The child : a study in the evolution of man / by Alexander F. Chamberlain.

  • Alexander Francis Chamberlain
Date:
1900
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The child : a study in the evolution of man / by Alexander F. Chamberlain. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    55 per cent, of Europeans, 58 per cent, of African negroes and 58 per cent, of Melanesians; while 50 per cent, of whites, 32 per cent, of Melanesians and 27 per cent, of negroes have capacities above 1550 cc], observes: 'We might, therefore, anticipate a lack of men of great genius, but should not anticipate any great lack of faculty among the great mass of negroes living among whites and enjoying the advan- tages of the leadership of the best men of that race.' The social gap is more noxious than the intellectual gap. The history of Bornu, in Africa, as Dr Boas suggests, puts the negro forward in his best light, and may reasonably be compared with the achievements of negro children in white schools. So, too, with the American Indian. An Arizona Congressman is reported to have said,' There is as much hope of educating the Apache as there is of educating the rattle- snake on which he feeds.' But Mr O. B. Super (622, p. 235), writing in 1895, informs us that the resident physician at the Indian School at Carlisle, Pa., is Dr Carlos Montezuma, a full- blooded Apache, who, working his way through school, gradu- ated at the age of twenty-three from the Chicago Medical College, and has since his appointment performed the duties of his office in an eminendy satisfactory manner. Even more remarkable is the career of Dr Oronhyatekha, a Canadian Mohawk, college graduate, physician, and at present the head of the great secret society of ' Foresters.' But with Tecumseh, Red Jacket, Nez Perce Joseph, King Philip and other great men, the Indian race hardly needs to plead its possession of intellect. As Captain Pratt, the Superintendent of the Carlisle School, once said, ' The great difference between us and the Indian is a difference in opportunities.' Dr Montezuma has perhaps struck the keynote of the whole matter when he says, ' My case is exceptional only in so far as I have received exceptional treatment.' If the right opportunity is offered, the ri^ht appeal made, the Indian can, and does, respond. The nSmber of Indian physicians, clergymen and athletes already educated and active in North America, to say nothing ot politicians and statesmen in the Republics of Central and South America, seems to indicate some lines along which these aborigines can readily and highly develop themselves. So eminent an authority as Dr. D. G. Brinton has said (77, P- 15) • « The question has often been considered whether the mental powers of the savage are distinctly inferior. This has been
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