PRECOCITY (from Lat. pra'co.r. ripened too soon. from pra-coquere, ripen beforehand, from pea', before + coquere, to cook; connected with 1I-k.r177-7-ELv, reptein, Skt. pac, to cook). A pre mature development, especially of the mental functions. The chief problems of precocity are (1) the relation between mental precocity and bodily abnormalities, (2) the relation between precocity and genius, (3) the course of training that the precocious child should receive. Ex perts disagree in their answers to the first two questions. It is. however, agreed that precocious children should receive physical attention, while their intellectual bent should not be too much fostered. It is popularly supposed that preco cious children are subject to diseases of the nervous system. various scrofulous symptoms. rickets, a stunted body, and other tokens of con stitutional enfeeblement, and that they are prone to subsequent mental degeneration, if not to idiocy and premature death. On the other hand,
Stilly, Galion. and other writers deem an early manifestation of genius not incompatible with a prolonged development. From data furnished by Sully. Donaldson concludes that of 287 geniuses (musicians, painters, sculptors, scholars, poets, scientific men, novelists. and philosophers), SO per cent. gave distinct signs of promise before 20. SO per cent. produced work before 30. S4 per cent. attained fame before 40. Musical talent is especially apt to be precocious: only 6 per cent. of the great composers failed to marked ability as children. • BIBLIOGRAPHY. Chamberlain. The Child: A Bibliography. Chamberlain. The Child: A .tally in the Evolution of Man (London, 1900, ; Donaldson, The Growth of the Brain (ilt. 1895) ; Ellis, Alan and Woman (ib., 1394) ; Galton, Hereditary Genius (ib., 1S92) : Lang, "Genius in Children," North American Review, vol. clxiv. (New York, 1S97).