¹ Dexter, L., ‘On the Politics and Sociology of Stupidity in our Society’, in Becker, H., The Other Side, New York, 1967, pp. 37–49.Google Scholar

² See, for example, Haldane, J.B.S., Heredity and Politics, London, 1938Google Scholar; Hogben, L.T., Genetic Principles in Medicine and Social Science, London, 1931Google Scholar; Morgan, T.H., Evolution and Genetics, Princeton, 1925.Google Scholar

³ See, for example, Gould, S.J., The Mismeasure of Man, Harmondsworth, 1984Google Scholar; Rose, S., Kamin, L.J., Lewontin, R.C., Not in our Genes, Harmondsworth, 1984.Google ScholarPubMed

⁴ See, for example, Ludmerer, K., Genetics and American Society, Baltimore, 1972Google Scholar; Kevles, D.J., In the Name of Eugenics, Harmondsworth, 1986.Google Scholar

⁵ Royal Commission on the Care and Control of the Feeble-Minded, London, 1908, 8 vols.Google Scholar

⁶ This was extensively cited: see for example the speech of McKenna, R., Home Secretary, during the Second Reading of the Mental Deficiency Bill, H.C. Debs, 4th series, vol. xxxix, col. 633, 10 06 1912Google Scholar; and the comments of Winston Churchill cited in Blunt, W.S., My Diaries: 1888–1914, London, 1932, pp. 813–814.Google Scholar

⁷ On the Mental Deficiency Act, see Searle, G.R., Eugenics and Politics in Britain 1900–1914, Leyden, 1976, especially chapter 9CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Simmons, H., ‘Explaining Social Policy: the English Mental Deficiency Act of 1913’, Journal of Social History, (1977–1978), 11, pp. 387–403CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Barker, D., ‘How to curb the fertility of the unfit: the feeble-minded in Edwardian Britain’, Oxford Review of Education (1983), 9, pp. 197–211CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Jones, G., Social Hygiene in Twentieth Century Britain, London, 1986, especially chapter 2.Google Scholar

⁸ Goddard, H.H., Feeble-Mindedness: its causes and consequences, New York, 1914, chapter 1.Google Scholar

⁹ Goddard, H.H., The Kallikak Family, New York, 1912.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Goddard, , op. cit. (8).Google Scholar

¹¹ Bateson, W., Mendel's Principles of Heredity, Cambridge, 1909, pp. 205, 210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹² The Times, Editorial, ‘A Social Misfortune’, 21 11 1912.Google Scholar

¹³ On Davenport see, for example, Rosenberg, C.E., Charles Benedict, Davenport and the beginning of human genetics, Bulletin for the History of Medicine (1961), 35, pp. 266–276Google Scholar; Kimmelman, B.A., ‘The American Breeders'Association: genetics and eugenics in an agricultural context, 1903–13’, Social Studies in Science (1983), 13, pp. 163–204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹⁴ Goddard, , op. cit. (8), p. 556.Google Scholar

¹⁵ Tredgold, A.F., British Medical Journal (1924), II, pp. 316–320.Google Scholar

¹⁶ On the Carrie Buck case, see, for example, Kevles, op. cit. (4) especially pp. 110–112Google Scholar; Gould, op. cit. (3), especially pp. 335–336Google Scholar and his ‘Carrie Buck's Daughter’, Natural History (1984), 7, pp. 14–18Google Scholar; Dudziak, M.L., ‘Oliver Wendell Holmes as an eugenic reformer: rhetoric in the writing of constitutional law’, Iowa Law Review (1986), 71, pp. 833–867.Google Scholar

¹⁷ For example, letter from Fisher, R.A. and five others, Lancet (1930), ii, pp. 161Google Scholar; letter from Huxley, J.S. as a member of the ‘Committee of the Eugenics Society for Legalising Eugenic Sterilisation’, Nature (1930), 126, pp. 503.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹⁸ Report of the Mental Deficiency Committee (Joint Committee of the Board of Education and Board of Control), London, 1929, Part 3, p. 82.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Doll, E.A., ‘Current Problems in Mental Diagnosis’, Journal of Psycho-Asthenics, (1924), 29Google Scholar, reprinted in Rosen, M. et al. , (eds), The History of Mental Retardation, Baltimore, 1976, vol. II, pp. 27–28.Google Scholar

²⁰ See, for example, Morgan, , op. cit. (2), pp. 200–206Google Scholar; Hogben, L.T., The Nature of Living Matter, London, 1930, pp. 208–214Google Scholar; Ginsberg, M., Studies in Sociology, London, 1932, chapter 8 and pp. 203–205Google Scholar; Gould, op. cit. (3), pp. 158–174.Google Scholar

²¹ Goddard, , op. cit. (8), p. 550.Google Scholar

²² Holmes, S.J., The Trend of the Race, London, 1921, p. 38.Google Scholar

²³ Goddard, , op. cit. (8), p. 554Google Scholar; see also p. 555.

²⁴ Ibid, p. 550.

²⁵ Idem.

²⁶ Ludmerer, , op. cit. (4), chapter 4.Google Scholar

²⁷ Ibid., pp. 75–77.

²⁸ Quoted in Kevles, , op. cit. (4), p. 145.Google Scholar

²⁹ Ludmerer, , op. cit. (4), chapter 6Google Scholar; Kevles, ibid., chapter 8.

³⁰ Ludmerer, ibid., pp. 94, 123f; 94; Kevles, ibid., pp. 122–128.

³¹ Ludmerer, ibid., pp. 148–163.

³² Ibid., p. 151.

³³ Allen, G., ‘The Role of experts in scientific controversy’ in Englehart, H.T. and Caplan, A.L. (eds), Scientific Controversies, London, 1987, pp. 169–202.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

³⁴ Glass, B., ‘Geneticists embattled’, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society (1986), 130, pp. 130–154.Google ScholarPubMed

³⁵ Ludmerer, , op. cit. (4), p. 124, 148, 151Google Scholar; Glass, ibid., pp. 132–136; on East Allen agrees with Glass, , op. cit. (33), p. 181, 199.Google Scholar

³⁶ Allen, ibid., p. 199, Glass, ibid., pp. 136–137; Ludmerer, ibid., pp. 121–122.

³⁷ Werskey, G., The Visible College, London, 1976, chapters 3, 4 and 5Google Scholar; see also Paul, D., ‘Eugenics and the Left’, Journal of the History of Ideas (1984), 45, pp. 567–590.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

³⁸ Greer, G., Sex and Destiny, London, 1984, chapters 10 and 11.Google Scholar

³⁹ East, E.M., ‘Hidden feeble-mindedness’, Journal of Heredity (1917), 8, pp. 215–217CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Punnett, R.C., ‘Eliminating feeble-mindedness’, Journal of Heredity (1917), 8, pp. 464–465CrossRefGoogle Scholar. East, E.M. and Jones, D.F., Inbreeding and Outbreeding: their genetic and sociological significance, Philadelphia, 1919CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Gates, R.R., ‘Heredity and Eugenics’, Eugenics Review, (1920–1921), 12, pp. 1–13Google ScholarPubMed. Holmes, S.J., The Trend of the Race, London, 1921Google Scholar. Newman, H.H., Readings in Evolution, Genetics and Eugenics, Chicago, 1921Google Scholar. Bateson, W., ‘Commonsense in Racial Problems’, Eugenics Review (1921–1922), 13, pp. 325–338Google ScholarPubMed. Holmes, S.J., Studies in Evolution and Eugenics, London, 1923Google Scholar. Gates, R.R., Heredity and Eugenics, London, 1923CrossRefGoogle Scholar. East, E.M., Mankind at the Crossroads, New York, 1926Google Scholar. Crew, F.A.E., Organic Inheritance in Man, London, 1927Google Scholar. Guyer, M.F., Being Well-Born, London, 1928Google Scholar. Haldane, J.B.S., ‘Science and Ethics’, in The Inequality of Man, London, 1932 (the essay originally appeared in 1928)Google Scholar. Gates, R.R., Heredity in Man, London, 1929Google Scholar. Conklin, E.G., Heredity and Environment, Princeton, 1929Google Scholar. Jennings, H.S., The Biological Basis of Human Nature, London, 1930Google Scholar. Jennings, H.S., ‘Eugenics’ in Seligman, E.R.A. (ed), Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, London, 1931, vol. V, pp. 617–621Google Scholar. Huxley, J.S., What dare I think?, London, 1931Google Scholar. Castle, W.E., Genetics and Eugenics, Cambridge Mass, 1931Google Scholar. East, E.M., Biology in Human Affairs, New York, 1931Google Scholar. East, E.M., review of Hogben, L.T., Genetic Principles in Medicine and the Social Sciences, in Economica (1932), 12, pp. 235–238Google Scholar. Gates, R.R., letters in British Medical Journal (1934), I, pp. 120, 264, 456–457CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Shull, A.F., Heredity, New York, 1938Google Scholar. Huxley, J.S., commentary to film Heredity in Man, G.B. Instructional, Ltd in collaboration with the Eugenics Society, 1937Google Scholar. (I am very grateful to the British Film Institute for providing me with a copy of their shotlist for this film, together with a review from the Monthly Film Bulletin (1939)Google Scholar.) Huxley, J.S., ‘The vital importance of eugenics’, Harper's Monthly (1941), 163, pp. 324–331Google Scholar, cited in Hubbard, Ruth ‘Prenatal diagnosis and eugenic ideology’, Women's Studies Int. Forum (1985), 6, pp. 568–569Google Scholar. Fisher, R.A., ‘The elimination of mental defect’, Eugenics Review (1924), 16, pp. 114–116Google ScholarPubMed; Mental Deficiency Committee (Wood), op. cit. (18)Google Scholar; Jones, D. Caradog, The Social Survey of Mersey side, Liverpool, 1934, 3 vols.Google ScholarMorgan, T.H., op. cit. (2)Google Scholar. Hogben, L.T., The Nature of Living Matter, London, 1930Google Scholar; also ‘The foundations of social biology’, Economica (1931), 11, pp. 4–24Google Scholar. (Inaugural lecture as Research Professor of Social Biology, University of London.) Also, Genetic Principles in Medicine and Social Science, London, 1931Google Scholar. Crew, F.A.E., ‘Mental Deficiency—a discussion of the genetic background’, Eugenics Review (1931–1932), 23, pp. 299–303Google Scholar. Hogben, L.T., Nature and Nurture, London, 1933Google Scholar. Ministry of Health, Report on the Departmental Committee on Sterilization (Brock), London, 1934Google Scholar. Penrose, L.S., ‘A contribution to the genetic study of mental deficiency’, British Medical Journal (1934), I, pp. 10–11CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Haldane, J.B.S., ‘Human genetics and human ideals’, in Jeans, J., Scientific Progress, London, 1936, pp. 141–173Google Scholar (Sir Halley Stewart Lecture, 1935). Haldane, J.B.S., Heredity and Politics, London, 1938Google Scholar. Penrose, L.S., A Clinical and Genetic Study of 1280 Cases of Mental Defect, Medical Research Council Report Series No. 229, London, 1938.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Ludmerer, , op. cit. (4), chapters 4 and 6.Google Scholar

⁴¹ Quoted in Ludmerer, ibid., p. 124.

⁴² Castle, , Genetics and Eugenics, 1931, pp. 381–387 (op. cit. 39).Google Scholar

⁴³ Jennings, , The Biological Basis of Human Nature, 1930, pp. 226, 236–241, 249 (op. cit. 39).Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Haldane, , The Inequality of Man, 1932, p. 105 (op. cit. 39).Google Scholar

⁴⁵ Huxley, J.S., ‘The case for eugenics’, Sociology Review (1926), 18, pp. 279–290CrossRefGoogle Scholar; What Dare I Think?, 1931, especially chapter 3Google Scholar; The Uniqueness of Man, London, 1941, chapter 2 (originally 1936)Google Scholar; letter to Nature (1930) (op. cit. 17); commentary to film Heredity in Man, 1937 (op. cit. 39)Google Scholar; ‘The vital importance of eugenics’, Harper's (1941), (op. cit. 39)Google Scholar; see also Greer, , op. cit, (38)Google Scholar, and Jones, , op. cit. (7), pp. 105–106.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ Punnett, R.C., ‘Genetics and eugenics’, in First International Eugenic Congress, Problems in Eugenics, London, 1912, pp. 137–138.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ Muller, H.J., ‘Mental traits and heredity’, Journal of Heredity, (1925), 16, pp. 433–448.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁴⁸ Crew, , Eugenics Review (1931–1932), op. cit. (39)Google Scholar. Fisher was a member of the Brock Committee on Sterilization, in fact the only geneticist on a committee dominated by doctors. When the committee peremptorily dismissed Goddard's work as ‘unscientific’ and argued that his instructions to his field workers were ‘so tendentious that it is not surprising that they succeeded in finding what they were told to seek’, I think we can safely infer that Fisher had become more critical of Goddard than he had been at various times during the previous ten years. (Ministry of Health, Report on Sterilisation, 1934 (op. cit. 39, p. 13). In Fisher's case, acceptance of the Mendelian recessive theory had always been qualified: for example, ‘there is a considerable body of pedigree evidence indicating the existence of a single Mendelian factor which, in its recessive phase, is capable alone of producing feebleness of mind. There is an even more substantial body of evidence that normal people, as well as the feeble in mind, differ very greatly in degree in just the same mental characteristics as distinguish the feeble-mindedness from the normal. Consequently, while we may speak of feeble-mindedness as due to a Mendelian recessive, no responsible authority would claim that all feeble-minded cases are genetically alike.’ Eugenics Review, 1924 (op. cit. 39), p. 115.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ Penrose, , British Medical Journal, 1934 (op. cit. 39).Google Scholar

⁵⁰ Guyer, , Being Well Born, 1928 (op. cit. 39), chapter 19Google Scholar; Crew, , Organic Inheritance, 1927 (op. cit. 39), 194Google Scholar; Newman, , Readings, 1921 (op. cit. 39), p. 463.Google Scholar

⁵¹ Guyer, ibid., p. 346.

⁵² For example, ibid., p. 352; Gates, , Heredity, 1923 (op. cit. 39), p. 149Google Scholar; Castle, , Genetics, 1931 (op. cit. 39), p. 385Google Scholar; East, and Jones, , Inbreeding, 1919 (op. cit. 39), p. 240.Google Scholar

⁵³ East, , Economica, 1932 (op. cit. 39), p. 238Google Scholar; Newman, , Readings, 1921 (op. cit. 39), p. 462 (Downing's paper)Google Scholar; Guyer, , Being Well Born, 1928 (op. cit. 39), p. 352Google Scholar; Castle, , Genetics, 1931 (op. cit. 39), p. 382.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ Conklin, , Heredity, 1929 (op. cit. 39), p. 71.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ Bateson, , Eugenics Review, 1921–1922 (op. cit. 39), p. 327Google Scholar (‘when they interbreed … they have no normal children but infallibly add to the asylum and institute population’); Punnett, , Journal of Heredity (1917), (op. cit. 39), pp. 464–465Google Scholar; Huxley, , What I Dare Think?, 1931 (op. cit. 39), pp. 98–100Google Scholar; Haldane, , op. cit. (44).Google Scholar

⁵⁶ Gates, , Heredity, 1923 (op. cit. 39), pp. 17–18Google Scholar; Jennings, , Biological Basis, 1930 (op. cit. 39), pp. 8–9, 17.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ East, , Biology, 1931 (op. cit. 39), p. 193.Google Scholar

⁵⁸ Guyer, , Being Well Born, 1928 (op. cit. 39), p. 355.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ Shull, , Heredity, 1938 (op. cit. 39), pp. 312–314Google Scholar; Jennings, , Biological Basis, 1930 (op. cit. 39), pp. 225–226, 234–241Google Scholar; and in Seligman, M., 1931 (op. cit. 39), p. 619Google Scholar; Castle, , Genetics, 1931 (op. cit. 39), pp. 386–387Google Scholar; Conklin, , Heredity, 1929 (op. cit. 39), p. 309Google Scholar; Crew, , Organic Inheritance, 1927 (op. cit. 39)Google Scholar; and Eugenics Review, 1931–1932 (op. cit. 39), p. 303Google Scholar; Fisher, , Eugenics Review, 1924 (op. cit. 39), pp. 114–116Google Scholar; Bateson, , Eugenics Review, 1921–1922 (op. cit. 39), p. 327Google Scholar; Huxley, , What Dare I Think?, 1931 (op. cit. 39), pp. 98–100Google Scholar; and letter to Nature, 1930 (op. cit. 17)Google Scholar; Punnett, , Journal of Heredity, 1917 (op. cit. 39), p. 465Google Scholar. It is worth drawing attention to Bateson here, since he is often cited as an implacable opponent of eugenics. In this paper he described himself as cautious on eugenic/‘racial’ questions and urged caution on his readers; it was, he argued, the feeble-minded and only the feeble-minded against whom the state could justifiably take action to prevent their propagation. He had expressed himself colourfully on the same theme a few years earlier. ‘The definitely feeble-minded we may with propriety restrain, as we are beginning to do even in England, and we may safely prevent unions in which both parties are defective, for the evidence shows that as a rule such marriages, though often prolific, commonly produce no normal children at all. The union of such social vermin we should no more permit than we would allow parasites to breed on our bodies’. President's Address, Report of the eighty-fourth meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (1914), London, 1915, p. 30.Google Scholar

⁶⁰ For example, ‘much bad germplasm comes through our gates hidden from the view of inspectors because the bearers are heterozygous, wearing a cloak of desirability over undesirable traits’ in Newman, , Readings, 1921 (op. cit. 39), p. 476Google Scholar (Walter's paper). In 1938 Shull reproduced and endorsed Laughlin's data on hereditary disorders, including mental defect, among immigrants; he went on ‘one could wish that the children of immigrants were included, since in this way one might arrive at an estimate of the various nationalities with respect to recessive inherited characters, like feeble-mindedness and epilepsy, which can to some extent or even largely be detected in those immigrants who are homozygous and can be thus excluded at the port of entry’. The hunt for the heterozygote could then be usefully extended to the investigation of ‘family histories of applicants in their home countries, before they set sail’, Heredity, 1938 (op. cit. 39), pp. 359, 361Google Scholar. This may be an example of the way in which Shull set about achieving the objectives specified in the preface of his book: ‘the eager inquiry of such students [many of them non-biologists seeking a ‘general education’] has seemed to the author an opportunity for missionary work seldom surpassed in college. Their interest centers largely in human affairs. To cultivate their interest in wholesome directions, to establish their social outlook on valid foundations, and to prepare them with problems, some of which they will probably live to see become acute, are tasks that challenge the wisdom and discernment of any teacher’. Thus the Professor of Zoology, University of Michigan. See also Holmes, , Studies, 1923 (op. cit. 39), pp. 210–211Google Scholar; East, , Mankind, 1926 (op. cit. 39), pp. 309–317Google Scholar; Fisher, , Eugenics Review, 1924 (op. cit. 39), p. 155.Google Scholar

⁶¹ Punnett, , Journal of Heredity, 1917 (op. cit. 39), p. 136Google Scholar; East, and Jones, , Inbreeding, 1919, p. 242Google Scholar (originally in East, 's Journal of Heredity (1917) (op. cit. 39).Google Scholar

⁶² East, ibid.; Guyer, , Being Well Born, 1928 (op. cit. 39), p. 355.Google Scholar

⁶³ See note 60 above.

⁶⁴ Macpherson, J., ‘The problem of the feeble-minded’, Glasgow Medical Journal (1912), 77, p. 334.Google Scholar

⁶⁵ Punnett, , Journal of Heredity, 1917 (op. cit. 39), p. 465.Google Scholar

⁶⁶ Holmes, , Trend, 1921 (op. cit. 39), p. 35.Google Scholar

⁶⁷ Idem.

⁶⁸ East, and Jones, , Inbreeding, 1919 (op. cit. 39), p. 243.Google Scholar

⁶⁹ Punnett, , Journal of Heredity, 1917 (op. cit. 39), p. 465.Google Scholar

⁷⁰ Huxley, , What I Dare Think?, 1931 (op. cit. 39), p. 99Google Scholar; Jennings, , Biological Basis, 1930 (op. cit. 39), p. 249Google Scholar; Gates, , Heredity, 1923 (op. cit. 39), pp. 159–160Google Scholar; East, and Jones, , Inbreeding, 1919 (op. cit. 39), p. 243Google Scholar; for Shull, see note 60.

⁷¹ East and Jones, ibid.; Holmes, , Trend, 1921 (op. cit. 39), p. 36Google Scholar; Fisher, , Eugenics Rev., 1924 (op. cit. 39), pp. 115–116.Google Scholar

⁷² Holmes, ibid., pp. 35–36.

⁷³ East, and Jones, , Inbreeding, 1919 (op. cit. 39), p. 243.Google Scholar

⁷⁴ Ibid. A neglected aspect of Goddard's Kallikak study is the implication that heterozygosity was quite possibly rampant among the East Coast ‘elite’ during the inter-war years. The argument proceeds as follows. We ‘know’ that the girl with whom Martin Kallikak senior had a night of passion in the 1770s was feebleminded, nn genotype (interestingly this is the one and only thing we do seem to know about her). But in that case Martin senior must have been a heterozygote. This is because Martin K junior was F (nn genotype) and we know from Goddard that where a N × F mating produces F offspring, the N partner must be Nn. But in that case there is only a chance of one in 128 that none of Martin senior's seven legitimate children inherited his n gene; and so on to the fifth and sixth generations. And this alarming discovery takes no account of the possibility that the ‘good’ side of the family might have intermarried with yet more heterozygotes.

⁷⁵ Mental Deficiency Committee, op. cit. (18), Part 3, p. 80 ff.Google Scholar

⁷⁶ Jones, Caradog, Social Survey, 1934 (op. cit. 39), vol. iii, p. 394Google Scholar; for an analysis of the concept of the ‘Social Problem Group’ and the part played by Caradog Jones in developing it, see Macnicol, J., ‘In pursuit of the underclass’, Journal of Social Policy (1987), 16, pp. 293–318.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁷⁷ Ibid., p. 395.

⁷⁸ Fisher, , Eugenics Rev., 1924 (op. cit. 39), pp. 114–115Google Scholar. He spoke here of leaving ‘our children a substantial eugenic legacy’.

⁷⁹ Ibid., pp. 115–116.

⁸⁰ Kevles, , op. cit. (4), p. 344, note 5.Google Scholar

⁸¹ See note 17 above.

⁸² Hogben, , Nature and Nurture, 1933 (op. cit. 39), p. 31.Google Scholar

⁸³ Hogben, , Nature of Living Matter, 1930 (op. cit. 39), p. 208Google Scholar; Morgan, , Evolution, 1925 (op. cit. 39), pp. 200–205Google Scholar; Haldane, , Heredity, 1938 (op. cit. 39), pp. 30–35 and chapter 3Google Scholar; Penrose, , A Clinical and Genetic Study, 1938 (op. cit. 39), p. 10 and chapter 7Google Scholar; Holmes, , note 22 above.Google Scholar

⁸⁴ Penrose, , A Clinical and Genetic Study, 1938 (op. cit. 39)Google Scholar, Haldane Ibid., pp. 85–86.

⁸⁵ Hogben, , Nature and Nurture, 1933 (op. cit. 39), p. 30–31.Google Scholar