THE INHERITANCE OF FAMILY TRAITS 51 



When one parent has high musical ability and the other 

 has Uttle the children will vary much in this respect. 



Thus of 257 offspring of such matings 45 are without musical ability, 

 84 are exceptionally good at music while 128 are intermediate. T\\v. re- 

 sult indicates a partial blend iii the musical ability of the offspring of 

 mixed origin. 



As an example that illustrates the law approximately may 

 be cited the Hutchinson family (Hutchinson, 1876). Ac- 

 cording to the statement of Wm. Lloyd Garrison, Jesse 

 and Mary L. Hutchinson, progenitors of the tribe, lived in 

 Milford, N. H., 1777-1863. The father possessed a rare 

 baritone, the mother a sweet and mellow contralto voice. 

 Of the sixteen children, three died young. The remaining 

 thirteen are described as follows: David, deep bass voice; 

 Noah, tenor voice; Andrew, baritone and bass voice, deeply 

 interested in music; Zephaniah, passionately fond of music; 

 Cabel, baritone voice; Joshua, very musical, sang; Jesse, 

 editorial work; Benjamin, also gifted musically; Judson, 

 musical genius; Rhoda, high contralto; John, most conmiand- 

 ing vocal talents of all ; Asa, inherited a large share of musi- 

 cal gift; Abbe, contralto voice, one of quartette. Details are 

 lacking concerning the voice of Jesse, and the description of 

 Benjamin is all too vague, considering the importance of this 

 case, and so too much emphasis cannot be laid on these two 

 cases; but aside from them the uniformity of testimony as 

 to vocal talent of the family is striking. 



8. Ability in Artistic Composition 



Like musical ability, artistic talent shows itself so early as 

 to de'monstrate its innateness. Thus extraordinary talent 

 was recognized in Francesco Mazzuoh (though ill taught) at 

 16, in Paul Potter at 15, in Jacob Ruj^sdael at 14, in Titian 

 Vecelli at 13. Galton gives the following pedigree of the 

 Vecellis. All the persons named were painters. ''The con- 



