vii.] DISCUSSION OF THE DATA OF STATURE. 87 



The effect of Artistic Taste on marriage selection is 

 discussed in Chapter X., and this also is shown to be 

 small. The influence on the race of Bias in Marriage 

 Selection will be discussed in that chapter. 



I have taken much trouble at different times to 

 determine whether Stature plays any sensible part in 

 marriage selection. I am not yet prepared to offer 

 complete results, but shall confine my remarks for the 

 present to the particular cases with which we are now 

 concerned. The shrewdest test is to proceed under the 

 guidance of Problem 2, page 68. I find the Q of 

 Stature among the male population to be 17 inch, 

 and similarly for the transmuted statures of the female 

 population. Consequently if the men and (transmuted) 

 women married at random so far as stature was con- 

 cerned, the Q in a group of couples, each couple 

 consisting of a pair of summed statures, would be 

 \/2 x 17 inches = 2 '41 inches. Therefore the Q in a 

 group of which each element is the mean stature of a 

 couple, would be half that amount, or 1 '20 inch. This 

 closely corresponds to what I derived from the data 

 contained in the first and in the last column but one 

 of Table 11. The word " Mid-Parent," in the headings 

 to those columns, expresses an ideal person of composite 

 sex, whose Stature is half way between the Stature of 

 the father and the transmuted Stature of the mother. I 

 therefore conclude that marriage selection does not pay 

 such regard to Stature, as deserves being taken into 

 account in the cases with which we are concerned. 



I tried the question in another but ruder way, by 



