172 NATURAL INHERITANCE. [CHAP. 



of cases. My material admits of no such delicacy of 

 division ; nevertheless it leads to some results worth 

 mentioning. 



In sorting my cases, I included under the head of 

 Consumption all the causes of death described by one or 

 the other following epithets, attention being also paid 

 to the context, and to the phraseology used elsewhere 

 by the same writer : Consumption ; Phthisis ; Tuber- 

 cular disease ; Tuberculosis ; Decline ; Pulmonary, or 

 lung disease ; Lost lung ; Abscess on lung ; Haemorrhage 

 of lungs (fatal) ; Lungs affected (here especially the 

 context was considered). All of these were reckoned 

 as actual Consumption. 



In addition to these there were numerous phrases of 

 doubtful import that excited more or less reasonable 

 suspicion. It may be that the disease had not suffi- 

 ciently declared itself to justify more definite language, 

 or else that the phrase employed was a euphemism to 

 veil a harsh truth. Paying still more attention to the 

 context than before, I classed these doubtful cases 

 under three heads: (1) Highly suspicious ; (2) Suspi- 

 cious ; (3) Somewhat suspicious. They were so rated 

 that four cases of the first should be reckoned equivalent 

 to three cases of actual consumption, four cases of the 

 second to two cases, and four of the third to one case. 



The following is a list of some of the phrases so dealt 

 with. The occasional appearance of the same phrase 

 under different headings is. due to differences in the 

 context : 



1. Highly suspicious: Consumptive tendency, Con- 



