THREE MURDERERS. Why does a man "kill" another? There are almost as many reasons why as there are murderers. A good classifier can, indeed, form groups of these reasons. But first it is necessary to analyze thoroughly typical cases; and this Dr. Briggs has done in an important book. Three cases are considered. The first is that of B. G. Spencer, who entered many houses in Springfield, Mass., and in one of these shot and killed a school mistress, who was merely screaming and offering no resistance. His family history contains 12 marked neurotics or insane. His father was subject to attacks of violent anger, as was the murderer. The evidence gave a picture of a young man who lived a seemingly normal life but who had strong periodic impulses to enter houses, equipped with mask and pistol, take things in them, usually of little value, and take them often in a highly sensational and perfectly reckless manner. The screaming of the school mistress and her companions seems to have shaken him and led him to shoot. He was of the double-personality type. Second is Czolgosz, the slayer of President McKinley. He seems to have been a nearly typical schizophrenic or dementia præcox case. He was secretive, seclusive, anti-social and suspicious. Third is the Rev. Clarence V. T. Richeson, who gave some crystals of cyanide of potassium to a young woman who was pregnant by him. She took the crystals to induce abortion, with quickly fatal results. Richeson was subject to erotic periods in which he lost control and probably also full consciousness. These periods seem to have been followed by nervous crises. His family stock is highly neurotic. A COMPENDIUM OF EUGENICS. German men of science have long been noted for their special qualifications for compiling compendia, so we are glad to receive a copy of a new "Grundriss of heredity and eugenics, in the production of which 3 eminent scholars have contributed. The work is in two volumes. Band I deals with human heredity. The first part is a treatise on genetics by Professor Baur. This is largely devoted to the familiar Mendelian analysis; about 10 pages are devoted to linkage, "Faktoren-Koppelung" and to crossing over, or "Chromomeren-austauch." The anthropologist, Eugen Fischer, follows with an account of racial differences in man. Then Dr. Lenz takes up the subject and treats of pathological inheritance, inheritance of genius, human selection and the applications of eugenics. The last two matters are discussed in 230 pp. in Band II. Altogether the work is a useful addition to our too short list of compendia on eugenics or race hygiene, as our German and Scandinavian friends prefer to call it. E. Bauer, E. Fischer, F. Lenz: 1921. Grundriss der Menschlichen Erblichkeitslehre und Rassenhygiene. Bd. I, 305 pp.; Bd. II, 251 pp. München. J. F. Lehmann. Price, $2.60. RACIAL TRAITS IN ATHLETES. Elmer D. Mitchell, Ann Arbor, Michigan, contributes a paper to the April and May, 1922, issues of the American Physical Culture Review, in which he analyzes the racial characteristics which are most dominant in athletes of each of the principal races which have contributed family stocks to the American population. This subject is one that lends itself to quantitative results, though this opportunity has not been made use of by the author. The author shows much insight into race psychology. "The Scandinavians are tall and strong with marked aptitude for athletic prowess." "The Swede-he can be used as a representative of the larger race-is a plodding, slow-thinking, and lawabiding individual. He is not so submissive as the German. These traits, coupled with a willingness to learn, make him good material for the American coach and for . . . team play. . . .” THE LATIN. "I have grouped the French, Italian, and Spanish together. . . . The peculiar Latin trait of placing childlike faith in higher authority, of not seeking to penetrate the invisible, makes him a lover of external show, pomp, and material rites rather than of individual faith." "The French people do not care for the complicated baseball, cricket, or football. Instead, we find them interested in such exercises as running, jumping, croquet, cycling, fencing, and handball. All these, indeed, involve skill, but no unified team plays." THE DUTCH. "The Jew thrives amidst the tense environment of competitive business and city strain. . . . The Jew's environment early taught him the lesson of being physically unobtrusive; but beneath all, there is a latent couragea courage which needs the prod before it shows, as the Jew faces odds when he has to fight alone. . . . Rebuffs or unpopularity do not depress the Jew. Long racial experience has inured him to them. . . . The average Jew is an unpopular team-mate; he is selfassertive, individualistic, and quarrelsome. This quarrelsome trait is easily seen by watching a group of Hebrew children on the playground." "Along with boxing and dancing, "Dutch players are hard workers... gymnastics and basketball are popular, persevering, and steady. ... Basket-all of them types of athletic exercise ball is a favorite sport with them, al-demanding dexterous footwork and though they make just as good ath- dodging ability, and carried on inletes in football or baseball. Track doors. Basketball is easily their favorand field events seem to attract them ite sport." the least." THE INDIAN. Physically, the Indian has a tall, well-knit structure. His one failing as an athlete is psychological, in that he is not at home outside of his own environment. . . . The negro is will ing to accept an inferior status; the Indian is not. . . . Coaches agree that the Indian cannot stand reverses; that he will play sensationally while winning, but give in easily before setbacks; also that the Indian teams do not do well away from home. Indian teams lack persistent effort, and training or practice quickly become irksome if not relieved by novel methods. The Indian inherits a capacity for endurance running. Lacross is a running game invented by the Indians. Longboat is a typical Indian marathon runner. He is stoical in enduring pain. He is crafty, with the sense acutely developed. He nurses a wrong. He is cruel." THE GREEK. is proud to a fault and resentful of "The Russian is a poor athlete. he shown any special aptitude." . . Only in wrestling and gymnastics has "Whereas the men of other nationalities find recreation in sports and pastimes, the Russian finds his in the wild abandon of the dance. One almost instinctively associates the word Russian' with the word 'ballet' when he hears the latter mentioned. Is it not a strange contradiction, too, 6 "The Greek has a noble athletic that the people who enjoy vigorous heritage. "While the Greek race has been invaluable to human progress, the Greek of to-day has nothing new to add. . . . In team games, the Greek appears awkward, lacking in coördination of mind and muscle." THE ORIENTAL. "Taking the men of China, Japan, and the Philippines separately, we find the following differences: "The Jap is the most progressive. He is intelligent, brave, enthusiastic, and persistent. The last-named trait is shown by the dogged persistence which it must take to master such marvelous feats of juggling and balancing as they perform on the vaudeville stage. He is curious and observing, and eager to learn.". games act leisurely in the dance?" "The Chinaman is more deliberate, "In almost every way athletics are conservative, and much more difficult representative of the customs and trato persuade than the Jap.... Inditions of a people. They certainly track the Chinese seem to excell in are a means of determining the trend events requiring bodily balancing skill, the pole vault in particular." of a nation's life and a mirror of respective national character can be found in the easy-going, long-drawn"The average Filipino is of medium out, conservative and individualistic but well-knit stature. He is brave and English game on the one hand, or the warlike. He has the quality of enthu-high-strung, tense, changing, and sucsiasm and, because of an intermixture of Spanish blood, displays his emotions very visibly as compared with the yellow race." THE SOUTH AMERICAN. "The Latin American has inherited an undisciplined nature. The Indian in him chafes at discipline and sustained effort; while the Spanish half cess-seeking American game on the other. Decadent nations find enjoyment in bullfights, cockfighting, professional wrestling, and the like; autocratic nations specialize in the disciplined, machinelike, and systematic gymnastics; and democratic nations produce sports. All through history, democracy has been accom panied by an interest in amateur establishment of a eugenics station sports." NOTES AND NEWS. A study of the sex-ratio in births of the countries involved in the late war, both before, during and since the war, reveals, E. R. Shaw finds (in Jour. Amer. Statist. Assn., June), no evidence of any excess of male births following the war. Mrs. Walter M. Newkirk, '12, has been appointed delegate of the American Association of University Women to the International Conference of University Women which meets in Paris. Mrs. Newkirk will attend also the Fifth International Birth Control Congress which meets in London July 11-14, 1922. The chairman of the Eugenics Section of this Congress is Professor E. W. McBride. in Cuba. Since the Latin-American Medical Congress is to be held in Havana during November, it is hoped to enlist an interest in eugenics among the delegates of those countries. Dr. Franz Boas publishes a plan for an anthropometric investigation of the population of the United States, in the June number of the Journal of the Amer. Statistical Assn. He points out difficulties and desiderata. There is no doubt that, on account of the presence among us of all European nationalities in great numbers and of hybrids between them, the United States offers peculiarly favorable opportunity for research on race mixtures. ALCOHOL AND GERM CELLS. Dr. Aaron J. Rosanoff, who, since In five men who died of severe alco1901, has been Clinical Director holic intoxication (all cases studied of the Kings Park State Hos- by Carl V. Weller, Univ. of Michigan, pital, Kings Park, N. Y., has resigned and reported in Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol. from this position and is now en- and Med., Dec., 1921), there was regaged in private practice in neuro- vealed profound testicular modificapsychiatry in Los Angeles. Dr. tions. The sperm-producing epitheRosanoff is also preparing the sixth lium was vacuolated, cell-division was revision of his Manual of Psychiatry." His present address is 518 Marsh-Strong Building, Los Angeles, California. Mrs. Mary T. Watts, who has done much to promote baby health contests in the West, is now encouraging the family history studies in the eugenics building which is carried about from fair to fair in some states west of the Mississippi. The slogan is "Fitter families for future firesides." Prizes are given for the best family records instead of merely physical condition of the babies. Dr. Ramos of Havana writes that, political conditions in Cuba having been stabilized, he is reporting to the government about the work of the Second International Congress of Eugenics and the importance of the atypical, and sperm-formation was abnormal. This confirms earlier deductions as to alcoholic blastophthoria. THE MULATTO TO HIS CRITICS. Joseph S. Cotter, Jr., gives this answer to the critics of the mulatto: "Ashamed of my race? And of what race am I? Through my veins there flows the Of Red Man, Black Man, Briton, Celt, and Scot, In warring clash and tumultuous riot. VOL. VII. SEPTEMBER, 1922 THE ENDOCRINOPATHIC BACK- BY EDITH R. SPAULDING, M.D. NO. 9 great apprehension and tension, all largely due to glandular dysfunction, suggested to the patient the type of The heredity in this case showed endocrinopathic symptoms, escape to which she might have recourse when she was confronted with A large number of psychoneuroses situations in life which she felt inshow, besides nervous and mental capable of meeting. This feeling of symptoms, much evidence of en- inadequacy was doubtless due, in itdocrine imbalance. In many cases, self, to a glandular insufficiency, which especially among children, the basis had resulted in a retardation of her of the deviation of personality found emotional development. appears to be the result of an endocrine imbalance. Adler's theory of many such relationship seems frequently to which in turn were associated with be borne out in the author's experience. various deviations of personality and In spite of the fact that more definite psychoneurotic conditions. syndromes, such as hyperthyroidism, While it is impossible to untangle cretinism, Froelich's syndrome status thymico-lymphaticus, are often found associated with various mental attitudes, still the glandular imbalance found may be less marked than any of these and more complex. But because the deviations are slight, if they, as well as the associated mental attitudes, can be recognized and corrected, especially during the individual's childhood, he may be brought to a higher state of mental and physical efficiency and many psychotic symptoms may be prevented. or In the case described there was a the intricate relationship that undoubtedly exists between personality development. and endocrine conditions, it is important to consider both the mental and the glandular aspects in the therapy of each case treated. The case described responded well to a combination of treatment that, on the one hand, established a better endocrine balance and increased the patient's physical capacity, and, on the other, through mental analysis, corrected the patient's attitudes that had resulted from her unconstructive attempts at compensation for her AN INTELLECTUAL NAVAL persistent thymus with dyspituitary, glandular inadequacy. dysthyroid and supra-renal factors. The lack of tone of the abdominal wall and of the unstriped muscle of the intestine, the great fatiguability, Seaton Schroeder, born in Washthe tendency to diarrhoea that fol- ington, D. C., Aug. 17, 1849, was gradlowed excitement and was associated uated from the Naval Academy in with palpitation and the feeling of 1868 and became midshipman on the Abstract of paper read before the U. S. S. Saginaw, in Alaskan waters. Eugenics Research Association, Cold He served two years with the North Spring Harbor, Long Island, New York, June 10, 1922. The complete paper will Pacific squadron, a year or so in the be published in the Woman's Medical West Indies, then went with a Journal, August, 1922. |