2068. Record of Family Faculties. Ancestors already described. The first might contain page, initials, height, and colour of hair; thus: -- [italics]12, F.N. short, v. dark.[end italics] In this way a general view will obtained of the variety of racial characteristics in the ancestry; how far the breed is pure, and how far mixed. A second summary might be of page, initials, disease or cause of death, and age at death; thus: -- [italics]16 A.B. apoplexy, d. 56.[end italics]. Other summaries may be added at the discretion of the writer. These synoptic views of the family will usually be found to bring its biological unity into startling relief. It is impossible after looking at many of them, to doubt that a knowledge of ancestral precedents enable a far more accurate forecast to be made of the future of a child than would be otherwise possible. Appendices. The book closes with three appendices. I. On the biological history and hereditary peculiarities of mind and body on the father's side of the family. II. Similarly on the mother's side. III. An examination of the way in which the faculties of the father and mother are blended or otherwise combined in the child. The inquiries I wish to set in motion by means of this publication, throughout many families, are such as relatives and friends will gladly assist in making. The memories of ladies are excellent repositories of personal matters, dates, and other details; a family inquiry greatly interests them, and they are zealous correspondents. Whatever may be the value of the results, the facts incidentally obtained during the course of the inquiry will form a separate document much prized by all the family. The scientific importance of each investigation will, however, be soon appreciated by the author of it, for his researches will lay bare many farreaching biological bonds that tie his family into a connected whole, whose existence was previously little suspected. Few, if any, have seriously studied the facts of heredity without becoming impressed with the conviction that no man stands on an isolated basis, but that he is a prolongation of his ancestry in no metaphorical sense, and I shall be surprised if the compilation of these registers does not extend this conviction very widely. Francis Galton. 13 [end]