The Washington herald., 1912-09-30
CAPITAL CHILDREN
HIGHLY DEVELOPED
Director of Laboratory of Child
Study Says Mental Development
Here Is Above the Average.
OFFSPRING OF DOCTORS
HAVE HIGHEST RATING
Three Perfect Juveniles Found Here
and All Three Have Doctors
for Fathers.

Miss Mary r. Campbell. director OF the
Laboratory of Child Study. at Hygiene
Hall, yesterday announced her deduc-
tions derived from studying some fifty
Washington children. while i can make
no definitely final assertions as yet"
said Miss Campbell yesterday. ''at the
same time the evidence would seem to
show that the standard of mental devel-
opment among Washington children here
is, higher than throughout the country
at large. or the fifty children SO far
examined, only one has failed to pass
the Binet-Smon test of mental capacity.
while most Of the children are shown
to be far in advance OF their years
mentally.
However. I still have some LIS chill
dren to examine. and further investi-
CATION may lead me to alter my present
opinion. but just now l would rank the
Washington school child as superior in
brain power to the average American
of the same age.
II have also made another discovery
from my examination Of these Washing
ton boys and girls; and this is that the
children of physicians are mentally and
physically superior. as rule. to the
children of those following other oc-
cupations.
Il am inclined to believe that the rea-
son for this lies in the greater knowl-
edge which the physician possesses OF
the proper manner to bring UP child
and to the more skilled prenatal atten-
ton which the unborn child receives In
the physicians home. So far. only the
children of men physicians have been ex-
amined.
II am now in search of some women
physicians children. for IL my theory Is
correct, 1t would be further established
tN,. hat thA inc Of
who themselves know medicine are even
further advanced than the children of
women who are merely physicians wives.
At any rate my work has shown that the
growth in mental and physical vigor.
for the average human being. is directly
conditioned upon the advantages II has
in babyhood: and that a progressive i'm
provement in the care taken of children
may lead to a progressive advancement
in human efficiency.
Geniuses Snuned Ont.
Probably twenty geniuses are snuffed
out to-day to every one who finally brings
his message to the race. With proper
attention evGy one of these geniuses
could be developed TO the full: and who
can measure the discoveries in science
and invention. the immortal literature.
and the general increase In well-beins
which would accrue to humanity with
twenty times as many geniuses at work
as we now have? For these and similar
reasons the conclusions derived from my
examination Of Washington children so
tar impel me TO believe that child-wel-
fare work Is the greatest necessity Of the
race to-day"
Miss Campbell said that so far she had
found three physically perfect children
in Washington: and significantly
enough" she added. every one of them
is the child of a physician" The children
are Farrer Goldberger. five. sonn Of DR..
Joseph Goldberger: Katherine Schere-
schewsky. daughter of DR.. ]. W. Schere-
schewswky. Director of the Health Ex-
hibit and the eight-year-old boy OF DR..
John Anderson, Of the Public Health
Service.
The most brilliant child so far exam
ined is nine-year-old Eleanor King.
daughter of DR.. w. F. King. Assistant
Secretary of the Indiana State Board Of
Health. Although this child is only nine
years old. mentally she checks up to four
teen, which means that as far as brain
goes she is practically grown up. Physi-
cally, also. Eleanor King is up to the
average.