894 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIX. No. 493. 



mental traits assigned by twelve independent 

 judges to five American men of science. 



Though these individuals are merely cited 

 from a list of thousands in illustration of the 

 methods employed in collecting data for the 

 study of mental characters, the figures given 

 in the table have an apparent bearing upon 

 the question of the relation which exists be- 

 tween the quality and efiiciency of a man's 

 mental activity and his constitutional physical 

 health. I should like to call attention to cer- 

 tain facts deducible from the table, and to 

 express the hope that in preparing the results 

 of the study for publication this aspect of 

 the problem may not be overlooked. 



Of the five persons graded one ranks very 

 high in physical health, one is decidedly low, 

 one falls close to the indifference line of the 

 series, and the other two lie at points con- 

 siderably above and below this mean. The 

 range of physical variations is thus wide 

 enough to enable one to observe clearly any 

 mental and physical correlations which exist. 



A glance at any one of the following sets 

 of figures into which the table given on page 

 568 has been distributed, will show at once 

 that certain marked features of correlation 

 appear, but that the mental grading does not 

 parallel throughout the variations in physical 

 health. As regards individuals, D is so con- 

 sistently divergent as to belong to a separate 

 group from the other four, who present a 

 fairly well-marked series of correlations. The 

 grades of health in the five men, from which 

 comparison proceeds, together with the average 

 ranlcing of each in the whole series of mental 

 traits are given in the following table: 



B c E 



55 26 12 



56.4 46.9 24.1 



The grades, it will be recalled, are on a 

 scale of 100. The letters indicating individ- 

 uals in the original article are retained in the 

 present tables. With the exception of D the 

 estimation of general efficiency in the mem- 

 bers of the group rises and falls with the con- 

 dition of physical health. As these figures 

 are the representatives of a set of curves which 

 are not all consistent, I have distributed the 

 twenty-three traits in several groups into 



which they seemed naturally to fall, and which 

 may be described as follows : Mental range and 

 balance, intellectual capacity, emotional sensi- 

 bility, energy of will and social adaptiveness. 

 The special traits included under these several 

 heads are mentioned in connection with each 

 set of figures. 



I have included efficiency in this table be- 

 cause, as used in the paper, it seemed to have 

 more affiliation here than with energy of will. 

 It will be noted that the table presents only 

 one individual divergence from the curve of 

 health. The series grouped under intellectual 

 capacity follows : 



Average, 



37 



46 



The correlation in this group is less exten- 

 sive than in the preceding. The same indi- 

 viduals stand at the top and bottom of the list 

 — a pronounced condition of bodily weakness 

 lowers efficiency here as elsewhere — but the 

 series presents much greater individual irreg- 

 ularities. The following traits have been 

 grouped under energy of will : 



Men. 

 Will, 

 Energy, 



Perseverance, 87 

 Independence, 52 

 Courage, 

 Leadership, 

 Average, 



In this group of traits the extremes of 

 efficiency are greatest and the falling off which 

 accompanies constitutional weakness most 

 marked. In the lowest of the group it is 

 almost a negligible quantity. Z>'s grade 



