PROBLEM OF NURTURE AND NATURE 



57 



of home are closely associated with the factors of physical environment. 

 The data in this table are for Rochdale and Blackburn : 



TABLE XI. 



Influence of Direct Parental Factors on Physical Environmental Factors 

 Rochdale and Blackburn. 



Rochdale Blackburn 



Habits of mother and dampness of house ... 

 lighting ...... 



overcrowding 

 possibility of ventilation 

 type of house 

 number of rooms 

 Cleanliness of home and overcrowding 



number of rooms 

 rent 



type of house 

 Mean of " habits " correlations 



~ t, i i i , 



" cleanliness correlations 



General mean -4R1 



VJCllCI dl IllCcill, TOO 



62 



54 



63 



6 5 



55 



49 



57 '42 



37 '24 



29 



4 2 



580 

 385 



We have found that on the whole the direct parental factors 

 appear to be more closely correlated with physical environmental 

 factors than with the indirect parental factors, although certain of 

 the latter correlations are high, e.g. between habits of mother and 

 father's occupation, -55 (Rochdale), between means of family and 

 habits of mother -67 (Rochdale), between habits of father and occu- 

 pation of father -41 (Bradford). It cannot therefore be asserted that 

 even the physical environmental factors are free from the nature 

 influence. The parents of the worse health and habits are found 

 in the lower type of physical environment, and thus even the slight 

 association of worse physical environment with lesser welfare of infant 

 and childlife may in part or wholly be due to the direct parental factors ; 

 in part if we believe health but not habits to be hereditary, wholly, if 

 we consider orderliness and briskness of mind, nay, even the power to 

 receive and carry on a tradition to be essential parts of our mental 

 inheritance. 



In any case we are in a position to sum up the problem of the 

 relative intensity of Nature and Nurture as illustrated by the data 

 for mortality of infants and health of surviving children from the 

 towns of Rochdale, Bradford and Blackburn. If we pool all environ- 

 mental factors, we shall not reach an average correlation higher 

 than -io with the welfare of offspring, while the interenvironmental 

 correlations will be at least of the average order -40, and accordingly 

 by Table IV an infinity of such factors could only provide a multiple 

 correlation of -158, for nurture as against the nature value for two 







