MANKIND AND THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE 317 



in the possession of minds greater than any which have ap- 

 peared elsewhere, but in the presence, within a small popu- 

 lation, of a greater proportion of able individuals. One com- 

 petent critic declares that the average ability among the 

 Athenians in the period of their glory was as far above that 

 of Englishmen at the present time as the average ability of 

 the English is above that of African negroes. 2 Accurate 

 comparison is, of course, impossible, but judged by intel- 

 lectual accomplishment the statement seems no exaggera- 

 tion. So far as the evidence goes, the European races have 

 not advanced, either in average or in exceptional intellec- 

 tual capacity, since the days of the Greeks, perhaps not since 

 the decline of the Cro-Magnards. 3 



The biological significance of such a conclusion is obvious. 

 It creates a justification for eugenic propaganda. For the 

 present purpose, we merely point to the limitations that 

 may be placed upon scientific progress by the absence of 

 minds, which exceed the capacity of any that have preceded 

 them, and by a lowered average of mentality in whole popula- 

 tions. There is danger here for science as well as for society. 

 The advancement of science is more likely to be checked by 

 such limitations of the human mind than by exhaustion 

 of unsolved problems. 



Hope for an unlimited advancement of natural knowledge 

 lies in the biological possibility that the human species has 

 not reached an equilibrium with respect to intellectual 

 ability, even though it may seem to have been at a standstill 



2 "It follows from all this that the average ability of the Athenian race, is, 

 on the lowest possible estimate, very nearly two grades higher than our own 

 that is, about as much as our race is above that of the African Negro." Galton, 

 F., "Hereditary Genius," 1892 Edn., p. 330. 



3 The Cro-Magnards were the highest of the cave races of Europe. They 

 finally disappeared sometime within the past twenty-five thousand years. In 

 skull capacity (1800 c.cm.) some of the individuals discovered seem slightly 

 to exceed the best races of modern times. Although they could not have 

 been other than savages, when judged by present standards, their physical 

 features and perhaps their inherent mentality were remarkable. Osborn, 

 H. F., "Men of the Old Stone Age," p. 299. 



