class, this being the vertical line that divides its contents into equal
parts. Its position is approximately, but not exactly, half-way between
the divisions that bound it, and is as easily calculated for the extreme
classes, which have no outer terminals, as for any of the others. These
median points are respectively taken to be the positions of the parental
centres of the whole of each of the classes; therefore the positions
attained by the converging lines that proceed from them at the points
where they are stopped, represent the genetic centres. From these the
filials disperse to the right and left with a “spread” that can be shown
to be three-quarters that of the parentages. Calculation easily
determines the number of the filials that fall into the class in which
the filial centre is situated, and of those that spread into the classes
on each side. When the parental contributions from all the classes to
each filial class are added together they will express the distribution
of the quality among the whole of the offspring. Now it will be observed
in the table that the numbers in the classes of the offspring are
identical with those of the parents, when they are reckoned to the
nearest whole percentage, as should be the case according to the
hypothesis. Had the classes been narrower and more numerous, and if the
calculations had been carried on to two more places of decimals, the
correspondence would have been identical to the nearest ten-thousandth.
It was unnecessary to take the trouble of doing this, as the table
affords a sufficient basis for what I am about to say. Though it does
not profess to be more than approximately true in detail, it is
certainly trustworthy in its general form, including as it does the
effects of regression, filial dispersion, and the equation that connects
a parental generation with a filial one when they are statistically
alike. Minor corrections will be hereafter required, and can be applied
when we have a better knowledge of the material. In the meantime it will
serve as a standard table of descent from each generation of a people to
its successor.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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