Produced by Bryan Ness and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive.) Eugenics as a Factor in the Prevention of Mental Disease By HORATIO M. POLLOCK, Ph.D. Statistician, New York State Hospital Commission THE NATIONAL COMMITTEE FOR MENTAL HYGIENE, Inc. 370 Seventh Avenue New York City 1921 The National Committee for Mental Hygiene FOUNDED 1909 INCORPORATED 1916 370 SEVENTH AVENUE, NEW YORK CITY _President_ Dr. Walter B. James _Vice-Presidents_ Charles W. Eliot Dr. Bernard Sachs Dr. William H. Welch _Executive Committee_ Dr. William L. Russell, Chairman Dr. Owen Copp Stephen P. Duggan Dr. Walter E. Fernald Matthew C. Fleming Dr. Walter B. James Dr. George H. Kirby _Treasurer_ Otto T. Bannard _Committee on Mental Deficiency_ Dr. Walter E. Fernald, Chairman _Committee on Education_ Dr. C. Macfie Campbell, Chairman Edith M. Furbush, Statistician _Executive Officers_ Dr. Thomas W. Salmon, Medical Director Dr. Frankwood E. Williams, Associate Medical Director Dr. V. V. Anderson, Associate Medical Director Dr. Clarence J. D'Alton, Executive Assistant Clifford W. Beers, Secretary GENERAL PURPOSES The National Committee for Mental Hygiene and its affiliated state societies and committees are organized to work for the conservation of mental health; to help prevent nervous and mental disorders and mental defect; to help raise the standards of care and treatment for those suffering from any of these disorders or mental defect; to secure and disseminate reliable information on these subjects and also on mental factors involved in problems related to industry, education, delinquency, dependency, and the like; to aid ex-service men disabled in the war, to coöperate with federal, state, and local agencies and with officials and with public and private agencies whose work is in any way related to that of a society or committee for mental hygiene. Though methods vary, these organizations seek to accomplish their purposes by means of education, encouraging psychiatric social service, conducting surveys, promoting legislation, and through coöperation with the many agencies whose work touches at one point or another the field of mental hygiene. When one considers the large groups of people who may be benefited by organized work in mental hygiene, the importance of the movement at once becomes apparent. Such work is not only for the mentally disordered and those suffering from mental defect, but for all those who, through mental causes, are unable so to adjust themselves to their environment as to live happy and efficient lives. [Reprinted from MENTAL HYGIENE, Vol. V, No. 4, October, 1921, pp. 807-812.] EUGENICS AS A FACTOR IN THE PREVENTION OF MENTAL DISEASE[1] HORATIO M. POLLOCK, PH.D _Statistician, New York State Hospital Commission_