Fig. 26.—Family history showing ability. (From Whetham.)
Figs. 26 and 27 illustrate two such pedigrees of ability. In each of these histories there is also a line of "unsoundness" the descent of which it is interesting to trace. It is instructive to compare here the progeny of matings of different kinds. In generation IV of Fig. 26, the 9th and 10th persons are brother and sister. The sister was of considerable ability and married into a family of ability, producing 8 offspring, 5 of whom were able. The brother was a "normal" person and married a similar individual, producing 10 "normal" children. It would be interesting to know the details regarding these two large families of cousins. Another interesting comparison is found in this pedigree. The four able brothers in generation III, coming from a stock of demonstrated ability, married women of undemonstrated ability and all told had 13 children (IV) of whom only 3 showed ability and all of these were in a single family. In this family of the fourth brother two of the able members married into able families, and among their 11 children (second and fifth families in generation V) 8 showed ability; the third able member of this family, however, married as her uncles had, a person not known as able, and none of their 6 children showed unusual ability (sixth family in generation V). Fig. 27 affords other illustrations of this same kind. Thus in generation III the 5th and 7th persons are able cousins of able parentage. The former married a normal and 1 of their 5 children showed ability; the latter married a person of ability and 5 of their 8 children showed ability. In both pedigrees the "careers" of those in the last generation are partly incomplete.
Fig. 27.—Family history showing ability. Paternal ancestry of family shown in Fig. 26. (From Whetham.)
In discussing pedigrees of ability it should be borne in mind that the larger proportion of able males as compared with females is hardly significant for the study of heredity; it may merely reflect the unfortunate fact that women have not had the same opportunity to demonstrate inherent ability as have men; or it may evidence the still more unfortunate fact that the distinguished achievements of able women have not been socially recognized as such and recorded as they have been for the other sex.
Fig. 28 gives an interesting, though abbreviated, pedigree of three very able and well-known families. In this history only persons whose ability is in science are marked as able. Charles Darwin is the third individual in the third generation. His cousin, Francis Galton, the founder of Eugenics, is the next to the last person in the same generation.
Many similar cases of the unusual frequency of individuals of musical or religious ability in certain families have been published by Galton and are well known. "As long as ability marries ability, a large proportion of able offspring is a certainty, and ability is a more valuable heirloom in a family than mere material wealth, which, moreover, will follow ability sooner or later."
We might contrast with such families as have been recorded in the three preceding figures some well-known families at the other pole of society. As an interesting example we have the family described by Poellmann. This was established by two daughters of a woman drunkard who in five or six generations produced all told 834 descendants. The histories of 709 of these are known. Of the 709, 107 were of illegitimate birth; 64 were inmates of almshouses; 162 were professional beggars; 164 were prostitutes and 17 procurers; 76 had served sentences in prison aggregating 116 years; 7 were condemned for murder. This family is still a fertile one and the cost to the State, i. e., the taxpayers, already a million and a quarter dollars, is still increasing.