500 



TRANSMISSION 



chosen, he will always have good material at hand, and, as he is 

 not specially interested in progeny, he is not concerned with the 

 "drag." What he wants is individual service. 



If, on the other hand, he adopts the plan of hereditary sover- 

 eignty, he will deal with few families at a time ; and while, if 

 they are extremely well-bred to begin with, a large proportion 

 will be exceptional, yet a glance at the upper lines of this table 

 will be enough to indicate that he will be confronted by a good 

 many hereditary rulers who are far from exceptional (see espe- 

 cially row e). He has taken a useless hazard, and this is the 

 inevitable handicap of an hereditary monarchy. From the stand- 

 point of evolution the principle is wrong. 



The above ought to make it clear why the breeder and the 

 politician should adopt opposite methods. If service alone is 

 wanted, it is better to find it than to breed it ; and that is why 

 it is often better to buy a particular type of animal than to 

 attempt to produce it, especially if the type is at all unusual, as 

 in the case of the " fire horse." 



SECTION XI FRATERNAL VARIABILITY, OFFSPRING 

 OF SAME PARENTS NOT IDENTICAL 



The offspring of like parents are not only unlike, but the suc- 

 cessive offspring of the same parents vary widely. The only 

 data compiled on this important fact are contained in the table 

 on the following page, from Galton's studies in stature. 



This table presents all the characteristics of the ordinary 

 regression table but in a degree slightly less pronounced. This 

 shows that the same laws of regression and progression apply 

 within the family as apply between families. 



Alluding to this significant fact, Galton remarks : * 



It appears that there is no direct hereditary relation between the personal 

 parents and the personal child, except perhaps through little-known chan- 

 nels of secondary importance, but that the main line of hereditary connec- 

 tion unites the sets of elements out of which the personal parents had been 

 evolved with the set out of which the personal child was evolved. . . . 

 This is why it is so important in hereditary inquiry to deal \t\\hfraternities 



1 Galton, Natural Inheritance, pp. 19-20. Italics are mine. 



