NA TURE 



97 



THURSDAY, MAY 31, 1906. 



FAMILY ABILITY. 

 ( 1 ) Kiilcworthy Families (Modern Science). By Francis 



Oalton, F.R.S., and Edgar Schuster. Pp. xlii + 96. 



(London : John Murray, 1906.) Price 6s. net. 

 ^2) Mental and Moral Heredity in Royalty. By 



Fredericlv Adams Woods, M.D. Pp. viii + 312. 



(New York : Henry Holt and Co., igo6.) 

 ■(i) TN the spring of 1904 a circular was issued to all 

 -L Fellows of the Royal Society whose names 

 appeared in the year-book for 1904 in which they were 

 asked to give particulars of the achievements of their 

 relatives. A statistical examination of the inform- 

 ation thus furnished is made by Dr. Gallon in the 

 preface to the volume before us, while Mr. Schuster 

 has selected from the returns particulars of sixty-six 

 families containing at least three noteworthy kins- 

 men. The prominence given to the latter part of the 

 work suggests that the primary object of the inquiry 

 was not statistical, but was to form an index of those 

 families now represented by men of science among 

 what might be described as " the intellectual 

 aristocracy." 



When applying statistical methods to the inform- 

 ation furnished Dr. Galton was confronted by several 

 diiTiculties ; only 207 of the 467 persons addressed sent 

 serviceable replies, and of these only about one-half 

 gave complete returns, so Dr. Galton found he had 

 only 100 families to consider. In order to make any 

 comparison between the kinsfolk of Fellows of the 

 Royal Society and the generality it was therefore 

 necessary not only to form a conjecture of the pro- 

 portion of noteworthy persons in the community, but 

 also to consider the reasons which prompted the large 

 proportion of Fellows who abstained from replying — 

 if, as Dr. Galton suggests, they were of a poorer class 

 tiian those who replied, weight must be given to 

 this consideration in the comparisons. The much 

 debated question of environment is also referred to, 

 and Dr. Galton gives two tables from which he con- 

 cludes that if ability and environment are positively 

 correlated, the association between success and ability 

 becomes closer. We are not quite convinced by the 

 tables, as it is hard to see the reason for splitting the 

 nine possible combinations of ability (high, medium, 

 and low) and environment (high, medium, and low) 

 into three grades of success in Table H., which gives 

 "ability independent of environment," while in 

 Table HI., showing " ability correlated with environ- 

 ment," the nine groups are distributed into live 

 grades. The average number of relations which each 

 individual has in a stationary community had to be 

 considered, and this affords Dr. Galton the oppor- 

 tunity of giving the interesting note which appeared 

 in Nature for September 29, 1904 (vol. Ixx., p. 529). 

 The conclusion reached after making allowance for 

 thr various points mentioned is that able fathers pro- 

 duce able children in a much larger proportion than 

 the generality, but as the statistics cannot be thrown 

 into a form suitable for obtaining the usual co- 

 NO. 1909, VOL. 74] ' 



efficients of correlation, it is impossible to compare 

 the results with recent statistical work on heredity. 



The book is the first volume issued by the Eugenics 

 Record Office of the University of London, a fact that 

 gives it an additional interest, and encourages us to 

 looK forward to further work on the interesting sub- 

 ject which the office has — as the result of Dr. Gallon's 

 generosity — been established to investigate. 



(2) This book gives us the result of an attempt to 

 study some of the problems of heredity with the help 

 of statistics drawn from the Royal Families of Europe. 

 Dr. Woods has collected information from various 

 sources, and whenever possible he has considered the 

 view taken by more than one authority in the hope 

 of eliminating the persona! element which most people 

 connect closely with historical work. The method 

 adopted was to record every individual in every degree 

 of relationship and also everything which could assist 

 an estimate of the mental or moral status of any his- 

 torical character considered. Dr. Woods then decided 

 into which of ten groups showing grades of intelligence 

 each person in his royal population should be put, and 

 in order to give readers the opportunity of verifying 

 his particulars he has given a list of the persons in 

 their grades of intelligence. A similar plan was 

 follovi-ed for morality. 



The various Royal Houses are then examined in 

 turn ; a genealogical table of each is given showing 

 the grades assigned to each person whose name occurs, 

 and Dr. Woods points out the recurrence of marked 

 characteristics in successive generations such as the 

 Bourbon insanity or the Hapsburg " lip," though the 

 latter is the only physical characteristic examined at 

 any length. Throughout this, the main part of the 

 work, an attempt is made to show that heredity can 

 account for the total or partial recurrence of the type 

 of mind exhibited by an ancestor, and although at 

 times Dr. Woods seems to try to explain too much, he 

 has certainly succeeded in giving a clear impression of 

 his opinion of the statistics he has collected. He 

 frequently suggests when discussing family traits, that 

 inheritance seems alternative rather than blended, but 

 if this leads the reader to expect an illustration of 

 Mendel's laws in the statistical part of the volume he 

 will be disappointed by Dr. Woods's footnote to p. 274, 

 in which he says that he has not been able to detect 

 the existence of " dominant " and " recessive " types, 

 and adds : — 



" Although the mind seems in its inheritance to 

 roughly obey the principle of alternative inheritance 

 and thus indicate segregation in the germ-cells, I do 

 not feel that this is sufficiently clearly defined to enable 

 one to classify according to hard and fast types, as is 

 possible in dealing with the features of certain plants 

 and animals like the colours of mice, whether albino 

 or gray ; or the shapes of peas, whether round or 

 angular." 



Dr. Woods points out that the large amount of in- 

 breeding which has taken place in some of the Royal 

 Families has certainly not led to sterility, though it 

 is, we think, probable that it has helped to accentuate 

 in offspring some of the noticeable characteristics on 

 which the author dwells. 



