272 



NA TURE 



\Atig. 6, 1874 



failures have preceded the attainment of the 26-in. dia- 

 meter, and Chance and Co. are said to be the oniy firm 

 in the world who will undertake the manufacture of a 

 disc of that size. Science knows no country, and Mr. 

 Lick's munificent bequest in the cause of astronomy will 

 be hailed by savans all over the world. 



MENTAL POTENTIALITY IN CHILDREN OF 



DIFFERENT RACES 

 TV/TONS. J. C. HOUZEAU, the author of the "Etudes 

 •^'■'- sur les facultes mentales des animaux comparifes a 

 cellesde rhomme,"haslately concluded, in Jamaica,a series 

 of laborious experimental investigations on the relative or 

 comparative intellectual capacity and development of the 

 children of different races inhabiting that island. The 

 conclusions arrived at by such an observer are worthy of 

 the highest consideration in Europe : while the subject is 

 one that has an important bearing on various popular 

 educational, ethnological, and social questions of the day — 

 such as the unity of mankind, and the possibility or pro- 

 bability of civilising savage races A recent letter ad- 

 dressed to me by M. Houzeau, contains the following 

 brief account of his experiments and conclusions ; an 

 account that cannot fail, I think, to be interesting to the 

 readers of Nature. 



" I have been busy, meanwhile, on a curious study 

 about the comparative development of intelligence of 

 children belonging to different races. I had an oppor- 

 tunity here to submit to the test black, brown, and white 

 children. Fifteen of them were sent to me every day for 

 two hours by their parents, my country neighbours : three 

 of them white, seven coloured cf various shades, and five 

 black. For a whole year I gave them myself common 

 instruction, and carefully watched their proceedings and 

 their rate of improvement. I do not expect to publish 

 anything about that experiment, at least at this time. 

 But I will state here the conclusions to which it has 

 led me. 



" I. There is in each child a different degree of intellec- 

 tual proficiency, which could be called, in mathematical 

 language, his or her ' personal coefficient.' However, 

 these individual differences are much less than I had 

 anticipated, and are not the striking feature in the un- 

 equal rate or speed of improvement. 



"2. In this unequal speed, I see nothing — at least 

 nothing clearly and unmistakably discernible — that can 

 be referred to the differences of race. This will probably 

 appear strange after all that has been said of ' inferior 

 races.' Should other facts show that my experiment was 

 not properly conducted, and that the trial was not con- 

 clusive, I am ready to give up. Still, it is at least my 

 'provisional conchision.' 



"3. The rate of improvement is due almost entirely to 

 the relative elevation of the parental circle in which 

 children live — the home influence. Those whose parents 

 are restricted to the narrowest gauge of intellectual 

 exercise, live in such a material and coarse milieu, that 

 their mental faculties remain slumbering and gradually 

 become atrophied ; while those who hear at home of 

 many things, and are brought up to intellectual life, show 

 a corresponding protciency in their learning. 



" The question of course would require more space and 

 development. I rather mention it as a subject for study 

 than anything else. 1 had in my life some rpie opportu- 

 nities to study 'inferior races,' including Indians of 

 America, and 'half-breed Indians' of the mixed race of 

 Mexico. I believe most of the savans of Europe have 

 but a very incomplete idea of the mental, and still more 

 of the moral, status of ' inferior societies.' Much remains 

 to be said about it." 



My present object being briefly to introduce to English 

 readers M. Houzeau's views as to the relative iniellectu- 

 ality cf the children of different races in Jamaica, I will 



not here explain in what respects I differ from his con- 

 clusions — how far I regard his experiments inconclusive. 

 I would only remind him, as well as the reader, of the 

 impossibility of duly estimating the direction or amount 

 of future or adult mental development by the study of 

 mental phenomena in the young. It has been, I think, 

 proved, for instance, that — 



1. At or up to a certain age girls are as sharp as, 

 or sharper than, boys at lesson-learning and repeat- 

 ing. Cases are constantly being recorded — perhaps 

 paraded — in the newspapers of girls or young women 

 beating boys or young men of equal age in competitive 

 examinations. And yet it is not to be inferred that the 

 female mind is either superior or equal to the male, that 

 is, in a comparison of averages. For the fact is, that 

 throughout the animal series, including Man, the female 

 mind is, in some respects, different from, and inferior to, 

 that of the male. We know, moreover, that female supe 

 riority, when it exists, is usually at least confined to 

 school life. In subsequent intellectual development proper, 

 man, as a rule, far surpasses woman. Again — 



2. Up to a certain point there is the closest possible 

 parallelism between the mental endowments of the human 

 child and of the young of sundiy other animals. At cer- 

 tain stages of development, and in certain animals, the 

 comparison is not even in favour of the child. And yet, 

 though we are still far from knowing what is the range of 

 the mental potentialities of other animals than man, we 

 have no reason for supposing that in any of them will 

 the maximum intellectual or moral development attain to 

 the average in cultured and civilised man. 



W. Lauder Lindsay 



NOTES 

 At a recent meeting of the Trustees of the " Gilchriit Educa- 

 tional Trust," they decided to appropriate a sum not exceeding 

 1,000/. to the promotion of scientific research, with the prospect 

 of repeating this grant annually if it should bear adequate fruit. 

 The plan proposed is to ask the Council of the Royal Society 

 to make recommendations to the Trustees, stating in each case 

 the object of the research, the qualifications of the individual by 

 whom it is to be conducted, and the sum they propose to be 

 assigned to him ; the purpose of the grant being to assist men 

 of science who have shown tliemselves capable of advancing 

 science, and who may feel themselves precluded from devoting 

 their time to mnriniintralcJ work, by freeing them from the 

 necessity of giving up investigations of great promise for the 

 sake of mere bread-earning. We believe that this important 

 movement is due to the representations of Dr. Carpenter, the 

 Secretary, to the Trustees, that they would be in this mode 

 worthily applying about a fourth part of their income in meeting 

 a great national want, and in pi'omoting the second of the objects 

 as to which they have an uncontrolled discretion under the will 

 of the founder — "The benefit, advancement, and propagation of 

 learning in every part of the world." The Council of the Royal 

 Society lias, we understand, appointed a Committee to consider 

 the conditions under which the Council may most fittingly under- 

 take the responsibility of advising the Gilchrist Trustees as to the 

 appropriation of their grants. 



The matter in dispute between the Piesident and Council of 

 tlie Linnean Society and a ccitain section of the Fellows, which 

 caused so much excitement in the Society some months ago, and 

 led to tlie premature retirement of Mr. Eentham from the chair, 

 was referred to Lord Hatherley as arbitrator, and has just bsen 

 decided entirely in fav<,ur of the President and Council ; so that 

 no further acti n will be taken in the matter. 



Wi; regret to record the death, on July 31, of Dr. Charles T. 

 Beke, wliose name is so well known in connection with geogra- 

 phy, etiinology, and philolog)'. 



