Recognized HTML document

iv.] SCHEMES OF DISTRIBUTION AND OF FREQUENCY. 37

the distribution of any faculty has been ascertained, we can tell from the measurement, say of our child, how he ranks among other children in respect to that faculty, whether it be a physical gift, or one of health, or of intellect, or of morals. As the years go by, we may learn by the same means whether he is making his way towards the front, whether he just holds his place, or whether he is falling back towards the rear. Similarly as regards the position of our class, or of our nation, among other classes and other nations.


Schemes of Distribution and their Grades.-I shall best explain my graphical method of expressing Distribution, which I like the more, the more I use it, and which I have latterly much developed, by showing how to determine the Grade of an individual among his fellows in respect to any particular faculty. Suppose that we have already put on record the measures of many men in respect to Strength, exerted as by an archer in pulling his bow, and tested by one of Salter's well-known dial instruments with a movable index. Some men will have been found strong and others weak ; how can we picture in a compendious diagram, or how can we define by figures, the distribution of this faculty of Strength throughout the group? How shall we determine and specify the Grade that any particular person would occupy in the group? The first step is to marshal our measures in the orderly way familiar to statisticians, which is shown in Table I. I usually work to about twice its degree of minuteness, but enough