THE DEGENERATES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 60, 1 September 1911, Page 8

THE DEGENERATES.

LECTURE OX EUGENICS. MR. H. W. BISHOP PROPOSES A REMEDY. Christchurch, Wednesday. "Degeneracy" formed the subject of a meat interesting lecture delivered bv Mr. 11. W. Bishop, S.M., president of the recently-formed Canterbury branch of the Eugenics Education Society of New Zealand.

Mr. Bishop divided degenerates into ■ mental, physical, alcoholic, criminal and : social degenerates. He confined his attention to the fifth class. He quoted a , case that had conic under his own notice of a girl who had had eight illegitimate children, and in no single case was she able to sheet the parentage on to any particular man. Such a case was ■ unusual, but there were similar ones ■ in which the woman had two or more children. In nearly all these cases the woman was illegitimate herself, but could give 110 other information regarding her antecedents. The large increase in insanity was due to the inmates of mental hospitals procreating their kind | during the intervals when they were considered sufficiently recovered to be set at liberty. In passing, the speaker explained that he was not so foolish as i to chum to regenerate the race by a sur- • gical operation or a. lethal chamber. He expressed strong approval of the Mental Defectives Bill now before Parliament, which he considered an enormous advance on anything that could have been expected in that direction a few years i ago. The measure would prove of enormous benefit to the unfortunates. frnm 11 l>araphlct entitled What is Eugenics? How to Improve the Race, m which the author strongly supported segregation of the unfit, the lecturer declared that segregation was absolutely useless as a solution of the problem, unless it was complete and continuous. Tt Vas also the most expensive method of dealing with the probem. Un ess the State was able to make them self-supporting. Moreover, lie doubted whether it was the more humane solution, and lie suggested that where guardians, parents and immediate relatives were willing to have a surgical operation performed, that was the preferable method of meeting the difficulty under such circumstances. lie knew of no religious moral or medical reason against it m the case of either male or female degenerates, The time might never come in New Zealand when such a measure would be considered necessary but there was no great objection to voluntary submission to such treatment. It was kinder and more humane to render degenerates nmocuon if their relatives so desired, and to giv, them the benefit of a home ouv.ronn,. , ltt than to segregate them for all their lives.