VI.—THE FREQUENCY-DISTRIBUTION. 
only, they would have run 49,479, 23,348, 4,092, and so on, 
thus suggesting a maximum number of deaths at the beginning 
of life, ve. a distribution of the present type. It is only the 
analysis of the deaths in the earlier years of life by one-year 
intervals which shows that the frequency reaches a true maximum 
in the fourth year, and therefore the distribution is of the 
moderately asymmetrical type. In practical cases no hard and 
Fic. 15.—An ideal Distribution of the extreme Asymmetrical Form. 
fast line can always be drawn between the moderately and 
extremely asymmetrical types, any more than between the 
moderately asymmetrical and the symmetrical type. 
In economic statistics this form of distribution is particularly 
characteristic of the distribution of wealth in the population at 
large, as illustrated, e.g., by income tax and house valuation returns, 
by returns of the size of agricultural holdings, and so on (cf. ref. 4). 
The distributions may possibly be a very extreme case of the last 
type ; but if the maximum is not absolutely at the lower end of the 
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