Genealogical Society, 

 Historical Society of New Mexico, Order of Founders and Patriots of America, 

 Society of Genealogists of London, National Genealogical vSociety, National 

 Society of the Sons and Daughters of the Pilgrims, National Society of Sons of the 

 Revolution. 



An International Genealogical Federation was fonned and a resolution aiTecting 

 eugenics, introduced by Mr. Dtmlap and unanimously adojoted by the congress, 

 was as follows : 



"Resolved, that one of the objects of the International (jeneak)gical Federation 

 shall be the collection and preservation of genealogical data for eugenic ])urposes 

 and that the committee of organization of said International Gen{\'dogi('''d I'^edcra- 

 tion is hereby instructed to ])rovide for the said collection ami pn'si'rvation of 

 genealogical data for eugenic ptn-])oses." 



