680 



HEREDITY 



HEREFORD 



(1889), a work which, in its emphatic transition 

 from the study of individuals to that of fraternities, 

 well illustrates that science is indeed ' a social 

 phenomenon.' Galton derived his data from his 

 well-known Records of Family Faculties, especially 

 concerning stature, eye-colour, and artistic powers ; 

 and his work has been in great part an application 

 of the statistical law of Frequency of Error to 

 the above-mentioned records. If we leave out of 

 account the problem of estimating the share con- 

 tributed to the offspring by each ancestor, and that 

 of determining accurately the degrees of near kin- 

 ship, the great problem of Gallon's work relates to 

 the curious regularity observed in the peculiarities 

 of great populations during a long series of genera- 

 tions. ' The large do not always beget the large, 

 nor the small the small ; but yet the observed pro- 

 portion between the large and the small, in each 

 degree of size and in every quality, hardly varies 

 from one generation to another.' In short, a 

 specific average is sustained. This is not because 

 each individual leaves his like behind him, for this 

 is certainly not the case. It is rather due to the 

 fact of a regular regression or deviation which 

 brings the offspring of extraordinary parents in a 

 definite ratio nearer the average of the stock. A 

 few sentences must be quoted to explain this ' law 

 of regression ' which Galton has established. ' How- 

 ever paradoxical it may appear at first sight, it is 

 theoretically a necessary fact, and one that is 

 clearly confirmed by observation, that the stature of 

 the adult offspring must oh the whole be more 

 mediocre than the stature of their parents that is 

 to say, more near to the median stature of the 

 general population.' Or again, 'each peculiarity 

 in a man is shared by his kinsmen, but on the 

 average in a less degree. It is reduced to a definite 

 fraction of its amount, quite independently of what 

 its amount might be. The fraction differs in 

 different orders of kinship, becoming smaller as 

 they are more remote.' Yet it must not be sup- 

 posed that the value of a good stock is denied or 

 underestimated by Galton, for he shows how the 

 offspring of two ordinary members of a gifted stock 

 Avill not regress like the offspring of a couple equal 

 in gifts to the former, but belonging to a poor stock, 

 above the average of which they have risen. Yet 

 it is true that the fact of regression tells against the 

 full hereditary transmission of any signal talent. 

 Children are not likely to differ from mediocrity so 

 widely as their parents. ' The more bountifully a 

 parent is gifted by nature, the more rare will be 

 his good-fortune if he begets a son who is as richly 

 endowed as himself, and still more so if he has a 

 son who is endowed more largely.' The other 

 aspect of the case must not, however, be over- 

 looked. ' The law,' Galton says, 'is even-handed ; 

 it levies an equal succession-tax on the transmission 

 of badness as of goodness. If it discourages the 

 extravagant hopes of a gifted parent that his 

 children will inherit all his powers, it no less dis- 

 countenances extravagant fears that they will 

 inherit all his weakness and disease.' 



The study of individual inheritance, as in Galton's 

 Hereditary Genius, may tend to develop an aristo- 

 cratic and justifiable pride of race when a gifted 

 lineage is demonstrable for generations, or it may 

 tend to absolute despair if the records of family 

 disease be subjected to investigation. The study 

 of social inheritance is at once more democratic 

 and less pessimistic. The nsition is a vast frater- 

 nity, with an average towards which the descend- 

 ants of all nobles gradually tend, but to which the 

 offspring of the under-average will also approximate. 

 It seems a corollary that practical measures which 

 beneficently affect large numbers are more hopeful 

 than those which artificially select a few. It should 

 be noticed also that, if Weismann 's scepticism be 



thoroughly justified, it by no means leads us to 

 depreciate the effect of work and surroundings, but 

 emphatically increases the urgency of conserving 

 healthful function and stimulating environments of 

 every kind all the more important if their influ- 

 ences must needs be repeated on each fresh genera- 

 tion. Nor should one forget how much a plastic 

 physical and mental education (along with which 

 M. Guyau includes hypnotic suggestion) may do to 

 counteract disadvantageous inherited qualities, or 

 augment those which are beneficial. Finally, it 

 will be allowed that much requires to be done in 

 educating public opinion, not only to recognise the 

 results of the science of heredity, but also to 

 admit the value and necessity of the corresponding 

 art which Mr Galton calls ' eugenics.' 



See BIOLOGY, EMBRYOLOGY, ENVIRONMENT, EVOLUTION, 

 &c. For bibliography, J. Arthur Thomson, 'History and 

 Theory of Heredity,' Proc. Roy. Soc. Edin. (1889); K 

 Roth, Die Thatsachen der Vererbung ( 2d ed. Berlin. 1885). 

 See also W. K. Brooks, The Law of Heredity (Baltimore, 

 1883); S. Butler, Life and Habit (Lond. 1878); C. 

 Darwin, Variation under Domestication (Lond. 1868);. 

 G. H. T. Eimer, Die Entstehung der Arten (Jena, 1888) - r 

 F. Galton, Natural Inheritance (Lond. 1889; and his. 

 other works there noticed ) ; E. Haeckel, Generelle Mor- 

 phologic (Berlin, 1866), Die Perigenesis der Plastidute 

 (Berlin, 1876); W. A. Herdman, 1'hilog. Soc. Liverpool 

 (1883); E. Bering, Das Gedachtniss als eine aUgemeine 

 Function der oryanischen JMattrie (Vien. 1870); O. 

 Hertwig, Lehrbuch der Etttwicklunysfieschictite (Jena, 

 1888); W. His, Unsere Korperform I Leip. 1875); G. 

 Japer, Zoologische Brief e (Vien. 1876; Kosmos, 1877, 

 1879 ) ; Zeitschr. wins. Zool. xxvii. ; Lehrbuch der Zoo- 

 logie (Leip. 1878); Prosper Lucas, Trait6 philosoph. et 

 physio/, de VHerfdite naturelle (Paris, 1847; the first 

 serious treatise on heredity ) ; C. Nsigeli, Mechanisch- 

 phyxiolog. Theorie der Abstammmtgslehre (Munich, 

 1884) ; Th. Ribot, L'Here'dite psychologique (3d ed. Paris ; 

 trans. Lond. 1875 ) ; H. Spencer, Principles of Biology 

 (Lond. 1866); R. Virchow, Descendenz und Pathologie ; 

 Virchow's Archiv. ciii. (1886); H. de Vries, Intrazel- 

 lulare Panaenesis (Jena, 1889) ; A. Weismann, Papers on 

 Heredity ( 1882-1889 ; trans. Oxf. 1889 ). For pathological 

 inheritance, see, conveniently, Felkin, ' Heredity in Health 

 and Disease,' Health Lectures (Edin. 1887) ; R. A. Douglas 

 Lithgow (Lond. 1889); Windle, 'Malformations and 

 Heredity,' Proc. Birmingham Phil. Soc. (1888). For 

 heredity in relation to education, see M. Guyau, Edu- 

 cation et Heredite ( Paris, 1889). For social inheritance, 

 see Galton's Hereditary Genius and Natural Inheritance. 

 For critiques of Weismann, see Eimer, Virchow, opp. cit. ; 

 Spencer, Factors of Organic Evolution (Lond. 1886); 

 M'Kendrick, General Physiology ( Glasgow, 1888 ) ; Vines, 

 Nature, xL pp. 621-26; Turner, Nature, xL pp. 526-33; 

 Mivart, Nature, xli. pp. 526-33 ; and J. A. Thomson, 

 loco citato. 



Hereford, the county town of Herefordshire, 

 on the left bank of the Wye, 144 miles by rail 

 WNW. of London, and 51 S. of Shrewsbury. Its 

 noble cathedral was built between 1079 and 1535, 

 and so exhibits every variety of style from Norman 

 to Perpendicular. Measuring 342 feet by 146 across 

 the transept, it has a central tower 165 feet high. 

 It suffered much at Wyatt's hands after the fall of 

 the western tower in 1786, but has been judiciously 

 restored by Cottingham (1841-52) and Sir G. G. 

 Scott ( 1856-63 ). Special features are the elaborate 

 metal-work screen, the shrine of St Thomas de 

 Cantilupe (1282), the organ (originally by Renatus 

 Harris), and the ' Mappa Mundi,' or map of the. 

 world (c. 1314), a fac-simile of which was published 

 in 1872. Hereford, with Gloucester and Worcester, 

 is one of the meeting-places of the 'Three Choirs.' 

 Other edifices are the Doric shire hall (1817), in 

 front of it a statue (1864) of Sir G. C. Lewis ; the 

 corn exchange (1858), the episcopal palace (formed 

 out of a Norman hall ), the college of vicars choral 

 (c. 1474), the 14th-century grammar-school, the 

 half-timbered ' Old House,' the guildhall, the 

 butchers' guildhall, the Coningsby Hospital (1610), 



