with changes

population through differential fecundity; of population from emigration, or better or worse strains; with hereditary basis of the traits of population." These laws cannot predicate the status of the unborn individual for there is "much of good in the most degenerate families in our land, as the Jukes and the Nams."

Upon the expert testimony the court could not find justification for the operation, "either upon the facts as they exist to-day or in the hope of benefits to come."

In discussing the law itself Mr. Justice Rudd summarizes in no uncertain tone the alleged violation of the Constitution of the United States, "That it is a bill of attainder; that it is depriving citizens of a trial by jury, and also of the privileges or immunities to which citizens of other states are entitled; that it is compelling ⚫ a citizen to be a witness against himself, and depriving him of life, liberty and property without due process of law; that it permits infliction of a cruel and unusual punishment. . . . ."

66

The court visions in the enactment of the law a purpose to save expense to future generations in the operation of eleemosynary institutions organized by the people of the state to care for those who are afflicted," and to permit the present generation of defectives to wander at large, which is not a "proper exercise of the police power," and is "almost inhuman in its nature."

For all these reasons the law is offensive to that part of the Fourteenth Amendment which declares "that no state . . . . shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."

In contravention is cited "an interesting and most readable opinion" by the attorney general of California: "As regards the castration of confirmed criminals and rapists, and those guilty of sexual crimes, I am of the opinion that these are grave constitutional questions, but as restricted to the sterilization of the inmates of prisons and hospitals by the method of vasectomy, I am of the opinion that there are no legal inhibitions upon this enlightened piece of legislation which is an awakening note to a new era and a great advance toward that day when man's inhumanity to man will have acquired a meaning beyond mere frothy sentiment," which legal flight into the empyrean calls forth

the following caustic dubitation as it exists in the thought of Mr. Justice Rudd: "Why sterilization by vasectomy of patients in a hospital, who are grouped as a class with rapists in a state prison, strikes an awakening note in a new era and will lead to the day to which the attorney general so poetically refers, is beyond the comprehension of this court and is not enlightening."

The court consequently decides that "the statute is unconstitutional and therefore invalid," and authorizes "judgment may be entered accordingly."

May the judgment be universal! Humanity is under obligation to Mr. Justice Rudd for this clear exposition of the fallacies of an experimental project. The world has recently participated in the most determined and most bloody demonstration of Efficiency in history, and wants no more of it. Guizot recognized the differentiation of capacity in the march of civilization with the reservation of its intellectual basis, the essential element of progress which is ignored by the modern promoter. If the altruistic purpose of the present generation reaches into the future, the improvement of the species may be best found in cultivation of physical and mental excellence, and not by a program which begins with physical mutilation and terminates, in cumulative action, in destruction of all the finer sentiments of the race-faith, hope, charity, sympathy for affliction and distress, admiration of the good and beautiful, and, at last, in annihilation of the highest human feeling, parental love.

M.

AMERICAN MEDICO-PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION SEVENTYFIFTH ANNUAL MEETING.-The seventy-fifth annual meeting of the American Medico-Psychological Association will be held at the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel, Philadelphia, June 18, 19 and 20.

It is quite fitting that the seventy-fifth annual meeting of the Association should be held in Philadelphia where the Association at a meeting of the memorable thirteen original members had its first session on October 16, 1844. There have been since that first meeting seven meetings in Philadelphia, namely in 1857, 1860, 1867, 1876, 1880, 1884 and the Fiftieth Annual Meeting in 1894.

The following is a preliminary program for the three days:

Organization.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18, 10.00 A. M.

Addresses of Welcome.

Reports

Committees.

Council.

Treasurer.

Editor of JOURNAL OF INSANITY.

Appointment of Nominating Committee.

Memorial Notices.

President's Address.

Address by Dr. G. Alder Blumer.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18, AFTERNOON.

Administration and State Problems.

Special papers on this subject have been solicited and promised, outlining the recent trends in State supervision.

Several other papers are promised on related subjects.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18, EVENING.

Round Table Conferences.

Each member is expected to pay his own supper bill, but to dine in company with those interested in his own line of activity. It will be an informal breaking up into sectional discussions combined with a social gathering of more or less congenial spirits. We expect to send out cards some time before the meeting, and ask the members to indicate the group with which they would like to dine. Each group will be presided over by a leader or moderator to direct the informal discussions, and as far as possible these moderators will be chosen from the chairmen of the corresponding standing committees. The following groups have been tentatively suggested: 1-Ladies; 2-Administrative; 3-Military; 4-Scientific Investigation; 5-Occupational Therapy; 6-Nursing. Following these round table suppers, we will reassemble for a smoker, with a short address at about 9.30 or 10.00 p. m.

Return cards will be forwarded to Association members later, and no places will be reserved except for those who have returned cards indicating their choice of groups.

THURSDAY, JUNE 19, 10.00 A. M.

This session will be given over to papers of psychiatric interest from the military standpoint.

Reconstruction.

THURSDAY, JUNE 19, AFTERNOON.

Critical and constructive suggestions on undergraduate, postgraduate and institutional training in Neuropsychiatry.

Annual Address.

President's Reception.

THURSDAY, JUNE 19, EVENING.

FRIDAY, JUNE 20.

The three sessions on Friday will be devoted to papers on Clinical Psychiatry, Scientific Subjects and Statistical Classification.

An invitation has been extended by the Managers of the Pennsylvania Hospital to a luncheon at noon on Friday at the birthplace of the Association.

The address by Dr. Blumer on the first day is, we understand, to be a review of the advances of Psychiatry in the last three quarters of a century.

The list of members who have promised papers embraces some twenty-seven names, so that there will not only be a sufficient number of papers read, but doubtless of a wide variety.

Abstracts and Extracts.

YERKES, ROBERT M.: The Binet Versus the Point Scale Method of Measuring Intelligence. (Journal of Applied Psychology, 1917, Vol. I, pp. 111122.)

The Binet method apparently rests on the assumption that important forms of behavior appear at various times during infancy, childhood and adolescence. The point scale methods, on the other hand, are chosen from the standpoint of functions to be measured, and without particular relation to the stages of human development. The Binet scale is based upon the assumption of appearing functions; the point scale on the assumption of developing functions. The result of the Binet method is an inflexible scale, which, however accurate it may be for the race, social stratum or sex for which it was constructed, cannot possibly yield reliable results when applied to widely differing groups of individuals. But in order to use the point scale profitably for a new race, or social group, it is necessary only to make a sufficient number of examinations, to yield reliable norms. The Binet method supplies judgments of success or failure-" all-or-none judgments. These are rather the forerunners of quantitative statements than themselves quantitative. In the point scale, judgments are of the more-or-less type. There is awarded a particular amount of credit which supposedly varies in correspondence with the character or amount of response. A number of tests in the Stanford Revision are highly dependent on education. Means should be devised of measuring the fundamental forms of behavior as they develop; our scales for mental measurement may well come to consist of independently graded and standardized tests which can be used either alone for the measurement of particular response, or in such groups as need dictates. Tables are quoted, contrasting the principles of the Binet and point scales, analysis of the Stanford scale, according to place of test and function measured.

YERKES, ROBERt M., and BurTT, HAROLD E.: The Relation of Point Scale Measurements of Intelligence to Educational Performance in College Students. (School and Society, 1917, Vol. V, pp. 535-540.)

The authors summarize their conclusions to say that the men of the groups in question rank in the point scale tests higher than the women. This superiority is especially marked in tests which involve reasoning or other fairly complex thought processes, while the sex differences are least for tests of perception, memory and imagination. 16 per cent of the women are of subnormal intelligence as compared with 12 per cent of the men. The correlation of point scale measurements with educational performance is strikingly positive for the men and somewhat less positive for the women.