Eugenics Committee: vStudies in Human Heredity 



551 



under the nainc of "the Jackson 

 Whites," and formed by an amalgaina- 

 tion of the white race with the negro 

 and the American Indian, early in the 

 last century. Detailed analysis of this 

 unusual racial mixture will certainly 

 prove of great interest to genetists; but 

 one fact which already stands out 

 prominently seems to be the very 

 limited effect of environment, in in- 

 fluencing this mixed heredity. The 

 socially degenerate group has spread to 

 many points in the East, including cities 

 and small towns ; but wherever its mem- 

 bers appear, they carry with them the 

 "Jackson White" characteristics. It is 

 clear, then, that their physical, mental 

 and social condition can not be ascribed 

 to any environmental factors, but that 

 their deficiencies are to be explained, 

 for the most part, by bad heredity. 



In regard to the inheritance of feeble- 

 mindedness, Dr. Goddard's data, above 

 mentioned, convince him that it behaves 

 as a Mendelian recessive. 



mortality studies. 



By far the most gigantic collection of 

 data ever analyzed for the purpose 

 which interests this Association is now 

 being worked over in the Medico- 

 Actuarial Mortality Investigation, which 

 is directed by Arthur Hunter of the New 

 York Life Insurance Company. Nearly 

 all the prominent life insurance com- 

 panies of North America are interested 

 in this research, and have furnished 

 details regarding 2,000,000 deaths, which 

 are being investigated with a view to 

 determining in what points the rates 

 of the companies need revision. Much 

 of the work falls outside the sphere of 

 human heredity, but many facts have 

 already been brought out which bear 

 on the eugenics researches of the last 

 decade. It is found, for instance, that 

 the mortality is slightly below the 

 average with people both of whose par- 

 ents died of cancer. This, as Mr. 

 Hunter explains, is doubtless because 

 the policy-holders with such family his- 

 tories represent a stringently selected 

 class; the examining physicians would 

 bar all but good risks, under those cir- 

 cumstances; and the result of this selec- 

 tion by the medical examiners is that 



those passed are particularly good risks, 

 in spite of the fact that their parents 

 died from the same malignant disease. 

 The statistics with regard to consump- 

 tion will be equally interesting: they 

 have not been completed yet for the 

 whole investigation, but the results of 

 the New York Life Insurance Company 

 are available, and probably represent 

 the whole. It is found that in a young 

 man or woman, a consumptive family 

 history diminishes the expectation of 

 longevity; but after the age of 40, the 

 fact that an individual may have lost 

 one member of the family through con- 

 sumption has no efifect whatever on the 

 mortality. Four voliimes of statistics 

 from this investigation have already 

 been published, and a fifth is to follow 

 shortly. 



An unusual amount of strictly eugenic 

 research work is being carried on at the 

 University of Pittsburgh, under the 

 leadership of Professor Roswell H. 

 Johnson, who offers a course entitled 

 "Laboratory Work in Eugenics," which 

 demands that every student entering 

 it undertake some practical problem, 

 usually in collaboration with the pro- 

 fessor. Among the investigations of the 

 past year are the following: 



The inheritance of two peculiar traits 

 in the himian eye : very round eyes, and 

 eyes closing in laughter. Both these 

 traits. Professor Johnson says, show 

 segregation, but apparently not on 

 Mendelian proportions. 



marriage and birth rates. 



A study has been made of alumni 

 record books for marriage and birth 

 rates of college graduates. This has 

 particularly been the object of research 

 among the graduates of women's col- 

 leges. Miss Bertha J. Stutzmann has 

 been analyzing returns from some of the 

 larger colleges. Miss Helen D. Murphey 

 has tabulated the marriage and birth 

 rates of Washington (Penn.) Seminary 

 alumnae, and Miss Carrie F. Giknore 

 has been compiling facts about prefer- 

 ential mating in the graduates of a 

 normal school. 



A survey is also being made of the 

 several wards of Pittsburgh, with ref- 

 erence to their vital and social statis- 



