On the handicapping of the first-born : being a lecture delivered at the Galton laboratory, University College, London, March 17, 1914 / by Karl Pearson.

  • Karl Pearson
Date:
1914
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: On the handicapping of the first-born : being a lecture delivered at the Galton laboratory, University College, London, March 17, 1914 / by Karl Pearson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    TABLE XL. PERMILLES OF EACH BIRTH ORDER. BOSERUPSANATORIET. HANSEN. Birth Order. Phthisical Members. I. Sib ships of Phthisical (Pearson). II. Danish Census. Completed Families. III. Danish Births. IV. Yule-Greenwood R ec 0 nstru ctio n. V. Sib ships of First-born Phthisical. VI. I 2 39 159 W 3 220 2x7 218 2 193 155 159 191 195 198 3 171 145 143 1 59 162 165 4 121 128 124 117 126 126 5 88 10S 103 93 95 90 6 65 88 85 64 70 66 7 46 68 66 49 49 47 8 28 50 5° 37 32 33 9 19 35 35 26 21 21 10 9 24 23 20 13 13 II IO 17 15 12 9 8 12 5 II 9 7 5 6 13 4 5 6 3 2 4 14 3 3 I 2 , 3 15 16 and over 1 2 2 2 ! 6 i ' I I ! 2 Average Size of Family — 6-29 5-78 [4-54] 4-60 4-59 rural district, including, however, a small town of 2,100 inhabitants. The following results are also given by Ditzel, who takes both legitimate and illegitimate 1 births : DANISH BIRTH ORDER AND PERMILLES (DITZEL). I 209 (220) 4-6 309 (274) 2 180 (191) 7-10 134 (132) 3 154 (i59) il and over H (24) corresponding to an incomplete family average of 4-78. Thus Ditzel’s values support those of Hansen, and demonstrate that the values reached by the Greenwood-Yule treatment are such as could only arise if the case of incomplete fertilities were under discussion. I think we may safely conclude that Hansen’s new data entirely confirm my original view that the eldest-born is weighted, and very sensibly weighted, for phthisis. But the method I have here introduced of taking the birth order in growing families seems to me worth discussing at greater length. 1 This should, of course, tend to exaggerate, not depress, the number of first-borns.