METHODS OF INVESTIGATION 357 



Sir Francis Gallon applied the statistical method to the study 

 of heredity in human beings. By this system, the pedigrees of 

 many families have been traced for generations and studied as a 

 means of determining what traits seem to occur most frequently 

 in a majority of the descendants. Such a study has been made of 

 the family of Jonathan Edwards. He was born in 1703 and was 

 noted for his strength of character and for his high mental ability. 

 In 1900, 1394 of the descendants of Jonathan Edwards had been 

 traced and the life work of many of them discovered. They 

 included many college presidents, professors, lawyers, doctors, able 

 business men, and state officials. The group as a whole was 

 highly intelligent and capable, with a high sense of civic respon- 

 sibility. Their historian states that it is not known that any of 

 them were criminals. The Edward family indicates that high 

 mental ability is inheritable. 



An investigator recently tested a number of children for intelli- 

 gence. Forty-one showed superior intelligence. What of their 

 immediate ancestors? Of the forty-one, the investigators found 

 that only two lacked a near relative with a superior intelligence 

 rating. Definite talent in some form was found in different 

 members of the families of these children. A study has been pub- 

 lished concerning the intelligence of some students of Oxford Uni- 

 versity, , England. The records of boys who secured marks of 

 " honor " and " pass " were compared with the records made by 

 their fathers. Of the " pass " students only twenty per cent of 

 the fathers had taken first or second honors. That means they, 

 too, were only in the " pass " class in their school days. On the 

 other hand, of the students taking first honors, nearly forty-two 

 per cent of the fathers had taken first or second honors. 



Woods has made, a study of several royal families, in which a 

 comparison is made between parents and offspring in mental and 

 moral qualities. There is a very marked similarity and uniformity 

 shown in the results of this study. A resemblance between 



