PROBLEM OF NURTURE AND NATURE 31 



Laboratory on the influence of environment had called forth, and he 

 interjected: "I wish your critics would study the subject of twins and 

 read my paper of 1875." How many of our critics have even now 

 read that paper? How many have really studied Galton's Hereditary 

 Genius ? 



Here are the actual words 1 he uses in the section of that work 

 entitled "Nature and Nurture": 



"When nature and nurture compete for supremacy on equal terms 

 in the sense to be explained, the former proves the stronger. It is 

 needless to insist that neither is self-sufficient ; the highest natural 

 endowments may be starved by defective nurture, while no carefulness 

 of nurture can overcome the evil tendencies of an intrinsically bad 

 physique, weak brain, or brutal disposition. Differences of nurture 

 stamp unmistakable marks on the disposition of the soldier, clergyman, 

 or scholar, but are wholly insufficient to efface the deeper marks of 

 individual character" (p. 12). 



How did Galton try to solve the relative strengths of "nature and 

 nurture" this "convenient jingle of words," as he terms it, which 

 "separates under two distinct heads the innumerable elements of 

 which personality is composed"? He noted that twins are of two 

 kinds those born physically and mentally alike, and those born as 

 unlike as ordinary brothers and sisters. He proceeded to determine 

 how far like twins were differentiated by unlike environments, and 

 how far unlike twins were rendered like by their common nurture. 

 He discovered that whatever the environment like twins remained 

 alike and unlike twins remained unlike, even as they were born. Thus 

 he sums up his History of Twins, as a Criterion of the Relative Powers 

 of Nature and Nurture : 



"There is no escape from the conclusion that nature prevails 

 enormously over nurture when the differences of nurture do not 

 exceed what is commonly to be found among persons of the same 

 rank of society in the same country. My only fear is that my evidence 

 seems to prove too much, and may be discredited on that account, 

 as it seems contrary to all expectation that nurture should go for so 

 little. But experience is often fallacious in ascribing great effects to 

 trifling circumstances. Many a person has amused himself by throwing 

 bits of stick into a tiny brook and watching their progress ; how they 

 are arrested, first by one chance obstacle, then by another; and 

 again, how their onward course is facilitated by a combination of 

 circumstances. He might ascribe much importance to each of these 



1 Portions of this lecture have been used in Chapter I of my Life of Francis Galton, 

 Cambridge University Press, 1914. 



