578 
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[APRIL 21, 1904 
mittee and of others interested will be directed in the 
second part of this report. 
Dr. Murie confirms what has often been stated for 
other localities, viz. that the shrimpers destroy enor- 
mous quantities of the younger members of valuable 
species of flat fish. Whether the destruction alluded 
to is justified by the apparently unfailing perennial 
abundance of the brood fishes is doubtful. As has been 
pointed out by Dr. Petersen, there may be plenty of 
eggs and young fry of a given species, and yet the 
number of the larger and relatively much more valu- 
able fishes may be seriously declining, as is maintained 
by many to be the case with plaice and soles. The 
question rather is whether the little flat fishes which 
escape the shrimpers in the Thames Estuary are 
numerous enough to replenish the stock of the larger 
fishes in the deeper waters off shore. In this connec- 
tion local interests ought to be subordinated to those | 
of the country in general, and therein seems to lie the 
danger of a too concentrated attention to purely local 
interests to which sea_ fisheries committees are 
naturally liable. 
AY SHUDY (Ol VGENUGS: 
A Study of British Genius. By Havelock Ellis. Pp. 
xiv+ 300. (London: Hurst and Blackett, Ltd., 
1904.) Price 7s. 6d. net. 
Me HAVELOCK ELLIS points out that owing 
to the completion of the ‘‘ Dictionary of 
National Biography ”’ it has at last become possible to 
obtain a comprehensive view of the men and women 
who have built up English civilisation, and in order to 
ascertain the composition of these elements of in- 
tellectual ability which the British Islands have con- 
tributed to the world, and as a help to the study of 
the nature of genius generally, he has freely made use 
of this monumental work. 
basis of eminence those to whom at least three pages 
are devoted in the ‘* Dictionary,’’ but he also included | 
some about whom less was said if they had shown 
intellectual ability of a high order, and conversely he 
eliminated those about whom much was written if they 
did not possess intellectual ability. The final selection 
yielded 975 British men of a high degree of intellectual 
eminence and 55 women. These 1030 persons are dis- 
cussed from various points of view, and in appendices 
lists are given of their names, their activities, their 
places of origin, the occupation of their fathers, and 
other data. 
Apparently the counties that have contributed most 
largely to the making of English men of genius are 
Norfolk, Suffolk, | Hertfordshire, | Warwickshire, 
Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Buckinghamshire, 
Cornwall, Dorsetshire, Oxfordshire and Shropshire ; 
perhaps Somerset, Devonshire, Gloucestershire, Wilt- 
shire and Essex should be added to this list. Mr. 
Havelock Ellis recognises three great foci of intel- 
lectual ability in England:—(1) the East Anglian 
focus; (2) the south-western focus; and (3) the focus 
of the Welsh Border. The first of these is the most 
recent and the most mixed ethnologically, as East 
NO. 1799, von. 69] 
The author took as a | 
| extremely low. 
| owes much to the Anglo-Dane. 
Anglia is very open to invasion, and all kinds of 
foreigners have settled there. The second is the 
largest and the oldest, and the population has much 
darker hair; it may be called the Goidelic-Iberian dis- 
trict. The district is defended by Wansdyke and 
Bokerley Dyke. The third is termed the Anglo- 
Brythonic — district. The <Anglo-Danish part of 
England—Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, 
Yorkshire, and thence into Scotland—has its owm 
peculiar anthropological characters. Its children have: 
usually been more remarkable for force of character 
than for force of intellect. East Anglia is productive 
of great statesmen, ecclesiastics and scholars, and of 
musical composers and painters. It has no aptitude 
for abstract thinking; its special characters seem to be 
humanity, patience, grasp of detail, and love of 
liberty. The people of the south-western focus are 
sailors rather than scholars, and courtiers rather than 
statesmen; they are innovators and pioneers in the 
physical and intellectual worlds, and, above all, are im- 
pressive, accomplished, and irresistible personalities. 
The genius of the Welsh Border is artistic in the widest 
sense, and notably poetic; there is a tendency to literary 
| and oratorical eloquence, frequently tinged with re- 
ligious or moral emotion, and there are no scientific 
men of the first order. The genius of Scotland has . 
been mainly produced by the tract between the Cheviots. 
and the Grampians. 
In science Scotland stands very high, Ireland 
It is in the exact sciences that the 
Anglo-Dane triumphs; but the science of the district 
is not exclusively mathematical, and geology especially 
The East Anglian is 
a natural historian in the widest sense, and shows 
little or no mathematical aptitude. It is not easy to 
see anything specific or definitely Brythonic in the 
scientific activities of the Welsh Border; at most it may 
be said there is some tendency for science here to take 
on a technological or artistic character. The scientific 
characters of the south-western focus are quite clear 
what we find here is the mechanical impulse, and more 
especially the physiological temper; inventors are 
numerous. 
This is only one of the various subjects dealt with: 
in this interesting book; in the chapter on heredity and 
parentage we find it stated that inheritance of ability 
is equally frequent through father and mother; genius— 
producing families are apt to be large, and the men 
of ability tend to be the offspring of predominantly 
| boy-producing parents. and perhaps women of ability 
tend to belong to girl-producing parents. There is. 
a tendency for men of ability to be either the youngest 
or more especially the eldest of the family. The 
fathers of our eminent persons have been  vre- 
dominantly middle-aged or even elderly, while the 
mothers have been at the period of greatest vigour and! 
maturity. 
Eminent persons have frequently shown marked con- 
stitutional delicacy in infancy and early life, but many 
developed quite exceptional physical health and vigour- 
The chief feature in childhood, brought out by the pre- 
sent data, is precocity, and this character is discussed 
at some length. The relation of eminence to patho- 
