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42   NATURAL INHERITANCE.   (CHAP.

It must be understood that M, like the Mean or the . Average, is almost always an interpolated value, corresponding to no real measure. If the observations were infinitely numerous its position would not differ more than infinitesimally from that of some one of them ; even in a series of one or two hundred in number, the difference is insignificant.

Now let us make our Scheme answer another question. Suppose we want to know the percentage of men in the group of which we have been speaking, whose Strength lies between any two specified limits, as between 74 lbs. and 64 lbs. We draw horizontal lines (Fig. 4) from points on the side scale corresponding to either limit, and drop perpendiculars upon the base, from the points where those lines meet the curve. Then the number of Grades in the intercept is the answer. The Fig. shows that the number in the present case is 30 ; therefore 30 per cent. of the group have Strengths of Pull ranging between 74 and 64 lbs.

We learn how to transmute female measures of any characteristic into male ones, by comparing their respective schemes, and devising a formula that will change the one into the other. In the case of Stature, the simple multiple of 1.08 was found to do this with sufficient precision..

If we wish to compare the average Strengths of two different groups of persons, say one consisting of men and the other of women, we have simply to compare the values at the 50th Grades in the two schemes. For even if the Medians differ considerably from the Means,