Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 9.djvu/895

 NO TES AND ABSTRA CTS 86 1

From these examples we may conclude that the theory of laissez-faire, laissez-passer, has had its day. If one admits that a flourishing state cannot exist without strong and healthy individualities, then it is a prime necessity to protect them against the thousand dangers to which a too great suggestibility exposes them. DR. FELIX REGNAULT, " La suggestion sociale devant 1'Etat," in La Revue, December 15, 1903. E. B. \y.

The Increase of the Gifted. Among primitive peoples there are many social reasons such as an increase in the fighting strength of the tribe, which make the rearing of many children especially desired. Among the poorer por- tions of present-day industrial communities the increase to the family income by the work of children offers an economic inducement to rear large families. But among the well-to-do of our day neither the social nor the economic motive is operative, and purely personal and ideal ones must be relied upon to take their place. The success of the individual is no longer connected with the founding of a large family, and it even acts in many instances as a hindrance to assuming the burdens of a family at all. In order to secure data for a study of the rela- tions obtaining between the possession of unusual ability and the rate of propa- gation, 1 have instituted an inquiry regarding the size of the families of the most successful living men of Holland.

The entire significance of this problem rests upon three presuppositions :

(1) Psychical characteristics may be inherited. Physical heredity can scarcely be doubted ; both materialistic monism and psychophysical parallelism compel us to assume the existence of physic heredity. (2) Individuals are unequal in their inheritance of psychic traits. It is not possible to attribute all these differences to the influences of environment and of individual history. (3) Different human types do not propagate uniformly. It is therefore of importance to discover whether the most efficient transmit their traits to many or to few descendants.

We may describe as the " gifted " all those whose emotional, volitional, and intellectual traits rise above the average level ; but, for purposes of simplification, it seemed better to confine my inquiries to a particular group of the gifted, namely, to the " successful." Although success in some cases may possibly come without the possession of ability, yet, in general, socially valuable qualities win, in the long run, social recognition. Such traits as persistence, industry, self-control, concentration, and practical insight are as truly gifts as any.

Inquiries were addressed to 800 of the most successful men of Holland who are comprised in the following classes: (i) pure sciences (professions, etc.);

(2) artists; (3) applied sciences (physicians, professional men, etc.) ; (4) officials; (5) merchants, manufacturers, etc. Replies were received from 300 or three- eighths of the total number. If three-eighths of the ablest men of a country show a marked peculiarity, the results should certainly justify the investigation. It was found that of the successful men fifty years of age or older (those under this age being for the moment excluded in order to make possible a fair comparison of the number of children in their families with the number in their parents' families) the children per family ranged from an average of four in the case of the artists and officials, to five for the applied scientists and the merchants ; whereas in the case of the parents of these same successful men the number of children ranged from six in the families which produced the artists, to seven and a half in the families from which the merchants sprang.

Thus we find in all five categories the same result. The men who achieve complete success in life, rear a significantly smaller number of children than their parents. Further investigations also show that the successful men of former gen- erations left more children tHan those of the present time. The cause of this falling-off is apparently not at all a physiological one, but is found to a large extent in the late marriages, the absorption in the making of a career, and the voluntary restriction of the size of the family. DR. S. R. STEIN METZ, " Der Nachwuchs der Begabten," in Zeitschrift fur Socialwissenschaft, January, 1904.

Settlement Ideals. Three things seem to be contained in the settlement ideal : the first is a spirit of genuine neighborliness ; the second, a very strong