72 NATURAL INHERITANCE. [chap. 



to say nothing of its being more interesting by far than 

 one of sweet peas or of moths. 



Record of Family Faculties, or R.F.F. Data. — The 

 source from which the larger part of my data is derived 

 consists of a valuable collection of " Eecords of Family 

 Faculties," obtained through the offer of prizes. They 

 have been much tested and cross-tested, and have borne 

 the ordeal very fairly, so far as it has been applied. It 

 is well to reprint the terms of the published offer, in 

 order to give a just idea of the conditions under which 

 they were compiled. It was as follows : 



" Mr. Francis G-alton offers 500Z. in prizes to those 

 British Subjects resident in the United Kingdom who 

 shall furnish him before May 15, 1884, with the best 

 Extracts from their own Family Eecords. 



" These Extracts will be treated as confidential docu- 

 ments, to be used for statistical purposes only, the 

 insertion of names of persons and places being required 

 solely as a guarantee of authenticity and to enable Mr. 

 Galton to communicate with the writers in cases where 

 further question may be necessary. 



" The value of the Extracts will be estimated by the 

 degree in which they seem likely to facilitate the scien- 

 tific investigations described in the preface to the 

 ' Record of Family Faculties.' 



" More especially : 



" (a) By including every direct ancestor who stands 

 within the limits of kinship there specified. 



" (b) By including brief notices of the brothers and 



