Cornman's more careful study of
spelling ('07) supports the view that ability to spell is little
influenced by such differences in school or home training as commonly
exist."
This is a very clear-cut case of a definite intellectual ability,
differences in which might be supposed to be due almost wholly to the
child's training, but which seem, on investigation, to be largely due to
heredity.
The problem may be examined in still greater detail. Does a man merely
inherit manual skill, let us say, or does he inherit the precise kind of
manual skill needed to make a surgeon but not the kind that would be
useful to a watchmaker? Is a man born merely with a generalized
"artistic" ability, or is it one adapted solely for, let us say, music;
or further, is it adapted solely for violin playing, not for the piano?
Galton, in his pioneer studies, sought for data on this question. In
regard to English judges, he wrote: "Do the judges often have sons who
succeed in the same career, where success would have been impossible if
they had not been gifted with the special qualities of their fathers?
Out of the 286 judges, more than _one in every nine_ of them have been
either father, son or brother to another judge, and the other high legal
relationships have been even more numerous.
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