No. 647] FAMILY RESEMBLANCES 



507 



resemblance of near relatives is measured in terms of the 

 number of the latter who become distinguished, it is as- 

 sumed that distinction in any intellectual performance is 

 evidence of resemblance. Thus, a psychologist whose 

 cousin is a psychologist may be said without much fear 

 of contradiction to resemble that relative, but does he 

 really resemble his brother, who is a well-known judge! 

 Does he resemble his distinguished father, a former presi- 

 dent of the University of Michigan, a gifted adminis- 

 strator? ^ Apparently, that has been assumed. The fact 

 is, they do resemble each other in so far as they vary in 

 the same direction from the average person in the direc- 

 tion of performance. 



The selection of the group of scientific men us.ed has 

 become a classic in individual psychology and need not 

 be related in detail here.® Briefly, it may be said, the 

 workers in science were grouped in twelve general divi- 

 sions as follows : Anatomy, anthropology, botany, chem- 

 istry, geology, mathematics, pathology, physics, physiol- 

 ogy? psychology and zoology. The workers in each 

 science were arranged in an order of merit by ten leading 

 men in each of those sciences. The average position as- 

 signed each man, together with the probable error, was 

 computed. Thus each man's position with the reliabil- 

 ity of the figure describing his position was determined, 

 and a thousand of the leading men of science were selected 

 as a group for study. Two selections were made, the 

 first in 1903, the second in 1910. The lists varied some- 

 what in composition due to deaths, changes of position 

 within the group, removal to a foreign country and the 

 like.^ The positions attained were not published, that 



has become a member of the National Acadenn- of Scieiict's ami tl.o jiresi- 



6 J. McKeen Cattell, "American Men of Science," ai-pemlix. second 

 edition, 1910. 



• A third selection has now been made and will furnish material for a 

 continuation of this study. See "American :^Ien of Science/' third edi- 

 tion, J. McKeen Cattell and Dean E. Brimhall, 1921. 



