CHAPTER Vf
DATA.
Records of Family Faculties, or R. F. F. data.-Special Data.-Measures
at my Anthropometric Laboratory.-Experiments on Sweet Peas.
I HAD to collect all my data for myself, as nothing existed, so far as I know, that would satisfy even my primary requirement. This was to obtain records of at least two successive generations of some population of considerable size. They must have lived under conditions that were of a usual kind, and in which no great varieties of nurture were to be found. Natural selection must have had little influence on the characteristics that were to be examined. These must be measurable, variable, and fairly constant in the same individual. The result of numerous inquiries, made of the most competent persons, was that I began my experiments many years ago on the seeds of sweet peas, and that at the present time I am breeding moths, as will be explained in a later chapter, but this book refers to a human population, which, take it all in all, is the easiest to work with when the data are once obtained,
