254 GENETICS 



"In the city of Aosta the goitrous cretin has been 

 for centuries an object of charity. The idiot has 

 received generous support, while the poor farmer or 

 laborer with brains and no goitre has had the sever- 

 est of struggles. In the competition of life a pre- 

 mium has thus been placed on imbecility and disease. 

 The cretin has mated with cretin, the goitre with 

 goitre, and charity and religion have presided over 

 the union. The result is that idiocy is multiplied 

 and intensified. The cretin of Aosta has been de- 

 veloped as a new species of man. In fair weather 

 the roads about the city are lined with these awful 

 paupers — human beings with less intelligence than 

 a goose, with less decency than the pig." 



Why mper, writing in 1880, further observes: "It 

 is strange that self-interest does not lead the natives 

 of Aosta to place their cretins under such restrictions 

 as would prevent their illicit intercourse ; and it is 

 still more surprising to find the Catholic Church 

 actually legalizing their marriage. There is some- 

 thing horribly grotesque in the idea of solemnizing 

 the union of a brace of idiots, and, since it is well 

 known that the disease is hereditary and develops in 

 successive generations the fact that such marriages 

 are sanctioned is scandalous and infamous." 



Since 1890 the cretins have been sexually segregated, 



and in 1910 Jordan reported that they were nearly 



all gone. 



e. Drastic Measures 



A fifth method of restricting undesirable germ- 

 plasm in the case of confirmed criminals, idiots. 



