96 HALL OF FAME MEN. 



found this to be an impossibility with the records available. In fact, 

 in the cases of Fulton, Clay, Cooper and Stuart I have not been 

 able to take the first step, the dates of the births of their fathers being 

 unknown. In the cases of Fulton* and Clay I have reasons for 

 thinking that they rank high, but the data available are not sufficient 

 for a fairly accurate estimate. The investigation is therefore 

 restricted to twenty-five persons, for whom I have found a total of 

 137 births, or an average of five and one-half for each. A few of 

 these births have been estimated after the manner illustrated in the 

 case of Beecher, but I have made no estimate which was not war- 

 ranted by the information at hand. The result of this is given in 

 Table V, in which the first column gives the birth-ranks of the 

 persons named ; the next two columns those of the father and mother 

 respectively ; the next four columns those of the grandparents ; and 

 the letters beyond those of earlier generations, which are so scattered 

 that I have simply stated them in series without designating who 

 these persons were. 



ABSENCE OF LOW BIRTH-RANK. 



In reading down the first column we find a total absence of the 

 letter a, while, according to the law of probabilities, there should 

 be two or three persons in this class. On the other hand, we find 

 five persons born in class A, three of whom come in sub-class A 2 

 and one in sub-class A 3 . According to the probabilities of the case, 

 there should be only one birth in the sub-classes instead of four, 

 while the chances are even against any one being born in sub-class 

 A 3 . A diagram of these twenty-five famous men is given in Fig. 5. 



*Robert Fulton was born in 1765. In the "History of the Bradlee Family," 

 page 18, I find that Robert had a cousin, John Fulton, born in 1733. This would 

 make Robert thirty-two years younger than his cousin, a difference that can 

 only be explained by high birth-ranks. 



