ng else has taken its place. If a
man wishes to know what sort of stocks he has come from, unless he is
himself an antiquarian, or in a position to employ an antiquarian to
assist him, he can learn little, and in the most favourable position he
is helpless without clues; though with such clues he might often learn
much that would be of the greatest interest to him. The entries in the
Family Bible, however, whatever their value as clues and even as actual
data, do not furnish adequate information to serve as a guide to the
different qualities of stocks; we need far more detailed and varied
information in order to realize the respective values of families from
the point of view of eugenics. Here, again, Galton had already realized
the need for supplying a great defect in our knowledge, and his
Life-history Albums showed how the necessary information may be
conveniently registered.

The accumulated histories of individual families, it is evident, will in
time furnish a foundation on which to base scientific generalizations,
and eventually, perhaps, to justify practical action. Moreover, a vast
amount of valuable information on which it is possible to build up a
knowledge of the correlated characteristics of families, already lies at
present unused in the great insurance offices and elsewhere. When it is
possible to obtain a large collection of accurate pedigrees for
scientific purposes, and to throw them into a properly tabulated form,
we shall certainly be in a position to know more of the qualities of
stocks, of their good and bad characteristics, and of the degree in
which they are correlated.[150]

In this way we shall, in time, be able to obtain a clear picture of the
probable results on the offspring of unions between any kind of people.
From personal and ancestral data we shall be able to reckon the probable
quality of the offspring of a married couple. Given a man and woman of
known personal qualities and of known ancestors, what are likely to be
the personal qualities, physical, mental and moral, of the children?
That is a question of immense importance both for the beings themselves
whom we bring into the world, for the community generally, and for the
future race.

Eventually, it seems evident, a general system, whether private or
public, whereby all personal facts, biological and mental, normal and
morbid, are duly and systematically registered, must become inevitable
if we are to have a real guide as to tho