Eugenics Laboratory Lectures number 9: Pearson, Karl. 1912. Darwinism, Medical Progress and Eugenics. The Cavendish Lecture, 1912. An Address to the Medical Profession (publisher not specified). 29 pp.
This separate is a hybrid of two publishing processes. It was circulated with GLNE endpapers, but the text is in a different style and format compared to the previous eight numbers in the series. A note on the title reads ‘This lecture was delivered to the West London Medico-Chirurgical Society as the Cavendish Lecture for 1912, and originally published in the West London Medical Journal, vol xvii, pp. 165–93, 1912’.
Summary
Delivered by Karl Pearson, F.R.S., as the Cavendish Lecture in 1912, this address argues before the medical profession that Darwinism fully applies to human evolution. Pearson establishes this law by demonstrating that a selective death-rate exists in man: approximately 75 per cent. of deaths are shown to depend upon hereditary constitution.
The central theme is the danger posed by the suspension of natural selection due to modern medical progress and high civilization. While admitting that modern care is humane, Pearson shows that it enables individuals with severe, highly inherited defects to survive and reproduce, increasing the frequency of defects in the population.
Pearson illustrates this trend using extreme examples of inherited dwarfism (achondroplasia) and rickets. He provides pedigrees and photographs of achondroplasic families where the defect is passed through generations, sometimes requiring Cæsarian sections for delivery. Similarly, he shows families with congenital defects like blindness and “lobster-claw” hands. He argues that these defects, once kept rare by selection, are now rising in frequency. He notes that the medical profession must recognize the importance of heredity in order to address these growing issues of inherited degeneracy. Pearson points out that the medical system itself is statistically flawed, citing that effective eyesight tests require a quarter to half an hour, yet medical officers are forced to examine “entrants” and “leavers” at rates that destroy efficiency.
Eugenics Laboratory Lectures number 9
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