362 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



I am sorry that I can not be of help to you in this matter, in which I think 

 you will find yourself a voice crying in the wilderness with very few to heed. 

 All the same, I hope you will set up as big a cry as you can, and even if I am 

 not able to join you in that, I shall be glad to applaud your efforts. 



Another sa3's : 



My theory in outline is that there should be compulsory examination for 

 every student in college. This examination should have reference not only to 

 heart and lungs, to see if the man will make an athlete, but should comprehend 

 a look into history and heredity, and determine without question the presence of 

 any sort of infectious disease. Such an examination would, of course, exclude 

 some students from entering college, but that would be well. ... I am in hearty 

 sympathy with your plan, and should urge you by all means to organize it as an 

 integral part of your department. 



In a later letter the same writer said : 



I am interested in your eugenic program. Xo doubt there is much wasted 

 energy in every educational direction. Perhaps there is more of it wasted in 

 mediocre human material than in any other direction. The results, of course, 

 are bound to be mediocre. Still it is a question with me whether any other 

 method can be adopted. . . . However, I believe thoroughly that there should be 

 some selective process applied to the student material that applies for admission 

 to the freshman class. 



Another response will be briefly cited. Dr. Goddard, chief of re- 

 search in the Training School for Backward and Feeble-minded Chil- 

 dren, I^ew Jcrse}', writes : 



I should say emphatically that such a plan as you hint at ought certainly to 

 be developed some time. It is probably rather early to do very much at it, since 

 the whole subject is so very new. However, some things are already visible. 

 It is, for example, entirely practicable to eliminate all the mental defectives by 

 means of the Binet scale and furthermore to mark those who are merely back- 

 ward, those who are average and those who are precocious. We need some 

 method of measuring intelligence beyond the period previous to adolescence, the 

 Binet Measuring Scale reaching only to 12 years of age. You are entirely right 

 when you say there are large numbers who should never enter college. I do not 

 know why the inquiry into the family pedigree would not be a valuable thing in 

 considering the admission of a child to college. While it would undoubtedly not 

 be safe to base everything on that, yet it would contribute very materially to an 

 understanding of the case. At present I do not believe we have enough data to 

 enable us to interpret the results we should find. 



A later word from Dr. Davenport afforded special encouragement. 

 He says: 



I hope your plan of getting pedigrees of students as a part of the medical 

 examination would be carried out. As a teacher I always felt that I knew too 

 little about the incipient qualities of my pupils. Why should a teacher begin in 

 the dark when he might begin with a knowledge of the student "s probable 

 potentialities. The more I contemplate your plan it seems to me if it can be 

 carried out that it will mark an epoch. 



Enough has now been suggested to warrant the reflection that our 

 entire educational program, its ideals, aims and methods is faulty at 

 many points, and in not a few absolutely untrue to any consistent appli- 

 cation of biological principles. TVhen we reflect upon the course through 

 whicli our educational philosophy has come it is not surprising that there 



