Genetics in the Madhouse

Porter, Theodore M.

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Author
Porter, Theodore M.
Publish Date
2020-07-14
Subtitle
The Unknown History of Human Heredity
Book Type
Paperback
Number of Pages
464
Publisher Name
9
ISBN-10
0691203237
ISBN-13
9780691203232
citemno
244096
SKU
9780691203232

Description

The untold story of how hereditary data in mental hospitals gave rise to the science of human heredity

In the early 1800s, a century before there was any concept of the gene, physicians in insane asylums began to record causes of madness in their admission books. Almost from the beginning, they pointed to heredity as the most important of these causes. Genetics in the Madhouse is the untold story of how the collection of hereditary data in asylums and prisons gave rise to a new science of human heredity. Theodore Porter looks at the institutional use of innovative quantitative practices―such as pedigree charts and censuses of mental illness―that were worked out in the madhouse long before the manipulation of DNA became possible in the lab. Genetics in the Madhouse brings to light the hidden history behind modern genetics and deepens our appreciation of the moral issues at stake in data work conducted at the border of subjectivity and science.