nee be Librarp of the Ciniversity of Morth Carolina Endowed by Che Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies Co 362.3 Mice BOBL ‘12 NYE “Yd "RN ‘ashoviig SIOWVA. *OU] “SOIG pr0jAey sepulg yoludwed pyunowoyoUug ai Eugenics © Read at the Onslow County Medical Soctety Jacksonville, N.C., January 21, 1916 —> Whe Growth of a North Carolina Idea | bad at the Seaboard Medical Society, Norfolk, Va. : December 8-9, 1915 Gj By C Dr. C. Banks McNairy ef F Superintendent Caswell Training School % Kinston, N. C. ae a KUGENICS — Eugenics, ‘The science which deals with the improvement and -culture of race, especially the human race, through improved conditicns in the relation of the sexes,’ so defines Web- ster. The common accepted idea among the laity, we believe, is that the word has but one meaning and that is to prohibit by legal enact- ment the marriage of certain undesirable in- dividuals. This to our minds is one of the minor phases of the subject. We understand it to mean any and everything that deals with improvement and culture of the human race and the relation of the sexes. Not only to cur- tail and prevent in every way the propaga- tion of the socially unfit, mentally and physic- ally, but more especially to encourage the propagation of the socially fit and desirable with the hope of increasing a better, purer, and greater posterity. In discussing Eugenics, it is absolutely nec- essary that both the positive and the nega-. tive side should receive attention together; and it is our purpose to give a few points on both sides. In this discussion we must first find the necessity for the same, and that leads us back to our often discussed subject, ait "ok aia ; “Dr. Goddard, Director of the Vineland Training School of New Jersey, traced the ancestry of a twenty-two-year-old girl in that institution through one thousand one hundred- seven. individuals back to the Revolutionary War. A young man of good family after his discharge from the Continental Army, mated with a feeble-minded New Jersey woman of whom the Vineland girl is a lineal descendant. From the known histories of four hundred and eighty descendants, it is shown that one hun- dred and forty-three are feeble-minded per- sons, thirty-six illegitimates, thirty-three wo- men of loose character, eight keepers of broth- els, eighty-two died in infancy, three were criminals, one insane, twenty-four alcoholic, three epileptics, three syphilitics, and nearly all the others were defectives of one kind or another. “Contrast these miserable beings with the Jonathan Edwards family, one of the most brilliant in American history. Of one thou- sand three hundred and ninety-four descend- ants, two hundred and ninety-five were col- lege graduates, seventy-eight were college presidents or professors, six physicians, one hundred clergymen, one hundred lawyers, thirty judges, sixty prominent authors, eighty public officials, and seventy-five officers in the army and navy. “There is something in heredity. There is a great deal in it.. And heredity plus inter- marriage equals no end of ev ls. Dr. McCul- lough’s study of what he calls the Ben Ish- mael family of Central Indiana, which has 4 EI intermarried since 1840, shows that in this family h'story there are few persons who are not defective in some way. Many of the wo- men are bad, and nearly all the men are thieves.” I quote the following from Prof. Conklin, Professor of Biology, Princeton University, New Jersey: “No well informed person doubts that the principles of heredity and evolution apply to man as well as to the lower organ- isms, and in spite of much controversy with respect to the importance of natural selection, I make bold to assert that no other principle has yet been suggested of equal importance with this, and that the elimination of the unfit affords not only the only natural expla- nat.on for the existence of fitness, but also the only means by which breeders have been able to improve domesticated animals and cul- tivated plants. The only possble_ control which mankind can exercise over the produc- tion of improved races of lower organisms or of men lies in the elimination from reproduc- tion of the less favorable variations which are furnished by nature. For it has become more and more clear in recent years that while environment exercises a great influence over the development of the individual, its influ- ence on the germ plasm or the hereditary characteristics of the race is relatively sl’ ght and in general are not of a definite or specific character. “Probably environment may under certain circumstances modify the germ plasm, but there is no evidence that good environment < a will produce good modifications, and bad en- vironment bad modifications in this hereditary substance. “Consequently, the only method which is left to man for improving races is found in sorting out the favorable varieties from the unfavorable ones which are furnished by na- ture. If the human race is to be permanently improved in its inherited characteristics there is no doubt that it must be accomplished in the same way in which man has made improve- ments in the various races of domesticated animals and cultivated plants.” Fortunately, or unfortunately, the methods which breeders use cannot be rigidly applied in the case of man. However, it is within the power of society to eliminate from reproduc- tion this dependent class. How can the number of defectives born from defective parents be reduced? Evidently if these defects are hereditary it can be done only by preventing their breeding, since in modern society defectives cannot be destroyed by Spartan methods. “The study of heredity shows that the normal brothers and sisters, or even more dis- tant relatives, of defective persons may carry the defect in their germ plasm and may trans- mit it to their descendants though not show- ing it themselves. Such persons are more dangerous to society than the defectives themselves. And yet it is probably im- possible rigidly to exclude them from repro- duction.”” Some are feeble-minded, some are born fools, some acquire foolishness and some 6 have foolishness thrust upon them even with apparently good heredity and good environ- ment. The latter are not a few. We know of no means to prevent these mistakes of nature. The eugenicist sometimes explains these mis- takes, after they have occurred, with much more accuracy than he can predict or prophesy them. “Furthermore, other and perhaps more seri- ous objections to the views of extreme eugen- icists are to be found in human ideals of mo- rality. Even for the laudable purpose of pro- ducing a race of supermen, mankind will never consent to be reduced to the morality of a breeding-pen with a total disregard of mar- riage and monogamy. The geneticist who has dealt only with chickens or rabbits or cattle is apt to overlook the vast difference between controlling reproduction in lower animals and in the case of man where restraints must be self-imposed. “Another fundamental difficulty in breed- ing a better race of man is to be found in the lack of uniform ideals. A breeder of domestic animals lives long enough to develop certain races and see them well established, but the devotee of eugenics cannot be sure that his or her ideals will be followed in succeeding gen- erations.” | “By direct heredity is meant the transmis- Sion of a trait or a quality that will, in spite ef controlled environment, appear at some time in the course of development of the in- dividual. Thus the exact digit in polydactyl- fi ism appears early during the second month of gestation. In children destined to be brown- eyed, the brown iris pigment appears during the first few days after birth. Normally a child begins to shed his milk teeth at the age of about six years. With males the beard ap- pears in early manhood. Usually Hunting- ton’s chorea appears in:tainted individuals at the age of approximately fifty years. All of these are traits of direct heredity. In these heredity is the primary factor, environment has but little to do with them. “There is a second type of heredity which might well be called ‘indirect heredity’ or ‘heredity-diathesis,’ ‘susceptibility’ or ‘pre- disposition.’ In this sort of heredity, environ- ment plays a much greater part in determin- ining the human trait or condition than it plays in direct heredity, but even in such cases the exogenous forces are not all-important. “Heredity is, as it were, the foundation upon which environment builds the trait. In such cases heredity, although a less powerful fac- tor, is just as definite as with direct in- heritance, and the end product is a com- posite of hereditary and extrinsic factors. Thus, people do not, biologically. speaking, di- rectly inherit tuberculosis and yet they in- herit directly a constitutional makeup poss:bly both functional and chemical, as well as struc- tural, that causes them to fall an easy prey to this disease. People do not inherit poisoning of the poison ivy type, still some persons are immune to the effects of this poison while others readily become affected by it. Thus in 8 reference to their susceptibility and immunity there appears to be a chemical difference in persons which is directly hereditary, but it requires the presence of an exogenous agent in addition to the innate lack of resistance to cause the affection. “Human progress demands sincere and pur- poseful social endeavor in all the fields promis- ing social or racial betterment. As society be- comes more complex and scientific discovery moves apace, the field of profitable social en- deavor widens rapidly, but it is still clear that no one agency alone can effect a regeneration of humanity. In order to move forward humanity and civilization w:ll always require the best ef- forts of education, religion, philanthropy, ag- riculture, commerce, industry, social justice, law and order, medicine, technology and pure science. No one of these can carry the whole burden of progress although the decay of any one of them would cause a general deterioration to set in. Organization in society exists for the purpose of correlating and directing along profitable lines all of these agencies. HEugen- ics, which Davenport defines as ‘the improve- ment of the human race by better breeding,’ is one of these agencies of social betterment which in its practical application would great- ly promote human welfare, but which if neg- lected would cause racial, and consequently social, degeneration. “Hugenics, then is the warp in the fabric of national efficiency and perpetuity. As an art, it is as old as mankind; as a science, it is just now taking definite form. Whenever the prin- o ciples governing an art are definitely determ- ined and made to guide humanity, progress in the particular field so affected is rapid.” In view of these facts it behooves society in the interest of social and racial progress to devise means for promoting fit and fertile matings among the better classes and to pre- vent the reproduction of defectives. It mat- ters not in what stage of racial progress a people may be, it will always be desirable in the interest of a still further advancement to cut off the lowest levels, and to encourage the highest fecundity among the more gifted. There will always be a breeding stock of the social unfit. In addition to these unfit persons there are many parents who in many cases may themselves be normal but who produce defective offspring. This great mass of hu- manity is not only a social menace to the present generation, but it harbors the poten- tial parenthood of the social misfits of our future generations. In so far as the defective traits of the members of these varieties are inborn they are to be cut off only by cutting off the inherent lines of the strains that pro- duce them. This is the natural outcome of an awakened social conscience. It is in keeping not only with humanitarianism but also with law and order and natural efficiency. Under an older and harsher order of civilization these were cut down by disease, famine, and petty strife; under the present order there is a bolstering up of the lower and most helpless levels, so that their fecundity is evidently operating against these older, inhuman, but 10 racial purifying agencies. It now behooves society in consonance with both humanitarian- ism and race efficiency to provide more human means of cutting off defectives. Society must look upon germ plasm as be- longing to society not solely to the individual who carries it. Humanitarianism demands that every individual born be given every op- portunity for decent and effective life that our civilization affords. Racial interest demands that defectives shall not continue their un- worthy traits to menace society. There will always be insane, feebleminded, and deformed individuals, but they need not constitute so large a proportion of our total population, nor need they contaminate our more worthy fam- ilies. If the history of human civilization and plant and animal breeding has taught us any- thing it has taught us clearly that the human race is capable of vast improvement by racial selection of parents. And this selection can be done without sacrificing one whit our. ideals of love and fidelity. Hand in hand with the working out of the eugenical program will come an increased and enhanced feeling of the sanctity of life and parenthood. “HKiugenics is concerned with physical fitness no less than with mental and moral adequacy, for a race cannot long endure and rise in cul- ture unless its members be strong and dexter- ous physically.” Society must, at all costs, encourage an in- creased fecundity of the socially fit classes, and must cut off the inheritance of individ- am uals suffering from hereditary defects which seriously handicap their fitting into the social fabric. It therefore behooves the people of North Carolina to educate along eugenical lines, not only the more sterling classes to the end that they may make fortunate matings, but also those individuals with educable minds who suffer from hereditary defects to the end that they will voluntarily decline to increase their kind. With intell'gent people, then, eu- genical marriage appears to be largely a mat- ter of education. In individual cases, wherein this remedy fails, segregation or sterilization should be resorted to as a supporting measure. It may be fitting again to call attention to the eugenic value of the policy of resorting to segregation or sterilization in all cacogenic cases wherein it is apparent that preventive agencies have failed or will fail. If steriliza- tion is opposed, let its opponents bestir them- selves and make efficacious other remedies. “We need to avail ourselves of every pos- sible means for our own advancement. Quite naturally these means fall into two classes: (1) Those pertaining to improving the con- dition of individuals already born. (2) Those concerning the improvement of the innate qualities of future generations. The latter means is the concern of the science of eu- genics; and eugenics in turn works quite nat- ~ urally along two channels: (1) Concerning the increased fecundity and fortunate matings of the better classes; (2) Concerning the cutting off of the supply of defectives. Eugenics is, at best, a long-time i investment and will appeal only to far-sighted patriots. Like all other long-time invest- ments, the earlier and greater the primary in- vestment, in accordance with the familiar prin- ciple of geometrical progression, the vastly greater the end result.” “Tf each man’s secret unguessed care Were written on his brow, How many would our pity share Who have our envy now. And if the promptings of each heart No artifice concealed, How many trusting friends would part At what they saw revealed.” THE GROWTH OF A NORTH CAROLINA IDEA —- Mr. President, Gentlemen of the Seaboard Medical Society, Ladies and Gentlemen: This is my first visit to your beautiful city, and I assure you it is quite a pleasure. Asa North Carolinian, I can but feel at home here, for I learn that a large per cent of your citi- zens are either North Carolinians or descend- ants of them. Now a Tar Heel is always at home wherever he finds another; and the next best thing to a Tar Heel is a Virginian. Our states being parallel it is but natural that in many instances our interests are mutual; a fact recognized in the organization of this so- ciety, The Seaboard Medical Society of Vir- ginia and North Carolina. Tonight I find myself in the same predica- ment as one of my neighbors who some years ago went over into an adjoining neighborhood to attend church. There was another gentle- men there of the same name, and when the pastor called upon Brother Barnhardt to lead in prayer this gentleman, thinking he was the only Barnhardt there, stammered out, ‘Par- son, this is out of my line of business.” Ora- tory is certainly not in my line. My idea is that an oration on an occasion like this should deal with something of a pro- 14 phetic nature along scientific lines and future investigations, and this idea alone would nat- urally eliminate me. Casting about as I did for months for a sub- ject that I thought I would be able to make in- teresting, I decided it might be well on this occasion to depart from the usual order and recapitulate, look back, and see if we could not get an inspiration from some of the work done for humanity by this society in my spec- ial line of endeavor. It is but natural that all workers along res- cue and feeble-minded lines first want to know, as far as possible, the causes that produce this condition; and why it is that with all our humanitarianism this unfortunate class of citizens is constantly on the increase. In looking back over history one cannot but be impressed with the stern method of exterm- ination used by the legal profession in its elimination of the criminal. In the old English laws there were some two hundred and sixty- three capital offenses; and even in our dear Old North State, a little more than fifty years ago, there were fifty crimes punishable with death. Today three exist. It is but natural that the criminal, the degenerate, the insane, and the feeble-minded were sooner or later to be entrapped in this maelstrom of legality. Quoting Charles O. Laughinghouse: “Med- ically speaking, we are living in the most won- derful time in the history of medicine. It is not an exaggeration to say that more has been accomplished in the past eighty years to ad- vance medical science, to prolong life, to re- 15 _lieve human suffering, and to improve the hu- man species than was accomplished in the last forty centuries.”’ And yet, my dear sirs, while the medical profession has made these wonder- ful strides in alleviating suffering, neither the medical profession nor the legal profession, and I might say not even the clergy has done anything worthy of note to remove the cause of crime, insanity and feeble-mindedness. With all our humanitarian laws, Christian brother- hoods, and medical progress we have as yet accomplished little looking toward the uproot- ing of the prime causes and factors of this ever-blight upon society, insanity, the social evil, and feeble-mindedness. To a student of today, it is a wonder why society has been so long indifferent in apply- ing the same scientific facts in raising human beings that botanists, stock-raisers, and poul- trymen have adopted in their methods of im- proving plant life, animals, and fowls. They have recognized natural selection, the survival of the fittest in their lines, but when it comes to the propagation of the human family it seems that we are too timid or too sympathetic to apply the same laws. Like produces like. And the only sensible, as well as scientific, conclusion reached so far is that like must produce like. ‘Parents are apt to see no injustice in the fact that they are often annoyed with their offspring for possess- ing attributes, both of character and appear- ance, with which they themselves have en- dowed them.” The law of heredity. I am aware of the fact that some of my good 16 friends and professional brethren differ from me, but I am thoroughly convinced that envir- onment does nothing more than enable one to make the best of his heredity, or the worst; to stimulate the desirable and curb the unde- sirable, or vice versa. Only within the past few years has any note been taken in North Carolina and Virginia of these ever increasing hordes of this unde- sirable class of citizens. The first records I can find in my own state calling the atten- tion of the public to the necessity of looking after these unfortunates was a cancelled will written by an attorney in 1893 for Prof. E. McK. Goodwin, Superintendent of the Deaf and Dumb School at Morganton, N. C. He often made mention of the necessity for such an institution in a number of his biennial re- ports, and discussed the matter with North Carolina’s great educational governor, Chas. B. Aycock, who he hoped would recommend it in his report. For some reason, however, it was omitted. About the same time Prof. John E. Ray, Superintendent of the School for the Blind at Raleigh, was giving the subject considerable thought, and for years had made mention of it in his reports, asking that something be done to protect, train and prevent feeble-mind- edness. But there was never any public'ty given to these suggestions, nor can I find that any action was ever taken upon them. So it | remainded for that courteous gentleman, Dr. Ira M. Hardy, then of Washington, N. C., although never having seen or read any of vanes these reports; but for various reasons, and knowing a number of these unfortunates per- sonally, and feeling that there was something that could be and should be done for them, it was left for him to bring the matter into pub- lic thought. He wrote the National Bureau of Education, received reports of the leading Northern insti- tutions, studied them and had a dream, yea, a vision that North Carolina should and would establish an institution for this special pur- . pose. He pondered the question over and over again, visited different institutions in the North and West, discussed it with his friends, neighbors, politicians and the judic- lary in his community, none of whom however gave him any encouragement. They consider- ed it a mere fancy, a dream that would vanish as castles in Spain. But never tiring, never becoming discouraged, st ll working and hop- ing for years, he at last brought to this med- ical society at its annual session in Kinston in 1910 that notable paper, “What it Costs”; which to my knowledge was the first paper ever read upon the subject in North Carolina. His paper was discussed by my good friend, the skilled and eloquent Dr. Cyrus Thompson, and this society unanimously adopted the sug- gestion and ordered that many copies of the paper be printed and d‘stributed in both Vir- ginia and North Carolina. Dr. Hardy, with the assistance of his rep- resentative, Hon. W. A. Thompson, drew a b ll, went to Raleigh and had a conference with the Hon. W. W. Kitchin, then governor of North 18 Carolina, who made recommendations to the leg'slature that something be done. Dr. Hardy continued to work and to discuss the subject with the members of the legislature, getting his friend, Hon. W. A. Thompson, to introduce the bill in the House. In the Senate the bill was introduced by Dr. Cartwright who, by the way, said at first that he would have to state, “It was by request.” However, after discuss- ing the matter privately with Dr. Hardy he adopted it as his own and introduced it; and with the help and support of Hon. Messrs. Baggett, Martin, Dr. Sykes, and others he was able to get the bill through the Senate with an appropriation of of $60,000.00. Mr. Thompson, with the aid of Dr. Kent, E. M. Koonce, Majette and others, who spoke so eloquently and worked so faithfully in its be- half, was. able to get the bill through the House. So as the result of years of this work of love by Dr. Hardy and his supporters and advisors the institution became a reality. A Board of Directors was appointed, Dr. Hardy was elected superintendent, and. the magnanimous offer from the city of Kinston of nine hundred acres of beautiful Neuse River bottom land was accepted. The first brick was laid by Dr. Hardy in April of 1911, and the address of the occasion was delivered by that forceful speaker, Dr. Laughinghouse, of Greenville, from whom I have already quoted. To me the sad part is that I had no part nor parcel in the birth of this institution. After months of worry and discouragement as is 19 usually the case in beginning a movement of this kind, we were able to open up the North Carolina School for the Feeble-Minded, now known as the Caswell Training School, for the reception of pupils July 1, 1914, where today we are taking care of 130 girls and boys in training, and hope to open up our new dorm- itory by January 1st, which will accommodate about another hundred. I learn that you all have a building or two in conection with your Epileptic Colony taking care of near a hundred. And since writing the above, I have been informed that your State Medical Society at its last session took action looking to the establishment of a separ- ate training’ school. Gentlemen, this one act in itself is enough to make the Seaboard Medical Society fam- ous. And for years to come the fathers and mothers of the feeble-minded children of Vir- ginia and North Carolina will rise up and call you “Blessed.” But past blessing sufficeth not. I would not depreciate nor cast cold water upon the efforts and work of our State Boards of Health and their able corps of as- sistants; and God forbid that I should in any way say or do anything that would retard the work being done to prevent tuberculosis, much less reflect upon the grand human tarian work being done by our alienists and neu- rologists in public and private institutions. Education, sanitation, fresh air, good diet, pleasant and healthful environments are all right and are doing wonders, but they will never relieve society of the great white plague 20 nor insanity, epilepsy, and feeble-mindedness until we quit breeding tubercular soil, insane, epileptic and feeble-minded persons. We have failed to realize the fact that the parents of children who die early in infancy and childhood die themselves early. The time has come when we must protect ourselves, our children, and their children by assuring the millions yet unborn that they have a right to be born healthy and strong both physically and mentally, and not the subjects of the curse of the sins of the fathers; that they may rise up and bless us, their forbears, and not be forced to damn our memories. To those who do not believe in heredity, I wish to say study that Old Book, the Book of Books, the Bible which grows nearer and dearer to me as the days go by, and which I find so applicable to all ages and conditions of man. I ask you to read the books of Sam- uel and the Kings, and tell me or show me is there anything more forcibly taught in the history of the Kings of Israel and Syria than the law of heredity and the punishment of the sins of the fathers? In conclusion, let us . First—Have some laws passed regulating marriage. Second—Prohibit the marriage of mental and physical defectives. Third—Sterilize the unfit and undesirable. I bespeak for myself that your interest in this noble work has not in the least abated, and that you will give me the same hearty | support and co-operation in helping to educate our children along eugenic lines that you gave Dr. Ira M. Hardy, the father of the institution over which I now preside. “T sing the song of the conquered, Who fell in the battle of life; The hymn of the. wounded, the beaten, Who died overwhelmed in the strife. Not the jubilant song of the victors, For whom the resounding acclaim Of nations was lifted in chorus, Whose brows wore the chaplet of fame. But the hymn of the low and the humble, The weary, the broken in heart, Who strove and who failed, acting bravely A silent and desperate part; Whose youth:bore no flower on its branches, Whose hopes burned in ashes away; From whose hands slipped the prize they had grasped at, Why stood at the dying of ae With the work of their life all around them, Unpitied, unheeded, alone, With death swooping down o’er their failures, And all but their faith overthrown.” 22 na 00043583176 USE ONLY IN THE NORTH CAROLINA COLL