NURTURE AND NATURE 



25 



of girls there is a very slight correlation between 

 drinking of the parents and lower weight and height 

 in the daughters, but considering that the probable 

 error is '03 the results are only just significant. 

 Is this slight difference between the effect of drink 

 on boys and girls due to the possibility that when 

 the mother drinks the girls have to look after the 

 home, whereas the responsibilities of the boys are 

 not increased ? But, whatever the reason, I would 

 emphasize the fact that a correlation of '09 is of very 

 little importance as compared with a correlation of '50 

 due to heredity. 



Before considering these results further we may 

 turn to the statistics obtained from the special schools 

 in Manchester. Here we cannot find the correla- 

 tion coefficients between drink and actual height 

 and weight of the children, but we can find the 

 coefficient of correlation between drink and general 

 health, and between drink and intelligence. In this 

 case I have worked out the influence of the drink- 

 ing of (i) the father, (2) the mother, on the health 

 and intelligence of the children. 



Table V. 



