248 



HEREDITY AND EUGENICS 



consist of periods of violent adventure and exertion in 

 war or the chase, alternating with periods of qui- 

 escence. The capacity for perseverance is one of the 

 later acquisitions of civilised man. 



It is therefore difficult to follow Carr-Saunders in his 

 statement (p. 397), that " there seems to be no marked 

 difference in innate intellectual power " between 

 negroes and modern Europeans. All the evidence, 

 in fact, points to the contrar}' conclusion, but he 

 ascribes this to differences merely in disposition and 

 temperament. The same t3'pe of argument might 

 apply equall}' well to the feebleminded.* As already 

 pointed out (p. 226), the example of the Japanese, 

 who have quickly picked ujd modern science and 

 industr}', in contrast with the many primitive races 

 who are obviously incapable of doing so, is a sufficient 

 answer to the belief that the diiference involved is one 

 mereh' of temperament and not of intellectual ability. 

 This fact is sufficient to show the great gap in intel- 

 lect which exists between the Japanese and really 

 primitive peoples. 



Granting, therefore, the great importance of 

 tradition in accumulating and handing on by means 

 of contact, suggestion, and language the accumulated 

 skill of civilised man, 3^et there must have been also 

 in connection with this process an increase of brain- 

 power on the part of man himself. This must have 

 taken place since Palaeolithic times, although it is not 

 clear how it came about, considered as an evolutionar}' 

 process. Concomitant with this process went on the 

 differentiation of society from its primitive beginnings, 

 in which all the units or clans were alike — the so- 

 called segmentar}^ social condition which persists in 



* McDougal (192 1) refers to the fact that the negro, whether 

 living in Africa, Malaysia, the West Indies, North or South 

 America, continues to show the same fundamental ph^^sical and 

 mental qualities. 



