FAMILY RESEMBLANCES AMONG AMERICAN 

 MEN OF SCIENCE 



DR. BEA^ R. BRIMHALL 

 Secretary of the Psychological Corporation 



The fascinating problems that concern the causes of 

 individual and group differences among human beings 

 are still with us. Since Galton set out to prove that " a 

 man's natural abilities are derived by inheritance under 

 exactly the same limitations as are the form and physical 

 features of the whole organic world " the biological sci- 

 ences have made many and notable contributions to the 

 fund of knowledge concerning the derivation " of the 

 form and physical features of the organic world." But 

 the influences by which individual and group differences 

 come about, particularly differences in intellectual per- 

 formance, seem to have been singularly neglected. 



The problem has been avoided partly because of the 

 nature of the material. Human beings are not only com- 

 plicated in organic construction, but they are mongrel in 

 breed, the period between generations is long and direct 

 experimentation impossible. Few scientific problems are 

 more likely to be disturbed by the bias of the experi- 

 menter. The American millionaire or European aristo- 

 crat explains differences in the wealth gathering or 

 keeping performance of human beings in terms of innate 

 ability. To the socialist the expression royal minds 

 has little basis in fact. Laws, taboos, economic and social 

 conditions are thought to be the proper explanations of 

 differences in human behavior. So deeply do the facts 

 concern the fundamental concepts about the organization 

 of society that debate with its anecdotal method should 

 be supplanted by objective method of the best sort avail- 

 able. 



The method of approach used in this study is statisti- 

 cal. The investigation represents an attempt to deter- 

 mine some of the differences or resemblances, the causes 

 5(M 



