Earl If AnlhropohKjical Rfitearrhea 



105 



But Gnlton found 48 



h 



already referred 

 le nuniljer of relativeH to 

 He was perliapH hltuied by 



sons per 100 fathers! N 

 (p. 96) to my douhts as to Ciulton's estimate of t 

 be attributed in (^acli gi-ade to an eminent man. 



the wickedness of Judges and the misogyny of Statesmen ! Anyhow I feel 

 certain that tlie cuhimns C of his tables and consequently the columns D 

 are incorrect'. Had he attributed 200 or 250 sons to 100 eminent fatheiu 

 or families, say, of 4 to 5, he would have found 19 to 24 eminent sons to 100 

 eminent fathers — still far too many — but approaching nearer our 13 with a 



much lower degi*ee, however, of eminence. An explanation of the remaining 

 discrepancy may, liowever, be found in the hint' thrown out by Galton in 

 this chapter, that "a large number of eminent men marry eminent women'." 

 He had already emphasised this point of view when discussing Men of Science 

 and Divines. But such a mating of 'like with like' raises the con-elation 

 between ofispring and parents slightly under 50 ''l\ Forming a table under 

 these conditions we find for 1 in 100 degree of eminence: 



' Loc. cil. p. 317 for general tjible, and coinjwvre tables iit end of each sectinn. 



' This is much of the order one finds for number of insane sons of insane fathers. 



" Loc. cit. p. 325. 



■* "The large number of eminent descendants from illustrious men must not be looked u|)on 

 as expressing the results of their marriage with mecliocrc women, for the average ability of the 

 wives of such men is above mediocrity. This is my .strong conviction, aft<>r reading very many 

 biographies, althougli it cla-shes with a commonly expressed opinion that clever men marry silly 

 women. It is not easy to prove my point without a considerable mass of i]\u)t»tions to show 

 the estimation in which the wives of a large btnly of illustrious men were held by their intiniat<" 

 friends, but the following two arguments are not without weight Fii-st, the lady whom a man 

 marries is very commonly one whom he has often met in the so<'iety of his own friends, and 

 therefore not likely to be a silly woman. She is also usually related to some of them, and there- 

 fore has a probability of being hereditarily gifted." (p. 324.) 



• The multiple correlation c<xiffioient lietwiMJu parentage and offspring is n"" -ToTi 



!• II u 14 



