Earhj Aiif/ir<i/tofoffir<i/ Rtxrarchtx 



96 



I 



I 



"the understanding being that when a barrister was elevated t« the Bench, 

 he should marry his mistress, or put her away." (lalton descrilies this state- 

 ment as 'extraordinary,' but no effort of memory is neede<l to recall ■• '• st 

 one illustratio!i of it in the case of those as old as the present bi. r. 



The advanced period of their lives, if Lord Campl^ll's statement be correct, 

 at which they would marry, might account for a rtnhiced number of children, 

 but even under this disadvantage (Jalton asserts that the Ju<lge« were by 

 no means an unfertile race (p. 131). Still it may Ije that their families die 

 out. He finds that out of 'M judges who became peers before the close of 

 George IV's reign, 12 are no longer represented in the peerage. (Jalton then 

 inquired into the particulars of the marriages of these law-lords, their children 

 and grandchildren. 



"1 found a very simple, adequate, and novel explanation, of tlii- cuiiiiikhi fxtwiction of 

 peerages, stare nie in the face. It appeared, in the tirst instance, that a considerable (xirtion of 

 the new pe<»i-8 and of their sons had married heiresses.... But my statistical li.sts showed, with 

 unmistakaiile emphasis, that these niarriages are peculiarly unprolific. We mi^ht, indee«l, have 

 ex{)ected that an lu'ires.M, who is the sole issue of a marriage, would not l)e ho fertile as a woiiuui 

 who has ninny brothers and sisters. Comparative infertility must Ix- here<liLiiry in tlie same 

 way as other physical attributes, and 1 am assured it is so in the cjuw of domestic animals. 

 Consequently the is.sue of a peer's marriage with an heiress frefjuently fails, and his title is 

 brought to an end." (p. 13*2.) 



This generali-sation of Galton's, most brilliant in its suggestiveness, he 

 e.xtends to the 'Statesmen' and to a considerable portion of the peerage. 

 Everywhere with the same result, that in a large })roportion of the cases in 

 which peerages become e.xtinct there have been marriages with heiresses. Is 

 Galton's conclusion, however, that heire.s.ses come of sterile families the cor- 

 rect explanation? I venture to think it is not. In the fir.st place there is 

 in man some, but no very important, correlation between fertility in mother 

 and dauifhter, and this result has been confirmed for mice and horses. The 

 iniieritanee of grades of fertility seems hardly ade(juate to account for such 

 rapid extinction as Galton records. I think explanation may be found in 

 two other directions. The son of a peer starting with an a.Hsured jx>sition 

 s])ends si life of ease and pleasure, which is often synonymous with a life 

 which ruins health and squanders wealth. The fortune of the family has 

 then to he retrieved, and the solution is marriage with an heire.ss. And here 

 the words of Dr Erasmus Darwin are appropriate and he also wiis a keen 

 '< observer : 



"As many families become gradually extinct by hereditary diseases, as by scrofula, con- 

 I sumption, epilepsy, mania, it is often hazardous to marry an heiress, as .she is frequently the 

 last of a diseased family ' ". 



The fertility of a libertine and a woman of decjident stock is likely to 

 [be much lielow the normal lx)th in quantity and survival value. Onlva very 

 L detailed investigation of a long series of cases would allow us to detennine 

 [whether i^rasmus Darwin or his grandson has taken the more correct view ; 



' Temple of ^a lure (Additional notes), p. 45, 1803, cited by O»lton on the interleaf of hi* 

 Icopy of Hereditary Genius, 1869. 



