The first series of serious observations tending to confirm the result
reached by the genius of Leonardo da Vinci and to show that sexual
selection results in the pairing of like rather than of unlike persons was
made by Hermann Fol, the embryologist.[179] He set out with the popular
notion that married people end by resembling each other, but when at Nice,
which is visited by many young married couples on their honeymoons, he was
struck by the resemblances already existing immediately after marriage. In
order to test the matter he obtained the photographs of 251 young and old
married couples not personally known to him. The results were as follows:
RESEMBLANCES NONRESEMBLANCES
COUPLES. (PERCENTAGE). (PERCENTAGE). TOTAL.
Young.............. 132, about 66,66 66, about 33.33 198
Old ................ 38, about 71.70 15, about 28.30 53
He concluded that in the immense majority of marriages of inclination the
contracting parties are attracted by similarities, and not by
dissimilarities, and that, consequently, the resemblances between aged
married couples are not acquired during conjugal life. Although Fol's
results were not obtained by good methods, and do not cover definite
points like stature and eye-color, they represented the conclusions of a
highly skilled and acute observer and have since been amply confirmed.
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