Conclusions
The data on diet seems clear. It would appear that any society wishing to improve itself should continue and expand present campaigns to upgrade the protein and fat in the diets of its pregnant women.
The influence of a child’s experience after birth is also clear, but the precise technique of optimum enrichment is less obvious. More work is required here, particularly on factors like overcrowding, large families and “stress” in very early life. We do not know in fact precisely what constitutes “enrichment” and what “impoverishment” for a child.
The toss of the coin, or of many coins, at conception determines our genes. But it does not thereby bind us without hope to a certain intellectual capacity; for the environment can change this capacity greatly for better or for worse. It is not the work of God for the rich to get richer and the poor to get poorer. It is in large part the work of man.
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Beckett, P.G.S. Social factors in growing a brain. I. J. Med. Sc. 3, 5–14 (1970). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02958728
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02958728