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Life and Letters of Francis Galton 



help regretting that the greater authority of Galton was thrown into the 

 scale which was already weighted with Lombroso and Ellis. 



In the following chapter Galton discusses the proportion of noteworthies 

 to the generality, but his final conclusion that "the proportion of one note- 

 worthy person to one hundred of the generality who were equally well 

 circumstanced as himself does not seem to be an over-estimate " requires 

 perhaps more evidence than is provided. 



Chapter V deals with "note worthiness as a measure of ability," and 

 discusses on the lines of his paper in Nature (see our pp. 1 08 et seq.) the inter- 

 relation of Success, Ability and Environment. I have already commented on 

 Galton's treatment of this topic. It seems to me that his discussion is based 

 solely on classification and nothing can be predicted of the correlation 

 between these three factors until their relative frequencies in the several 

 classes have been determined by observation. 



Chapter VI deals with Galton's convenient nomenclature for kinship 

 (see our p. 106). In Chapter VII we have the vital question investigated 

 of the number of kinsfolk to be expected in each degree. I say this is vital, 

 for without it we cannot possibly obtain any measure of the strength of 

 heredity. Galton does not here adopt the method of his paper described on 

 our p. 107, where he worked with a stable population, but he makes his 

 returns for each class of kinship on the basis of the F.R.S.'s returns, the 

 schedule containing an inquiry as to the number of kinsfolk in each degree, 

 who survived childhood. Hence Galton's previous results do not strictly 

 apply as they were based on all children born, as well as on a theoretically 

 stable population. His Table V (p. xxx) gives only the data for 100 

 Fellows. I looked at the schedules and found a rather larger number 

 available as schedules appear to have come in later after his Table V was 

 completed. But as the averages were not essentially altered, I will reproduce 

 Galton's numbers, citing them in a different form. The problem wants 

 answering on far more extensive material, but I do not know where else to 

 find even a rough approximation to the average number of relatives a man 

 may expect. 



Average Number of Kinsfolk in each Degree. 



Clearly the number of nephews and nieces is also contained in the table. 

 A man may expect on the average 4*49 nephews and 5*10 nieces, while a 



