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36
Hereditary Genius
beciles. We have seen in p. 25, that there are 400 idiots and imbeciles, to
every million of persons living in this country; but that 30 per cent of their
number, appear to-be light cases, to whom the name of idiot is
inappropriate. There will remain 280 true idiots and imbeciles, to every
million of our population. This ratio coincides very closely with the
requirements of class f. No doubt a certain proportion of them are idiotic
owing to some fortuitous cause, which may interfere with the working of a
naturally good brain, much as a bit of dirt may cause a first-rate
chronometer to keep worse time than an ordinary watch. But I presume,
from the usual smallness of head and absence of disease among these
persons, that' the proportion of accidental idiots cannot be very large.
Hence we arrive at the undeniable, but unexpected conclusion, that
eminently gifted men are raised as much above mediocrity as idiots are
depressed below it; a fact that is calculated to considerably enlarge our
ideas of the enormous differences of intellectual gifts between man and
man.
I presume the class F of dogs, and others of the more intelligent sort of
animals, is nearly commensurate with the f of the human race, in respect to
memory and powers of reason. Certainly the class G of such animals is far
superior to the g of humankind.
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