286 THE TREND OF THE RACE 
same in the two classes. (2) The mean weight and height of the 
children of alcoholic parents were slightly greater than the weight 
and height of the children of the sober parents, but as the age of 
the former children is slightly greater, the correlations when 
corrected for age show a slight advantage in favor of the children 
of the sober. (3) The general health of the children of the alco- 
holic parents appears a little better than that of the children of the 
sober, perhaps because the more delicate children of the former 
died to a greater extent in infancy. There was actually more 
epilepsy in the children of the sober. (4) The vision was slightly 
better in the children of the alcoholics. (5) The intelligence of 
the children from the two classes of parents was so nearly the 
same that the difference was not significant. 
Although these results were based on a study of over a thou- 
sand school children, it is quite possible that fuller data would 
establish a different conclusion. The outcome, as Elderton and 
Pearson admit, was quite contrary to what one might reasonably 
expect, and it naturally evoked considerable criticism. Most of 
the criticisms were beside the mark and were successively met 
by the different replies which were made by Pearson and Elderton 
and by Pearson. Without entering into a discussion of the 
several points raised in this more or less acrimonious controversy, 
mention may be made of two objections which were much stressed 
by the critics of the memoirs in question. It was urged that the 
portions of the population dealt with were not representative of 
the people at large, and hence any conclusions drawn from the 
investigation would be of no value. The Edinburgh population, 
according to Saleeby, consisted of “‘ the slums in the North Canon- 
gate,” although a list of the trades represented by the parents 
showed a fairly typical series of occupations for the working 
classes. In the Manchester school ‘‘one child in each family, 
whether the parents were temperate or intemperate, was mentally 
defective.” In view of the strong hereditary character of mental 
defect, it is very probable that the Manchester parents represent 
a selected group rather strongly tainted with hereditary disa- 
bility. 
