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APPENDIX D.   237

by far the most trustworthy group was that which consisted of the two parents and of the uncles and aunts on both sides. I have thus 46 good-tempered Fraternities with an aggregate of 333 parents, uncles, and aunts ; and 71 bad-tempered, with 633 parents, uncles, and aunts. In the former group, 26 per cent. were good tempered and 18 bad ; in the latter group, 18 were good-tempered and 29 were bad, the remainder being neutral. These results are almost the exact counterparts of one another, so I seem to have made good hits in framing the definitions. More briefly, we may say that when the Fraternity is good-tempered as above defined, the number of good-tempered parents, uncles, and aunts, exceeds that of the bad-tempered in the proportion of 3 to 2 ; and that when the Fraternity is bad-tempered, the proportions are exactly reversed.

I have attempted in other ways to work out the statistics of hereditary tempers, but none proved to be of sufficient value for publication. I can trace no prepotency of one sex over the other in transmitting their tempers to their children. I find clear indications of strains of bad temper clinging to families for three generations, but I cannot succeed in putting them into a numerical form.

It must not be thought that I have wished to deal with temper as if it were an unchangeable characteristic, or to assign more trustworthiness to my material than it deserves. Both these views have been discussed ; they are again alluded to to show that they are not dismissed from my mind, and partly to give the opportunity of adding a very few further remarks.

Persons highly respected for social and public qualities may be well-known to their relatives as having sharp tempers under strong but insecure control, so that they "flare up" now and then. I have heard the remark that those who are over-suave in ordinary demeanour have often vile tempers. If this be the case-and I have some evidence of its truth-I suppose they are painfully conscious of their infirmity, and through habitual endeavours to subdue it, have insensibly acquired an exaggerated suavity at the times when their temper is unprovoked. Illness, too, has much influence in affecting the temper. Thus I sometimes come across entries to the effect of, 11 not naturally ill-tempered, but peevish