192 WHAT IS LIFE 



To quote Mayo further: "Another important 

 order of facts, which appears to have a significant 

 bearing upon the subject of racial mental differences, 

 is found in connection with the growth and maturing 

 of individuals of different races. Early maturity is 

 known to be related to climate, but it seems also to 

 be related to race." 



According to my theory, the early physiological 

 maturity of the children of a race, when the early 

 age represents a mean for a sufficiently large number 

 of individuals, indicates, unmistakably and beyond 

 a doubt, that the race has a smaller brain capacity 

 and a lower degree of intelligence, or psychic power, 

 than the races which arrive at physiological maturity 

 later. 



It hardly would need to be pointed out that the 

 early maturity of a people which is a true index of 

 degree of intelligence, is an unforced normal con- 

 dition. The child marriages of the East Indians are 

 determined by considerations other than fitness for 

 marriage (as attested by engagements between in- 

 fants), and therefore must be classed as without 

 value as an index to the intelligence of the Indians. 

 However, it is a significant fact that though the proud 

 features of the Brahmin are stamped with the 

 consciousness of age-long superiority, yet India con- 

 tributes very little to the intellectual and scientific 



