number of syllables used to express the specific kinship.




CHAPTER VII.--NUMBER OF KINSFOLK IN EACH DEGREE.


The population may be likened to counters spread upon a table, each
corresponding to a different individual. The counters are linked
together by bands of various widths, down to mere threads, the widths
being proportional to the closeness of the several kinships. Those in
the first degree (_father_, _mother_, _brother_, _sister_, _son_,
_daughter_) are comparatively broad; those in the second degree
(_grandparent_, _uncle_, _aunt_, _nephew_, _niece_, _grandchild_) are
considerably narrower; those in the third degree are very narrow
indeed. Proceeding outwards, the connections soon become thinner than
gossamer. The person represented by any one of these counters may be
taken as the subject of a pedigree, and all the counters connected
with it may be noted up to any specified width of band. In this book
one of the counters is supposed to represent a Fellow of the Royal
Society, whose name appears in the "Year-Book" of that Society for
1904, and the linkage proceeds outwards from him to the third degree
inclusive. Usually it stops there, but a few distant kinships have
been occasionally inserted chiefly to testify to a prolonged
heritage of family traits.

The intensity with which any specified quality occurs in each or any
degree of kinship is measured by the proportion between the numbers
of those who possess the quality in question and the total number of