44 



Mr. F. Galton. 

 Fig. 1. 



[Jan. 21, 



"stature-scheme." The numerous cases near mediocrity that differ 

 little from one another, cause the middle portion of tbe upper 

 boundary of the stature-scheme to assume a gentle slope, which 

 increases rapidly towards either end, where the increasing rareness 

 of more and more exceptional cases causes that boundary line to slope 

 upwards, as an asymptote to one of the termini, and downwards as 

 an asymptote to the other. 



Now suppose that instead of compressing 1000 statures between 

 the termini, I compressed 1000 X 1000, or a million of them, the, 

 stature-scheme would be unaltered, except that such small irregular- 

 ities as might have been previously seen would become smoothed. 

 The height of the middlemost or median stature-line would remain 

 the same as before, aud so would the heights of the lines standing at 

 each quarter, each tenth, and at every other proportionate distance 

 between the termini. Or again, instead of arranging the lines in a 

 single scheme, we might arrange them in a thousand schemes, which 

 as we have seen, would be practically identical in shape, and we may 

 place these schemes side by side, as is done in Z, fig. 1, forming a 



