[164] Hollingworth, H. L., _Vocational Psychology_, pp. 212-213, New
York, 1916.
[165] Sir Francis Galton and C. B. Davenport have called attention to
the probable inheritance of artistic ability and lately H. Drinkwater
(_Journal of Genetics_, July, 1916), has attempted to prove that it is
due to a Mendelian unit. The evidence alleged is inadequate to prove
that the trait is inherited in any particular way, but the pedigrees
cited by these three investigators, and the boyhood histories of such
artists as Benjamin West, Giotto, Ruskin and Turner, indicate that an
hereditary basis exists.
[166] The difficulty about accepting such traits as this is that they
are almost impossible of exact definition. The long teaching experience
of Mrs. Evelyn Fletcher-Copp (_Journal of Heredity_, VII, 297-305, July,
1916) suggests that any child of ordinary ability can and will compose
music if properly taught, but of course in different degree.
[167] Seashore, C. E., in _Psychol. Monogs,_ XIII, No. 1, pp. 21-60,
Dec., 1910. See also Fletcher-Copp, _ubi sup._ Mrs. Copp declares that
the gift of "positive pitch" or "absolute pitch," i. e., the ability to
name any sound that is heard, "may be acquired, speaking very
conservatively, by 80% of normal children," if they begin at an early
age.
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