Despite the great amount of attention paid to eugenics and issues related to the biological regeneration of France, as late as 1910 there was still no formal eugenics organization in the country. Yet the debate, discussion, and creation of organizations with similar though more limited scope had done much to prepare the ground, as can be seen by how quickly the French Eugenics Society was established and the breadth of interest it inspired once certain key people were convinced of the need. The most prominent names in the organization were the leaders on questions of demography, health, and biological decline at the end of the nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth century – Pinard, Richet, Perrier, and March.

The immediate inspiration for establishing a French eugenics society came from outside the country. But it was more than the example of already existing organizations in England, Germany, and the United States that prompted the French to form the society. The signal event was the holding of an international congress of eugenics in London in 1912. Those Frenchmen interested in the congress formed a Consultative Committee (Table 4.1) to represent their country; and it is a testimony to the interest in eugenics that despite the lack of a preexisting organization, the French committee was by far the largest one at the congress outside Britain. Forty-five individuals were listed for France, compared with ten or twelve each for such countries as Germany, the United States, and Italy.