CHAPTER TWO

EARLY SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF EMINENT ADULTS [1]

Because, strictly speaking, the present study is limited in its interest and data to childhood, no attempt will be made to review in detail the somewhat numerous studies of exceptional adults.

ORIGIN OF EMINENT ADULTS

Such studies as those undertaken by Galton (11, 12), De Candolle (9), Ellis (10), Odin (17), and Cattell (4, 5) show that those who, as adults, become eminent in intellectual work, are in disproportionately great numbers the children of the "upper" (nobler or professional) classes; and that they are usually born either in cities or on large country estates (in France, in the chateaux). Very few eminent adults have originated in the families of laborers, and relatively few have been born in agricultural districts, in countries long settled. Beyond these facts of origin, the investigators of eminence in adults have not given much information about their subjects of inquiry in respect to childhood.

YODER'S STUDY

We shall begin our detailed reference to previous observations with Yoder's study, published in 1898. Yoder (25) made a systematic attempt to gather data about the boyhood of very eminent men. He thus tracked down certain facts about fifty great persons concerning whom he could find data bearing on their childhood. From these he was able to make the following generalizations:

1. The child who will become a great man may be born at any time, over a very wide range of the productive period in the lives of parents. The mothers of the fifty great persons studied ranged in age from 18 to 44 years, when the great man was born, with a median of 29.8 years. The fathers ranged in age from 23 to 60 years, with a median of 37.7 years.

2. The average number of siblings of these persons was 5+, not including half brothers and sisters.

3. In families of more than one child, there was found to be a strong tendency (chances of nearly 2 to 1) for the great man to be in the elder half of the siblings.

4. Of those listed, 17 were only sons, either by order of birth or by death of other sons born. (This is not to say that they were only children.)

5. There was found no evidence that the great were sickly or physically weak in childhood, to a more marked extent than average.

6. There appeared a tendency to great height among them than among persons in general, "though the tendency is not very marked."

7. Play interests were keen among these children, though the play was often of an unusual kind. "Solitary play" is repeatedly described. Of Emerson, his biographer says: "I don't think he ever engaged in boys' plays, not because of any physical disability, but simply because from earliest years he dwelt in a higher sphere." Others are said to have been "disinclined to general intercourse." Instead of joining in the usual childish games, Newton preferred to play with his machines, Darwin with his collections, Shelley to read, Stevenson to make clay engines, and Edison to mix his chemicals. Of Byron it was written: "The love of solitude and of meditation is already traceable in the child. He loves to wander at night among the dark and solitary cloisters of the abbey." To quote Yoder: "Solitude seems to have played a rather striking role in the lives of these great men. Either by nature or by opportunity, they have stayed a great deal alone."

Nevertheless, many of the fifty persons studied by Yoder enjoyed physical activity. Washington loved outdoor sports, Schiller was a leader in athletics, Byron was an enthusiastic swimmer and rider, and Lincoln was the champion wrestler and woodcutter of his neighborhood.

8. The popular idea that great men owe their success to their mothers' influence upon their education does not receive verification from a study of these cases. The mother's place seems very often to have been filled by some other person, frequently an aunt, either because the mother had died, or because there were many other children to care for. "The role of the aunt stands out prominently."

9. These great persons were, in the decided majority of cases, derived from well-to-do families. Most of them were privately educated, by tutors or in private schools. Very few were "self made."

TERMAN'S INFERENCES FROM BIOGRAPHY

Terman (20) has effected an interesting advance over Yoder's method, in the interpretation of evidence from the biography of adults. [2] By analyzing data in the biography of Francis Galton, and by relating these data to modern knowledge of mental tests, Terman derives that the IQ of Francis Galton in childhood must have been not far from 200.

As Terman has elsewhere pointed out, these attempts to study genius in childhood by inference from the biography of adults are very unsatisfactory. In the first place, only those whose potentialities have been realized are included in such study. Since factors other than innate intellectual power act also as determinants of eminence, we cannot be sure whether equal capacity for selective thinking may have existed in persons who died before the age of achievement, who were younger sons, who were girls, or who were the children of the poor. Moreover, such evidence as can be gleaned concerning those who have achieved eminence is comparatively unsystematic and unreliable as regards childhood.

Most clearly related to our present study are the previously reported observations of children made directly, during childhood, by trained investigators. The modern development of mental tests has now enabled psychologists to identify young children who deviate from average in the direction of superiority as regards selective thinking, and to follow their development for some years. Eventually, therefore, it will be known how to recognize those children who can become "great," and whether extreme deviation in mental tests is a basis of prophecy.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. BINET, A. _Psychologie des grandes calculateurs et joieurs d'échecs. Hachette, Paris; 1894.

2. BRIMHALL, D. "Family Resemblances among American Men of Science," _American Naturalist_, Vol. 56 (1922) and Vol. 57 (1923).

3. CASTLE, C. S. "Statistical Study of Eminent Women." _Archives of Psychology_, Vol. IV, No. 27 (1913).

4. CATTELL, J. McK. "A Statistical Study of Eminent Men." _Popular Science Monthly_ (1903).

5. ------ "Families of American Men of Science." _Popular Science Monthly_, Vol. 86, pages 504-515 (1915).

6. CLARK, E. L. _American Men of Letters: Their Nature and Nurture_. Columbia University Press, New York; 1916.

7. COX, C. M. _The Early Mental Traits of Three Hundred Geniuses_. Genetic Studies of Genius: Vol. 2. Stanford University Press, Stanford University, California; 1926.

8. DAVIES, G. R. "A Statistical Study of the Influence of the Environment." _Quarterly Journal of the University of North Dakota_ (1914).

9. DE CANDOLLE, A. _Histoire des Sciences et des Savants depuis Deux Siècles_. Geneva, Switzerland; 1873.

10. ELLIS, HAVELOCK. _A Study of British Genius_. Hirst and Blackett, London; 1904.

11. GALTON, FRANCIS. _English Men of Science_. The Macmillan Company, London; 1874.

12. ------ _Hereditary Genius_. The Macmillan Company, New York, 1914. (Original edition, London; 1869.)

13. LEHMAN, HARVEY C. "The Creative Years in Science and Literature." _Scientific Monthly_, Vol. XLIII, pages 151-162 (1936).

14. LOMBROSO, C. _The Man of Genius_. Scott, London; 1895.

15. MIDDLETON, W. C. "The Propensity of Genius to Solitude." _Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology_, Vol. 30, pages 325-332 (1935).

16. MITCHELL, F. D. "Mathematical Prodigies." _American Journal of Psychology_, Vol. 18, pages 61-143 (1907).

17. ODIN, A. _Genèse des Grands Hommes des Lettres Français Modernes_. Paris et Lausanne; 1895.

18. RASKIN, E. "Comparison of Scientific and Literary Ability: A Biographical Study of Eminent Scientists and Men of Letters of the Nineteenth Century." _Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology_, Vol. 31, pages 20-35 (1935).

19. SCHUSTER, E. "The Promise of Youth and the Performance of Manhood." _Eugenics Laboratory Memoirs_, Vol. 3, pages 16 ff. London; 1907.

20. TERMAN, LEWIS M. "The IQ of Francis Galton in Childhood." _American Journal of Psychology_, Vol. 28, pages 209-215 (1917).

21. VISHER, S. S. "A Study of the Type of Place of Birth and of the Occupation of Father of Subjects of Sketches in _Who's Who in America_." _American Journal of Sociology_, 1925.

22. ------ "The Comparative Rank of the American States." _American Journal of Sociology_, Vol. 36, pages 735-757 (March, 1931).

23. WHITE, R. K. "Note on the Psycho-pathology of Genius." _Journal of Social Psychology_, Vol. 1, pages 311-315 (1930).

24. ------ "The Versatility of Genius." _Journal of Social Psychology_, Vol. 2, pages 460-489 (1931).

25. YODER, G. E. "A Study of the Boyhood of Great Men." _Pedagogical Seminary_, Vol. 3, pages 134-156 (1894).

[1] EDITORIAL NOTE. No revision of this chapter has been found among the author's papers. In the earlier manuscript reporting but five cases, there was a brief section entitled "Inferences from the Study of Adults," and in the incompletely revised manuscript a list of references is given for this chapter which had not yet been written. The earlier sections and the revised bibliography are, therefore, all that is available for this chapter. The bibliography will be sufficient to guide any reader who may be further interested in the details of the scientific study of adults.

[2] EDITORIAL NOTE. Had these pages been written at a later date, or revised by the author, of course the more recent work of C. M. Cox (7), inspired by Terman, would have been considered.