Horatio M. (Horatio Milo) Pollock

Born on September 2, 1868, in Patria, New York, Horatio Milo Pollock built an unusual academic path from rural schooling and farm work to higher education at Union College and the University of Leipzig. He taught several subjects early in his career, including biology, physics, German, economics, and sociology.

Pollock became especially important as a statistician in the field of mental hygiene. He worked for the New York State Department of Mental Hygiene, helped improve record-keeping and statistical methods, and later advised national organizations working in psychiatry and mental health. He also edited Psychiatric Quarterly for many years and contributed to statistical manuals used by hospitals and professional groups.

As an author, he is now most likely to be encountered through Eugenics as a Factor in the Prevention of Mental Disease, a work that reflects ideas circulating in parts of the medical and social sciences of his era. He died on May 8, 1950, in Petersburg, Virginia.