Exercise 3 solution

Calculations (run in Python):

(a) 1934 minus 1902 = 32 years between Cooley's Human Nature and the Social Order and the posthumous Mead volume Mind, Self, and Society.
(b) 1970 minus 1800 = 170 years between Victor of Aveyron and the discovery of Genie.
(c) 100,000 divided by 121,003, times 100 = 82.6 percent (rounded to one decimal place) of the Feral child page was read.

Ranking, safest first, using only the Feral child page's own treatment:

1. Genie. The page treats her as a documented case, supported by studies by Susan Curtiss and others, and gives specific facts (born 1957, found 1970, confined from about 20 months). Caveat: the page also says she was abused, so her case mixes isolation with cruelty and cannot isolate the effect of missing socialisation alone (that caveat is my own reasoning) (check).
2. Victor of Aveyron. The page does not question the case and cites Itard's reports of 1801 and 1806. It is older, and the page's summary gives fewer verified details, so I rank him second.
3. Amala and Kamala. The page reports Reverend J. A. L. Singh's 1926 account but also says Serge Aroles argues it was a fraud, calls the story a hoax elsewhere, and gives inconsistent dates (1920 and 1926). It is the least safe.

The ranking reasoning is mine, built on what the page says; the page itself does not rank the cases (check). A different but reasoned order, with Victor and Genie swapped, would be defensible if you explained it.