Since the publication of "Lessons from a Eugenical Survey of Vermont" a year ago a good many matters of importance have been undertaken and it seems desirable for purposes of general publicity and information to tell what has been going on in the direction of eugenical efforts since March 1, 1927. There is also a sufficient amount of interest in the purpose and plan of the enterprise to justify saying something in regard to the aim in view and objectives which are scheduled for the next few years in the event of the continuation of the Survey.

The following pages, therefore, state as briefly as possible these three things: First, what has been done during the year 1927. Second, work already undertaken and to be conducted during the year 1928. Third, plans for the future.

In academic circles a piece of research work is frequently considered sufficient excuse for its own existence. Considerable money can be expended in carrying out experiments and covering other costs incidental to an investigation without arousing question on the part of the general public. An investigation, however, that has a clear bearing upon the life of the community is called upon to justify itself a little more definitely. An eugenical survey brings the workers into direct contact with a great many different classes of people. Some very pointed questions have to be asked and answered in getting the desired information. It is plain that no small expense is being incurred for overhead and the active work of the Survey. It is therefore a perfectly natural question to raise, "What is it all about, anyway?"

In view of the activity of several members of the Advisory Committee of the Eugenics Survey during the last session of the Legislature on behalf of a sterilization bill, it has naturally enough been assumed by some that the Survey exists for this purpose. Such is not the case. The Advisory Committee went on record in October, 1925, as being in favor of the passage of a law for eugenical sterilization. This, however, is far from being the chief activity of the Committee or the only matter in which it is interested. To state the purpose of the Survey briefly, it': was and is to gather information, as full and accurate as possible, that can be used for social betterment in Vermont‐‐that is, for the ultimate improvement of the quality of our citizens. This Survey is an attempt to make at least a beginning toward answering the following questions:

1. Are there certain families in Vermont that have taken up more than their share of the attention and money of the state for poor relief and institutional care, and how much are they costing us?

2. Are they troubled by one or by several kinds of deficiency or delinquency?

3. Is the kind or degree of the defect permanently altered by voluntary migration from the old to a new home or by involuntary moving from the wretched home background to a modern well-conducted institution?

4. Have the successive generations grown better or worse, and why?

5. Are there obvious recommendations for state legislation or local procedure that would tend to lessen the deficiency and delinquency and therefore the public expense?

6. Is a real need served by collecting and compiling impartial information concerning a large number of defective and deficient people in Vermont and by making il available to authorized investigators?

As an example of the sort of history that has been brought to light by the investigations of our Survey, we print the following brief account of the Doolittle1 family. This family is represented on the folded chart at the back of the report. The offspring of Alexander, the original immigrant of this tribe, are so numerous that it has been entirely out of the question to make anything like an individual study of them all. Where information is lacking the person is given the benefit of the doubt by leaving out any symbols on the chart or any reference to him in the pedigree history that would indicate defects. This should not be understood as showing that the person was a valuable member of the community‐‐it simply means that we have no information one way or the other. A more thorough investigation would unquestionably increase the number of defective persons belonging to this tribe and so the number of symbols decorating the squares and circles on the chart. We had our choice in this Survey of studying intensively a comparatively small group, or extensively, a larger group comprising a considerable number of families. Whether wisely or not, we decided after very careful consideration to follow the second plan. We therefore present without apology what we want the reader to realize makes no pretense of being a complete story of one of the fifty-one families that have been studied in the course of the past two and a half years. The story is as follows:

1 Of course this is not its real name.

The story goes that some time in the eighteenth century a certain Alexander Doolittle came from England to southern Vermont. He is indicated on the chart at the end of this report by the numerals It, No. 1 which means that he is Individual No. 1 of Generation It. This same system of numbering, a Roman numeral for the generation and an Arabic numeral for the individual, is used throughout this account and in all cases the numbers refer to symbols on the folded chart.

Many of Alexander's descendants are known to have been a moral, social and economic drag on town and state from the very outset. From these we have selected a few typical anti-social Doolittles. Beginning with Alexander's eldest son, Adam (II, No. 2), we come down to the latter's eldest son, Richard (III, No. 7), by his first wife. Richard was the father of several successive generations of paupers, sex offenders and feebleminded inadequates. For example, there is his son Jacob (IV, No. 15), who has been a town charge off and on all his life. He is now over seventy years of age, and his tall and emaciated figure dressed in clothing patched beyond recognition is in accord with his unquestioned low mentality He can get along in the summer but in the winter he has to have help. The amount paid him in the last twenty-five years by the town in which he lives is approximately $1,500. All who know him doubt whether he troubled to marry any of his "wives" since the first one. When anything happened to one wife he would disappear for a while on a visit to New York or New Hampshire and ere long return with a new "wife" or "housekeeper." The town raged, but went right on supporting him. He has been physically and mentally incapable of self-support, despite the rumor that he can carve very well. Of the seven children whom Jacob is definitely known to have had, one (V, No. 11) is feebleminded and dependent, one (V, No. 10) is a cripple, two (V, No. 4 and No. 5) were dependent, and one only (V, No. 12) seems to have become a respected citizen. Six of these children were an expense to the state, one of them having been in a state school. Jacob's namesake, Jacob the 2nd (V, No. 11) continued to weave the family pattern with a few original variations. He married Evelyn White (V, No. 47), who was a granddaughter of Simon Doolittle (III, No. 13). That is, the grandfather of Evelyn and the grandfather of Jacob the 2nd were half-brothers. Evelyn had been married twice before, although she was only 29 years old at the time of her third marriage. There have been seven children, two of whom died of pneumonia when small, perhaps caused by the bad home conditions. Jacob the 2nd makes a good living, probably by selling booze, since he lives in a very inaccessible place in the hills away from all other houses and has been on probation once for that offense. In spite of the fact that Jacob has supposedly plenty of money, his home is a mere hovel, filthy and dirty, and the children are unkempt and neglected. It is hard to classify them either as normal or as morons without further study.

Richard's youngest son, William (IV, No. 21) and Jacob's own true brother, can be summed up by a single word, "worthless." William's eldest granddaughter, Maggie Simpson (VI, No. 15) has been a source of great tribulation to many state and private organizations. She was also committed to the Department of Public Welfare, who tried placing her in various homes without success. She went to the Home for Little Wanderers and was later transferred to the Psychopathic Hospital in Boston. After her return to Vermont, she was sent to the Vermont Industrial School where a mental test gave her an It. Q. of 69. Soon Maggie began to show psychopathic reactions, and was transferred to the Vermont State Hospital. When she became of age, the superintendent tried to have her readmitted, but she made such a good impression before the Judge of Probate that he refused to commit her. One hears of an occasional case of a person unjustly committed to an institution through connivance of scheming relatives. Fairness to both community and individual demands that a competent mental examination be given as part of the regular court routine. This is a case in point.

Maggie was at large for some time, wandering back and forth through Vermont, New Hampshire and New York States, sometimes in an institution and sometimes out. Some two years before her marriage to a New Hampshire man, she became pregnant and was helped by the City of New York. At this juncture, Maggie became insane and was committed to the Manhattan State Hospital. From there she was transferred to the New York Nursery and Child's Hospital where her baby (VII, No. 1) was born. She was then returned to the Manhattan State Hospital for the Insane, while her baby girl remained a charge on the City of New York.

After a stay at the Vermont State Hospital, the authorities were obliged to discharge this girl because, in spite of her record, the Probate Judge refused to commit her. Maggie finally married and sent for her two-year-old baby but soon tired of both baby and husband. She then deserted them both, placing the baby with disreputable people from whom the child was rescued by a Vermont society. The baby is now dependent in Vermont. The father (VI, No. 16) of the baby is supposed to have been an Italian. At present Maggie is reported to be in a hospital in New York undergoing treatment. Upon her recovery she is to go before the judge and will probably be committed to some institution as there is no question that she is insane at times, as well as feebleminded. At other times she is very loose morally, and since she is a rather attractive young woman, has a way of getting try. It is impossible to estimate the expense that this feebleminded, immoral, psychopathic girl and her child have been to both private and public institutions and organizations in Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and New York.

From all accounts William's offspring are degenerate, feebleminded, immoral people and have been a great expense not only to this state but to other states as well. It appears that William and Jacob were hardly fit to help populate the earth.

Going back to the heredity of Adam, a brief survey gives an unprepossessing picture of the progeny of Simon (III, No. 13) and John (III, No. 15), his sons by his second wife. Among the offspring of Simon in the fifth generation, one child (V, No. 60) has been at the Vermont State School for the Feebleminded and is now at the Vermont State Hospital for the Insane; (V, No. 63) had help from the town before his death and (V, No. 64) is feebleminded and has been at the State School. The only trace of respectability is found in the children of (IV, No. 38) who married into a good family. They have turned out comparatively well, although the mentality of some of them is open to question.

James (IV, No. 45), son of John, was very immoral and parted from his wife who was likewise immoral. He died of tuberculosis, and townspeople felt confident that he was also afflicted with venereal disease. His son, Ellis (V, No. 64) was at the State Industrial School for about five years. He is feebleminded, destructive of public property and cannot be trusted. At present he is living with his aunt (IV, No. 59) and is not working, though he is of age and perfectly capable of self-support as a day laborer or farmhand.

We find in the family of John two cousin marriages into the family of Simon and there is one pauper (V, No. 63), one feebleminded boy (V, No. 64) who is an inmate of the Industrial School and criminally inclined, one son (IV, No. 4S) is a town pauper, one grandchild (V, No. 78) is feebleminded and dependent, and one son (IV, No. 57) is a sex offender.

Returning to Alexander (It, No. 1), we find that his second son, Alexander, Jr. (II, No. 5) had a son Joseph (III, No. 17) who runs true to type. In Joseph's son's (Arthur, IV, No. 67) family, we find five commitments to the School for the Feebleminded, two commitments to the State Prison and one feebleminded child. Not much is known about his other descendants, but the former alone have been a great expense to town and state.

It would be impossible to estimate exactly the total expense that this family has been to agencies, both public and private, since it has been only in recent years that per capita costs have been estimated at institutions. Often dates of commitment and discharge to some of these institutions cannot be obtained. An actual amount of $15,870.62 has been ascertained, however, but this is a very small percentage of the whole. See Pedigree No. 6 in table. The town of S. between 1884 and 1923 spent on different members of this family a total of $3,878.49, which was one‐tenth of the amount spent on poor relief by that town during these years.

It would seem that the State of Vermont would at least have been financially better off had Richard, Simon, John and Joseph of Generation III not been allowed to produce children. In some cases good environment seems to have done much towards making several of the offspring respectable citizens. Possibly, if the state were to pay more attention to the education and environment of such children as we have described, before the time when they become dependent and delinquent, some of these conditions might have been avoided.

The whole history of this family, like many others in our fair state, makes it plain that some measures should be applied to lessen such drafts upon public funds and, therefore, ultimately upon the taxpayer's pocket. Whatever the causes‐‐and there are many‐‐social legislation and popular education on such conditions are plainly demanded. If a good psychiatric clinic can be made a part of our judicial system, we can avoid such false and sentimental judgments as that which persistently refused commitment of that poor creature Maggie who has so much to answer for‐‐or is it our "system," in other words, WE?