Noteworthy Families (Modern Science) | Page 2

constitutional disease. Indeed, the secret history of a family is quite as
important in its eugenic aspect as its public history; but one cannot
expect persons to freely unlock their dark closets and drag forth family
skeletons into the light of day. It was necessary in such a work as this
to submit to considerable limitations, while turning to the fullest
account whatever could be stated openly without giving the smallest
offence to any of the persons concerned.
One limitation against which I still chafe in vain is the impracticability
of ascertaining so apparently simple a matter as the number of kinsfolk
of each person in each specific degree of near kinship, without
troublesome solicitations. It was specially asked for in the circular, but
by no means generally answered, even by those who replied freely to
other questions. The reason must in some cases have been mere
oversight or pure inertia, but to a large extent it was due to ignorance,

for I was astonished to find many to whom the number of even their
near kinsfolk was avowedly unknown. Emigration, foreign service,
feuds between near connections, differences of social position,
faintness of family interest, each produced their several effects, with
the result, as I have reason to believe, that hardly one-half of the
persons addressed were able, without first making inquiry of others, to
reckon the number of their uncles, adult nephews, and first cousins.
The isolation of some few from even their nearest relatives was
occasionally so complete that the number of their brothers was
unknown. It will be seen that this deficiency of information admits of
being supplied indirectly, to a considerable degree.
The collection of even the comparatively small amount of material now
in hand proved much more troublesome than was anticipated, but as the
object and limitations of inquiries like this become generally
understood, and as experience accumulates, the difficulty of similar
work in the future will presumably lessen.
CHAPTER II.
--NOTEWORTHINESS.
The Fellowship of the Royal Society is a distinction highly appreciated
by all members of the scientific world. Fifteen men are annually
selected by its council out of some sixty candidates, each candidate
being proposed by six, and usually by more, Fellows in a certificate
containing his qualifications. The candidates themselves are
representatives of a multitude of persons to whom the title would be not
only an honour but a material advantage. The addition of the letters
"F.R.S." to the names of applicants to any post, however remotely
connected with science, is a valuable testimonial and a recognised aid
towards success, so the number of those who desire it is very large.
Experience shows that no special education, other than self-instruction,
is really required to attain this honour. Access to laboratories, good
tuition, and so forth, are doubtless helpful, so far that many have
obtained the distinction through such aid who could not otherwise have
done so, but they are far from being all-important factors of success.

The facts that lie patent before the eyes of every medical man, engineer,
and the members of most professions, afford ample material for
researches that would command the attention of the scientific world if
viewed with intelligence and combined by a capable mind.
It is so difficult to compare the number of those who might have
succeeded with the number of those who do, that the following
illustration may perhaps be useful: By adding to the 53 registration
counties in England, the 12 in Wales, the 33 in Scotland and the 32 in
Ireland, an aggregate of 130 is obtained. The English counties, and the
others in a lesser degree, have to be ransacked in order to supply the
fifteen annually-elected Fellows; so it requires more than eight of these
counties to yield an annual supply of a single Fellow to the Royal
Society.
It is therefore contended that the Fellows of the Royal Society have
sufficient status to be reckoned "noteworthy," and, such being the case,
they are a very convenient body for inquiries like these. They are
trained to, and have sympathy with, scientific investigations;
biographical notices are published of them during their lifetime,
notably in the convenient compendium "Who's Who," to which there
will be frequent occasion to refer; and they are more or less known to
one another, either directly or through friends, making it comparatively
easy to satisfy the occasional doubts which may arise from their
communications. It was easier and statistically safer to limit the inquiry
to those Fellows who were living when the circulars were issued--that
is, to those whose names and addresses appear in the "Royal Society's
Year Book" of 1904. Some of them have since died, full of honours,
having done their duty to their generation; others have since been
elected; so the restriction given here to the term