Eugenics as a Creed and the Last Decade of Calton's Life 421

"The restriction placed by public sentiment and, in extreme cases, by penalty, on the number of offspring that a couple may propagate in Kantsaywhere, is based on that of their joint marks. If these exceed + 20 the restriction is nil and large families are encouraged. If between + 10 and + 20 they are restricted by public sentiment to about three children. If over 0 and under + 10 they are restricted to two children. If between 0 and - 10 they are restricted by law as well as by sentiment to one child. If below - 10 offspring are wholly prohibited to them. The above concessions were established as compromises, after balancing conflicting claims. It was necessary to take into account the need of the parents, the advantages of family life and the well-being of the children, as well as that of the race."

Chapter VII is entitled Measures and Marks. It commences with the following words

"A paragraph in the Calendar headed "Measures and Marks" greatly interested me in connection with my previous statistical studies. These enabled me to understand easily the methods used in Kantsaywhere, which must seem puzzling and fanciful to others to whom they are wholly new. Such persons will I fear skip this chapter."

Next follows a description of Galton's process of ranking by size. Then the quartiles are defined and we are told that half of their difference is taken equal to 10 Q-Vars *, while half of their sum is accepted as the middlemost value (median) of the series.

"Each measure is translated into the middlemost value of the series plus or minus so many Q-Vars. The quickly increasing variety of larger values than 30 Q-Vars and the fear of untrustworthiness in applying them have led the examiners in Kantsaywhere to limit their measures to a maximum of 30 Q-Vars, in each of the four principal divisions of the Examination. If the candidate obviously deserves still higher marks, they add a star (*) with . accompanying explanation. Tom's exclamation that I was ` at least 30 in personal qualities' was thus explained.

"Measurement by Q-Vars, or indeed by any kind of Var, in the case of all `Normal' variables t, has the further advantage of affording means whereby class-places may be converted into measurements, or vice versa, notwithstanding that they run at very different rates.

"...It is reasonably inferred that such faculties as cannot yet be directly measured, but which can be classified by judgment, will also obey the `normal' law. The suitability of candidates for a particular post, or the goodness of essays written by different candidates, are cases in point. Whenever the objects in a 'normal' group of values can be classified, their class-places can be converted into Q-Vars.

Conversion of Q- Vars into Centesimal Class-Places.

" Measures made in Q-Vars are converted into marks by multiplying them by a factor appropriate to the importance of the faculty measured."

Thus Galton says if the civic worth of one faculty be 2 that of a second, the marks of the first will be multiplied by 0.5, before combining the two.

* The " Var" is thus the tenth part of the "probable error " = •06745 x standard deviation. Thus 30 Q-Vars equal about 2.0235 times the standard deviation, and roughly about 2'/. of the population exceeds this.

t " Normal " variation is described in simple terms and attributed (erroneously) to " the great mathematician Gauss"; it is stated to be "with a useful degree of precision" the rule of distribution in the case of most anthropological measurements.