Historians of eugenics have been slow to research criticisms of eugenics from within research and learning communities. A notable exception is Ewa Barbara Luczak’s (2022) Mocking Eugenics: American Culture Against Scientific Hatred. (Also look for a project by Alex Aylward and Ross Brooks on responses to eugenics at Oxford.) We need more of these studies.
In 1904 Karl Pearson lectured to Critical Society of University College, a student-led society. It was one of Pearson’s first overt analyses of eugenics. It came while discussions were underway between Francis Galton and Sir Arthur Rücker, then Principal of University of London, towards sponsoring the small research group that became the Eugenics Record Office later in 1904. The medical student’s magazine at the university, the University College Gazette, published Pearson’s lecture.
- Karl Pearson. 1904. The Bearing of Our Present Knowledge of Heredity Upon Conduct. University College Gazette 3(52, May):404-406, with related editorials.
Normally unnoticed by historians of the subject, the magazine’s editor also included in the same issue a satirical response to Pearson’s proposals. This ridiculed Pearson’s eugenics-based analysis and proposals. Pearson kept a copy of the magazine highlighting his speech but not noting the satire.
This post presents pages from the relevant issue of the University College Gazette, including initial notice about the lecture, the text of Pearson’s lecture, and the satirical response.
Pearson’s lecture to the Critical Society, 1904