HEREDITY 291 



The rejoinder that might be made to his remark 

 about hard work, is that character, including the 

 aptitude for work, is heritable like every other faculty. 



I had been overworked, and unable to give as 

 close attention as desirable while correcting the 

 proofs, so mistakes were to be feared. Happily there 

 were not many, but one was absurd, and I was justly 

 punished. It was due to some extraordinary com- 

 mingling of notes on the families of Jane Austen and 

 of Austin the jurist. In my normal state of health 

 the mistake could not have been overlooked, but 

 there it was. I was at that time a member of the 

 Committee of the Athenaeum Club, among whose 

 members there happened to be a representative of 

 each of the above families, who "gave it me hot," 

 though most decorously. 



I had much pleasant correspondence at a later 

 date with Alphonse de Candolle, son of the still 

 greater botanist of that name. He had written a 

 very interesting book, Histoire des Sciences et des 

 Savants depuis deux Siecles, in which he analysed the 

 conditions that caused nations, and especially the 

 Swiss, to be more prolific in works of science at one 

 time than another, and I thought that a somewhat 

 similar investigation might be made with advantage 

 into the history of English men of science. 



It was a daring undertaking, to ask as I did, in 

 1874, every Fellow of the Royal Society who had 

 filled some important post, to answer a multitude of 

 Questions needful for my purpose, a few of which 

 touched on religion and other delicate matters. Of 

 course they were sent on the distinct understanding 

 that the answers would be used for statistical pur- 



