August II, 1904] NATURE 



355 



B LhU — Useful to corroborate and to check. 



;_From the Crown— as knighthood and all superior orders. From 

 pub'ic bodies — as honorary university degrees, Fellowship of Royal 

 Society (all F.R.S. were granted a * ), of Royal Academy, and other 



selected associat 



^Biographical notices — as 

 other standard collect 

 of literary and scien 

 time; Who's Who.' 



Dictionary of National Biography and in 

 IS. Obituary and other notices in the journals 

 ■ ■ Special memoirs Men of the 



C List. — Personal estimates taken into account. 



nnent county rr 

 is a scholar, &c. 



Active in ptiblic affairs, successful in business. 

 Good professional position. Of high repute 



D List. — deferring wholly to women. 



A social leader. Great force of character. Reputed very clever. Artistic 

 (in any way) to an exceptional degree. Successful work in educational, 

 civic and philanthropic matters was also taken into account. Brilliant 

 prize winnings at school or college. The following are examples of the 

 more suggestive returns (but slightly modified). _ "I have no hesitation 



in judgmg her to be ' noteworthy. Acquisitive^ mind of a high 



order." "Learned both Greek and Hebrew unassisted." " Had a 

 great and recognised influence in forming the char.acter of her (distin- 

 guished) sons." " Helped her husband greatly in his (standard) 



-Referring to youths only, and 

 qualification of - 



ching at most the 



■Good place in examinations, though lower than the very high ones men- 

 tioned above. School scholarships and exhibitions of fair importance. 



Much less difficult- was experienced in assigning marks 

 .than had been anticipated. The totals of the number given 

 were 183 of * , 1S8 of +, 83 of — . 



The 183 ^ included 23 fellows of the Royal Society-. 

 Brothers were only counted once. 



.Abbreviations used in the schedule are employed here also, 

 to distinguish different kinds of kinship that bear the same 

 popular names, as uncles and first cousins. They are con- 

 venient, and seem to have been easily understood. They 

 were first suggested by me in Nature of January 28 

 of this year: — b>'o = brother ; da = daughter; /a = father; 

 //H = husband; me = mother ; ii = sister; so or son = son; 

 Ui = wife. /a hro son means " MY father's brother's son 

 IS "; »)ie da means " MY mother's daughter IS "; 

 so Il'i hro means " MY son's wife's brother IS," &c. 



The total amount of marks that were thus assigned to 

 each grade of kinship are given in Table I. For example, 

 out of the no /a /a /a of the no senders, 3 were allotted 

 :a *, I a -+-, and none a — . Out of the no /a the corre- 

 sponding numbers were 27, 25, 5. 



Table I. — Distribution of Symbols and of Indices of Success 

 among the Kinsfolk of the no Senders. 



Total 183 of * , 188 of -h, 83 of - . 



iiples:— the index for fa fa fi is equal to 3 multiplied into 3, plu 

 nultiplied into i, =9-1-1, =11; that for si son is equal to ft) 

 ■ ■--, -t-I>;r,)=3-(-8-|-I = i- 



NO. 1815, VOL. 70] 



Tables II. and 111. are based on Table I. 



Table II. — Successes of Kinsmen of Fellows of the Royal 

 Society. 



A.— Through Male lii 



Kinship Index of s 



fa fa bro 

 f. .0^ 



1;.— Through Female li 

 Kiii,hip Index of 



■: „te bro 



K popular notion that ability is mainly transmitted 

 through female lines is more than contradicted by these 

 figures. 



The families of the fellows of the Royal Society must 

 be fertile, because the number of brothers, whether of selves 

 or of fathers, came out closely as 2-43. I will not now 

 pursue the analysis, as the other kinds of kinship are hardly 

 numerous enough in the present collection to justify 

 conclusions. 



Table III. — Indices of Success among near Kinsmen in Ascend- 

 ing Generations of the wo Contributors. 



Distribution of Success in the Families of Successful Me> 

 (from Table III.) 



MEAN 



■^ 3 



The upper line of the diagram indicates the successes of 

 direct male ancestors, the lower line those of their brothers. 

 The mean level of the community was inferred from the 

 fact that it cannot be higher than the lowest entries in 

 Table III., so far as these are to be trusted, and that these 

 would be of barely perceptible magnitude in the small 

 diagram. 



Relation of Success to Natural .Ability. — The success of 



