PREFACE
XXXI"
daughter, and the three that remained would leave no issue. They would either die as boys or girls or they would remain unmarried, or, if married, would have no children.
The reasonable and approximate assumption I now propose to make is that the number of fertile individuals is not grossly different to that of those who live long enough to have an opportunity of distinguishing themselves. Consequently, the calculations that apply to fertile persons will be held to apply very roughly to those who were in a position, so far as age is concerned, to achieve noteworthiness, whether they did so or not. Thus, if a group of ioo men had between them 2o noteworthy paternal uncles, it will be assumed that the total number of their paternal uncles who reached mature age was about zoo, making the intensity of success as 20 to ioo, or as i to 5. This method of roughly evading the serious difficulty arising from ignorance of the true values in the individual cases is quite legitimate, and close enough for present purposes.
CHAPTER VIII.-NUMBER OF NOTEWORTHY KINSMEN
IN EACH DEGREE.
The materials with which I am dealing do not admit of' adequately discussing noteworthiness in women, whose opportunities of achieving distinction are far fewer than those of men, and whose energies
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