< Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 5.djvu
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EDITOR'S TABLE.

pigs, and parrots, are attracted to similar observations upon the young of the different races of men.

Dr. W. Lauder Lindsay, a physician in charge of a Scotch lunatic asylum, but who has long been a special student of the subject of mind in animals, has sent a brief communication to Nature, giving the results of some experiments upon the mental capacities of children of different racial descent. The observations were made by Monsieur J. C. Houzeau, also a comparative psychologist, and author of "Studies on the Mental Faculties of Animals compared with those of Man." The observations were made in Jamaica, upon children inhabiting that island, and M. Houzeau states his experiments and conclusions as follows, in a letter to Dr. Lindsay:

"I have been busy, meanwhile, on a curious study about the comparative development of intelligence of children belonging to different races. I had an opportunity 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 neighbors: three of them white, seven colored of 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 any thing about that experiment, at least at this time. But I will state here the conclusions to which it has led me:
"1. There is in each child a different degree of intellectual 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 unequal rate or speed of improvement.
"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 conclusive, I am ready to give up. Still, it is at least my 'provisional conclusion.'
"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 (medium), 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 proficiency in their learning."

Experiments upon so small a scale, and continuing for so short a time, must, of course, be inconclusive, for, as Dr. Lindsay remarks, "at or up to a certain age, girls are as sharp as or sharper than boys at lesson learning and repeating. 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 examination, 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 superiority, when it exists, is usually at least confined to school-life. In subsequent intellectual development proper, man, as a rule, far surpasses woman."

But, while M. Houzeau's observations were quite too restricted to form a basis of useful conclusions respecting the educability and intellectual capacity of the children belonging to different races, there is great significance in his final conclusion regarding the potency of home influences. This is no new truth, but it is a truth of transcendent importance, too much neglected, and its confirmation under such peculiar circumstances is noteworthy. That the medium in which the child is habitually immersed, and by which it is continually and unconsciously impressed, should have much greater value in the formation of mental character than the

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