Alice in eugenics-land: Feminism and eugenics in the scientific careers of Alice Lee and Ethel Elderton

Annals of Science

Volumn 36, Issue 2, 1979, Pages 145-158

  Love, Rosaleen ^a  

^a SWINBURNE UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY   (Australia)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0042737531     PISSN: 00033790     EISSN: 1464505X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/00033797900200451     Document Type: Article

References (90)

1. Karl Pearson, Social problems: their treatment, past, present and future (1912, London), 4.
2. Olive Schreiner, Women and labour (1911, London), 33.
3. Karl Pearson, The life, letters and labours of Francis Oalton (3 vols., 1930, London), vol. 3A, 359.
4. Schreiner (footnote 2), 99-153.
5. Schreiner (footnote 2), 253.
6. Schreiner (footnote 2), 280.
7. A. Calder Marshall, Havelock Ellis (1959, London), 97. The correspondence of Olive Schreiner and Karl Pearson is located in the Pearson papers, which are housed in the D. M. S. Watson Library at University College London. The Pearson papers have been catalogued by Maxine Merrington as A list of the papers and correspondence of Karl Pearson (1857-1936) (1974, London, University College Department of Statistics and Computer Science).
8. Egon Pearson, Karl Pearson. An appreciation of some aspects of his life and work (1938, London), 14-18. The papers were published in The ethic of free thought (1888, London).
9. Karl Pearson (footnote 2), 377-393.
10. Bernard Norton, ‘Karl Pearson and statistics: the social origins of scientific innovation’, Social studies of science, 8 (1978), 3-34 (p. 16).
11. Karl Pearson, The ethic of free thought (2nd ed. 1901, London), 373.
12. Bernard Semmel, ‘Karl Pearson: socialist and Darwinist’, British journal of sociology, 9 (1958), 111-125 (p. 119).
13. E. Pearson (footnote 8), 14.
14. Margaret Tuke, A history of Bedford College for Women 1849-1937 (1939, Oxford), 127.
15. K. Tillotson from the Registrar, Bedford College, 13 September 1961 (Pearson papers, CVIII).
16. Tuke (footnote 14), 129-130.
17. A. Lee, K. Pearson, 19 February 1892 (Pearson papers, C1D5).
18. Alice Lee, Karl Pearson, 22 June 1905 (Galton Archives, University College London, 131/1).
19. Egon Pearson, ‘William Palin Elderton, 1877-1962’, Biometrika, 49 (1962), 297-303 (p. 299).
20. K. Pearson (footnote 3), vol. 3A, 258-305.
21. K. Pearson (footnote 3)., vol. 3A, 258.
22. Major Greenwood, Karl Pearson, Dictionary of national biography, (1940, Oxford), 683.
23. A. Lee, K. Pearson, 26 September 1895 (Pearson papers, C1D5).
24. In 1895 apd again in 1897 she told Pearson that her name should not appear on their joint papers, ’for I have done nothing but the Arithmetic, and I suppose a machine could do most of that’ (letters of 1 December 1895 and 14 June 1897; Pearson papers, C1D5).
25. Alice Lee, ‘Data for the problem of evolution in man. A first study of the correlation of the human skull’, Phil, trans. Roy. Soc. London, 196A (1902), 225-264. A set of measurements had been published by
26. A. Lee and K. Pearson, The chances of death (2 vols. 1897, London), vol, 1, 256-377.
27. Notice of this work was given in Emily Janes (ed.), The Englishwoman’s yearbook (1902, London), 128. Although the Royal Society at this time did not admit women members, it did allow papers prepared by women and presented by a Fellow to be considerd, and, if accepted, the author might be allowed to read the paper to the Society (See Emily Janes, The Englishwoman’s year book (1912, London), 68).
28. For the argument against equality of the sexes on the grounds that women were physically and mentally inferior to men, see C. Le Tourneau, Sociology based upon ethnography (trans. H. M. Trollope: 1881, London), 185
29. George Romanes, Essays (1897, London), 114. For contemporary rebuttal of the notion
30. David G. Ritchie, Darwinism and politics (1891, London), 64
31. John Augustine Zahm (pseud. H. J. Mozans), Women in science (1913, New York), 115-126.
32. A. Lee (footnote 28), 260.
33. A. Lee (footnote 28)., 229.
34. A. Lee (footnote 28)., 252.
35. A. Lee (footnote 28)., 255.
36. A. Lee (footnote 28)., 254.
37. A. Lee (footnote 28)., 259.
38. K. Pearson, F. Galton, 20 June 1899 (Galton Archives, 178). See also a letter from
39. J. F. Galton, 25 June 1899 (Galton Archives, 178).
40. D. W. Forrest, Francis Galton. The Life and work of a Victorian genius (1974, London,), 227.
41. Flavia Alaya, ’Victorian science and the "genius" of woman’, Journal of the history of ideas. 38 (1977). 261-280 (p. 266).
42. K. Pearson, A. Lee, 1 July 1899 (Galton Archives, 178).
43. A. Lee, K. Pearson, 2 July 1899 (Pearson papers, CID5).
44. K. Pearson, F. Galton, 4 July 1899 (Galton Archives. 178).
45. A. Lee, K. Pearson, 8 November 1907 (Pearson papers, CID7 (2)).
46. K. Pearson, ‘Remarks on Professor Aurel von Tbrbk’s note’. Hiometfika. 2 (1903). 509-512 (p. 510).
47. H. Odom, ‘Generalisations on race in nineteenth century physical anthrcology’. Jsis, 58 (1967), 5-18 (p. 5)
48. K. M. Ludmerer, Genetics and American society (1972, Baltimore), 4.
49. Egon Pearson (footnote 8), 109.
50. The Times, 18 July 1924, 11.
51. Pearson papers, 629.
52. K. Pearson (footnote 3), vol. 3A, 264
53. Galton Archives, 134.
54. Ethel Elderton, A first study of the influence of parental alcoholism on the physique and ability of the offspring (1910, London).
55. Lyndsay A. Farrall, ‘The origin and growth of the English eugenics movement 1865-1925’ (Ph.D. thesis, 1970, Indiana University, Bloomington), 255-261, and Chapter VII; and his ‘Controversy and conflict in science: a case-study—the English Biometric School and Mendel’s laws’, Social studies of science, 5 (1975), 269-301.
56. Leon Kamin, The science and politics of I.Q. (1977, London), 5.
57. D. V. Glass, Population policies and movements in Europe (1940, London). I do not know if Elderton was aware of the Royal Commission on the decline in the birth-rate and on the mortality of infants in New South Wales, volume 1 of which was published in New South Wales parliamentary papers, 1904, vol. 4, 791-955. The Commissioners, led by the government statistician T. A. Coghlan, found that the decline in the birth-rate was caused by increasing contraception and abortion. They warned that ’Artifical interference with natural processes of gestation may lead to insanity and the decay of family life’. However, a eugenics programme was not part of their suggestions to alleviate this problem, except in so far that ’all good patriots should consider the future result of their present behaviour, so that generations to come may not sacrifice their blood in the vain hope of defending their deplenished race’ (D. A. Borchardt, Checklist of Royal Commissions, Select Committees of Parliament, and Boards of Inquiry Part IV, New South Wales 1855-1960 (Latrobe University, Melbourne, 1975), 226). I am indebted to Dr. F. Forster, Melbourne, for this information.
58. E. M. Elderton, Report on the English birthrate: Part I, England north of the Humber (1914, London).
59. Peter Fryer, The birth controllers (1965, London), 175.
60. David Heron, On the relation of fertility in man to social status (1904, London).
61. G. Udny Yule, ‘On the changes in the marriage and birth-rates in England and Wales during the past half-century; with an inquiry as to their probable causes’, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, 69 (1906), 88-132.
62. Sidney Webb, The decline in the birthrate (1907, London), 18.
63. E. Elderton (footnote 51), 232
64. The relative strength of nurture and nature (1909, London), 5.
65. E. Elderton (footnote 51), 1.
66. E. Elderton (footnote 51)., 237.
67. E. Elderton (footnote 51)., 8.
68. E. Elderton (footnote 51)., 62.
69. E. Elderton (footnote 51)., 233-4.
70. E. Elderton (footnote 51)., 45, 234.
71. E. Elderton (footnote 51)., 235.
72. J. A. Olive Banks, Feminism and family planning in Victorian England (1964, Liverpool), chapter I, where Elderton’s Report is not cited. The authors cite her work on abortion in a footnote in Prosperity and parenthood. A study of family planning among the Victorian middle classes (1954, London), 159n.
73. E. Elderton (footnote 51), 40.
74. E. Elderton (footnote 51)., 236.
75. E. Elderton (footnote 51)., 61.
76. E. Elderton (footnote 51)., 43.
77. Charles Knowlton and George Drysdale, The fruits of philosophy (no date, New York) 24, as cited by Elaine and English Showalter, ‘Victorian women and menstruation’, Victorian studies, 14 (1970), 83-89 (p. 84). Annie Besant repeated the same advice in The law of population: its consequences and its bearings upon human conduct and morals (1877, London), 54, cited in
78. Rosanna Ledbetter, A history of the Malthusian League 1877-1927 (1976, Columbus, Ohio), 43.
79. Anthony Hordern, Legal abortion: the English experience (1971, Oxford), 3.
80. E. Elderton (footnote 51), 140.
81. Karl Pearson (footnote 3), vol 3A, 263.
82. Karl Pearson (footnote 3)., vol. 3A, 232.
83. Karl Pearson (footnote 3)., vol. 2, 131-132.
84. Donald McKenzie, ‘Eugenics in Britain’, Social studies of science, 6 (1976), 499-532 (p. 522).
85. Patricia Branca, ‘Image and reality: the myth of the idle Victorian woman’, in M. Hartman and L. W. Bannen (eds.), Clio’s consciousness raised. New perspectives in the history of women (1974, New York), 179-191.
86. K. Pearson (footnote 3), vol. 3A, 262.
87. K. Pearson (footnote 3)., vol. 3A, 260-297.
88. K. Pearson, A. Cave, 25 November 1907 (Pearson papers C1D7 (1)).
89. Clara Collet, Educated working women (1902, London), 57.
90. O. Schreiner (footnote 2), 126.