Eugenics in race and state.

  • International Congress of Eugenics
Date:
1923
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: Eugenics in race and state. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    378/534 (page 362)
    362 A. F. TREDGOLD use it as meaning the general capacity of the child for mental development, that is, his capacity to respond not merely to the graduated and organized methods of development known as education, but also to those haphazard and unorganized factors which are inseparable from his environment. By Educability, then, I mean the capacity possessed by the child for mental development; and by mental development I mean the evolution of those functions of mind which are normal in his race and nation. It is obvious that this question of educability is not merely one of pedagogic, but one of the utmost social importance; for the presence in a community of any considerable number of individuals who fall markedly short of the average standard must seriously diminish the efficiency and lead to the decline, and even decay, of that community; whilst it is to the presence of an increased capacity for mental development that we must look for racial progress. Now it is obvious that the development actually achieved varies very greatly in different individuals, and the first question which arises is. Are these differences due to inequalities in the methods of education and faults in the environment, in other words are they due to inequality of oppor¬ tunity; or are they the result of innate differences in individual capacity for development? It is quite clear, and will be admitted by everyone, that the child whose educational advantages have been poor cannot attain the same degree of intellectual development as a child of similar innate capacity who has been more favorably situated—a child who has had no opportunity of learning the French language cannot be expected to talk French. On this point I may say that there is every reason for thinking that any extensive with¬ holding of impressions from without, either as a result of disease of several organs of special sense, or of long continued seclusion, will so interfere with mental development as to give rise to a state amounting to mental defici¬ ency ; as witness the cases of Laura Bridgman and Kaspas Hauser. Further, there is no doubt that the development of the brain cells may be impeded by faulty hygienic surroundings and conditions of ill health. For instance I have no doubt that the child who suffers from insufficient food, exhausting physical strain, defective sleep, as well as more definite disease, may thereby be considerably handicapped in his mental development. In a few cases the handicap may be so great that the arrears are never made up; generally, however, it is of a temporary nature only, and disappears when the cause is removed. On the other hand we have to remember that good educational facilities now exist in most civilized countries; in England, for instance, education