NATURE 



^h 



[October 14, 191 5 



FAMILY HISTORIES AND EUGENICS, 



IN the thirteenth bulletin (June, 1915) from the 

 Eugenics Record Office (Cold Spring Harbour, 

 Long Island, New York), Messrs. C. B. Davenport 

 and H. H. Laughlin give precise directions for making 

 "a eugenical family study." The general lines are 

 similar to those of the records of family histories 

 which Sir Francis Galton sought to initiate in Britain 

 many years ago. Such a study, carefully made, is, the 

 authors tell us, important to the individual, who 

 may understand and guide himself better if he knows 

 his hereditary assets and liabilities ; important to 

 society, which " can treat the delinquent individual 

 more reasonably, more effectively, and more humanely, 

 if it knows the ' past performance ' of _ his germ- 

 plasm " ; important with a view to " vocational selec- 

 tion," the end of which is to get the right man in 

 the right place; important for education, which should 

 take some account of the inborn potentialities of the 

 individual ; and important, finally, in the selection of 

 marriage-mates, or at least in avoiding obviously unfit 

 unions. 



The bulletin tells the inquirer how to construct his 

 "family tree" when the facts have been secured, and 

 how to make an "individual analysis." This rather 

 formidable enterprise involves answering sixty ques- 

 tions as to life-history, and as to physical, mental, and 

 temperamental traits. The framing of the questions 

 embodies long experience, and even to put them to 

 oneself is interesting. Drs. Hoch and Amsden supply 

 an even more elaborate questionnaire as to mental 

 and temperamental traits. It will be hard to discover 

 any trait that this catechism leaves out. It begins 

 by asking the victim " if his education is up to his 

 opportunities," and it ends by asking in what he 

 gets " his deepest satisfaction." The questions are 

 much more penetrating than those of the census paper 

 or the income-tax return, and some of them seem to 

 demand for their truthful answer a rare degree of 

 detachment. But the authors meet this objection by 

 pointing out that the records are to be kept as con- 

 fidential documents in the central bureau, and that 

 one must not think too much of personal privacy when 

 the welfare of the race is concerned. Certain it is 

 that a scientific genealogy is worth working towards, 

 and that this bulletin is a useful step in that direction 

 — useful in educating public opinion and in giving 

 critics something to work on. In this connection it 

 may be doubted, for instance, whether it is a wise 

 discretion to refrain from any attempt to differentiate 

 in the recording of family data between heritable and 

 non-heritable traits. It may also be asked whether 

 there _ is not a distinct risk of developing a self- 

 conscious pre-occupation about one's "traits" — that 

 Herbert Spencer was always talking about — and a 

 paralysing obsessional conviction of the fatalism of 

 heredity, which is only one side of the case. 



CHARACTER AND INTELLIGENCE. 

 'X'HE British Journal of Psychology has published as 

 ■*■ a monograph supplement (Cambridge University 

 Press) the results of a research by Mr. Edward Webb 

 on character and intelligence. The subjects of the 

 inquiry were ninety-eight men students at a training 

 college in 1912, ninety-six students at the same college 

 in 1913, and four groups of schoolboys, amounting in 

 all to 140. At the training college the prefects (second- 

 year students), and at the schools the class-masters 

 were utilised as judges, a pair of independent judges 

 being employed in each case. Very careful instruc- 

 tions were given and detailed lists of qualities supplied. 

 Examination results and experimental tests of intelli- 

 NO. 2398, VOL. 96] 



gence were also used. All the assessments were ulti- 

 mately translated into a scale of marks from 4-3 to 

 — 3. The "reliability coefficients" (correlations be- 

 tween the estimates of the same quality in the same 

 individual by the two judges) were in many cases 

 very low, the average being rather under 05, and 

 nearly one-seventh of the qualities marked were re- 

 jected on the ground of unreliability. For those 

 retained the average reliability coefficient is 0-55. 

 The lowness of the "reliability coefficient" is held in 

 part to be due to the care taken to secure independ- 

 ence between the estimates of the two judges. For 

 intelligence-qualities the results are held to give a 

 "strikingly thorough support" to the theory of a 

 general factor. The deduced correlations of the 

 general factor with the various estimates are dis- 

 cussed in detail, and give some interesting and un- 

 expected results. Amongst the latter may be mentioned 

 the fact that sense of humour, which has little cor- 

 relation with the general factor, is fairly highly 

 correlated with the estimates, the prefects' judgments 

 being apparently biased by this quality. The char- 

 acter-qualities are discussed in the same way, and 

 here again there is held to be evidence of a central 

 factor, and this factor is in some close relation to 

 "persistence of motiyes." This general factor 

 markedly dominates all the correlations yielded by the 

 estimates of moral qualities, the deeper social virtues, 

 perseverance and persistence ; also, negatively, quali- 

 ties related to instability of the emotions and the 

 lighter side of sociality. 



SCIENCE IN THE WAR AND AFTER THE 

 WAR.^ 



IT is universally acknowledged that the outcome 

 of the present war must be an entirely new 

 chapter in human history and a point of fresh depar- 

 ture in social, economical, and intellectual life. Hence 

 it is well to begin even now to take stock of our 

 resources, to examine not only the reasons for our 

 deficiencies but the directions of our reforms. Par- 

 ticularly are we concerned with the improved attitude 

 which we shall have to take nationally with regard 

 to all that study and knowledge which we call science 

 and scientific research and invention. Hence an im- 

 portant matter is to consider the position of science 

 in the war and after the war. 



Scientific knowledge is the accumulation of exact 

 information concerning the facts and laws of nature, 

 and the scientific method is the process by which we 

 gain it, viz., by experiment or observation and logical 

 deduction therefrom. 



The cardinal fact which lies at the basis of all 

 this nature-study is that there is no finality in it. 

 Its possibilities are infinite, and we can never touch 

 bottom in all that there is to be known about the 

 simplest objects or phenomena of nature. 



Hence the very essence of scientific study is that the 

 votary should himself make some advances. Merely 

 to know what others have done or discovered may be 

 necessary, but this alone does not make a scientific 

 student. Accordingly the training required is that 

 which imparts the power to make new knowledge, 

 and the results must be judged by the degree to which 

 it succeeds in so doing. 



At this stage we may distinguish, however, 

 two classes of workers. There are first those who 

 are most interested In new facts or principles regard- 

 less of immediate utility, and, secondly, those who 

 show ability in utilising this knowledge In so-called 

 useful applications of science. The first class em- 



- An introductory lecture delivered at University College, London, on 

 October 6, by Prof. J. A. Fleming, F.R.S. 



