As a fact, one
case counts for practically nothing as proof of hereditary influence;
even half a dozen or a dozen may be of no significance. There are two
ways in which genealogical data can be analyzed to deduce biological
laws: one is based on the application of statistical and graphic methods
to the data, and needs some hundreds of cases to be of value; the other
is by pedigree-study, and needs at least three generations of pedigree,
usually covering numerous collaterals, to offer important results. It is
not to be supposed that anyone with a sufficiently complete record of
his own ancestry would necessarily be able by inspection to deduce from
it any important contribution to science. But if enough complete family
records are made available, the professional geneticist can be called
into cooperation, can supplement the human record with his knowledge of
the results achieved by carefully controlled animal and plant breeding,
and between them, the genealogist and the geneticist can in most cases
arrive at the truth. That such truth is of the highest importance to any
family, and equally to society as a whole, must be evident.
Let the genealogist, then, bring together data on every trait he can
think of.
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