The Fight for Our National Intelligence
- Author:
Cattell. London.
King & Son, 1937. 8/6.
In recent years, many people interested in social problems have been alarmed by dogmatic statements that the number of mental defectives in this country is increasing and will soon become an intolerable burden on the rest of society. It is asserted that the nation breeds too much from those of inferior intelligence and capacity, and that, as like breeds like, a decline of national intelligence is inevitable.
Dr R. B. Cattell, working under the auspices of the Eugenics Society, recently undertook extensive field research to investigate this question. His findings are presented in this book. It is not a technical book for specialists only. Rather, it is an exposition for all those interested in mental hygiene of Dr Cattell’s thesis that the national intelligence is indeed declining, and that in future generations western civilisation is in danger of being swamped beneath vast numbers of citizens of inferior quality.
Dr Cattell carried out his research in two contrasting parts of England. He chose an urban district?Leicester city?and a rural district?part of South Devon. In the earlier chapters he describes in detail his method of investigation, and his results. In each area, he applied his own non-verbal intelligence tests to all the 10 year old children in the special, elementary and other schools. 3,700 children were examined. The mean intelligence was normal in the urban district, but was definitely subnormal in the rural district. Dr Cattell relates this rural poverty of intelligence to a greater readiness of the more intelligent families to migrate to the towns.
Dr Cattell also noted the number of brothers and sisters of each child he tested. He found that, in general, the brighter the child the fewer brothers and sisters it had. This trend was remarkably constant throughout the whole range of intelligence. In the urban area, children with an intelligence quotient of 70 to 80 had the largest number of brothers and sisters. In the rural area, those children with intelligence quotients from 40 to 60 had the largest number of brothers and sisters.
Dr Cattell then applied his intelligence tests to the parents of 100 families. He found that the order of intelligence of the children corresponded to that of the parents. Clever parents had clever children, and dull parents dull children. Other evidence for the inheritance of intelligence is summarised, and it is concluded that environmental factors, such as poverty and malnutrition, have but little effect on intelligence.
From these figures indicating the relation between birth-rate and intelligence, an estimate has been made of the rate at which the national intelligence is declining. A decrease of three points of I.Q. per generation is indicated. This is an alarming figure. Taking a generation to cover thirty years and assuming that present conditions continue, it means that in the next generation there would be a 30 per cent, increase in mental defectives, and that in 300 years half the population would be defective. It is admitted that this estimate is only an approximate one, and that other factors have to be considered, particularly that the incidence of childlessness may not be the same at all levels of intelligence. It seems that sufficient allowance has not been made for the influence of this last factor, as it is known that persons of very low intelligence are comparatively infertile. However, the author assumes that his estimate of the decline of intelligence is near the mark, and more than half the book is taken up with a full discussion of the probable social effects of this drift into defect, and of the means which could be used to avert the national decay.
The appalling effects on the structure of society of a large number of defectives are graphically described. We are reminded that “the noblest thoughts of Greece went begging for a home when the germ plasm carried by Homer and Plato died,” and we are invited to contemplate ” all the frustrated love, the courage, the hard thinking, the self-sacrifice, the sweat and agony that have been paid for smaller advances in mental capacity than those which we, in the name of sentimentality and in the spirit of slothful complacency, are allowing to perish in this generation.”
Dr Cattell would deal first with the “subcultural” social problem group, which comprises 10 per cent, of the population. Our concept of the feebleminded should be enlarged to include the subcultural social defective. This group should be recognised, cared for and employed in special state factories. Other remedies suggested are that the income tax allowance for children should be greatly increased, and that a maintenance allowance should be given to scholarship children, so that an able child would be an economic asset to its parents.
The universal availability of birth control is essential.
The later chapters discuss a great many topics from a eugenic aspect : poverty, unemployment, the crudity of social morality, the penny press culture, the idea of immortality and modern war are rapidly reviewed. Provocative statements are hurled at the reader, who is stimulated to do some clear thinking. As the title suggests, the book is a call to battle, a call to those in authority to do something to avert the calamity which this writer believes threatens England. Whether or not we agree with Dr Cattell’s conclusions, his book vividly illustrates the enormous importance of mental health. T.A.M.
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