Characterisation, especially by Letters   555

Enclosed. " Extension of the Nomenclature of Kinship." The method I adopted in your columns, August 11, 1904, of briefly expressing kinship has proved most convenient; it has been used in a forthcoming volume by Mr E. Schuster and myself on Noteworthy Families. I write now to show that it admits of being particularised by the use of foot-figures, as in the following example, which refers to the more highly placed relatives of the newly elected King of Norway.

Haakon VII, King of Norway (b. 1872).

fa,,   Frederick, Crown Prince of Denmark (b. 1843).

fas fis   Christian IX, King of Denmark (b. 1818).

f'a,, bro11   George I, King of the Hellenes (b. 1845).

As sit   Dagmar, widow of Alexander III, Tsar of Russia, who d. 1894. ,ja,y sit son, Nicholas II, Tsar of Russia (b. 1868).

f"a,b si,   Alexandra, Queen of England (b. 1844). fa,, si, son, George, Prince of Wales (b. 1865).

fa,s si, da3 also wife, Princess Maud (b. 1869) of England.

The formulae are to be read thus : "His (the King of Norway's) father is the 1st (eldest) son, and is Frederick, Crown Prince of Denmark"; "his (the K. of Norway's) father's father is Christian IX"; ... "his father's 2nd sister's 1st son is Nicholas II"; ... "his father's 1st sister's 3rd daughter, who is also his (the K. of Norway's) wife, is the Princess Maud." These footfigures need not interfere with the simplicity of the general effect, while they enable a great deal of additional information to be included. FRANCIS GALTON. Nature, December 14, 1905.

HOTEL D'ANGLETERRE, BIARRITZ. December 17, 1905.

DEAREST MILLY, All goes on here steadily and well, but it is mostly overcast and foggy with only occasional sunny days, suitable for excursions to the battle-fields. It seems English ground. We possessed it for 299 years (from 1100) and occupied it in 1813-14. How Wellington's army did fight! His movements were so quick and sure. I see that one important success was due to the then newly invented Congreve rockets. He got with difficulty and at the close of a day a comparatively small body of his men across the Adour, upon whom a manyfold larger body of French swooped down from Bayonne. Each English soldier had two rockets in his knapsack and others in store. They launched these against the French, who had never seen the like before, and who were seized with panic and ran back. I find I was wrong in saying that bayonets got their name from Bayonne. It was from a neighbouring village, Bayonnette.

"Explain the relationship between (1) a gardener, (2)a billiard-player, (3) an actor, (4) a verger." The gardener attends to his p's (peas), the billiard player to his q's (cues), the actor to his p's and q's, and the verger to his keys and pews. If you want a short novel to read, try The lost Napoleon, by Sir Gilbert Parker (who is here). How happy you must be with your housefull. I suppose Amy's headache at the time you wrote is long since a thing of the past. The impending dissolution has stopped for a time the publication of books, as Murray told me it would some time ago. So I suppose mine is delayed for that reason. People are found to read little else than newspapers at the time of General Elections. Eva is particularly well and I ditto, with reasonable reservations due to getting older and less mobile by far. This is an excellent place for carriages, but driving is usually too cold now to be pleasant. I want vicarious exercise, like being tossed in a blanket (of course, not occasionally bumped on the floor as in school-boy days). Some mechanism ought to be devised for shaking elderly people in a healthful way, and in many directions*. Music might go on mechanically at the same time, with its rhythms and shakes all in harmony. Excuse nonsense. With much love.

Ever affectionately, FRANCIS GALTON.

HOTEL D'ANGLETERRE, BIARRITZ. December 22, 1905.

DEAR SCHUSTER, I am glad you wrote; the point raised requires careful consideration. I had thought of it from time to time, and have done so more carefully now. The precise

Cf. Sir Alfred Yarrow's electrically-driven rocking or rolling bed !

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