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It can hardly be argued that infection between husband and wife would
vary like this, even if infection, in general, could be proved.
Moreover, the least resemblance is among the poor, where infection
should be greatest. Professor Pearson thinks, as seems reasonable, that
this series of figures indicates principally assortative mating, and
shows that among the poor there is less choice, the selection of a
husband or wife being more largely due to propinquity or some other more
or less random factor. With a rise in the social scale, opportunity for
choice of one from a number of possible mates becomes greater and
greater; the tendency for an unconscious selection of likeness then has
a chance to appear, as the coefficients graphically show.
If such a class as the peerage of Great Britain be considered, it is
evident that the range of choice in marriage is almost unlimited. There
are few girls who can resist the glamor of a title. The hereditary peer
can therefore marry almost anyone he likes and if he does not marry one
of his own class he can select and (until recently) usually has selected
the daughter of some man who by distinguished ability has risen from a
lower social or financial position.
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