Correlation and Application of Statistics to Problems of Heredity 113 



chiefly because, although I doubt the accuracy of some of the processes 

 adopted, it is highly suggestive for kindred researches, and appears to have 

 attracted little of the attention it deserved at the time of its publication in 

 Nature. 



Closely associated with the material on which the above memoir was based 

 is a letter Galton published in The Times, November 17, 1904, with regard 

 to the character and ancestry of Lord Northbrook, who had died on the 

 1 5th of the same month. Galton was in a position to comment on the character 

 of Lord Northbrook, for he had served on a council* with him for two years 

 and noted his "rare combination of thoroughness and quickness," which 

 were reported family characteristics of the Barings. Galton was also well 

 acquainted with the family history of the Barings for Lord Northbrook 

 as a Fellow of the Royal Society had replied to Galton's schedule very 

 amply and sympathetically. A full pedigree of the Barings as a noteworthy 

 family would be well worth working up. Like many families of distinction 

 in Great Britain, the Barings in the direct male line show foreign blood. 



Noteworthy Families. 



We now turn to the work which embraces the data on which the pre- 

 ceding two communications were based. The material was collected by 

 schedules issued by Galton which were filled in by about half the Fellows 

 and returned to him. From these Mr Edgar Schuster f selected the families 

 in which there were at least three noteworthy kinsmen, and formed lists of 

 their achievements on Galton's model. He thus compiled the brief biographical 

 notices of sixty-six noteworthy families which fill about two-thirds of the 

 volume. The book is entitled : 



Noteworthy Families (Modern Science). An Index to Kinships in Near 

 Degrees between Persons whose Achievements are honourable and have been 

 publicly recorded. By Francis Galton, D.C.L., F.R.S., Hon. D.Sc. (Camb.) 

 and Edgar Schuster, Galton Research Fellow in National Eugenics. Vol. I 

 of the Publications of the Eugenics Record Office of the University of 

 London. John Murray : London. 



The intention was to collect similar material in other fields and publish 

 corresponding volumes for Literature, Art, Politics, etc. Some of this material 

 was actually collected J. 



If we consider briefly the material compiled by Schuster one is bound to 

 confess that it is disappointing. As only about half the Fellows replied, and 

 the families of only 63 are discussed, it is clear that we cannot look upon 

 the results as representative of the Royal Society, much less of British 



* Probably that of the Royal Geographical Society of which Lord Northbrook was at one 

 time President. 



t Mr Schuster had, in October 1904, been elected to the first Research Fellowship in 

 National Eugenics founded by Francis Galton in connection with the University of London : 

 see Chapter XVI below. 



X "This volume is the first instalment of a work that admits of wide extension." Galton's 

 Preface, p. ix. 



P G III 15 



