lo T. H. Pear, Xumher-Forms 



Yet. on reference to his diaorams (3, irx); PI. Ill), and to 

 the explanations offered with them, the most which can be 

 said is that while they suggest that the tendency to have a 

 form may run in families, they accord no evidence of an 

 hereditary tendencv to have an identical or even a closely 

 similar form. Moreover, on examining Plate III of the 

 '' Inquiries into Human Faculty," which is reproduced upon 

 page 9 of the present paper, one is immediately struck by the 

 unlikeness of the four forms possessed by the Henslow family 

 (Figs. 46 — 49), and of Figs. 57 and 58 both from each other and 

 from Figs. 55 and 56, though these later four all belong to the 

 same familv. The headino- of Plate III, '* Instances where the 

 Number-Forms in same family are alike," seems then to be 

 somewhat misleading, except in the case of the pairs 55 and 56 

 and 59 and 60, which we shall now consider. ^ 



55 and 56, those of a father and son, are undoubtedly 

 similar. Their chief differences are that while the general 

 direction of one is horizontal, that of the other is vertical, and 

 that one ends definitely at 100, while the other, ending at 99, 

 appears to begin another form at 100. 



59 and 60 are those of a brother and sister, less alike than 

 the preceding pair, but certainly similar. 



Before commenting further upon these pairs, however, we 

 may examine a set of three number-forms supplied by three 

 persons who are entirely unrelated (see page 3 of this paper). 

 Fig. C (i) is Professor Tattersall's ; Fig. B is the number-form 

 of Professor S. J. Hickson, F.R.S., of Manchester ; Fig. A, 

 from the American Journal of Psychology, is that of an 

 unknown person ( 1, 448). Neither of the first two contributorsr 

 when theA- communicated with me, had any idea that a similar 

 number-form was possessed by a colleague,- nor, at that time, 

 did either of them know of the existence of Fig. A, which I 

 found while examining the literature on this subject, after the 

 receipt of Fig. C (i) and before receiving Fig. B. 



Most of the structural features of these three forms appear 

 to be almost identical. Save for the presence of a gap after 

 12 in Figs. B and C (i), and its absence in Fig. A, the salient 

 features of the forms are the same. The direction of the line 

 between 10 and 20 varies, and, while it is definitelv curved in 



1. The likeness of 53 and 54 cannot be accepted as convincing evidence in 

 this connexion, since 54 is not figured, but only described as "nearly the same 

 (as 53) except that the first change of direction is at 10." 



2. At this time. Prof. Tattersall was at the University of Manchest-er. 



