She was right, devastatingly right, but she was also a Black child speaking to white men with authority, and that was dangerous in ways that mathematics couldn't protect her from. Hamilton cleared his throat. Perhaps we should take a brief recess. This has been an intensive examination, and I think we all need to collect our thoughts before proceeding to physical measurements. Physical measurements.
Webb's stomach dropped. He'd been dreading this part. Cranometry, the measurement of skull size and shape, was considered essential to any scientific examination of intelligence. In 1897, Thorne would want to measure Lydia's head, compare her skull dimensions to his charts and tables, try to find some physical explanation for her abilities that didn't threaten his theories about racial hierarchy. And there was no good outcome.
If her skull measurements were unremarkable, Thorne would use that to argue her abilities must be fraudulent because genuine intelligence required certain physical characteristics. If her measurements were unusual, she'd become a specimen to be studied, poked, prodded, possibly even subjected to more invasive examinations.
During the recess, Webb found Clara in the hallway. She stood when she saw him, her face tight with worry. How is she holding her own? She's brilliant, Clara. She's proving everything we knew about her abilities, but that's making it worse in some ways.
What do you mean? Half the men in there are convinced she's extraordinary. The other half are terrified of what that means. And frightened men are dangerous. Clara grabbed his arm, her grip surprisingly strong.
Professor Webb, if they try to hurt her, if they try to take her from me, you have to help us get away. I can't let them turn my baby into some kind of exhibit. It won't come to that. You can't promise that. You're a good man, professor.
I can tell. But you're one person and they're the whole world. If the whole world decides it needs to suppress what Lydia is, what can one good man do? It was the question that would haunt Webb for the rest of his life.
When they reconvened, Thorne had regained his composure, though his eyes held something cold and calculating. We need to proceed to anthropometric measurements. Standard cranometric protocol. He withdrew a set of calipers from his bag. Metal instruments designed to measure skull dimensions with precision.
Miss Johnson, if you would stand and come here. Lydia looked at Webb, seeking some signal about whether this was safe. He had no signal to give her. She stood and approached Thorne, her small frame tense. This won't hurt, Thorne said, though his tone suggested he didn't particularly care whether it did.
I'm going to measure various aspects of your skull structure. Hold still. He positioned the calipers against her head, measuring from different angles, calling out numbers that Cartwright recorded in a notebook. Maximum cranial length, cranial breadth, cranial height, facial measurements, angles, and proportions. The process took 20 minutes, during which Lydia stood perfectly still, her eyes fixed on some distant point, her jaw clenched.
When Thorne finished, he studied his notes with an expression of deep frustration. The measurements are within normal ranges for her age and sex. Cranial capacity appears adequate, though, of course, we cannot determine brain weight without dissection. The casual mention of dissection, as if Lydia were already a corpse to be studied, made Webb's blood run cold. "That won't be necessary," he said sharply.
"We're examining a living child, not preparing a cadaver for autopsy. Obviously, we cannot dissect a living subject," Thorne replied with exaggerated patience. "But it does limit our ability to draw definitive conclusions about the physical basis of her supposed abilities. There's nothing supposed about them. You've spent 5 hours watching her solve problems that most people couldn't solve with weeks of study.
At what point does the evidence become sufficient? Evidence is meaningless without proper theoretical framework. Yes, the girl can perform mathematical operations. That's documented. But what does it mean?
Is this genuine intelligence or some form of savant syndrome? an isolated ability divorced from general reasoning capacity. Is this a unique case or evidence of broader patterns we failed to observe? Can these abilities be reliably transmitted to offspring? Or are they a genetic anomaly? These are the questions that matter scientifically.
Those questions all assume she's here to be studied like a lab specimen instead of educated like a human being with extraordinary gifts. She's a Black, Thorne said flatly. Her education or lack thereof is not my concern. My concern is understanding the scientific implications of her case for our theories of racial intelligence. And there it was, stated plainly.
Lydia wasn't a person to Thorne. She was data, a problem to be solved, an inconvenience to be explained away or absorbed into existing frameworks that kept the racial hierarchy intact. Hamilton spoke up, his tone careful. Dr. Thorne, I think we need to acknowledge that this examination has demonstrated genuine extraordinary abilities. The question is what we do with that information.