262 TAGE KEMP 



had sisters who were immoral (the majority of them being compelled to 

 report themselves). 



These two high figures may of course partly be explained from the point 

 of view that the environmental conditions certainly have asserted them- 

 selves, notably if one keeps in mind that the majority of the examined 

 come from the lowest classes of society, though they do imply that many 

 of the fathers and siblings have had a psychopathic constitution or some 

 other psychic abnormality. 



The examined had altogether 1680 brothers and sisters, 6 of whom were 

 insane, 8 feeble-minded, 4 epileptic and 2 psychopaths; 5 had committed 

 suicide, 34 were on the report list for immorality, 23 had been punished, 3 

 were alcoholists, 3 were in reformatories, 1 under guardianship, 1 was a 

 pimp, 3 suffered from hereditary deformities or diseases, which gives a total 

 of 93, or 5.5 per cent. 



This is in itself a high figure, to which must be added the siblings, amongst 

 whom there certainly is no small number of psychopaths and feeble-minded, 

 who have not been diagnosticated. 



Finally, it should be mentioned that the examined had altogether 174 

 children, 139 of whom were alive at the time of examination. Four of the 

 139 living children had congenital syphilis; besides, there were 4 imbeciles 

 (1 of whom also had epilepsy and congenital syphilis and 1 of them was 

 blind), 1 had hydrocephalus and was blind, 2 were immoral, making total of 7. 



These 7 children were the victims of very considerable familial heredity; 

 not only were their mothers prostitutes, but amongst the collaterals of 6 

 of them were one or several insane individuals, imbeciles, epileptics, alco- 

 holists, criminals or vagrants, information about the paternal family how- 

 ever being missing. 



In my opinion, the pedigrees of such children and, on the whole, the 

 investigations on the importance of the hereditary factors as causative 

 agents of prostitution, are of considerable eugenic interest. 



A great number of individuals, who are discussed in this study, are, on 

 account of their hereditary dispositions, predestined to a life of misery and 

 shame, and many of these asocial individuals will become a burden, or even a 

 danger, to society. 



It is difficult to conceive that this condition can be essentially altered 

 or improved by means of such an eugenic measure as sterilisation; in the 

 first place, sterilisation of a woman is an operation, which is not to be per- 

 formed on the basis of purely eugenic indications without hesitation; 

 secondly, in these women or their ancestry there will very often be a question 

 of deficiencies, such as, for instance, a psychopathic constitution or a mental 



