Abstracts of Papers Read at the First International Eugenics Congress: University of London, July, 1912International Eugenics Congress (1st : 1912 : London)
Science
Abstracts of Papers Read at the First International Eugenics Congress: University of London, July, 1912
International Eugenics Congress (1st : 1912 : London)
Eugenics -- Congresses
We have in Table C 116 an +analysis of pedigree of Emperor William
II.+, after Ottokar Lorenz. Investigations show that twelve
generations back the real number of his ancestors amounts to only
one-eighth of the possible figure. Only 275 persons have actually been
found because in the older lines, the bourgeois element, of which no
record can be found, has had a very large share.
[Sidenote: C 117]
Very little knowledge exists concerning the effect of the crossing of
races in man. On the whole it appears not to be favourable, if it is a
question of crossing of races from far apart, even in purely physical
respects. An example of harmful influence is given in v. d. Velden's
Table C 117--"+Fertility and Health in relation to the crossings of
races+."
NEOMALTHUSIANISM.
[Sidenote: C 118-122]
The next and the greatest concern of race-hygiene--much greater than
the relative increase of inferiority--is, to-day, neomalthusianism,
the intentional restriction of the number of births in varying degrees
up to complete unproductiveness. Though conscious regulation of the
production of children is absolutely necessary, it becomes fatal to
a nation if under no control but the egotism of the individual. For
its permanent prosperity a nation requires, in order merely to hold
its own, a sufficient number of "hands" and a sufficient number of
"heads" to guide those "hands." We referred to this when mention was
made of sterility as a phenomenon of degeneration, but this cause of
sterility during the last decades only takes a second place compared
to deliberate intention. The wealthy and higher social classes were
first attacked by neomalthusianism. Their progeny is becoming more and
more utterly insufficient, so that under our present social conditions,
particularly which give mind and talent better openings, and thereby
more and more take out of the mass of the people the better elements,
make the strongest demand for them and use them up, the danger of an
increasing deterioration of the average quality of its progeny grows
greater and greater. The baneful influence of wealth on fertility is
shown by several tables. Figure C 118 "+Fertility and Wealth+,"
after Goldstein and Tallquist, gives the condition in the French
Departments; Figure C 119, "+Number of Children and Wealth+,"
after Bertillon, for the Arrondissements of Paris; Figure C 120,
"+Fertility and Wealth+," after Mombert, for Münich, 1901, Table
C 121, "+The Number of Children in Families of Different Classes in
Denmark+, 1901," after Westergaard; Table C 122, "+Fertility
of Marriages, Occupation, and Wealth for Copenhagen, and Dutch
Conditions+," after Rubin, Westergaard, and Verrijn Stuart.
[Sidenote: C 123]
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