62   NATURAL INHERITANCE.   [011A'.

The Charms of Statistics.-It is difficult to understand why statisticians commonly limit their inquiries to Averages, and do not revel in more comprehensive views. Their souls seem as dull to the charm of variety as that of the native of one of our flat English counties, whose retrospect of Switzerland was that, if its mountains could be thrown into its lakes, two nuisances would be got rid of at once. An Average is but a solitary fact, whereas if a single other fact be added to it, an entire Normal Scheme, which nearly corresponds to the observed one, starts potentially, into existence.

Some people hate the very name of statistics, but I find them full of beauty and interest. Whenever they are not brutalised, but delicately handled by the higher methods, and are warily interpreted, their power of dealing with complicated phenomena is extraordinary. They are the only tools by which an opening can be cut

(2) If the Measures at any two specified Grades are given, the whole Scheme of Measures is thereby determined. Let A, B be the two given Measures of which A is the larger, and let a, b be the values of the tabular Deviations for the same Grades, as found in Table 8, not omitting their signs of plus or minus as the case may be.

Then the Q of the Scheme = 4b . (The sign of Q is not to be re

garded ; it is merely a magnitude.)

M=A -aQ; or M=B- bQ.

Example :   A, situated at Grade 55°, = 14.38

B, situated at Grade 5°, = 9.12

The corresponding tabular Deviations are : a = + 0-19; b = - 2.44. Therefore Q = 1488 - 9.12 = 5.26 = 2.0

0-19+2-44 2.63

M=14.38-0.19X2=14.0

or   9.12+2.44X2=14.0