372 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



It is maintained by Dr. Galton, Professor Pearson and others that 

 ability and performance are distributed in accordance with the curve 

 of error. It does not seem to me that this is the case. If ability for 

 scholastic work were distributed in this way at birth, it would not 

 remain so among college students, who are a selected group. Those 

 unfit are less likely to be found in college and those particularly 

 competent are more likely to be there. This would tend to give us 

 for college students a skew curve in the negative direction. In spite 

 of this factor, I believe that the main skew is in the opposite direction, 



Fig. 2. The Upper Surface shows the Theoretical Distribution of Gp.ades, the 

 Lower that must convenient in 1'ractise. 



and that ability is distributed somewhat like wages which are roughly 

 proportional to it. If the average earnings of men in this country 

 are $600 a year, it is clear that the positive deviations from the 

 average are many times the negative deviations. There may be a 

 certain minimal ability necessary for survival, and variations and 

 sports may occur to an extent in the positive direction not possible 

 in the negative direction. There are certain ' constant errors,' such 

 as a college education, which divide men into different ' species.' In 

 so far as students are graded on the lines of the probability curve, 

 this may measure the attitude of the examiner rather than the dis- 

 tribution of the men in merit. 



