FEaBEUART 4, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



179 



not of red. One group, indeed, was su- 

 perior to the English in red. The results 

 made it seem probable to Rivers that blue 

 was indeed a somewhat less vivid color to 

 dark-skinned races than to Europeans, and 

 he suggested that pigmentation, rather than 

 primitiveness, might be the important fac- 

 tor in producing this difference. A blue- 

 absorbing pigment is always present in the 

 retina, and the amount of it might very- 

 well be greater in generally pigmented 

 races. The suggestion is worth putting to 

 a further test; but, meanwhile, the differ- 

 ence obtained by Rivers in sensitiveness to 

 blue needs to be received with some caution, 

 since the Europeans on whose color sense 

 he relies for comparison were rather few 

 in number, educated and remarkably vari- 

 able among themselves. We were able, at 

 St. Louis, to try on representatives of a 

 number of races a difficult color matching 

 test, so different indeed from that of Rivers 

 that our results can not be used as a direct 

 check on his ; with the result that all other 

 races were inferior to whites in their gen- 

 eral success in color matching, but that no 

 special deficiency appeared in the blues. 

 We also could find no correlation between 

 ill success in this test and the degree of 

 pig-mentation. On the whole, the color 

 sense is probably very much the same all 

 over the world. 



That linguistic evidence is a very treach- 

 erous guide to the sensory powers of a 

 people is well seen in the case of smell. 

 Certainly many odors are vivid enough, yet 

 we have no specific odor names. Only a 

 psychologist would require a complete vo- 

 cabulary of sensations ; practical needs lead 

 the development of language in quite other 

 directions. 



When we turn from the senses to other 

 functions, the information which the psy- 

 chologist has to offer becomes even more 

 scanty. 



Some interest attaches to tests of the 

 speed of simple mental and motor perform- 

 ances, since, though the mental process is 

 very simple, some indication may be af- 

 forded of the speed of brain action. The 

 reaction time test has been measured on 

 representatives of a few races, with the 

 general result that the time consumed is 

 about the same in widely different groups. 

 The familiar "tapping test," which meas- 

 ures the rate at which the brain can at will 

 discharge a series of impulses to the same 

 muscle, was tried at St. Louis on a wide 

 variety of folk, without disclosing marked 

 differences between groups. The differ- 

 ences were somewhat greater when the 

 movement, besides being rapid, had to be 

 accurate in aim. The Eskimos excelled all 

 others in this latter test, while the poorest 

 record was made by the Patagonians and 

 the Coeopa Indians— which groups were, 

 however, represented by only a few indi- 

 viduals. The Filipinos, who were very 

 fully represented, seemed undeniably su- 

 perior to whites in this test, though, of 

 course, with plenty of overlapping. 



The degree of right-handedness has been 

 asserted to vary in different races, and the 

 favoring of one hand has been interpreted 

 as conducive to specialization and so to 

 civilization. We were, however, unable to 

 detect any marked difference in the degree 

 of right-handedness in different races, as 

 tested by the comparative strength, quick- 

 ness or accuracy of the two hands. The 

 Negritos, the lowest race examined, had the 

 same degree of right-handedness as Fili- 

 pinos, or Indians, or whites. 



We are probably justified in inferring 

 from the results cited that the sensory and 

 motor processes, and the elementary brain 

 activities, though differing in degree from 

 one individual to another, are about the 

 same from one race to another. 



Equitable tests of the distinctly Intel- 



