| | | | | | |
| Mean | 111 | 108 | 49 | 61 | 329 |
|______________________|________|________|________|_________|_______|

Table VII., in the next chapter, affords an interesting illustration
of the character of the ignorance concerning the noteworthiness of
kinsmen in distant degrees, showing that it is much lessened when
they bear the same surname as their father, or even as the maiden
surname of their mother. The argument is this: Table V. has already
shown that _me bros_ are, speaking roughly, as frequently noteworthy
as _fa bros_--fifty-two of the one to forty-five of the other--so
noteworthiness is so far an equal characteristic of the maternal and
paternal lines, resembling in that respect nearly all the qualities
that are transmitted purely through heredity. There ought, therefore,
to be as many persons recorded as noteworthy in each of the four
different kinds of great-grandparents. The same should be the case in
each of the four kinds of great-uncles. But this is not so in either
case. The noteworthy great-grandfathers, _fa fa fa_, who bear the
same name as the subject are twice as numerous as the _me fa fa_ who
bear the maiden surname of the mother, and more than five times as
numerous as either of the other two, the _fa me fa_ and _me me fa_,
whose surnames differ from both, unless it be through some accident,
whether of a cross marriage or a chance similarity of names. It is
just the same with the great-uncles. Now, the figures for
great-grandfathers and great-uncles run so closely alike that they
may fairly be grouped together, in order to obtain a more impressive
whole--namely, two sorts of these kinsmen, bearing the same name as
the Subject, contain between them 23 noteworthies, or 11.50 each; two
sorts having the mother's maiden surname contain together 11
noteworthies, or 5.50 each; four sorts containing between them 7