528 INHERITANCE OF MENTAL TRAITS 



improvement of our entire population that counts in the 

 long run. Still more important is the adoption of eu- 

 genic measures -which will increase the number of intel- 

 lectual and moral geniuses. 



The Influence of Environment and Education 

 UPON Mental Performance. — From the preceding dis- 

 cussion it might be inferred that one's mental traits are 

 determined almost entirely by hereditary factors, and 

 that the influences of environment and formal training 



h/eocwooD Dadwim Calton 



9y«r 9-y=*' or cf 9==er cfj9 



i^ — c — L — i; — L — I 



of ^ •• er •* 



QtKewit m»«i «f Kicnnric ability; ^ thowt « man ortcicmlfic abitlijr, «»ltoMtlM« 

 Fellow of Ike fU7»l Seciriy i Q ibowt five oibei ckiMrcn. ••<! m eik 



Fio. 153. — Inheritance of Ability (chart condensed and incom- 

 plete) in three markedly able families (from Kellicott after Whethara) 

 1, C'harles Darvvin; 2, his cousin, Francis Galton, founder of the 

 ino<lern eugenic movement. 



(luyer, Being Well-hom. 



count for next to nothing. Such a conclusion is by no 

 means justified. Although it is true that we cannot 

 cure congenital feeble-mindedness, develop a dullard into 

 a genius, or transform a person who is tone-deaf into a 

 Mendelssohn, it is possible by means of education to 

 raise enormously the general level of accomplishment of 

 an entire race or population group. One has only to com- 

 pare the Negroes in America with their ** cousins " in 

 Africa to see what an immense difference education can 

 make. Our ancestors of two thousand years ago were 



