Hamilton: Pioneers in Eugenics 



371 



tendencies, nor thin their ranks. For, 

 as fast as we imprison and hang criminals 

 others are born to take their places; so 

 that all our conflicts with evil result in 

 long-drawn battle . ' ' 



"The true way of regenerating the 

 race is through scientific generation. 

 The demand of the time is, that we lay 

 the right foundations of character by 

 fixing the organic tendencies of children, in 

 moral and physical health, before birth." 



Air. Moody evidently appreciated the 

 need for that organization of knowledge 

 which should give mankind the general- 

 izations upon which it might work out 

 this eugenic ideal and he earnestly hoped 

 that persons of the highest wisdom, 

 courage and devotion to public duty 

 might come forward ready for this work, 

 and take the first steps towards the 

 formation of an Institute of Heredity, 

 "which shall found a library, establish 

 lectureships, with schools of instruction, 

 and take in hand the diffusion of knowl- 

 edge on the subject of improving our 

 race by the laws of physiology." 



The time was hardly ripe, when Mr. 

 Aloody wrote, for the founding of such 

 an institution as he dreamed of, where 

 "such conversations, consultations, and 

 illustrated lectures as may awaken 

 interest and lead on towards a realization 

 of these great and beneficent ends" 

 might be held. The school and lecture 

 room in Boston, which he planned, 

 together with its library which he hoped 

 would grow into a research center, were 

 not supported as he thought they might 

 be and the first attempt at organization 

 for eugenic investigation and research in 

 America melted away. 



Of the movement he says — and a 

 considerable number of our newspapers 

 and magazines have confirmed his 

 prophesy — " It will encounter misunder- 

 standing, opposition, and even ridicule 

 and reproach, from ignorance, prejudice 

 and bigotry. It must be sustained by 

 the highest wisdom, prudence and 

 forbearance. Hence it will need the 

 sympathy and cooperation of every en- 

 lightened philanthropist and reformer." 



FINDS one adherent. 



One such enlightened philanthropist 

 and reformer, at least, responded to Mr. 

 Moody's circular. In the little booklet. 



which seemed strangely lonely and out 

 of place among the ranks of scientific 

 memoirs and fat genealogies, are gath- 

 ered some of the letters written back and 

 forth between Mr. Moody and Mrs. 

 Elizabeth Thompson who realized that 

 she had been giving "much time, 

 labor and money in aid of numerous 

 schemes to palliate the evils of society, 

 while leaving the causes of these evils to 

 continue their destructive work." 



"If I understand you rightly," she 

 wrote, "You propose to carry a searching 

 investigation into the causes of all the 

 moral, mental and physical disorders of 

 society, for the purpose of awakening a 

 public demand for their removal. Will 

 you please give me your opinions more 

 fully as to the causes of these manifold 

 disorders, and the conditions under 

 which they are developed and trans- 

 mitted from parent to child?" 



Mr. Moody was not deceived by his 

 ambition and ideal, he did not take the 

 wish for the fact, he felt his lack of 

 knowledge and in answering his en- 

 quirer he made the same reply as the 

 conscientious student of eugenics would 

 today — 



"A glance at the roll of premature 

 deaths, the ravages of disease, the 

 records of our criminal courts, the 

 tenants of our jails, houses of correction, 

 reform schools, asylums for lunatics, 

 idiots, inebriates; the abortions, in- 

 fanticides, and other disorders and evils 

 too numerous to mention, — will satisfy 

 any thoughtful, reflective mind that the 

 reproductive forces of the human race 

 are terribly clogged and out of gear, and 

 that the time has fully come for us to 

 accumulate a groundwork of knowledge 

 upon which we can move forward in the 

 great work of delivering our race from 

 this terrible waste, suffering and ruin." 



negative eugenics. 



He also realized that, while more 

 knowledge is of paramount importance 

 to any attempt at racial improvement, 

 there are some things that should be 

 done immediately, and he outlined his 

 plan of "negative eugenics" in a later 

 letter. 



"Then," he writes, "As a means of 

 eliminating the inherited effects of 

 disorders from posterity, I would have 



