70 ENGLISH MEN OF SCIENCE. [CHAP. 



(1) " My numerous relatives, though unknown 

 to fame, are mostly characterised by great 

 breadth of thought and rare independence of 

 action." [These characteristics seem clearly 

 traced by the writer to a great grandparent 

 who immigrated from Germany] ; (2) " Counting 

 third cousins, I have scores and scores of 

 relatives, and scarcely an unsteady person 

 among them." 



I have numerous returns, in which the writer 

 analyzes his own nature, and confidently ascribes 

 different parts of it to different ancestors. One 

 correspondent has ingeniously written out 

 his natural characteristics in red, blue, and 

 black inks, according to their origin a 

 method by which its anatomy is displayed 

 at a glance. 



My data afford an approximate estimate of 

 the ratio, according to which effective ability 

 (hereditary gifts plus education plus opportunity) 

 is distributed throughout the different degrees 

 of kinship. They state (1) the number of 

 kinsmen in the several near degrees ; (2) the 

 number of those among them who were in any 



