Recognized HTML document

110   NATURAL INHERITANCE.   [cHAr.

to either of his Parents as he is to his Brother. In other words, the Parental kinship is only half as close as the Fraternal.


We have now seen that there is Regression from the Parent to his Son, from the Son to his Parent, and from the Brother to his Brother. As these are the only three possible lines of kinship, namely, descending, ascending, and collateral, it must be a universal rule that the unknown Kinsman, in any degree, of a known Man, is on the average more mediocre than he. Let P±D be the stature of the known man, and P f D' the stature of his as yet unknown kinsman, then it is safe to wager, in the absence of all other knowledge, that D' is less than D.


Squadron of Statures.--It is an axiom of statistics, as I need hardly repeat, that every large sample taken at random out of any still larger group, may be considered as identical in its composition, in such inquiries as these in which we are now engaged, where minute accuracy is not desired and where highly exceptional cases are not regarded. Suppose our larger group to consist of a million, that is of 1000 x 1000 statures, and that we had divided it at random into 1000 samples each containing 1000 statures, and made Schemes of each of them. The 1000 Schemes would be practically identical, and we might marshal them one behind the other in successive ranks, and thereby form a " Squadron," numbering 1000 statures each way, and standing