VII.] 



DISCUSSION OF THE DATA OF STATURE. 



Ill 



upon a square base. Our Squadron may be divided 

 either into 1000 ranks or into 1000 files. The ranks 

 will form a series of 1000 identical Schemes, the files 

 will form a series of 1000 rectangles, that are of the 

 same breadth, but of dissimilar heights. (See Fig. 14.) 

 It is easy by this illustration to give a general idea, 

 to be developed as we proceed, of the way in which any 

 large sample, A, of a Population gives rise to a group 

 of Kinsmen, Z, so distant as to retain no family likeness 



FIG. 14 



to A, but to be statistically undistinguishable from the 

 Population generally, as regards the distribution of their 

 statures. In this case the samples A and Z would form 

 similar Schemes. I must suppose provisionally, for the 

 purpose of easily arriving at an approximate theory, 

 that tall, short, and mediocre Parents contribute equally 

 to the next generation though this may not strictly 

 be the case. 1 



1 Oddly enough, the shortest couple on my list have the largest family, 

 namely, sixteen children, of whom fourteen were measured. 



