Yesterday, I fell into a hole, again.
Since I began studying the history of eugenics in 2014, I have fallen into this metaphorical hole many times. The journey starts on the surface: I have a clear destination, a route and the time in which I will cover it. En route, I find a place which was not on my map (nor on topic), but it is fascinating and I am lured off course. My timetable is forgotten as I wander further into the dark labyrinth of the place I have stumbled upon.
Yesterday, it began when I read and researched "The Sterilization Proposals: A History of their Development" by C.P. Blacker in the Eugenics Review, January 1931. In the paper I saw the name Dr R.A. Gibbons who had been influential in the Eugenics Society. When I searched for "Dr R.A. Gibbons Eugenics," the search engine focused on the last two words and I saw this paper at the top of the results: " Beyond Eugenics: The forgotten scandal of hybridizing humans and apes ".
Humans and apes?
Surely not! ...but this was a paper on an academic website, so