166   NATURAL INHERITANCE.   [CHAP.

ceding chapters. There are a certain number of recognized groups of disease, which we may call A; B, C, &c., and the proportion of persons who die of these diseases in each of the two generations is the same. The preliminary question to be determined is whether and to what extent those who die of A in the second generation, are more or less often descended from those who died of A in the first generation, than would have been the case if disease were neither hereditarily transmitted nor clung to the same families for any other reason. Similarly as regards B, C, D, and the rest.

This inquiry would be more difficult than those hitherto attempted, because longevity and fertility are both affected by the state of health, and the circumstances of home life and occupation have a great effect in causing and in checking disease. Also because the father and mother are found in some notable cases to contribute disease in very different degrees to their male and female descendants.

I had hoped even to the last moment, that my collection of Family Records would have contributed in some small degree towards answering this question, but after many attempts I find them too fragmentary for the purpose. It was a necessary condition of success to have the completed life-histories of many Fraternities who were born some seventy or more years ago, that is, during the earlier part of this century, as well as those of their parents and all their uncles and aunts. My Records contain excellent material of a_ later date, that will be valuable in future years ; but they must