without shaking the truth
of the great fact upon which Eugenics is based, that able fathers
produce able children in a much larger proportion than the
generality.

* * * * *

The parents of the 207 Fellows of the Royal Society occupy a wide
variety of social positions. A list is given in the Appendix of the
more or less noteworthy parents of those Fellows whose names occur in
the list of sixty-six families. The parents are classified according
to their pursuits. Many parents of the other Fellows in the 207
families were not noteworthy in the technical sense of the word, but
were reported to be able. It was also often said in the replies that
the general level of ability among the members of the family of the
F.R.S. was high. Other parents were in no way remarkable, so the
future Fellow was simply a "sport," to use the language of
horticulturists and breeders, in respect to his taste and ability. It
is to be remembered that "sports" are transmissible by heredity, and
have been, through careful selection, the origin of most of the
valuable varieties of domesticated plants and animals. Sports have
been conspicuous in the human race, especially in some individuals of
the highest eminence in music, painting, and in art generally, but
this is not the place to enter further into so large a subject. It
has been treated at length by many writers, especially by Bateson and
De Vries, also by myself in the third chapter of "Natural
Inheritance" and in the preface to the second edition of "Hereditary
Genius."

NOTEWORTHY FAMILIES OF

FELLOWS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY

LIVING IN 1904.

#AVEBURY#, Lord. See LUBBOCK.

#BALFOUR#, Right Hon. Arthur James (b. 1848), P.C., etc., F.R.S.,
Leader of the House of Commons, 1895; Prime Minister, 1902;
President of the British Association, 1904; author of "The
Foundations of Belief." [For fuller references, see "Who's Who"
and numerous other biographies.]

_bro_, Francis Maitland BALFOUR (1851-1882), F.R.S., Professor of
Animal Morphology at Cambridge; brilliant investigator in embryology;
gold medal, Royal Society, 1881; killed by a fall in the Alps.

_bro_, Right Hon. Gerald W. BALFOUR (b. 1853), P.C., Fellow of
Trinity College, Cambridge; President of the Board of Trade, 1902.

_si_, Eleanor Mildred (Mrs. Henry SIDGWICK), Principal of Newnham
College, Cambridge.

_si_, Evelyn, wife of LORD RAYLEIGH, F.R.S., and