322 
Miscellanea 
But there is another disturbing factor, which the diagrams make at once obvious, the mean 
health of parents is in very considerable degree better than that of the offspring. Measuring 
our mean health of any population in sanitaces from the division between " Robust " and 
" Normally Healthy," negative towards normally healthy, we have the following results : 
TABLE I. 
Mean Healths of Various Populations. 
A 
Fathers of Sons : + 2-' 
Fathers of Daughters : - 2 09 ~ 11 
Mothers of Sons : - 20-22 sa.l 
2-49. 
•72 sa.l 
•09 sa.J ' 
sa. ) 
'■29. 
■0-89. 
Mothers of Daughters : - 1773 
Sons of Fathers: -17 - 11 sa.l 
Sons of Mothers : - 16-82 sa.J ~ 
Daughters of Fathers : - 35-53 sa.l 
Daughters of Mothers : -34-64 sa.j 
These results show at once that the health of the parents is far better than that of their 
offspring. This does not imply that the younger generation has degenerated but only that 
there is a selection of the more healthy for parentage ; the more robust men and women are, 
the more likely they are to be parents and repeated parents. The differences between sous of 
fathers and sons of mothers is due to a difference of material and the same applies to daughters 
of fathers and daughters of mothers ; these differences are probably those of random sampling. 
The differences in the cases of parents are more marked and possibly significant. If they be, 
then we have some slight suggestion that a healthy father and a delicate mother would be more 
likely to have sons and a delicate father and a healthy mother daughters. Even if there be 
anything in the suggestion, it would only be shown in large numbers, and is not a universal rule 
for individual pairs. All we can say is that the numbers do not flatly contradict a popular 
impression of the kind. 
(3) Another result brought out by our numbers is that the health of the male is markedly 
better than that of the female in both generations ; this is possibly the effect of a more stringent 
selection of the male. Such a selection may be of two kinds, first the known heavier death-rate 
of the male, and secondly a greater objection to admission of delicacy or even to giving a record 
at all on the part of the delicate male. The general difference can be seen in the following 
percentages of delicate individuals : 
TABLE II. 
Percentages of Delicate Individuals in Various Populations. 
Fathers of Sons : 
7-76 % 
Fathers of Daughters : 
9-68 % 
Sons of Fathers : 
13 69 7 0 
Sons of Mothers : 
13-57 7„ 
Mothers of Sons : 
1 6-65 7 0 
Mothers of Daughters : 
16-56 7„ 
Daughters of Fathers : 
20-44 7 o 
Daughters of Mothers : 
20-82 7„ 
There is an increase in the delicacy rate as we pass from Fathers of Sons to Fathers of 
Daughters ; a slight fall only in the delicacy rate as we pass from Mothers of Sons to Mothers 
of Daughters. But both are supported by the rates of " Very Robust " where we find the 
following percentages : Fathers of Sons 18-76 ; Fathers of Daughters 17-91 ; Mothers of Sons 
U-28 ; Mothers of Daughters 13-02. 
