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62
Hereditary Genius
Table II. also gives materials for judging of the comparative influence of
the male and female lines, in conveying ability. Thanks to my method of
notation, it is perfectly easy to separate the two lines in the way I am about
to explain. I do not attempt to compare relations in the first degree of
kinship—namely, fathers with mothers, sons with daughters, or brothers
with sisters, because there exists no criterion for a just comparison of the
natural ability of the different sexes. Nay, even if there were means for
testing it, the result would be fallacious. A mother transmits masculine
peculiarities to her male child, which she does not and cannot possess; and,
similarly, a woman who is endowed with fewer gifts of a masculine type
than her husband, may yet contribute in a larger degree to the masculine
intellectual superiority of her son. I therefore shift my inquiry from the first,
to the second and third degrees of kinship. As regards the second degree, I
compare the paternal grandfather with the maternal, the uncle by the
father's side with the uncle by the mother's, the nephew by the brother's
side with the nephew by the sister's, and the grandson by the son with the
grandson by the daughter. On the same principle I compare the kinships in
the third degree: that is to say, the father of the father's father with the
father of the mother's mother, and so on. The whole of the work is
distinctly exposed to view in the following compact table:—
In the second degree:
7G. + 9U. + 14N. + 11P. = 41 kinships through males.
6g. + 6u. + 2n. + 5p. = 19 kinships through females.
In the third degree:
1GF. + 1GB. + 5US. + 7NS. + 2PS. = 19 kinships through males.
0gF. + 0gB.+ 1uS. + 0nS. + 0pS. = 1kinships through females.
Total, 60 through males, 20 through females,
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