STUDIES IN NATIONAL EUGENICS. 6i
I. Estimation of the average quality of the offspring of married couples, from their personal and ancestral data. This includes questions of fertility, and the determination of the "probable error" of the estimate for individuals, according to the data employed.
(a) " Biographical Index to Gifted Families," modern and recent, for publication. It might be drawn up on the same principle as my " Index to Achievements of Near Kinsfolk of some of the Fellows of the Royal Society " (see " Sociological Papers," Vol. I., p. 85). The Index refers only to facts creditable to the family, and to such of these as have already appeared in publications, which are quoted as authority for the statements. Other biographical facts that may be collected concerning these families are to be preserved for statistical use only.
(b) Biographies of capable families, who do not rank as " gifted," are to be collected, and kept in MS., for statistical use, but with option of publication.
(c) Biographies of families, who, as a whole, are distinctly below the average in health, mind, or physique, are to be collected. These include the families of persons in asylums of all kinds, hospitals, and prisons. To be kept for statistical use only.
(d) Parentage and progeny of representatives of each of the social classes of the community, to determine how far each class is derived from, and contributes to, its own and other classes. This inquiry must be carefully planned beforehand.
(e) Insurance Office data. An attempt to be made to carry out the suggestions of Mr. Palin Egerton, " Sociological Papers," Vol. I., p. 62, of obtaining material that the authorities would not object to give, and whose discussion might be advantageous to themselves as well as to Eugenics. The matter is now under consideration, so more cannot be said.
