ioo THE TREND OF THE RACE 



ordinary people, and that, as a rule, the more eminent the person, 

 the more eminent persons are to be found among his near rela- 

 tives. Thus 80 per cent of the Lord Chancellors had eminent 

 relatives, whereas only 36 per cent of the other judges were thus 

 distinguished. Similarly it was shown that in the families of the 

 more illustrious statesmen there is a larger percentage of great 

 names than in the families of statesmen who are less eminent. 

 In general, the proportion of eminent relatives of great men is 

 found to decrease as the relationship becomes remote. 



It is impossible in a short space to give an adequate summary 

 of the large amount of interesting data which Galton amassed, 

 and especially of the able discussion of the thesis that the facts 

 are explicable only by the hypothesis that great ability is trans- 

 mitted in much the same way as are most characteristics of 

 organic beings in general. It has never been questioned that 

 Galton's investigations have demonstrated the tendency of cer- 

 tain stocks to produce men of distinguished ability. But Galton's 

 critics have maintained that this tendency is based, not upon 

 heredity, but upon the peculiar advantages which these families 

 offered for the development of .whatever talent they may have 

 possessed. A parent-offspring or a fraternal correlation does not 

 in itself prove inheritance. The degree of education attained by 

 the members of a family, for instance, may depend upon wealth, 

 family tradition, or a number of other circumstances quite apart 

 from heredity. A child born in the slums, even with the best 

 inheritance, suffers certain very obvious disadvantages as com- 

 pared with a child of a Lord Chancellor. Mr. Constable in his 

 Poverty and Hereditary Genius which is devoted to controverting 

 Galton's conclusions, has urged that for many people the draw- 

 backs of poverty are so great as to prevent them from ever gain- 

 ing a reputation for distinguished achievement. There is, he 

 claims, a large amount of latent ability in the general population 

 that awaits only the touch of opportunity to blossom forth. 

 Similar views are held by many other writers, among the most 

 noteworthy of whom is the Nestor of American sociologists, Dr. 

 Lester F. Ward. 



