12 T. H. Pear, y umher-Forvis 



explained on the * earliest recollection ' theory. I know I 

 was much fascinated by clocks and watches as a child and 

 I could tell the time almost as soon as I could talk." 



Yet another objection to Galton's assumption arises when 

 the chief turns in number-forms are examined. Calkins found 

 that three-fourths of the turns were at numbers which are 

 prominent in earlv arithmetical exercises and in ordinary 

 usage. One of my contributors writes of her number-form, 

 which she calls a " fig-u re-board " : — 



'* My figure-board changes at tens, except at the drst 

 12 where there is a rather indistinct modification of the line. 

 I am not English born, but French-Swiss, and all my 

 arithmetical calculation has been based upon the decimal 

 system. Do you think the duodecimal system as used here 

 may affect the figure-board of English people?" 



Detailed evidence has now been obtained that very compli- 

 cated objects in a person's environment may give rise to 

 number-forms, which can be traced definitely and completely 

 to their influence. Hennig(4) shows that both his own number- 

 form and that of his brother were essentially determined by 

 the arrangement and illumination of the houses in the 

 Potsdamer Strasse in Berlin. The house-numbers in the 

 street had particularly interested them when they lived there in 

 earlv childhood. The number-form of another brother was 

 attributable to the pathways and numbers in the Berlin 

 Zoological Gardens, which he often visited. Phillips mentions 

 a child who, when five years old, could add numbers only 

 when he was in a room with a clock, the hour-spaces of which 

 he counted. At the age of 7 this child " used the clock-face 

 mentally." To all this evidence may be added the fact that 

 in some number-forms the negative values are represented ; 

 this renders any simple belief in their hereditary character 

 quite untenable. 



The most, therefore, that can justifiably be believed con- 

 cerning the possible heredity of number-forms is that the 

 tendency to visualize may be handed down, transmitted, maybe, 

 in purely physiological terms as an inheritance of a specially 

 favourable neural basis in the brain. Yet in the way of even 

 this simple belief there lie some formidable obstacles. It is 

 quite clear that the power of visualization can be greatly 

 strengthened by practice. Galton himself lays stress upon 



