154 The Journal of Heredity 



withstanding its early mismanagement, Japhet Linderberg, president of the 

 gives promise of a mighty industry, and Pioneer Mining Company, Norne. 

 should be carefully fostered so that in Alaska, a recognized authority on rein- 

 years to come the states could rely upon deer, says the tundra fires, in destroying 

 an ever-increasing supply of reindeer large areas of moss, are a great menace 

 meat. To do this, means should be to the reindeer industry. Thesfe fires 

 used to stop waste and decrease casual- are very extensive all through the inter- 

 tics, and this will never be so long as the ior, where the hght precipitation and 

 Lapps and missions hold so large a num- the peaty character of much' of the area 

 ber of deer, and the natives, who do not permit them to smoulder and burn until 

 look to the future, are permitted to not only all the vegetation, but much 

 handle the deer as they will." of the soil is destroyed. 



NEW PUBLICATIONS 



REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE TO STUDY AND TO REPORT ON THE BEST PRAC- 

 TICAL MEANS OF CUTTING OFF THE DEFECTIVE GERM-PLASM IN THE 

 AMERICAN POPULATION, by Harry H. Laughlin, Secretary of the Committee. Vol. I, 

 The Scope of the Committee's Work, Vol II, The Legal, Legislative and Administrative 

 Aspects of Sterilization. Eugenics Record Office Bulletins Nos. lOA and lOB, Cold Spring 

 Harbor, Long Island, February 1914. Vol. I, 64 pp., 20 cents; Vol. II, 150 pp., 60 cents. 



"The investigation reported in this series of studies was initiated at the second 

 meeting of the Research Committees of the Eugenics Section of the American 

 Breeders' Association at Palmer, Mass., May 2 and 3, 1911." Following the 

 reorganization of the American Breeders' Association, the committee continued 

 its work independently under the chairmanship of Bleecker Van Wagenen. The 

 other members are now W. H. Carmalt, Everett Flood, H. W. Mitchell and H. H. 

 Laughlin, and they are assisted by a staff of 20 expert advisers on different phases 

 of the problem, which they have undertaken to study from every point of \dew. 

 The two bulletins under consideration are preliminary in nature; "in the subse- 

 quent reports of this committee," it states, "we propose by the means of first- 

 hand facts, a considerable body of which has already been secured and studied, 

 to present to the public data for weighing the several problems which aj^ixTtain 

 to this investigation." 



According to the first volume of the series, the committee proposes that the 

 lowest tenth of the population of the United States be "cut off" during the next 

 two generations, by an extension of institutional care, i. e., "Hfe-long segregation," 

 comi)lemcnted by sterilization wherever necessary. The second \-olume takes up 

 the latter part of the problem, and analyzes in an exhausti\-c way its present 

 status. All laws which have been jjasscd with the object of dealing with this aspect 

 of cacogenics are quoted in full; o]jinions of ex]3erts are given as to their constitu- 

 tionality; in cases where they have been attacked before the courts, extended 

 accounts of the cases are given; and finally, the committee submits a "model 

 law" of its own. 



It is interesting to note that in si)ite of the great amount of discussion of this 

 sui)posed cacogcnic remedy, which has been carried on during recent years, and 

 the laws passed in 12 states to a])i)ly it, the committee estimates that less than 

 1 ,(X)0 legal o])crations have been i^erformed under these laws to date. It is declared, 

 indeed, that more operations "have been jjerformed without the sanction of the 

 law than have been performed under its ]3rovisions, or even under its shado\y." 

 As is well known, California is the only state where the law is at ijresent being 

 enforced, the other 11 states having formally or informally abandoned the i^rojcct. 

 cither in response to public sentiment, or because of adverse decisions of the courts. 



