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30 Medico-Legal J. 73 (1912-1913)
Problems in Eugenics

handle is hein.journals/medlejo30 and id is 97 raw text is: PROBLEMS IN EUGENICS. By HENRY WELLINGTON WACK, OF THE NEw YORK BAR. As Sir Francis Galton aptly defined the term, Eugenics is the study of agencies under social control that may improve or impair the racial qualities of future generations, either physically or mentally. At the First International Eugenics Congress, held at the University of London, England, from July 24th to 30th, 1912, under the presidency of Major Leonard Darwin, D.Sc., and a distinguished company of scien- tists, the study of eugenics gained a worldwide impetus. The time was ripe and the occasion emergent for a serious forwardation of what had been the laggard consideration of one of the most important questions concerning human welfare. The objects of the congress were succinctly stated by Major Darwin and by the Honorable Secretary of the Eugenics Education Society, Sybil Gotto. The urgent need, in order to solve these problems of utmost social importance, is for more knowledge both of the facts of heredity and of the effects of social institutions in causing racial change. As knowledge ac- crues, it must be disseminated and translated into action. The imparting of such knowledge would constitute a great advance in education; for both private individuals and public bodies have yet to be impressed with the gravity of the situation and induced to act on eugenic principles. Ultimately it may be possible to inspire society to adopt a well-considered eugenic policy and to carry out reforms on eugenic lines. To attain these ends, however, it is necessary that those who are alive to the dangers of the present social situation should combine for the purpose of exchanging views and of discussing concerted schemes of action. That was the basis upon which the congress assembled. The result was most gratifying. Seldom, indeed, has a new social impulse been so widely and so ably represented at a first assemblage of its advocates. It were impossible in the space at my disposal to indicate the names of the large number of delegates who attended, many of whom contributed papers which com- pose the large volume of the congress proceedings. The papers are in many languages-English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, Hungarian, Russian, Hindustani, Dutch, Portuguese and Greek. A score of universities and of governments were represented by delegates. The United States alone was represented by Dr. David Starr Jordan, for the American Association for the Advancement of Science; Professors Ver- non L. Kellogg and Bleeker van Wagenen, for the American Breeders' Association; Hon. Walter Lester Carr, M.D., for the American Pediatric Society; Sir William Osler, Bart., for the American Philosophical So- ciety; Miss L. Garrett, American Vigilance Association; D. Dewitt For- ward, State of Colorado; Prof. Ernest W. Brown, Sc.D., F.R.S., State of Connecticut; Dr. A. W. Hewlett, State of Michigan: Prof. Samuel G. Smith, of the University of Minnesota. Dr. Smith is a professor of Sociology, and his paper, entitled Eugenics and the New Social Con- sciousness, is a fresh and vigorous word upon the subject to which the MEDIcO-LEGAL JOURNAL will recur. England, Australia, Canada and India and practically every Euro- pean country had sponsors of the theory of eugenics at the congress. We have, therefore, the substructure of a great organization in being, the influence of which we may appreciate but not predict nor limit by specu- lations. To those who have dwelt seriously upon the subject of eugenics, the wonder is that the natural laws we have striven for centuries to observe in the betterment of the animal, the world has utterly disregarded in the propagation of the most intelligent of all animal life-the human species. That the twentieth century should have dawned upon those whose ignorant contempt and blind cynicism have belabored and hindered the subject's progress is a matter of human stupidity and shame. As now constituted, the Eugenics Education Society (6 York Bldg.,

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