The Mismeasure of Man by Stephen Jay Gould

2 $ 8 THE MISMEASURE OF MAN

figures for average intelligence: Nordic, 13.28; Alpine, 11.67;
Mediterranean, 11.43.
The progressive decline of intelligence for each five-year resi-
dency group then achieved its easy, innatist explanation. The char-
acter of immigration had changed markedly during the past twenty
years. Before then, arrivals had been predominantly Nordic; since
then, we have been inundated by a progressively increasing num-
ber of Alpines and Mediterraneans, as the focus of immigration
shifted from Germany, Scandinavia, and the British Isles to the
great unwashed of southern and eastern Europe—Italians, Greeks,
Turks, Hungarians, Poles, Russians, and other Slavs (including
Jews, whom Brigham defined racially as "Alpine Slavs"). Of the
inferiority of these recent immigrants, there can be no doubt (p.
202):

The Fourth of July orator can convincingly raise the popular belief in

the intellectual level of Poland by shouting the name of Kosciusko from a

high platform, but he cannot alter the distribution of the intelligence of

the Polish immigrant.

But Brigham realized that two difficulties still stood before his
innatist claim. He had proved that the army tests measured inborn
intelligence, but he still feared that ignorant opponents might try
to attribute high Nordic scores to the presence of so many native
speakers of English in the group.
He therefore divided the Nordic group into native speakers
from Canada and the British isles, who averaged 13.84, and "non-
English speakers," primarily from Germany, Holland, and Scan-
dinavia, who averaged 12.97. Again, Brigham had virtually proved
the environmentalist claim that army tests measured familiarity
with American language and customs; but again, he devised an
innatist fudge. The disparity between English and non-English
Nordics was half as large as the difference between Nordics and
Mediterraneans. Since differences among Nordics could only rep-
resent the environmental effects of language and culture (as
Brigham admitted), why not attribute variation between European
races to the same cause? After all, the so-called non-English Nor-
dics were, o® average, more familiar with American ways and
should have scored higher than Alpines and Mediterraneans on
this basis alone. Brigham called these men "non-English" and used