Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-08-17
ARE RlDDLING QUIZ-MASTERS
UNEARTHlNG TRUE GENIUS?
Some Reflections Upon the Fates OF
Smart" Students and the Present
Craze for intelligence Tests

CROSSING the Liffcy River on on" of its
- Dublin bridges on certain day IN
lS4i-a year which should be. hut some
how is not. epochal Sir William Rowan
Hamilton discovered quaternion>. Flashed
out Of cloudlcss brain. just like that
The quaternton is not to be confused with
the apteryx and we shall not imply that
those increasing numbers Of adult Americans
addicted TO the popular sport OF making
rap!d-f inquisition of modern education
would hesitate for moment to draw the
necessary distinctions.
Until otherwise proved, the contemporary
qulz-maste is an intellectual giant. HIS
victims summoned to qualify as psychology
icallv fit are less fortunate. Answer or
perish is in effect, the dispassionatp man
date. Reluctance or inabitfty TO reply on
the ball Is promptly rated as evidence OF
deficient intelligence.
Individuals Of a doleful cast are there
fore. profoundly troubled by the widely ctr
rUlated announcement that the average in
telligence of citizens of this Republic is about
equal TO that of n fourteen year-old child.
The estimate is based upon the results OF
mental tests in the army during the war
por.od.
Thomas A. Edison has recently thickened
the gloom with his varegated broadside OF
Gu!zzcs Colleges are bonbarding students
and candidates for admission with queries
violently puncturing the legend that school
days are the happ!est. Psychology Is I'M
natient Of skoptrs and will prove you. adult
though you be. semi moron If you ques-
tion its flats. 1t beams. on the other hand,
upon Charles Weisberg. Of the University of
Pennsylvania, with an average OF "l.l2 In
grueling tests.
There Is nothing new in this assurance Of
science especially In any branch that hap
pens 70 be of recent origin. Nor can the
mania for inQuisitons. which is sweeping
the land. paralyze the eccentric spirit Of
progress habitually contemptuous Of rules.
post -mortem psychoaneIysis of Ma
uolcon will not prove That he failed at
Austerlitz nor is the we'll known fact that
Julius Caesar was an eptlaptc with the
falling Sickness sufficiently powerful 10
"p>t him permanently from his place in his
torv
The past is uncomfortable and Columbus
tncaparlty 70 recognize n quaternion, had
the santa Marin anchored directly in its Ice,
Is not held seriously against him. IntelIl.
ponce test dpvotees are looking forward.
No one can rIghtfUlly deny them valid
right, 10 inquire diligently and patnStakingly
into that most elusive Of sttll undiscovered
regions the nnrrmost rcccss"s of he human
mind.
r is allowable none IN" less, to note the
current enthusiasm for this formidable pas
time and 10 reflect upon the conceivable
fatc= Of the 'wunderkinder' and their TEN.
Dcramrnta opposites for whom so dark a
future is scientifically predicted.
With no disposition 10 deprecRte the per
forunnCes Of smart boys and girls at
s,Aool. II is permissible 10 wonder whether
early promise ia invariably borne ont by
subsequent events
Who remembers T H. Stafford. who once
computed the number Of bnTey"orns In lO4O
rods and could extract the cube roots OF
numbers of nine and ten figures?
Who recalls Zerah Cohurn. who at the
nge Of nine determined correctly in twenty
seconds the number Of hours in 1911 years?
II vas Co'hurn, by the way, who b"-ted
Hamilton. aged ten, before he found those
nuaternlons IN mental agility contest
Hamilton became a distinguished scientst
md astronomer-a fact which emphasizes
! the folly Of rigid dogmatsm in any direc-
| t!on--hut concerning hts extraordinary con.
oueror history !s mute. The youthful pho
| nononou is not Of course, infalNb!y de
centive rocket. John stuart Mil read Greek
| n three. had finished GlJbon by the COM