novel degeneration

ii the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones CientĂ­ficas in Madrid. Foremost historians of psychiatry, public health and degeneration theory in nineteenth century Spain, I have capitalized on their extensive contributions in these fields, as the following pages show. They offered generous interest, support and advice at the time this dissertation was being planned I should like to express my admiration and appreciation for the achievement of Wendy Lougee, chief librarian, and all at the Wilson, Wangensteen, Walter, Biomedical and McGrath Libraries who, from my point of view, appear to run a very complex organization with immense competence. My personal experience of the libraries has made me regard them as a model of what a good university library system should be. I should like to thank Rafael Tarrago, librarian of Iberian and Latino studies, for his assistance. I owe special thanks to the staff of the Illiad interlibrary loan service who scoured two continents for unusual medical texts on my behalf and, particularly, to Alice Welch, who showed rare skill in finding copies of obscure texts when my searches were fruitless.

I should like to express my gratitude to the University of Minnesota‘s Department of Academic and Professional Development, and to Noro Andriamanalina its director, for organizing such a spectacular program of workshops and support groups for graduate students to help see them through their theses and beyond. Though I attended only a fraction of the available sessions, I always found them useful and have very much appreciated the support and interest that they demonstrate.

Finally, on a more prosaic but no less important plane, I should like to pay tribute to the University and to the staff running the Campus Connector service, whose efficiency and dedicated throughway make it the most enlightened urban transit system I have experienced