Correlation and Application of Statistics to Problems of Heredity 111 



Proceeding in this manner we obtain the table below. I am inclined to 

 think the average marks for Sons and Nephews too low, as it is possible 

 that many of them would not have had time to reach full noteworthiness. 

 As I have noted there is something defective in the earlier generations through 

 the female line, and I have contented myself with using fa fa bros and 

 fa fa fa as representatives of their grade. Galton does not even give fa me fa 

 so that we cannot tell whether they got zero marks or he omitted to classify 

 them. It is quite probable that many men know more of their father's 

 paternal than of his maternal grandfather, a result of the old habit of tracing 

 descent only through the male line. 



Average Noteivorthiness of Kinsmen in Direct and Collateral Lines 

 of 110 Fellows of the Royal Society. 



* No entries have been made by Galton for the father's great uncles. 



From this revised table Galton's main conclusion flows as definitely as, 

 perhaps more definitely than, from his own Table. The ancestor in the direct line 

 is far more noteworthy than the average collateral in the same grade. To be 

 in the direct line from distinguished ancestry amounts to much, but to be 

 merely the collateral of a great man means very little. Examining the numbers 

 in the first three lines of the table we see that the collaterals of a man of 

 distinction have on the average only £ of the noteworthiness of his direct 

 ancestor in each generation. As Galton puts it elsewhere, to be the cousin of 

 a man of ability means little if the kinsman gets only the cousin's average 

 share; it might mean a good deal if the character did not blend and the 

 kinsman ran the chance, if a small one, of getting the whole of his cousin's 

 exceptionality. 



Galton next discusses the "Relation of Success to Natural Ability." 

 He proceeds by stating that success is due to the combined effect of Natural 

 Gifts and Circumstances. His method is to record success in terms of 1, 0, 

 and — 1 marks to each division of a third of the frequency distribution for 

 ability J and he marks each grade of circumstance ("healthy rearing, family 



t The mean values of the thirds, 1 -09, 0, and — 1 -09, would be more legitimate. 



