Abstract

This case study of part of the origins of the French eugenics movement helps delineate the limit of national setting as an influence on an international scientific movement. Puericulture, defined by Adolphe Pinard in 1896 as 'research and application of knowledge useful to the reproduction, preservation and improvement of the species', was for over a decade the French equivalent of eugenics which reflected two particular national conditions: concern with a declining birthrate and belief in neo-Lamarckian heredity. The effect was to give the movement natural alliances with social hygiene organizations while preventing conflict, for a time, with natalists and the Catholic Church. Pinard gradually began to distance himself from these groups, and after 1910 he identified more with men like Lucien March and Charles Richet whose views were more consciously in line with eugenic thought in England and America. The result was that after 1912 French eugenics shared many of the features of eugenics in other countries and was fully a part in the international movement