The Scientific Scrapbook

Dr. Arlie V. Book, whose pet occupation right now is fathering the work of the Grant Study, emphasizes that the subjects for the experiments conducted by the Study "are not guinea pigs, but are individuals gaining just as much from the scientific research as are the persons in charge.

"These individuals are getting special coaching which will be invaluable to them now and later in becoming adjusted to their environment," says Bock.

"Will Never Be Finished"

He claims that the Grant Study of normal students "will never be finished." That is, the lives of the "guinea pigs" will be followed from now until death.

As the modern student has more troubles than ever facing him in meeting the future, Bock believes that the study should have a minimum five-year trial.

Bock hopes that his brain child will answer many puzzling questions, such as whether heredity is more important than environment in shaping character, what causes divorces, and how certain diseases are transmitted from generation to generation.

Does Divorce Stop Success?

Christian Gauss, Dean of Princeton, has stated that sons of divorced parents have only a 25% chance for success. Bock doubts this, but it remains for research based on such facts as the Grant Study to turn up to settle such a question.

Parker said genetics is more important than environment in shaping character. Who knows? In the divorce courts hundreds of problems appear in addition to divorces. For example, what is it that attracts a man to one woman rather than to another?

Some say that because there is a certain type of illness in one of the parties concerned, a couple should not get married. This is just another of the imponderables which it will take a great deal of careful observation to clear up.

Problems Not Simple

Similarly the problems of transmission of manic-depressive psychosis are not as simple as they appear on the surface. Nor is the problem of epilepsy. Should an epileptic have children? If an epileptic's wife is normal, would this militate against the disease appearing in the offspring?

These questions are as yet unanswerable from the standpoint of our present knowledge. For an epileptic may suddenly appear from perfectly normal parents.

Dr. Bock says there are very few instances of good records in medicine. One of the aims of the Grant Study is to build up a body of facts which will be instrumental in answering some of the imponderables in medicine.

He emphasizes that the study will also give a good deal of information to young men as they come along, helping them, for example, to choose the correct field of concentration for their personality.