374 
Miscellanea 
easily obtained and would be more reliable than those concerning individuals who lived perhaps 
100 years ago. 
Personally I feel that careful details concerning the life history of a baby, interesting as they 
may be, are of little value to the student of Eugenics, unless the hereditary ' history is fully 
given. The old difficulty of deciding the relative importance of eugenics or euthenics (the word 
used by Dr Taylor to describe the science of right living) is impossible of solution if the facts 
concerning any individual are restricted entirely to one side or the other. In Dr Taylor's 
Register the family is crowded out by the personal element. Dr Taylor fully recognizes our 
ignorance of the laws of heredity and of the question of how far " pronouncedly unfavourable 
heredity " can be influenced by euthenics, but I think he assumes that the race can be improved 
through a better environment to an extent which I venture to think is unproven. 
Both the Personal (did Famih/ History Register and the Life- Hi star jj Album are rather large 
volumes, somewhat alarming to the busy parent from the very size of them. But those who are 
keenly interested in the well-being of the race will be induced to keep the record ; they will be 
limited in number and may belong to a rather narrc^w circle, at least at the present time when 
the science of eugenics is still regarded as the fad of a few individuals. 
I believe that The Record of Family Faculties issued by Francis Galton in 1884 would prove 
far more convenient both for the recorder and for the statistical worker than either of the two 
more bulky registers, the Life-History Album and the Personal and Famil}' History Register. 
It is thirty-five years since this volume was first published and one marvels at the genius 
of the man who then saw what data would be needed to solve the problems of the present day. 
The introduction to tliis book supplies in a few words the justification for requiring the data 
and indicates the reason for the questions asked. Thus : 
3. Age at marriage Total fsons No. of sons deceased Ages 
4. Age of husband No. of [daughters No. of daughters deceased Ages 
In the introduction Francis Galton writes "The ages at marriage of the two parents, the 
muuber and the duration of life of the children, would enable inquiry to be made into fertility 
as associated with different admixtures of race or of disease tendencies. We have yet to learn 
the conditions under which some families are prolific in their various branches, and others die 
out." Further Question 5 is, Mode of life so far as affecting growth or health, and the justi- 
fication for asking this question is as follows: "The mode of life, so far as it affects growth 
or health, would, if known, throw light on the effect of nurture over nature. We requir'e to 
select the families in each of which there had been a noticeable difference in the mode of life of 
two or more of its members, and to cross divide those members into two groups, in one of 
which the mode of life had been healthy, the other in which it had been the reverse. Then by 
contrasting these groups we should see the relative effects of good and bad nurture on the 
development of body and mind, and on the health, fertility, and duration of life." 
According to the problems with which one has come in contact, each investigator would 
desire certain modifications in the questions asked, but on the whole, I believe that a collection 
of Records of Family Faculties would enable one to determine "many vital questions in domestic 
economics," and it is very desirable that this book of Galton's should be reissued. 
IV. The Check to the Fall in the Phthisis Death-rate since the Dis- 
covery of the Tubercle Bacillus and the Adoption of Modern 
Treatment. 
By KARL PEARSON, F.R.S. 
In 1911* I pointed out that from '65 to about '95 there was a continuous and rapid fall in 
the corrected phthisis death-rate, and also in the pei'centage which the deaths from ijhthisis 
were of all deaths. I further indicated that from 1895 onwards there had been a check to this 
* The. Fipht against Tuberculosis and the Death-rate from Phthisis, Cambridge University Press, 1911. 
