1 8 HEREDITY AND SOCIETY 



predetermined. Just as we know, from the Registrar- 

 General's returns for past years, approximately how 

 many people in the coming year will die between the 

 ages of fifty and sixty, and how many will die between 

 sixty and seventy, though we cannot predict the death 

 of any one individual, so we can tell from previous 

 investigations on heredity, if we deal with large num- 

 bers, how many of the children of different types of 

 parents will show the parental characteristics. 



In order to make sure that we are not deceived 

 by casual coincidences, it is necessary, when we are 

 investigating the inheritance of any specific character, 

 to study statistically large numbers. A single family 

 pedigree, unless it be an extensive one, and unless it 

 show definite Mendelian phenomena, is not enough 

 to prove a case, although it may and frequently does 

 suggest valuable lines of inquiry. Nevertheless, single 

 pedigrees may well be used for purposes of illustration. 



Galton called attention to the eminence and perman- 

 ence of the ability created by the intermarriages of 

 the families of Montagu, Sidney and North, from the 

 sixteenth to the eighteenth century. In the remark- 

 able pedigree of these interrelated families as given by 

 Galton, we find recorded four Chief Justices, one Lord 

 Chancellor, seven other Judges, two Ambassadors, two 

 well-known Statesmen, two Viceroys, one Lord High 

 Admiral, one Bishop, one Abbot, and eight other men 

 or women distinguished in some branch of learning ; 

 while no less than thirteen separate peerages were 

 won by members of these families during the period 

 under review. 



In later times the family of Grey has produced some 



