134 On the Inheritance of the Mental and Moral Characters in Man 
the physical characters change during the school period, it did not to a first 
approximation seem needful to allow for age changes in the mental and moral 
characters*. Such changes may exist, but they do not appear to be so marked 
as to substantially influence our results. 
In order to carry out this investigation I sought and received aid from the 
Government Grant Committee of the Royal Society. I have further to acknow- 
ledge the assistance I have received, in the task of reduction and computation, 
from a grant made to my department at University College, by the Worshipful 
Company of Drapers. 
I had deemed it desirable to measure not only the mental and moral characters, 
but a wide range of physical characters also. These would act as a check on the 
whole work, for we knew perfectly well what the inheritance of these physical 
characters might be expected to be. They were further needed as part of a 
more general investigation into the relationship between the mental and physical 
characters in man. In order to confine the cost of the inquiry within reasonable 
bounds, a special head-spanner was devised with the assistance of Mr Horace Darwin 
of the Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company. . This instrument has not the 
exactness, of course, of the metal callipers of the craniologists, but it affords, 
carefully handled, a quite adequate means of obtaining the maximum length, 
maximum breadth and auricular heiglit of the living head. It had further the 
great advantage that, made in numbers, it cost comparatively little and could 
be distributed widely among teachers. 
Schedules were then, after much consideration and some experimenting, pre- 
pared, in which teachers could briefly note the chief characteristics of the children 
under their charge. These schedules were white for a pair of brothers, pink for 
a pair of sisters, and blue for a brother and sister. Additional brothers were 
given on attached white, and additional sisters on attached pink sheets. With 
the schedules were distributed (a) printed directions for the use of the head- 
spanner ; (6) general directions as to the estimation of both the physical and 
mental characters ; and (c) two additional series of lithographed instructions, 
which were suggested by special inquiries of the teachers who first began the 
observations. Copies of the schedule and the general directions are printed in 
Ajjpendix I. 
The material took upwards of five years to collect. Appeal was made through 
the columns of the educational journals to teachers of all kinds, and our observa- 
tions were made not only in the great boys' public schools, in the girls' high schools 
and the grammar schools of the country, but in modern mixed schools, in national 
and elementary schools of all kinds, in board schools and private schools throughout 
the kingdom. Some 6000 schedules were distributed and between 3000 and 4000 
returned with more or less ample data. I have most heartily to thank the masters 
* An additional memoir on the change of mental and physical characters with growth is in course of 
preparation. 
