94 ADAPTATION AND PROGRESS 



average ability of the Anglo-Saxon race is about two classes above 

 the Negro race, but about an equal degree below the ancient 

 Athenians. This confusion of innate and acquired characters is 

 especially pronounced in his discussion of " types," where there is 

 not a shred of evidence adduced in support of his contention that 

 it is a matter of race-stock ^ rather than of social heredity. 

 Indeed here his argument is largely analogical. 



Extensive investigations have been carried on during the past 

 three years in connection with the Eugenics Laboratory in which 

 the endeavor has been made to separate the influences of " na- 

 ture " and " nurture " but they are only to a limited degree 

 convincing, especially concerning the main thesis of both Galton 

 and Pearson that the majority of each generation are the off- 

 spring of a small per cent of those in the preceding generation 

 composing the half of the population inferior in natural ability.^ 



There is no question, today, among students of the subject, 

 concerning the general facts of heredity, including the inheritance 

 of mental and temperamental traits although these must be 

 reduced to terms of the physical. There is great difference of 

 opinion, however, as to the variability of the race-stock as a 

 whole or on the average. In fact we do not know the unit 

 characters and the combination of them which make for individual 

 and social efficiency, and if we did, as Max Nordau has pointed 

 out, selective breeding for " points " would probably result in 

 lack of adaptability to general life conditions as is the case with 

 thorough-bred animals.^ 



One of the recent investigations at the Eugenics Laboratory 

 proves absolutely nothing except the difficulty of securing social 

 data of any real value for statistical purposes. This investiga- 

 tion concerning The Influence of Defective Physique and Unfavor- 

 able Home Environment on the Intelligence of School Children by 

 Dr. David Heron, concludes that on the basis of the data there is 

 " little sensible effect of nurture, environment, and physique on 

 intelligence."* This finding is so at variance with the results of 



^ Hereditary Genius, pp. 350 f. This discussion based on Darwin's theory of 

 pangenesis was repudiated in the Preface to the 1892 edition. Cf. p. xiv. 

 * Lecture Series, no. ii, esp. pp. 16 flf. 

 ' Sociological Papers, ii, p. 31. * Memoirs, no. viii, p. 58. 



