THE HEREDITARIAN THEORY OF IQ^257Brigham studied the performances of Alphas and Betas, found
that differences between residence groups persisted among the
Betas, and proclaimed his counter-intuitive hypothesis of decreas-
ing innate intelligence among more recent immigrants. "We
actually find," he proclaimed (p. 102), "that the gain from each
type of examination [both Alpha and Beta] is about the same. This
indicates, then, that the five years of residence groups are groups
with real differences in native intelligence, and not groups laboring
under more or less of a linguistic and educational handicap."Instead of considering that our curve indicates a growth of intelligence
with increasing length of residence, we are forced to take the reverse of
the picture and accept the hypothesis that the curve indicates a gradual
deterioration in the class of immigrants examined in the army, who came
to this country in each succeeding 5 year period since 1902 (pp. 110-111).... The average intelligence of succeeding waves of immigration has
become progressively lower (p. 155).
But why should recent immigrants be more stupid? To resolve
this conundrum, Brigham invoked the leading theorist of racism
in his day, the American Madison Grant (author of The Passing of
the Great Race), and that aging relic from the heyday of French
craniometry, Count Georges Vacher de Lapouge. Brigham argued
that the European peoples are mixtures, to varying degrees, of
three original races: 1) Nordics, "a race of soldiers, sailors, adven-
turers, and explorers, but above all, of rulers, organizers, and aris-
tocrats... feudalism, class distinctions, and race pride among
Europeans are traceable for the most part to the North." They are
"domineering, individualistic, self-reliant... and as a result they
are usually Protestants" (Grant, quoted in Brigham, p. 182); 2)
Alpines, who are "submissive to authority both political and reli-
gious, being usually Roman Catholics" (Grant, in Brigham, p. 183),
and whom Vacher de Lapouge described as "the perfect slave, the
ideal serf, the model subject" (p. 183); 3) Mediterraneans, of whom
Grant approved, given their accomplishments in ancient Greece
and Rome, but whom Brigham despised because their average
scores were even slightly lower than the Alpines.
Brigham then tried to assess the amount of Nordic, Alpine, and
Mediterranean blood in various European peoples, and to calculate
the army scores on this scientific and racial basis, rather than from
the political expedient of national origin. He devised the following