86 The Journal 
of which shall be a D and the other an 
R. It would at least require the postu- 
lation of so many determiners that 
Mendel’s laws would fail to have a 
pragmatic value. Still, the series is not 
an example of unimodal variation since 
the most common types are not those of 
the two middle rows, with “entire 
of Heredity 
black” of rare occurrence. Nearly half 
of all the specimens are entirely black, 
38 out of 92 in Mr. Johnson’s figures. 
It would seem that these beetles may be 
the recult of a cross between a colored 
variety, similar to the first specimen, 
with a black variety as seen in the last 
specimen.—F, A. W. 
A Study of Country Children 
That children from a good farming 
district are more intelligent than chil- 
dren from a poor rural district in Indi- 
ana is the conclusion of S. L. Pressey 
and J. B. Thomas, who present their 
study in the Sept., 1919, issue of the 
Journal of Applied Psychology. 
“Tt is not infrequently asserted,” 
they remark, “that in the country dis- 
tricts a constant selective process is 
going on, the poorer, less intelligent 
stock being pushed back more and more 
into the hill country where the land is 
Measuring 
Next to physical fitness, intelligence 
is perhaps the most important single 
factor in a soldier’s efficiency. So says 
a pamphlet entitled “Army Mental 
Tests,’ published in November, 1918. 
Mental tests prepared by a committee 
of the American Psychological Asso- 
ciation and of the National Research 
Council were given to recruits during 
the two weeks immediately preceding 
their entrance into the Army. The rat- 
ings which these men earned furnished 
a fairly reliable index to their ability 
“to learn, to think quickly and accu- 
rately, to analyze a situation, to maintain 
a state of mental alertness and to com- 
prehend and follow instructions. The 
score is little influenced by schooling. 
Some of the highest records have been 
made by men who had not completed 
the eighth grade.” 
The tests were not, however, the full 
measure of a man’s value in the mili- 
tary service, nor did they prove that 
poorest, while the more able, assertive 
elements of the population obtain the 
best land and the best opportunities. 
That is, on this assumption, there 
should, in an agricultural community, 
be a positive correlation between land 
values and intelligence.” 
The assumption is definitely upheld 
by the results which the writers 
secured; but they also found that all 
the country children whether from 
prosperous or backward districts, aver- 
aged below city children in intelligence. 
Intelligence 
men of equal mental rating were neces- 
sarily of equal military worth. Such 
qualities as loyalty, bravery, power to 
command, and the other traits which go 
to make up a good soldier, could not be 
measured by this test of intelligence. 
In the long run, however, those traits 
are more likely to be found in men of 
supeior intelligence than in men who are 
intellectually inferior. That a man’s 
value in the military service could not 
be judged by a test of intelligence alone 
has been shown by the fact that many 
of the men who earned only low mental 
ratings in the tests made good in actual 
practice in positions of responsibility. 
Nevertheless the intelligence rating was 
found to be one of the most important 
aids in the selection and assignment of 
men to the specialized tasks of the 
Army. The accompanying chart graph- 
ically illustrates the occupational intel- 
ligence standards based on data for ap- 
proximately 36,500 men. 
