traits proceeds, it will be possible to proceed further with the study of the inheritance of these traits. Some work has been done on spelling, which is particularly interesting because most people, without reflection, would take it for granted that a child's spelling ability depends almost wholly on his training. Professor Thorndike's exposition12 of the investigation is as follows:
"E. L. Earle ('03) measured the spelling abilities of some 800 children in the St. Xavier school in New York by careful tests. As the children in this school commonly enter at a very early age, and as the staff and methods of teaching remain very constant, we have in the case of the 180 pairs of brothers and sisters included in the 600 children closely similar school training. Mr. Earle measured the ability of any individual by his deviation from the average for his grade and sex, and found the coefficient of correlation between children of the same family to be .50. That is, any individual is on the average 50% as much above or below the average for his age and sex as his brother or sister.