62 NATURAL INHERITANCE. [CHAP. 



The Charms of Statistics. It is difficult to under- 

 stand why statisticians commonly limit their inquiries 

 to Averages, and do not revel in more comprehensive 

 views. Their souls seem as dull to the charm of variety 

 as that of the native of one of our flat English counties, 

 whose retrospect of Switzerland was that, if its moun- 

 tains could be thrown into its lakes, two nuisances 

 would be got rid of at once. An Average is but a 

 solitary fact, whereas if a single other fact be added to 

 it, an entire Normal Scheme, which nearly corresponds 

 to the observed one, starts potentially into existence. 



Some people hate the very name of statistics, but I 

 find them full of beauty and interest. Whenever they 

 are not brutalised, but delicately handled by the higher 

 methods, and are warily interpreted, their power of 

 dealing with complicated phenomena is extraordinary. 

 They are the only tools by which an opening can be cut 



(2) If the Measures at any two specified Grades are given, the whole 

 Scheme of Measures is thereby determined. Let A, B be the two given 

 Measures of which A is the larger, and let a, b be the values of the tabular 

 Deviations for the same Grades, as found in Table 8, not omitting their 

 signs of plus or minus as the case may be. 



Then the (J of the Scheme = I . (The sign of Q is not to be re- 

 garded ; it is merely a magnitude.) 



Example : A, situated at Grade 55, = 14'38 

 B, situated at Grade 5, = 9'12 

 The corresponding tabular Deviations are : a = -f-0'19 ; b 2'44. 



M = 14.38 - 0-19 X 2 = 14-0 

 or = 9-12 + 2-44 X 2 = 14'0 



