THE APPLICATION TO MAN 229 



constitutions, mayors of cities, and ministers to for- 

 eign courts; one was president of the Pacific Mail 

 Steamship Company ; 15 railroads, many banks, in- 

 surance companies, and large industrial enterprises 

 have been indebted to their management. Almost 

 if not every department of social progress and of 

 public weal has felt the impulse of this healthy, 

 long-lived family. It is not known that any one of 

 them was ever convicted of crime." 



c. The Kallikak Family 



A more convincing experiment in human heredity 

 than the foregoing, since it concerns the descendants 

 of two mothers and the same father, is furnished by the 

 recently published history of the " Kallikak " family.^ 



During Revolutionary days, the first Martin Kalli- 

 kak, — the name is fictitious, — who was descended 

 from a long line of good English ancestry, took 

 advantage of a feeble-minded girl. The result of 

 their indulgence was a feeble-minded son who be- 

 came the progenitor of 480 known descendants of 

 whom 143 were distinctly feeble-minded, while most 

 of the others fell below mediocrity without a single 

 instance of exceptional ability. 



" After the Revolutionary war, Martin married a 

 Quaker girl of good ancestry and settled down to 

 live a respectable life after the traditions of his 

 forefathers. From this legal union with a normal 

 woman there have been 496 descendants. All of 



1 " The Kallikak Family." H. H. Goddard. The Macmillan Co. 



