Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 6 Sex in...

Angelo Zuccarelli, "Asessualizzazione o sterilizzazione dei Degenerati," L'Anomalo, 1898-99, No. 6; id., "Sur la nécessité et sur les Moyens d'empêcher la Réproduction des Hommes les plus Dégénérés," International Congress Criminal Anthropology, Amsterdam, 1901.

Näcke, Neurologisches Centralblatt, March 1, 1909. The original account of these operations is reproduced in the Psychiatrisch-Neurologische Wochenschrift, No. 2, 1909, with an approving comment by the editor, Dr. Bresler. As regards castration in America, see Flood, "Castration of Idiot Children," American Journal Psychology, Jan., 1899; also, Alienist and Neurologist, Aug., 1909, p. 348.

It is probable that castration may prove especially advantageous in the case of the feeble-minded. "In Somersetshire," says Tredgold ("The Feeble-Mind as a Social Danger," Eugenics Review, July, 1909), "I found that out of a total number of 167 feeble-minded women, nearly two-fifths (61) had given birth to children, for the most part illegitimate. Moreover, it is not uncommon, but, rather the rule, for these poor girls to be admitted into the workhouse maternity wards again and again, and the average number of offspring to each one of them is probably three or four, although even six is not uncommon." In his work on Mental Deficiency (pp. 288-292) the same author shows that propagation by the mentally deficient is, in England, "both a terrible and extensive evil."

In England, 35,000 applicants for admission to the navy are annually rejected, and although the physical requirements for enlistment in the army are nowadays extremely moderate, it is estimated by General Maurice that at least sixty per cent. of recruits and would-be recruits are dismissed as unfit. (See e.g., William Coates, "The Duty of the Medical Profession in the Prevention of National Deterioration," British Medical Journal, May 1, 1909.) It can scarcely be claimed that men who are not good enough for the army are good enough for the great task of creating the future race.

The recognition of epilepsy as a bar to procreation is not recent. There is said to be a record in the archives of the town of Luçon in which epilepsy was adjudged to be a valid reason for the cancellation of a betrothal (British Medical Journal, Feb. 14, 1903, p. 383).

On the scientific side, in addition to the fruitful methods of statistical biometrics, which have already been mentioned, much promise attaches to work along the lines initiated by Mendel; see W. Bateson, Mendel's Principles of Heredity, 1909; also, W. H. Lock, Recent Progress in the Study of Variation, Heredity, and Evolution, and R. C. Punnett, Mendelism, 1907 (American edition, with interesting preface by Gaylord Wilshire, from the Socialistic point of view, 1909).

The study of the right conditions for procreation is very ancient. In modern times we find that even the very first French medical book in the vulgar tongue, the Régime du Corps, written by Alebrand of Florence (who was physician to the King of France), in 1256, is largely devoted to this matter, concerning which it gives much sound advice. See J. B. Soalhat, Les Idées de Maistre Alebrand de Florence sur la Puériculture, Thèse de Paris, 1908.

The statement that, on the average, the best age for procreation in men is before, rather than after, forty, by no means assumes the existence of any "critical" age in men analogous to the menopause in women. This is sometimes asserted, but there is no agreement in regard to it. Restif de la Bretonne (Monsieur Nicolas, vol. x, p. 176) said that at the age of forty delicacy of sentiment begins to go. Fürbringer believes (Senator and Kaminer, Health and Disease in Relation to Marriage, vol. i, p. 222) that there is a decisive turn in a man's life in the sixth decade, or the middle of the fifth, when desire and potency diminish. J. F. Sutherland also states (Comptes-rendus Congrès International de Médecine, 1900, Section de Psychiatrie, p. 471) that there is, in men, about the fifty-fifth year, a change analogous to the menopause in women, but only in a certain proportion of men. It would appear that in most men the decline of sexual feeling and potency is very gradual, and at first manifests itself in increased power of control.