600 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



dominate in six families, in ten families from which women of genius 

 spring the boys predominate only in three. 



I have made a tentative effort to ascertain what position in the 

 family the child of genius is most likely to occupy. In a large number 

 of cases we are only told his position as a son, not as a child; these are, of 

 course, excluded. In order to investigate this point I considered the 

 families of at least 8 children (and subsequently those of at least 7 

 children) and noted where the genius child came. This showed a very 

 abnormally large proportion of eminent first children, and also abnor- 

 mally few second and third children. Suspecting that certain peculiari- 

 ties of the biographical mind (needless to enter into here, since we are 

 not investigating the psychology of biographers) may have somewhat 

 affected this result, I have confined myself to a simple inquiry less 

 likely to be affected by any mental tendencies of the biographers. In 

 families of different sizes, what relation do eldest genius children and 

 youngest genius children bear to genius children of intermediate posi- 

 tion? The results are very decisive. If, for instance, we take families 

 of 7 children, it is found that they yield 8 eldest children of ability and 



3 youngest, but only 10 for all the intermediate positions. If we take 

 8-children families, there are 3 eldest children of ability and 3 youngest, 

 but only 10 intermediate. Again, 9-children families show as many as 



4 eldest children of ability and 4 youngest, but only 1 intermediate 

 child. So with 10-children families, there are 3 eldest children of 

 ability and 3 youngest, but only 3 for all intermediate positions. It 

 is so with families of 11 children and of 13 children. The only excep- 

 tion I have detected is in the case of 12-children families, in which 

 group youngest children are wanting. So marked is the preponderance 

 of eldest and youngest children of ability that only in two of these seven 

 groups (7-children families to 13-children families) do the intermediate 

 children of ability exceed in number the eldest and youngest children 

 combined. It is evident that there is a special liability for eldest 

 and youngest children to be born with intellectual aptitudes, the lia- 

 bility being greater in the case of the former than of the latter, for there 

 are in the seven groups 24 eldest children to 18 youngest children, the 

 intermediate children numbering 40. 



Here again the results, however remarkable they may appear, are 

 strictly such as we might have been led to expect. In the other men- 

 tally abnormal classes we find exactly similar phenomena. Thus, among 

 433 idiots Mitchell found that 138 were first-born children and 89 last- 

 born children; so that here not only were the eldest and youngest 

 children in an absolute majority over all those of intermediate position, 

 but the eldest had to the youngest almost the same ratio (4 to 3) as we 

 have found in the genius group. Shuttleworth has lately stated that 

 among the so-called 'Mongolian' variety of imbeciles quite 40 per cent. 



