1 90 Heredity. 



On comparing the two averages, seventy for males, thirty for 

 females, we cannot fail to be struck by the great difference between 

 the two, and the marked preponderance of the male line. The 

 author has inquired into the cause of this, but without arriving, as 

 he himself admits, at any very satisfactory conclusion. He allows 

 but little weight to the hypothesis that in the biographies of great 

 men, if their mothers are mentioned, but little is said with regard 

 to their other female relations ; for in the case of statesmen and 

 great commanders, whose genealogy is well known, the female line 

 is likewise very much inferior to the male, as is shown in columns 

 two and three of Table III. The author thinks that a more 

 satisfactory solution would be to admit that the aunts, sisters, and 

 daughters of illustrious men, being accustomed at home to an 

 intellectual and moral atmosphere above the common, do not, on 

 an average, marry as much as other women ; and he is of opinion 

 that his hypothesis would bear the test of facts, though he confesses 

 that it is impossible to apply the test 



in. 



We have now given in a few pages the results of a thick volume 

 filled with facts and figures. While regretting again the absence 

 of larger views, we must bestow high praise on this taste for exact 

 research, this constant aiming at precision, this fear of elevating to 

 the rank of objective truths merely subjective impressions. But 

 the work does not give what it promises to give. 



It will be noticed in the first place that Mr. Gallon's method, 

 being chiefly quantitative, differs totally from our own, which is 

 chiefly qualitative. In the foregoing chapters we have striven to 

 show that by comparison of facts we arrive at a great biological, 

 universal law heredity ; a law that is necessary, invariable, and 

 without exception, provided secondary causes do not intervene. 

 In the next place, descending from the more to the less general, 

 we have examined the various aspects of this law, and have shown 

 how the facts of heredity fall under three formulas, or four at the 

 most The laws have been in our view only the simple general- 

 ization of facts. 



Mr. Galton proceeds differently ; facts are for him only a matter 

 of calculation, he groups them with a view of arriving not at laws 



