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Hereditary Genius
319
C by the help of which that column had to be calculated. When I
began my inquiries, I did indeed try to obtain real and not estimated
data for C, by inquiring into the total numbers of kinsmen in each
degree, of every illustrious man, as well as of those who achieved
eminence. I wearied myself for a long time with searching
biographies, but finding the results very disproportionate to the labour,
and continually open to doubt after they had been obtained, I gave up
the task, and resigned myself to the rough but ready method of
estimated averages.
It is earnestly to be desired that breeders of animals would furnish
tables, like mine, on the distribution of different marked physical
qualities in families. The results would be far more than mere matters
of curiosity; they would afford constants for formulae by which, as I
shall briefly show in a subsequent chapter, the laws of heredity, as
they are now understood, may admit of being expressed.
In contrasting the columns B of the different groups, the first
notable peculiarity that catches the eye is the small number of the
sons of Commanders; they being 31, while the average of all the
groups is 48. There is nothing anomalous in this irregularity. I have
already shown, when speaking of the Commanders, that they usually
begin their active careers in youth, and therefore, if married at all,
they are mostly away from their wives on military service. It is also
worth while to point out a few particular cases where exceptional
circumstances stood in the way of the Commanders leaving male
issue, because the total number of those included in my lists is so
small, being only 32, as to make them of appreciable importance in
affecting the results. Thus, Alexander the Great was continually
engaged in distant wars, and died in early manhood: he had one
posthumous son, but that son was murdered for political reasons
when still a boy. Julius Caesar, an exceedingly profligate man, left
one ille-
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