44 



The Journal of Heredity 



tests correctly and who is experienced in 

 the psychological interpretation of re- 

 sponses can in forty minutes arrive at a 

 more accurate judgment as to a subject's 

 intelligence than would be possible with- 

 out the tests after months or even years 

 of close observation. . . Exceptionally 

 superior endowTnent is discoverable by 

 the tests, however unfavorable the home 

 from which it comes, and inferior endow- 



ment cannot be normalized by all the ad- 

 vantages of the most cultured home. 

 Or to quote from William Stern, the 

 greatest German exponent of the psy- 

 chology of individual differences, "The 

 tests actually reach and discover the 

 general developmental conditions of in- 

 telligence, and not mere fragments of 

 knowledge and attainments acquired by 

 chance." 



Delinquent Dullards 



The same group of tests was given to 

 forty-three members of an aviation 

 corps and fifty inmates of a state peni- 

 tentiary, by Thomas H. Haines {Journal 

 of Delinquency, Sept., 1917), "The 

 aviation men are above average in 

 endowment and training. Three-fourths 

 of them are college men." The peni- 

 tentiary inmates are the more intelligent 

 and better trained men of their group. 

 "They can all read and write and figure 

 with fair facility." "The median score 

 of the aviation men is 77.7% and the 

 median of the penitentiary men 36.3%. 



The range of the aviation men was from 

 57.1% to 90.4% and the range of the 

 delinquents was from 03.8% to 83.3%. 

 There is here further evidence that even 

 the better endowed delinquents are dis- 

 tincth' inferior to such a picked group of 

 talented men as enter the air service." 

 While such men as are found in the 

 average jjenitentiary could never be 

 made brilliant by any system of educa- 

 tion, Dr. Haines thinks that they could 

 at least be made law-abiding, by a 

 proper education. They arc capable, 

 not incapable, inferiors. 



