Young woman's c.1936 college biology notebooks with unusually broad scope, including lessons in Eugenics, Patent Medicine, Epidemics, Anatomy, Zoology, Nutrition, &c.
Two notebooks, 8.25 x 6.75 inches, approx. 17 manufactured by Yale Co-Operative Corporation and used by Anna Scaramella (1916-2012). The name of the school is not identified on the books themselves, but according to her obituary, Anna graduated in 1939 from Albertus Magnus College in New Haven with a Bachelor's Degree in Romance Languages. Notebooks in Fair to Good condition, loss to the spine cloth of book 2, both with wear and marking to boards.
Book 1 contains 170 numbered pages (last 5 leaves excised), including 34 pages with drawings ranging from typical diagrams of bean germination and plant cells, to animal diagrams (very nice crayfish and grasshopper), and a pleasantly unusual illustration of a microscope's mirroring using a typeform to show a close-up letterform in reverse. Book 2 is used for coursework through page 127, with some additional notes on Latin grammar on 131-148—the content otherwise centers around biology, physiology, and public health. Approx. 10 leaves are excised at rear of second notebook, but everything called for in the tidy table of contents is present. Book 2 includes 18 original drawings/diagrams, 2 fold-out manuscript charts, an unusual fold-out foot tracing, and a page of fingerprints. Some local interest includes a flowchart of New Haven municipal sewage treatment.
Organized into "exercises" with instructor's notes and markings, the material presents basics, like cell reproduction and the structure of skin, with a heavy bent toward how health is impacted (and represented) by the public sphere. It covers sanitation and historical epidemics, including typhoid and diseased milk, nutrition, and the importance of health education. There is notable coverage of Patent Medicine and the introduction of consumer protections provided by the Food and Drug Acts (and their limits), using examples like the rebranding of "Kilmer's Cough Remedy" from "Kilmer's Indian Cough Cure," ("being neither 'Indian' nor a 'cure'"), and several mounted clippings of contemporary ads for weight loss drugs.
The Heredity section includes Goddard's Kallikak "feebleminded" pedigree chart and support for Eugenics that focuses mainly of prohibiting procreation of "undesirable" and (accidentally?) ends with promoting environmental improvements for immigrants: "Six suggestions for race improvement are segregation of the feeble minded & prevention of their marrying (2) The insane, criminal, & diseased should also be prevented from marrying (3) All people should have an understanding of the value of eugenics (4) Certain laws in relation to marriage might be enacted & enforced (5) Only mentally, physically & morally fit immigrants should be permitted to enter other countries (6) Environment may be improved by having better tenement & housing condition..."