Part 3 (1/2)
Thus the heights of all but the outer tenths of the whole body of adult males of the English professional cla.s.ses may be derived from the five following ordinates, measured in inches, of which the outer pair are deciles:--
67.2; 67.5; 68.8; 70.3; 71.4.
Many other instances will be found in the Report of the Anthropometric Committee of the British a.s.sociation in 1881, pp. 245-257.
When we desire to compare any two large statistical groups, we may compare median with median, quartiles with quartiles, and octiles with octiles; or we may proceed on the method to be described in the next paragraph but one.
We are often called upon to define the position of an individual in his own series, in which case it is most conformable to usage to give his centesimal grade--that is, his place on the base line AB--supposing it to be graduated from 0 to 100. In reckoning this, a confusion ought to be avoided between ”graduation” and ”rank,”
though it leads to no sensible error in practice. The first of the ”park palings” does not stand at A, which is 0, nor does the hundredth stand at B, which is 100, for that would make 101 of them: but they stand at 0.5 and 99.5 respectively. Similarly, all intermediate _ranks_ stand half a degree short of the _graduation_ bearing the same number. When the cla.s.s is large, the value of half a place becomes extremely small, and the rank and graduation may be treated as identical.
Examples of method of calculating a centesimal position:--
1. A child A is cla.s.sed after examination as No. 5 in a cla.s.s of 27 children; what is his centesimal graduation?
_Answer_.--If AB be divided into 27 graduations, his rank of No. 5 will correspond to the graduation 4.5; therefore if AB be graduated afresh into 100 graduations, his centesimal grade, x, will be found by the Rule of Three, thus--
x : 4.5 :: 100:27; x = 450/27 = 16.6.
2. Another child B is cla.s.sed No. 13 in a cla.s.s of 25 _Answer_.--If AB be divided into 25 graduations, the rank of No. 13 will correspond to graduation 12.5, whence as before--
x : 12.5 :: 100 : 25; x = 1250/25 = 50; _i.e._ B is the median.
The second method of comparing two statistical groups, to which I alluded in the last paragraph but one, consists in stating the centesimal grade in the one group that corresponds with the median or any other fractional grade in the other. This, it will be remarked, is a very simple method of comparison, absolutely independent of any theory, and applicable to any statistical groups whatever, whether of physical or of mental qualities. Wherever we can sort in order, there we can apply this method. Thus, in the above examples, suppose A and B had been selected because they were equal when compared together, then we can concisely express the relative merits of the two cla.s.ses to which they respectively belong, by saying that 16.6 in the one is equal to 50 (the median) in the other.
I frequently make statistical records of form and feature, in the streets or in company, without exciting attention, by means of a fine p.r.i.c.ker and a piece of paper. The p.r.i.c.ker is a converted silver pencil-case, with the usual sliding piece; it is a very small one, and is attached to my watch chain. The pencil part has been taken out and replaced by a fine short needle, the open mouth of the case is covered with a hemispherical cap having a hole in the centre, and the adjustments are such that when the slide is pushed forward as far as it can go, the needle projects no more than one-tenth of an inch. If I then press it upon a piece of paper, held against the ball of my thumb, the paper is indelibly perforated with a fine hole, and the thumb is not wounded. The perforations will not be found to run into one another unless they are very numerous, and if they happen to do so now and then, it is of little consequence in a statistical inquiry. The holes are easily counted at leisure, by holding the paper against the light, and any sc.r.a.p of paper will serve the purpose. It will be found that the majority of inquiries take the form of ”more,” ”equal to,” or ”less,” so I arrange the paper in a way to present three distinct compartments to the p.r.i.c.ker, and to permit of its being held in the correct position and used by the sense of touch alone. I do so by tearing the paper into the form of a cross--that is, maimed in one of its arms--and hold it by the maimed part between the thumb and finger, the head of the cross pointing upward. The head of the cross receives the p.r.i.c.ks referring to ”more”; the solitary arm that is not maimed, those meaning ”the same”; the long foot of the cross those meaning ”less.” It is well to write the subject of the measurement on the paper before beginning to use it, then more than one set of records can be kept in the pocket at the same time, and be severally added to as occasion serves, without fear of mistaking one for the other.
[Ill.u.s.tration: ]
CHARACTER.
The fundamental and intrinsic differences of character that exist in individuals are well ill.u.s.trated by those that distinguish the two s.e.xes, and which begin to a.s.sert themselves even in the nursery, where all the children are treated alike. One notable peculiarity in the character of the woman is that she is capricious and coy, and has less straightforwardness than the man. It is the same in the female of every s.e.x about the time of pairing, and there can be little doubt as to the origin of the peculiarity. If any race of animals existed in whom the s.e.xual pa.s.sions of the female were as quickly and as directly stirred as those of the male, each would mate with the first who approached her, and one essential condition of s.e.xual selection would be absent. There would be no more call for compet.i.tion among the males for the favour of each female; no more fighting for love, in which the strongest male conquers; no more rival display of personal charms, in which the best-looking or best-mannered prevails. The drama of courts.h.i.+p, with its prolonged strivings and doubtful success, would be cut quite short, and the race would degenerate through the absence of that s.e.xual selection for which the protracted preliminaries of love-making give opportunity. The w.i.l.l.y-nilly disposition of the female in matters of love is as apparent in the b.u.t.terfly as in the man, and must have been continuously favoured from the earliest stages of animal evolution down to the present time. It is the factor in the great theory of s.e.xual selection that corresponds to the insistence and directness of the male. Coyness and caprice have in consequence become a heritage of the s.e.x, together with a cohort of allied weaknesses and petty deceits, that men have come to think venial and even amiable in women, but which they would not tolerate among themselves.
Various forms of natural character and temperament would no doubt be found to occur in constant proportions among any large group of persons of the same race, but what those proportions may be has never yet been investigated. It is extremely difficult to estimate it by observations of adults, owing to their habit of restraining natural ill tendencies, and to their long-practised concealment of those they do not restrain but desire to hide. The necessary observations ought, however, to be easily made on young children in schools, whose manifestations of character are conspicuous, who are simultaneously for months and years under the eye of the same master or mistress, and who are daily cla.s.sed according to their various merits. I have occasionally asked the opinion of persons well qualified to form them, and who have had experience of teaching, as to the most obvious divisions of character to be found among school children. The replies have differed, but those on which most stress was laid were connected with energy, sociability, desire to attract notice, truthfulness, thoroughness, and refinement.
The varieties of the emotional const.i.tution and of likings and antipathies are very numerous and wide. I may give two instances which I have not seen elsewhere alluded to, merely as examples of variation. One of them was often brought to my notice at the time when the public were admitted to see the snakes fed at the Zoological Gardens. Rabbits, birds, and other small animals were dropped in the different cages, which the snakes, after more or less serpentine action, finally struck with their poison fangs or crushed in their folds. I found it a horrible but a fascinating scene. We lead for the most part such an easy and carpeted existence, screened from the stern realities of life and death, that many of us are impelled to draw aside the curtain now and then, and gaze for a while behind it. This exhibition of the snakes at their feeding-time, which gave to me, as it doubtless did to several others, a sense of curdling of the blood, had no such effect on many of the visitors. I have often seen people--nurses, for instance, and children of all ages--looking unconcernedly and amusedly at the scene. Their indifference was perhaps the most painful element of the whole transaction. Their sympathies were absolutely unawakened. I quote this instance, partly because it leads to another very curious fact that I have noticed as regards the way with which different persons and races regard snakes. I myself have a horror of them, and can only by great self-control, and under a sense of real agitation, force myself to touch one. A considerable proportion of the English race would feel much as I do; but the remainder do not. I have questioned numbers of persons of both s.e.xes, and have been astonished at the frequency with which I have been a.s.sured that they had no shrinking whatever from the sight of the wriggling mysterious reptile. Some persons, as is well known, make pets of them; moreover, I am told that there is no pa.s.sage in Greek or Latin authors expressive of that form of horror which I myself feel, and which may be compared to what is said to be felt by hydrophobic sufferers at the undulating movements of water. There are numerous allusions in the cla.s.sics to the venom fang or the crus.h.i.+ng power of snakes, but not to an aversion inspired by its form and movement. It was the Greek symbol of Hippocrates and of healing. There is nothing of the kind in Hebrew literature, where the snake is figured as an attractive tempter. In Hindu fables the cobra is the ingenious and intelligent animal, corresponding to the fox in ours. Serpent wors.h.i.+p was very widely spread. I therefore doubt whether the antipathy to the snake is very common among mankind, notwithstanding the instinctive terror that their sight inspires in monkeys.
The other instance I may adduce is that of the horror of blood which is curiously different in animals of the same species and in the same animals at different times. I have had a good deal of experience of the behaviour of oxen at the sight of blood, and found it to be by no means uniform. In my South African travels I relied chiefly on half-wild slaughter oxen to feed my large party, and occasionally had to shoot one on every second day. Usually the rest of the drove paid no particular heed to the place of blood, but at other rare times they seemed maddened and performed a curious sort of war-dance at the spot, making buck-leaps, brandis.h.i.+ng their horns, and goring at the ground. It was a grotesque proceeding, utterly unlike the usual behaviour of cattle. I only witnessed it once elsewhere, and that was in the Pyrenees, where I came on a herd that was being driven homewards. Each cow in turn, as it pa.s.sed a particular spot, performed the well-remembered antics. I asked, and learned that a cow had been killed there by a bear a few days previously. The natural horror at blood, and it may be the consequent dislike of red, is common among mankind; but I have seen a well-dressed child of about four years old poking its finger with a pleased innocent look into the bleeding carcase of a sheep hung up in a butcher's shop, while its nurse was inside.
The subject of character deserves more statistical investigation than it has yet received, and none have a better chance of doing it well than schoolmasters; their opportunities are indeed most enviable.
It would be necessary to approach the subject wholly without prejudice, as a pure matter of observation, just as if the children were the fauna and flora of hitherto undescribed species in an entirely new land.
CRIMINALS AND THE INSANE.
Criminality, though not very various in its development, is extremely complex in its origin; nevertheless certain general conclusions are arrived at by the best writers on the subject, among whom Prosper Despine is one of the most instructive. The ideal criminal has marked peculiarities of character: his conscience is almost deficient, his instincts are vicious, his power of self-control is very weak, and he usually detests continuous labour.
The absence of self-control is due to ungovernable temper, to pa.s.sion, or to mere imbecility, and the conditions that determine the particular description of crime are the character of the instincts and of the temptation.
The deficiency of conscience in criminals, as shown by the absence of genuine remorse for their guilt, astonishes all who first become familiar with the details of prison life. Scenes of heartrending despair are hardly ever witnessed among prisoners; their sleep is broken by no uneasy dreams--on the contrary, it is easy and sound; they have also excellent appet.i.tes. But hypocrisy is a very common vice; and all my information agrees as to the utter untruthfulness of criminals, however plausible their statements may be.