238 
social position, civil condition, fertility, 
and physical health. 
The labor, therefore, will consist of 
the examination of selected persons in 
all parts of the county and all persons 
in selected parts of the county. It is 
estimated that this will take at least 
four months, and that several months 
more will be required for working up 
the data. The State of New York has 
furnished the services of Dr. A. J. 
Rosanoft, of King’s Park Hospital, to 
direct the survey; with him will be one 
or more medical examiners furnished by 
the United States Public Health Service, 
eight field workers to investigate the 
Genetic Survey 
“The Southwest School of Hygiene 
of Kansas City, Mo., under the director- 
ship of Dr. Belle S. Mooney, is organiz- 
ing a Eugenic Survey of the city with 
the cooperation of the Board of Educa- 
tion,’ says the February Eugenical 
News. ‘‘The plan is to secure the 
family history of all the school children 
The Journal of Heredity 
family histories of the individuals ex- 
amined, and several clerical assistants. 
Headquarters will be at Mineola, the 
county-seat. 
General direction of the survey will be 
in the hands of a committee, consisting 
of Dr. Charles B. Davenport, chairman; 
Samuel P. Duggan, Elizabeth E. Farrell, 
Homer Folks, Dr. August Hoch, Dr. 
A. J. Rosanoff, and Dr. Thomas W. 
Salmon. The survey was initiated and 
will be partly financed by the Nassau 
County Association, a citizens’ organi- 
zation which has hitherto taken an 
active interest in the problems of 
eugenics and cacogenics in its district. 
of Kansas City 
and not simply the history of the back- 
ward children. This is an important 
step in the right direction. No class 
of society can be rightly studied apart 
from its fellows. Our studies of human 
heredity have thus far been too one- 
sided.” This will make a valuable check 
on the Nassau survey. 
Nebraska Sterilization Law 
Sterilization of feebleminded and in- 
sane is provided by a law passed by the 
1915 session of the Nebraska legislature. 
It provides that all inmates of state in- 
stitutions for the feebleminded and 
insane, the penitentiary, reformatory, 
industrial home and schools, and other 
state institutions, who are subject to 
parole or discharge, shall be examined 
by a board of five physicians, who shall 
inquire into the “innate traits, the 
mental and physical conditions, the 
personal records, and the family traits 
and histories.” If they find that chil- 
dren of the individual would probably 
inherit a tendency to feeblemindedness, 
insanity, or degeneracy, he shall not 
be given his liberty unless he is sterilized 
by such an operation as the board of 
physicians may indicate. The consent 
of his family and of himself, if possible, 
must first be obtained. 
The Drama in the Service of Eugenics 
The ‘“‘eugenic plays’’ hitherto pre- 
sented have been, in general, presenta- 
tions of negative eugenics and sex- 
hygiene, and have generally merited 
the description of unpleasant plays. 
The Eugenics Section of the Pitts- 
burgh Academy of Science and Art be- 
lieved that a pleasant play dealing with 
positive eugenics would be a valuable 
piece of propaganda. Through its dra- 
matic committee it discovered the value 
of George Middleton's ‘‘The Unborn,” 
and this was recently presented in the 
Northside Carnegie Lecture Hall. The 
impression it made was so evident that 
it is to be repeated on May 2 in another 
part of the city, and possibly in some 
other Pennsylvania cities. The per- 
formance was made possible by the 
cooperation of the Little Theater Com- 
pany, an amateur organization of Pitts- 
burgh. The play, which lasts only 
twenty minutes and deals with volun- 
tary childlessness, was followed by a 
spirited discussion. 
