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CHAPTER VII.

DISCUSSION OF THE DATA OF STATURE.

Stature as a subject for inquiry.-l'Iarrie e Selection.-Issue of unlike Parents.-Description of the Tables of Stature. Mid-Stature of the Population.-Variability of the Population.-Variability of MidParents.-Variability in Co-Fraternities.-Regression : a, Filial ; b, Mid-Parental ; c, Parental; d, Fraternal.-Squadrons of Statures.Snccessive Generations of a People.-Natural Selection.-Variability in Fraternities.-Trustworthiness of the Constants.-General view of Kinship.-Separate Contribution from each Ancestor.-Pedigree Moths.

Stature as a Subject for Inquiry.-The first of these inquiries into the laws of human heredity deals with hereditary Stature, which is an excellent subject for statistics. Some of its merits are obvious enough, such as the ease and frequency with which it may be measured, its practical constancy during thirty-five or forty years of middle life, its comparatively small dependence upon differences of bringing up, and its inconsiderable influence on the rate of mortality. Other advantages which are not equally obvious are equally great. One of these is due to the fact that human stature is not a simple

element, but a sum of the accumulated lengths or

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