232 NATURAL INHERITANCE. 



within the several classes are 36 per cent, of mild-tempered, 15 per 

 cent, of docile, 29 per cent, of fretful, 12 per cent of violent, 8 per 

 cent, of masterful. 



The importance assigned in marriage-selection to good and bad 

 temper is an interesting question, not only from its bearing on 

 domestic happiness, but also from the influence it may have in 

 promoting or retarding the natural good temper of our race, assum- 

 ing, as we may do for the moment, that temper is hereditary. I 

 cannot deal with the question directly, but will give some curious facts 

 in Table II. that throw indirect light upon it. There a comparison 

 is made of (A) the actual frequency of marriage between persons, 

 each of the various classes of temper, with (B) the calculated fre- 

 quency according to 'the laws of chance, on the supposition that 

 there had been no marriage-selection at all, but that the pairings, 

 so far as temper is concerned, had been purely at haphazard. There 

 are only 111 marriages in my lists in which the tempers of both 

 parents are recorded. On the other hand, the number of possible 

 combinations in couples of persons who belong to the five classes of 

 temper is very large, so I make the two groups comparable by 

 reducing both to percentages. 



It will be seen that with two apparent exceptions in the upper 

 left-hand corners of either Table (of 6 against 13, and of 10 against 

 5), there are no indications of predilection for, or avoidance of 

 marriage between persons of any of the five classes, but that the 

 figures taken from observation run as closely with those derived 

 through calculation, as could be expected from the small number of 

 observations. The apparent exceptions are that the percentage of 

 mild-tempered men who marry mild-tempered women is only 6, as 

 against 13 calculated by the laws of chance, and that those who 

 marry docile wives are 1 0, as against a calculated 5. There is little 

 difference between mildness and docility, so we may throw these 

 entries together without much error, and then we have 6 and 10, 

 or 16, as against 13 and 5, or 18, which is a close approximation. 

 We may compare the frequency of marriages between persons 

 of like temper in each of the five classes by reading the Table 

 diagonally. They are as (6), 2, 9, 2, 1, in the observed cases, 

 against (13), 2, 8, 1, 1, in the calculated ones; here the irregularity 

 of the 6 and 13, which are put in brackets for distinction sake, is 



