RECORD OF FAMILY FACULTIES. 



examples in which the birthplaces, names, residences, and personal charac- 

 teristics of the ancestry showed a great preponderance of such elements 

 as Scotch, Irish, Welsh, Saxon, Danish, or Norman, and these should 

 be treated separately from one another and from those in which the 

 ancestry was variously mixed. Errors would sometimes occur in the sorting 

 of individual cases, but the statistical results might- be expected to lead 

 to trustworthy conclusions. 



A question is added as to the " origin " of each of the great- 

 grandparents. If there is any known peculiarity in their race, or any 

 infusion of alien blood, it should be noted here. 



(3), (4) The ages at marriage of the two parents, the number and 

 the duration of life of the children, would enable inquiry to be made 

 into fertility as associated with different admixtures of race or of disease- 

 tendencies. We have yet to learn the conditions under which some families 

 are prolific in their various branches, and others die out. If we should 

 be able to contrast large batches of well-marked cases, a discussion of their 

 family antecedents would throw much light on those conditions. The ages 

 at death of the children would be entered thus, " A. G. 5 ; L. R. G. 10 ; 

 M. G. 55," &c. ; the initials first, and the age at death after. 



(5) The mode of life, so far as it affects growth or health, would, if 

 known, throw light on the effect of nurture over nature. We require to 

 select the families in each of which there had been a noticeable difference 

 in the mode of life of two or more of its members, and to cross divide 

 those members into two groups, in one of which the mode of life had been 

 healthy, the other in which it had been the reverse. Then by contrasting 

 these groups we should see the relative effects of good and bad nurture 

 on the development of body and mind, and on the health, fertility, and 

 duration of life. 



(6) Was early life laborious ? Why and how ? This is intended 

 to elicit evidence as to whether those who were hard-worked in boyhood, 

 youth, and early manhood, have less robust children and grandchildren 

 than those who led easier lives and married at the same ages. The 

 queries " how and why " are important. The " how " will distinguish 

 various forms of mental fret and exhaustion from one another and from 

 muscular fatigue. The answer to "why" will distinguish laborious life 

 due to the calls of duty, or to emulation, from that due to insufficiency 

 of means during early married life. In the latter case especially it is to 



