A bibliography of eugenics / by Samuel J. Holmes.

  • Samuel Jackson Holmes
Date:
1924
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: A bibliography of eugenics / by Samuel J. Holmes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    There is a deal of rubbish written on this as upon most other topics, and I have perhaps included too much of it in the present bibliography. As the several branches of science advance, as their problems become more clearly defined, and as the technique of their procedure is perfected, their literature becomes less dilettante, and each contribution comes to have its special significance in building up our knowledge. But in the subject matter with which we are here concerned the literature is very much at loose ends; much of it is uncritical; and comparatively little of it is written with the competence of the highly trained specialist. The whole field needs to be lifted up to a plane of more critical and scientific research. We may not be justified in expecting very rapid progress in the near future because many of the most important problems are still very puzzling, and it is difficult to say even how some of them should be attacked. A knowledge of what is happening to the inherited endowments of the race is, however, of such vital importance for human welfare that any efforts that may add to this knowledge are abundantly justified. In this field even the peasant labor of the bibliographer may, it is hoped, have its substantial value. In compiling references it was often peculiarly perplexing to decide what to include and what to reject. The biological and the social evolution of man are so closely inter-related that to include everything with an indirect bearing on the former would be an impossible task. The personal equation of the compiler necessarily plays an important rôle in such an undertaking, for no two persons would evaluate the same material from quite the same viewpoint. It was not possible to pass judgment on the value of all the contributions here listed, so that the effort to exclude publications of no significance was doubtless not completely successful. I am quite sure also that many contributions of value have been omitted from want of adequate knowledge of all the fields covered by the biblio graphy. To make a bibliography of this scope entirely complete would involve ransacking so enormous a mass of literature that it would be impossible for a single individual to perform the task; but the more important journals have been covered, and all the available bibliographical aids have been exhausted to make the work as complete as possible without the sacrifice of an undue amount of time and effort. Besides the work of compiling references, in which I have been aided by Mr. P. deLacy Mulhall, there was the greater labor of completing and checking up numerous titles which had been cited in an incomplete or inaccurate manner. The expenses for most of the clerical work involved in these tasks have been defrayed by grants recommended by the Board of Research of the University of California and granted by the President, Dr. D. P. Barrows. Through the interest of Dr. J. C. Merriam, aid was
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