74 NATURAL INHERITANCE. [CHAP. 



" The examination will be conducted by the donor of 

 the prizes, aided by competent examiners. 



" The value of the individual prizes cannot be fixed 

 beforehand. No prize will, however, exceed 5 Ql., nor be 

 less than 5l, and 500/. will on the whole be awarded. 



" A list of the gainers of the prizes will be posted 

 to each of them. It will be published in one or more 

 of the daily newspapers, also in at least one clerical, and 

 one medical Journal." 



The number of Family Records sent in reply to this 

 offer, that deserved to be seriously considered before 

 adjudging the prizes, barely reached 150 ; 70 of these 

 being contributed by males, 80 by females. The re- 

 mainder were imperfect, or they were marked " not for 

 competition," but at least 10 of these have been to some 

 degree utilised. The 150 Records were contributed 

 by persons of very various ranks. After classing the 

 female writers according to the profession of their 

 husbands, if they were married, or according to that of 

 their fathers, if they were unmarried, I found that each 

 of the following 7 classes had 20 or somewhat fewer 

 representatives : (1) Titled persons and landed gentry ; 

 (2) Army and Navy; (3) Church (various denomina- 

 tions) ; (4) Law ; (5) Medicine ; (6) Commerce, higher 

 class ; (7) Commerce, lower class. This accounts for 

 nearly 130 of the writers of the Records ; the remainder 

 are land agents, farmers, artisans, literary men, school- 

 masters, clerks, students, and one domestic servant in a 

 family of position. 



