. ml

■ f^l
00 1

. o

»in —

iiw

THE LIBRARY

The Ontario Institute

for Studies in Education

Toronto, Canada

.It I

THE

LIFE, LETTERS AND LABOURS

OF

FRANCIS GALTON

CAMBIUIK)E UNIVERSITY I'KESS
LONDON : FETTER LANE. E.G. 4

LONDON : II. K. LKWIS AMI CX». Ln.,

IX OOWKE 8TRKKT, W.C. I

LONDON : WHKLDON * WESLEY, Ltd..

J— 4 ARTHfR HT..

NEW IIXKOKD8T., W.C. 1
SEW YORK : THE MACMILLAN CO.
BOMBAY 'V

CALtTTTA J MACMILLAN AND CO.. Ltd.
MADRAS J

TORONTO : THE MACMILLAN CO. OK

CANADA, Ltd.
TOKYO : MARlT/BN-KAHrHHIKI-KAI8UA

ALL niOUTH KK.1KKVKII

^^% #

Francis Ualtun, ugetl 73.

TIIF'

LIFE, LETTERS AND LABOURS

OF

FRANCIS GALTON

BY
KARL PEARSON

(iALTON PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON

VOLUME II
RESEARCHES OF MIDDLE LIFE

THE

L/BRARY

JORo.,/TO. CA^MDA

CAMBRIDGE

AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS

1924

I-KINTKU IN UKKAT BBITAIX

A6'4

PHKFACI*:

TMI 1 E first volume of this biography miix-ared in July, 1914. about a month
1 before the outbreak of the (ireat War. It met with few rea<U>rH, and

failed to repay the cost of produftion. The war injured the Gulton I.ai

tory ill many ways, the chief, perha|)S, l)eing that it renderwl of Hiiiall \ ^

its publication funds; thus a collection of Galton's publishefl pajwrs, which
ha<l been projected l>efore the war, was placed out of the question. Further
tiie relative and tiie friend of Galton wlio in 1'J14 had financed together 'Ik-
first volume were unable to face the excessive post-war costs of prim
In 11)19 accordingly, when the pen again replaced ballistics, the tire<l mind
and hand could not seek a legitimate relief in continuing the story of (ialton's
life. It was only in 1922 that the generous gift of an old schoolfriend, the
late Mr Lewis Ilaslam, M.P., enabled me to face the difficulties of a second
volume. I deeply regret that he did not live to see this work in type. But
if friends and admirers of Galton find in it anything they value, let them
remendjer the debt they owe to Lewis Haslam.

When it came to planning this second volume the biographer found
himself, however, in a very difi'erent position from what he had anticij«it«Hl
in 1914. He then considered that the i.ssue of the collected works of G.i '
would render easy the task of describing Galton's re^^earches. Such i.s.^,.i
having ceased to be practicable, a grave problem arose. Many of Galton's
papers are now inaccessible, even a record of the original loci of publiciition
IS not available', there is no annotated bibliography to guide men to tl<-
memoirs themselves by a suggestion of their contents, and tliey are saitti
one might almost say, at random not only through the publications of many
learned societies and scientific journals, but in the daily, weekly and monti!'',-
press, often in magazines which liave long cejised to apr>ear. The i;
striking factor in Galton's work wiis its pioneer character, lie blazed a tniil
where others have followed with a highway. To gnusp his extraordinary
suggest! veness — even when his methods are the crude extemporisations of
the fii-st settler, ever ready to advance further as others crowd in l^ehind —
the reader must study Galton's writings in the mass. But these are in many
cases beyond his reach, if not beyond his ken. Thinking the matter out
carefully, I determined that this second volume of Galton's oiogniphy should
to a large extent supply the reader with what the collected works would li-' ••
done; that the resumi' of memoirs, books, and articles should be full eii' i _
to enable the anthropologist, the geneticist and the statistician to appreciate

' The bibliography attaclied to the Memorits is very incomplete. Not only do pnpen fail,
but ofU'ii the description is incori-cct either as to volume or as* to ye»r, or oven aa to the title of
the journal assignuil, while throughout uo pages ait! given.

vi Preface

what (ialton liiul done, and so 8tartiii<j from liis sujjjgestions make a more
tliorough map of a district, where (jlaltoii would only chiim to have made a
chart of the cartlinal points. In taking this determination I was soon aware
that it meant adding a third volume to this />(/<'. I have had to |)ostpone to
that volume the discussion of Correlation, the StatistiaU Theory of Heredity,
Personal Identification and Description and Eugenics together with many
letters, characteristic of Galton's mentality and of his affectionate disposition.
But that volume seems an easy one after the present, for it largely deals witli
work done after Galton Iwul been recfjgnise<l as a master antl friend.

The multitude of my own tasks from 1880 onwards gave me little leisure
to do more than keep in touch with current work; 1 had small opportunity
for considering earlier niemoirs, and many of Galton's papei"s written before
I lefl Cambriage I have only read forty yeai^s after their j)ublication. How
I now regret that I had not studied them, when with youthful energy still
mine I might have pursued further their lines of thought ! How many are
the suggestions they make for novel and profitable research! I shall indeed
be content, if this book of mine opens up to the younger men of to-day that
field of inspiration, which Galton provided for some half-dozen of us in the
'eighties. How much one seems to have lost by waiting to explore it fully,
until one's ^Vande^'jahre were for ever gone !

If this second volume be written essentially to bring the thoughts of a
great scientist home to the younger scientists of to-day, to show tiiem the
wide regions, practical and theoretical, which Galton opened to the mathe-
matician and statistician, there are still some interludes which appeal to a
wider audience, such as the beauty of Galton's friendship for Darwin, the
interest of his corres}X)ndence with De CandoUe, and his brief contact with
the "Passionate Stiitistician." The ingenuity of Galton's mechanisms and
the originality of his photographic work will attract others, while in the
field of psychok)gy it will be found diflBcult to refute the claim that he was
the fii-st English experimentalist.

If the reader should find Chapter XIII of this work more clumsily
worded and carelessly written than those which jirecede it, he will under-
stand the loss which the biographer incurred by the death of his friend,
W. Paton Ker, while the book was passing through the press. Professor
Ker's returned proofs, duly loaded with admonition, ejaculation, and humorous
chiding, were not only assumnce that many of the author's blunders were
detected, but led him with delight on more than one occasion to unwonted
realms, little sought by votaries of science. Let us rejoice that he has lived,

" And laugh like him to kuow in all our nerves
Beauty, the spirit, scattering dust and turves."

I have again to acknowledge the ready help of Francis Galton's relatives
and friends, e.specially in the matter of portraiture. Even as it is 1 have had
to make a selection from the vast amount of photograj)hic material placed
at my disijosal, and a jX)rtion of that selection is still reserved for the third
volume. In contrast to Darwin, Galton was repeatedly photograplu^d, and
the result is that we can trace not only the physical changes in his

Preface vii

personality from cliildhowl to old age, but I venture to think we can find
portraits which emphasise even the individual moods and characteristic
pliiusf's of ills many-sided mentality. This lM)ok may help to preserve that
play of expression which forms the charm of our memory of a friend, and
which is renewed and kept alive by many photographs, until they perish
also.

This perishing of photographic portraits, whether negatives or prints,
has been sadly impressed upon me not only in the case of photographs of
G.'ilton himself — which T have endeavoured to put into a more permanent
form — but further in the case of nearly all Galton's own pbotogi-aphic work.
Box after box of his negatives as well as the prints from them nave perished
or arc rapidly perishing. I felt strongly the need for preserving at least his
hitherto unpublished results in composite portraiture. But to add this
number of plates to my volume seemed only possible by curtailing its text.
Tiiis (liHiculty wa.s finally overcome by the generosity of Mr Edward Wheler-
Galton and by the aid of one who owed much to Sir Francis. In this way it
became feasil)le to give comprehensive illustifition of what Galton achieved
in composite photography. Plie exhibit will, T hope, lead to the renewal of
this branch of investigation, for I am convinced that its possibilities are by
no means exhausted.

1 have to acknowledge the great aid I have received from my son
Mr p]gon S. Pearson in dealing with Galton's photographic material and
researches. I have further to thank Major Leonard Darwin and my colleague
Miss F^thel M. Elderton for aid in a variety of ways. Lastly I have to
place on record a confession. The Galtoniana contsiin a large number of
manuscripts and notebooks in Galton's hand ; many of these are in pencil,
nuich rubi)ed, occasionally obliterated. In the earlier chapters of this volume
I have con.stantly used this material. Ljitely I have been unable, owing to
failure of sight, to do so. I may well have missed material which ought to
have found its place in these pages. My only apology must be that of what
lay in my power to give I have freely given.

KARL PEARSON.

Galton L.\i(okatouv,

Univkh.sity C01.1.F.GK, London.
July 8, 1924.

FranciN Gallon in laU'i- life. From ii skctcb by bis niece,
Miss Eva r.i^'j.'s (Mrs Kllis).

conti:nts of volume ii

<:llAI'.

VIII. TRANSITION STUDIES: ART OF TRAVEL GEOGRAPHY,
CLIMATE . .

A. Art of Travel

B. Goofjraphy ....

C Cliiiiiiti' (MotcMtrogriipliioal Mticliaiiisiii

D. Other Moclianisiiis ...

E. Climate (rontiiniid) . .
V. Spiritualism and Joiircialism

IX. EARLY ANTIIROPOLOOICAL RESEARCHED

A. The Passage fmm Oeoxrapliy to Anthropology and Race-Iuipruvuineiit

B. //'T«(/i7<(i-y ^V»ii"?/.<, 1,S(J9 (Hecon<l I<]<ln. 1H92) ....

C. Papers closely a,ssociat«l with the Theme of l[i-re.ilitary Genius

D. Heretlity in Twins .........

X. THE EARLY STUDY OF HEREDITY: CORRESPONDENCE WITI
ALPHONSE DE CANDOLLE AND CHARLKS DARWIN .

A. De Candolle and Enijlish Men uf Science .....

B. Darwin and the Pangenesis Experiments .....
Further Re.searches into Hei-editv and Correspondence with Darwin
Note I. On the monument to Erasmus Darwin erected by Francis

(ialton in Lichfield Cathedral, 1886

Note II. Continuation of the Galton and De Candolle Correspondence
1879-1885

XI PSYCHOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS

lutroductorij .....

A. Psychometric Instruments ...

B. Psychometric Observations and Experimeni.-.

C. Inquiries into Human Faculty and itn DevelojnnetU, 188.1

D. Later Psychometric Researches ......

XII. PHOTOORAI'HIC RESEARCH KS AND PORTRAITURE .

A. Conii)osite Photography ......

B. Photographic Biprojection, Indexing of Profiles, etc

C. Analytical Photography .....

D. Measurements by Photography ....

E. Indexing and Nunuiralisjition of Portraits

F. Measurements of Re.semblance .......

STATISTICAL INVESTIGATIONS, ESPECIALLY WITH REGARD
TO ANTHROPOMETRY . .

A. Statistics in the service of .i\jitliropology

B. Statistics by Schedule-l.ssue.8 .....

C. Gallon's Anthropometric Ijaboratories ......

D. The Record of t\t)iiily Facnltien and the LiJ'e-//islori/ Album

E. The Anthropometric I.^il)oratory {continued)

F. Marks for Bodily Elliciency

G. Presidential Addresses to the Anthrt)pological Institute

H. Miscellaneous Stjiti.stical Papei-s .......

I. The proposed Profes.soi-ship of Applied Statistics .....

Note illustrating Francis Gallon's views on Religion ....

70-

PAGB

1-69
1
21
3S
49
53
62

130

70

87

115

126

131-210
131
156
166

202

204
211-282
211
i'I5
•J28
•J48
268

283-333
283
■-'98
ill
316
323
329

334-425
334

.148
:t.57
.!63
370
386
396
.•?98
114
425

ILLUSTRATIONS TO VOLUME II

Fronti^>ite$. Franciii Ualton, agctl 73.
PLATE to /lice jHige

I. Francis Galton, nged 28, at the end of the "Fallow Years" and before

starting for Dnniaraland ......... 1

II. Francis Ualtuii, from a photograph taken after his return from Dituiara-

land, circa 1855 ........... 2

III. (i) The trusty Giti, Galton's Swiss Servant ; (ii) 42, Rutland Gate, S. W.,
Gallon's home from 18r)7 to 1911 11

IV. StereoHcxtpic views of Geographical Models: (i) Ortler Spitz and Stehno

Pass, (ii) Island of St Paul 33

V and VI. Synchronoim Weather maps of England and British IsU«, 1861 36-37

VII. Specimen of the colour plates from J/ieteoroyr«/>/(iVrt, 1863 ... 38

VIII. Francis Gallon, aged 38, from a photograph of 1860 .... 40

IX. Francis Galton, agwl 42, from pliutogrHphs of 1864 (Co-editor with
Hcrl)ert S|>encer and Norman Lockyer of 7%/- Reader) .... 67

X. Mrs Francis Gallon, from a portrait in the Galton ljilx)ratory 88

XI. Fnmcis Galton, aged 60. Fi-om the painting made in 1882 hy Pixjf'essor
Graef, formerly in the {tossessiou of Mr Camemn (ialton, now in the
National Portrait Gallery ......... 99

XII. Letter of Francis Galton to Charles Darwin's son Francis, indicating the
religious views of Iwth Galton and Darwin ...... 102

XIII. Francis Galton when about fifty years of age . ..... 131

XIV. Down (Beckenham, Kent), the home of Charles Darwin from 1842 to

his death in 1882. From a photogi-aph by Dr David Heron . . . 134

XV. (i) Dr Erasmus Darwin, "Phj'sician, Philosopher and Poet," (ii) Sir
Fnmcis Darwin, "Physician, Traveller and Naturalist." To illuKtritte the
iufliience of L'ollyer blood in modifying the Darwin strain. From miniatures

in the possession of Mr Darwin Wilmot ...... 193

XVI. Sir Fi-ancis Sacheverell Darwin, "Physician, Traveller and Naturalist," son
of Elizaljeth Collier (Mrs Chandos-Pole) and go<lfather of Francis Galton.

From a drawing in the possession of Mr Darwin Wilmot . . 192

XVII. Miss Emma Galton, from a photograph taken in the 'fifties . . 198
XVIII. Francis Galton's Letter to Darwin on the publication in 1869 of The

Origin of Species ........... 201

XIX. The First Study at Down, the room in which The Origin of Species was

written. Photographed in his Father's lifetime by Major Leonard Darwin 200

XX. Monumental Tablet to Erasmus Darwin (executed by Onslow Ford) and

erected by his grandson Francis Galton in Lichfield Cathedral, 1886 204

XXI. Galton, the Psychologist 211

XXII. Francis Galton in holiday garb; taken at Vichy, August, 1878, when

age<l 56 years ........... 226

XXIII. Millicent AdMe Galton (Mrs Bunbury). Died in 1883. From a photograph

taken in the 'sixties .......... 245

XXIV. Examples of Number Forms 252-253

XXV. Francis Galt<m in the 'seventies, from a photograph .... 270

XXVI. Galton, aged about 75 years, from a photograph 281
XXVII. Francis Galton in the 'sixties, from a photograph 283
XXVIIT. Com|M)site8, made from Portraits of Criminals convicted ol Murder,

Manslaughter or Crimes of Violence ....... 286

XXIX. Comparison of C'riminal and Normal Populations: (i) Mi-n convict«^(l of

Ijarceny without violence, (ii) Officers and Men of Royal Engineers . 286

XXX. Composites of Thorouglilinnl Iloi-ses ....... 288

XXXI. Composites of the Members of a Family . ...... 288

/Uittttrntioim to Volume II

XI

PLATK tofaea

XXXII. Purtraits of throe CtiHiont, full face and protilc, witti the oorraiptiiKiing

ConijxmitcH ............

XXXiri. f)iniiil>iiH i'liiU- of f>iiiipoMit«>H .......

.\'XXIV. ('oiii]Kmitt^s of Phthi.siciil and Non-phthtRitnl Hcmpital Poputatiun*

XXXV. The Jowish Ty|i<>. Coiiipositcs of Proliifi and Full F»co .

XXXVI. Indian PortraiU of Alfxandcr llio (Jn-ut with Compcwite in centra

XXXVII. Grook Portraits of Alcxandt-r tho Orwit with Compoaite. Co-oomposito
of Indian and Orwk Portraits ........

XXXVIII. Six Portraits of Antiochus I, King of Syria, in ord«r of date, with
Composite in centn! ..........

XXXIX. Six Portraits of DemetriuB Poliorcetos, King of Macc<donia, giving
typical Oroek Composite. Cocompositc of Alexander and DemntriiiN .
XI* Five Portraits of Cleopatra, Queen of K^ypti ^'*''' Coni[Kj«it<'

XLI. Twelve Portraits of Nero, Emperor of Home, with Compotiitt'
XLII. Portraits of .Six Ore<>k Quitnis, with their Composite
XMII. Portraits of Six Iloman Ladies, with their Coni|>ositti
XLIV. Six Portraits of Napoleon I, with Composit*^

XLV. Analytical Photof;niphy. Oil paintings of a [wrtrait in various toni's
XLVI. Elizabeth Anne (JalUm (18()8-190t)), Fehnmry 21, 1904, aged 'JG .
XLVII. Francis Calton, aged 83, from a photograph taken by W. F. R. Weldon

in July, 190.')

XLVIII. Francis Ualton in the late 'sixties. .....

XLIX. Galton's Standard Photographs, full f)u:e and profile of himself

L. Francis Galton's First Anthropometric Lalxiratory at the International

Heidth Exhibition, South Kon.sington, 1884-5 .....

LI. Francis Galton's Seconil Anthropometric I.iaboratory, Science Museum,

South Kensington, 188.5-90

LI I. Francis Gal ton, aged 71, photographed as a criminal on his visit to

Bertillon's Criminal Identification Laboratory in Paris, 1893
UTT. Francis Galton at Haslemere in 1907 .......

LIV. Sir Francis Galton, 1910. From a sketch by his niece, Mrs Ellis .

Poster, one quarter size, of Galton's Second Anthropometric Laboratory

388
388
391
394
39«

396

396

396
296
296
296

314
333

.3.33
334
356

371

378

383
415
425

358

I thought it safer to proceed like the surveyor of a new country, and

endeavour to fix in the first instance as truly as I could the position of

several cardinal points.

FRANCIS GALTON.

PLATE I

Fntncis Gallon, agwl 28, at tht- eml of the "Fallow
Years" and liefore starling for Damaraland.

CHAPTER VIII

TRANSITION STUDIES: ART OF TRAVEL, GEOGRAPHY, CLIMATE

A. ART OF TRAVEL

"The higheHt niinds in tlm highest races seem to Imve been those who had the longtrst l)oyli<>o<!."

Francis Galton, Hereditary Talent and Chnraeter, Aug. 1865.

"I liave been speculating lost night what iimkes a man a discoverer of undiscovered things;
and a most perpU-xing problem it is. Manj^ men who are very clever — much clevt-rer than the
discoverers — never originate anything. As far as T can conjecture the art consists in Imbitually
searching for the causes and moaning of everything which oooui-s. This implies sharp olwerva-
tion and requires as much knowledge as possible of the subject investigate*!. Hut why I write
all this now I haitlly know, except out of the fulness of my heart."

CirABLES Dauwin, Letter to his son Horace, Dec. 15, 1871.

Wk lefl Francis Galton at tlie end of our first volume aged 32, married,
with many social friends, an ample competence, and a mind trained Injtli in
observation and analysis. His experience had been such that he knew more
of mathematics and physics than nine biologists out of ten, more of biology
than nineteen nuithematlcians out of twenty, and more (jf pathology and
physiology than forty-nine out of fifty of the biologists and mathematicians
oi" his dav. Added to these advantages he had gained a knowledge of man
and his habits in various lands; this gave him additional width of view, if it
rendered less obvious to him that field of investigation wherein his powers
were ultimately to achieve their most noteworthy successes. Indeed, had
Galton been asked in 1854 what was his calling and the nature of his
studies, there is little doubt that he would have replied: "I am a traveller
by inclination and ray study is geography." In his Memories^ Galton tells
us that he was

"rather unsettled during a few years, wishing to undertake a fresh bit of geographical explora-
tion, or even to establish myself in some colony; but I mistrusted my powers, for the health
that had l)een much tried had not wholly recovered."

Whether marriage or health was the real source of Galton's 'Wanderlust'
being reduced to vacation rambles, it would be hard to say, but we have
probably to thank one or the other for his continued presence in England at
a time when startling new ideas were to strike upon his receptive mind.
Immediately, however, travel, geography, and closely associated therewith,
climate, were to occupy his attention; and he did not touch these things
without leaving his mark upon them.

"It was not long after ray marriage," he writes, "that the character of a piece of work that
lay before me was clearly pei-ceived. It wa.s rt!ady to be taken in hand and most suitable to my

' pp. lGl-2.
p u 11 1

2 Life and Letters of Francis (7alfon

powers. It wiu to aid others in Uie oxpluralion of the then unknown ) tarts of tlio world,
wpeoially of Africa, of whoso totiil Irnf^h as luuch liiid been seen by me in my two journeys as
p8rh*pi by anyone else tlien living. Being placed on the Council of tlie Hoyitl Geogrii|ihical
Society', I thoroughly utilised that position to fulfil my object."

Gallon in the first place set alxiut making travel an art to in; learnt,
and in the next place ne determined to niake the traveller a real con-
tributor to geogi'aphicid discovery.

Those who have watched the development of geography as an academic
tiuining in recent years must be struck by the manner in which Galton
foresaw its expansion anil must, perliaps, occasionally wonder whether its
inatructoi-s might not still learn something from (ialton's early geographical
writings. In much the same way Galton's Art of Travel first publislied in
1855 — and in the fifth edition of 1872, reaching the most catholic compre-
hensiveness compatible with pocket dimensions — remains still a treaisury not
only for the professed tniveller, but for the leaders of boy-scouts and girl-

fuides; nay, there are metiiods to be learnt in the Art of Travel which may
ring profit to the ordinary household of today '. Even what appears on the
surface especially intended for the e.xplorer may be found on can^ful reading
to have a home-stayer's application. Thus:

"Travellers are apt to expect tiM> uiuch from their medicines, and to think that savages will
hail them as demigods wherever they go. iiut their patients are generally cripples who want
to be ma<le whole in a moment, and other suchlike impracticable cases. Powerful emetics, pur-
gatives and eye washes are the most |R)pular physickings.

The traveller who is sick, away from help, may console himself with the proverb, that 'though
there is a great diffen?nce between a good physician and a l)ad one, there is very little between
a good one and none at all'." (5th Ekln. p. 14.)

or again :

" Shirl-deeves — When you have occasion to tuck up your shirt'slceves, recollect that the way
of doing so is, not to liegin by turning the cuffs inside out, but outside in — the sleeves must be
rolle<l up inwards towards the arm, and not the reverse way. In the one case, the sleeves will
remain tucked up for hours without U-ing touched; in the other, they become loose every five
minutes." {Ibid. p. 116.)

It is diflScult to give a rc^sume of the ylrt of Travel. By the riltli edition
Galton seems to have thought of most things that any type of traveller
would require in any possible climate or country. From outfit and servants
to medicine, fire, tents, fuel, food, treatment of animals, signalling, surveying,

' Iloyal Geographical Society: Honorary General Secretary 1857-63, Foreign Secretary
1865-66, Member of the Council either by election or ex officio almost continuously from 1854
to 1893, Vice-President 1866-72, 1879-86, IM.SS^I.

' How simple and obvious some of these suggestions are and yet how much might still be
learnt frrim them! Powders for medicinal use should l>o mixed with coloured floui-s to distin-
guish emetics from aperients or to emphasise {K>isons; where ammonia and the 'blue bag' are
not available— on a walk or at a picnic party — oil of nicotine scrapt^ from a pipe, generally at
hand, will i-elieve the pain of a wasp or Ixje sting. Or, again, such simple directions as those
oonccniing blistered fet^t where In^yond the usual soaping of the insides of the stockings lx;foro
a King walk, we read "after some hours on the i-oud, when the fet^t are l)eginning to be chafed,
take off the shoes and change the stockings; putting what was the right sto<-king on the left
foot, and the left stocking on the right ftMit "; — and when a blister is formed jxmra little brandy
or other spirit into th<' palm of the hand and drop tJiUow from a lighted candle into it, rub the
feet with this niixturo on going to rest, and "on the following morning no blister will exist."

Francis Galton, from a photograph taken after his return from Damantland, circa ISfiS.

Traiim'tion SlmlieH W

even to tlie conclusion of the journey and the printing
[of the maps, it \h all there, tersely {^iven, with just the needful diajfruins and
sketches. Many are the mechanical 'd<Kli;t'H,' here ^'iven; of such (Jalton
never wearied. He had watclied craftsmen in all tlu' KiikIs through which he
I had travelled and he never tired of experimenting and of model-making'. And
much of this he has used in his Arf of Travel. The reader of his .South
African hook will recognise also the iiidiviilual experiences which \r;\\i' rise
to .several of the hints in the present work.

If a few foiinulae or a small amount of me;usuremenl can l>e tiiruwn in,
Galton will gladly provide them, 'riie following is a good illustration:

"TuR RUSH OF AN RNKACKD ANIHAL Ih far more I'asily avoided than is usually suppoMKl. The
way tho Spanish hull-fighU'rs play witli th<' bull, is woll known ; any man can avoid a mere
licadlon^' cliarge. Even the sp^i^l of a racer which is uiKJfiiiahly greater than that of any wild
i|ua(lrujH-<l, iloes not exceed HO miles an hour, or four times the sptw*! of a man. The s[>ee«l of
an ordinary liorse is not more than 24 miles an hour; now even the fastest wild l)east is unable
to catch an oitlinary horse, except by crawling unobserved to his side, and springing upon him ;
therefore I am convinced that tho rush of no wild l)ea8t exceeds 24 miles an hour, or three

times the spee<l of a man It is perfectly easy for a person who is cool, to avoid an animal by

dodging to one side or another of a bush. Few animals turn, if the rush be uii"'t ' :1. The
buffiilo is an exception; he regularly hunts a man, and is thertifore peculiarly >\ Un-

thinking persons talk of the f(>arful rapidity of a lion's or tiger's spring. It is nut rupul at all;
it is a .slow movement, as must he evident from the following consideration. No wild animal
can leap Um\ yards, and they all nuike a high trajectory' in their leap.s. Now think of the .speed
of a ball thrown or rather pitched, with just suflicient force to be caught by a person t«'n yards
otl"; it is a mere nothing. The catcher can play with it a.s he likes; he lia.H even time to turn
after it, if thrown wide. But the speed of a springing animal is undeniably the same aa that
of a ImiU, thrown so as to make a Hight of e<[ual length and height in the air. The corollary to
all this is that if charged, you must keep cool and watchful, and your chance of escape is far
greater than non-sportsmen would imagine." (4th Edn. p. 251.)

While traces of the personality of Galton will be found by those who
knew him well on almost every j)age of the Art of Trarcl, there are passages
which mark unconsciously his views and the course of his development from
1853 to 1867. There are omissions also in later editions which tell exactly
the stage he had reached.

From Uamaraland and Ovampo few if any animals, birtls or insects were
brought back. Galton then and in the Art of Travel considered them from
the standpoint of .sport and food. His li.st of instruments contains no micro-
scope or dissecting tools, and of books no work on natural history. The sole
reference to the collection of specimens occurs in the last paragraph where a
description is given of how to make a specimen box from a flat card (;?rd
Edition, 1860). There is not a word as to how to observe and record the
anthropometric characters, folk-lore or religious customs of savage man;
neither callipers, tape, nor colour standards appear in Galton s in.strumentiirium.

' The Galton Laboratory possesses a whole series of rough motlels in card, wood or glass;
'Galton's Toys,' as we call them. Of the purpose of many we know absolutely nothing; others
were initial attempts at Galton's hyperscopc, helioatat, etc. Besides these 'Toys' are quite a
number of instruments chietly optical made by practical instrument makers to Galton's plans,
but in cert-ain cases it has so far been inipossible to determine for what purposes they were
intended.

If

4 Life and Letters of Francis (tolfon

Theee are very noteworthy omissions in a man who was among tlie foremost
anthropoUigists in this country later to study both the psychic and pliysical
characters ui man. In the Art of Travfl Gahon liad essentially the needs of
the geognipher~in the narrower sense — in view; the physical country is
more imixirtant than its inhabitants. It is possible that this is a general
rule in life; in youth it is the novelty of the physical environment, hut at
a later age it is the novelty of new organic types that forms the intense
pleasure of travel'.

Even as late as 1878 when Galton edited the fourth edition of Hints to
Travellers, a useful compendium for traveller issued by the Royal Geo-
raphical Society, while we find a section on the "Collection of 01)iects of
"atural History" there is no reference to man, and the sole approach to any
"Hint" of an anthropological nature in the work is a brief note of 17 lines
on p. 71 by the Rev. F. W. Holland describing how paper s(jueezes may be
taken of inscriptions. Even the article on photography does not refer to the
photography of the natives, or their habitations and occupations. The book
is excellent as a guide to the instruments and processes needful to the map-
maker; it lacks all that would give the local human colour to the environ-
mental description. We are not criticising the book from the standpoint of
modern academic geography, which does consider man in relation to the
physical environment it depicts. We are merely emphjvsising that Galton in
the periofl we are discussing had not yet discovered his real metier —
anthropology in its broadest sense. He wsis doing yeoman .service for
geography, but the study of man's development, its Icnowable past and
probable future, had not yet fascinated him, still less did it domniate his
activities.

The Art of Travel shows us indirectly also how undeveloped Galton's
mind was in another direction even in 1860. In the third edition of this
book we read:

"The method of obtaining fire by rubbing sticks together was at one time nearly universal.
It seems remarkable that the time of discover}' of the art of fire-making is not recoitled in the
Bible. We may ea.sily imagine that our tirst parents obtaine<i tiieir fires from natural sources ;
of which, some parts of the Caucasus at least, abound in examples. Hut when Ciiin was sent an
outcast, how did he obtain fire? It is remarkable that his descendants are precisely those who
invented metallurgy', and arts requiring fire. We might almost theorise to the effect that he or
they discovered the art of fire-making, and pushed the discovery into its applications." (p. 27.)

Then follows the well-known ptissage from Pliny's Natural History on
the best wood for fire-sticks. In the fourth edition of the Art of Travel of
1867 this passage as to our "first |)arents" and as to Cain as the inventor of
fire-sticks has di.sappeared. Between 1860 and 1867 Galton had read and
Sfisimilated Darwin's Origin of Species, and in Galton's own words that
book had formed "a real crisis in my life" and had driven away "the con-

' The rule is of course not invariable. The present writer sptmt nmcli time in the Austrian
Tyrol in his youth, and was on one occasion askinl to write a handlxM>k to the Tyix)l as one of
a Beries of guidebooks to the Alps. Nothing came of the proposal, InMiause he replied that it
must in the first place be a guide to the folk-lore, history, art and institutions of the Tyrolese
themselves, and in the second place only a route l)ook to valleys, piusses and peaks.

IVdnttition Sfwlics 6

straiiit of my old superetitioii oh if it had l)eeii u nightmare, and was the Hret
to give me freedom of thought." (See CialtoiiH letter to Darwin, Plate II of
Vol. I.)

In the rapid gi-owth of our knowledge of the wonderful procens of liuniun
development, extending now over nearly a quarter of a million years, and
with our present certainty tliat man ha.s used fire for a great portion of that
period, the .suggestion that the di.scovery of how to make fire wu.s a product
of those last few tliou.sand years which bihlical folk-lore endeavours to cover,
may well raise a smile. But does the modern reader realise when he smiles
at and criticises tiie mid- Victorians that it was they — Darwin, Galtou,
Huxley, Clifford and others — wlio worked their way from such ignorance to
insiglit and gave him the power to smile at it'?

To turn to a lighter matter before we leave the Ai-t of Travel for good,
we may find, even in such a work cram full of detail and techni(jue, sure traces
of CJaiton's sense of humour. Thus, having remarked thatasse-s to kick mu.st
put their head to the ground and to bray must rai.se their tiiil, and described
how the head cjin be kept up and the tail kept down, he remarks:

"In tiostile ni-ightiMurhoods, where silence and concealment ure sought, it might be well to
adopt thi.s rather absurd treatment [lashing the tail to a heavy stone]. An a.s« who was being
schoole*! accoixling to the meth(xl of thi.s and the preceding paragraph, both at the same time,
would be worthy of an artist's sketch." (4th Edn. p. 61.)

Again, talking of Z)Mr/;-»S)Aoo<m^, Galton remarks:

"Tt is convenient to sink a large barrel into the flat marsh or mud, as a (lr_v [ilacc to stand
or sit in, when waiting for the birds to come. A lady suggests to me, that if tlie sportsman took
a bottle of hot water to put under his feet, it would Ix; a great comfort to hin), and in this I
quite agn-e; T would take a keg of hot water, when about it.'' {Ibid. p. '2!)S.)

Talking about Natives' Wives as members of a party, Galton commends
them !is giving great life to a party and as being invaluable in picking up
gossip, which win give clues of importance, otherwise oflen mi.ssed. He con-
siders in a special paragraph the Strenyth of \Vo)tu'H, which he fintls adeijuate
for the march, and adds :

"It is the nature of women to be fond of carrying weights; you may set- them in onini-
bu8.ses (!) and carriages, always preferring to hold their baskets or their babii-s on their knees,
to setting them down on the seats by their sides. A woman, whose modern dress includes, I
know not how many cubic feet of space, has harflly ever pockets of a sufficient size to carry
small articles, for she prefers to load her hands with a bag or other weighty object." (Ibid.
p. 8.)

Lastly while Galton admitted that men without independent means
could turn travel to excellent account as in opening up new countries, finding
natural history specimens or hunting for ivory, there is no doubt that he

' Nay, does he realise how widespread is still the ignorance of human history in the
apiMirently 'educated' classes? During the few months that the cases containing objects bearing
on man's development have been on view in the little museum of the Galton Laboratory we have
received more than one remonstrance against the dating of a neolithic skeleton at 8000 years
and of palaeolithic man at over .50,000 years, as incompatible with the 'well-known date' of
the creation of the world !

6 L{fe and Li-ttrrx of Frnnrin Gallon

tliought, as most will hold too, that the ideal traveller was a inaii like
hiinst'lf:

"If you liiivp lit-Altli, a great craving for a<lvt»iitun>, at k'Ast .i iiHxli'mU- fortunt*, and c«n st't
your heart on a di-fiiiiu* object, which oV\ travellers <lo not think iinpracticHlile, then — travel hy
all means. If, in addition, you have scientific t^iste and knowledge, 1 Wlievu that no career, in
time of |)eace, can offer to you more advantages tlutii that of a traveller." (4th Edn. p. 1.)

Such then is the Art of Travel planned as Gallon hintseli' states during
his South African exploration of 1850-51. It deserves a new edition,
brought up in sulistance and illustration to date — if the all-round knowledge,
such Jis Galton had, still luis its re})re.sentJitive'.

We cannot, however, leave the subject of travel without referring to two
or three other enterprises in which Galton had a hand. Notable among
these is the Vacation Tourists and Xotes of Travel, of which he was the
originator and editor. It was to be an annual volume and issues appeared
for 1860, 1861 and 1862-63. The work Galton tells us just paid its way,
and the idea certainly was, and might still be, a good one. The 1860 volume
contained papers by W. G. Clark, Leslie Stephen, John Tyndall and othei^s,
besides one oy Galton himself. Much of the matter can be retid with
pleasure and profit to-day. How wonderfully wise in the light of recent
experience seems W. G. Clark's talk with the Frenchman in Genoa over the
latter's view that "there will be no secure and lasting peace for Euroj)e until
its political .system is l)ased upon the principle of nationalities." How this
search for a definition of a 'nationality' migiit have warned President
Wilson of the difficulties and the danger of the creed he was to propound 60
veai-s Isiter at Versailles! The accounts of early Al})ine ascents, the Allelein
Horn by Leslie Stephen, the Eggischhorn by Tyndall and the attempt on
the Matterhorn by Hawkins are all still worthy of peru.sal. Galton con-
tributed to the first volume a pa])er on Spain and the total eclipse of June
1860. He went out with a party in charge of the Astronomer-lloyal in
H.M.S. Himalaya and saw the eclipse from La Guardia. This was his
first visit to Spain and he saw a good deal of the country, staying in the
Pyrenees after the eclipse, and "here that remarkable madness of mountain
climbing, to which every healthy man is liable at some period of his life, and
which I had always believed myself to have gone through once for all in a
mitigated form, began to attack me with extreme severity'.' But while he
gives us little account of his mountaineering, he takes up very seriously the
(juestion of sleeping or crimping out at great altitudes, and gives a very full
description of suitable rations for a six-days' outing, and above all of the
knapsack sheepskin sleeping l)ag8* of the trench 'douaniei-s' or the frontier

' A great niafw of material for a new edition was collected for and sent to Oalton by the
late Mr Howard Collins. It will l)e foun<l in the Galton Jjvboratory Archives.

• Ualtoii himself in his list of published papers, Apjx-ndix to Meiiwrif.ii, p. 324, says the
Yaeatirm TourinU container! (t4xi memoirs by himself. I have fnilixl to find more than one.

' i'araliou TouritU, 1860, p. 446. Galton l»ecame frcjin this date even to the end of his days
a frequent visitor to the Pyrenees.

* With his usual desire to test practical efficiency, Galton carried one of these bags 1000 feet
above Luchon and spent the night in it during a terrific thunderstorm ! While familiar to

Traimition SIiuHcm 7

watchers against Himij^ffleis. With the liasijiu' diMtiiot^i of Sfmin f!a|(<iii ui>«
(leliglitexl. He writes:

"Kvcry net of tlu! |M'i)|)li< wiut oi'i;;iiiiil — their ifMt, tlifir iiii|ili<iiient«, tlioir way i>f >u-(tiii(( u>
work. I ltH)k«l into inaiiy shops — such iis tinkfn*', hliicksmitliH', pottj-rs', and ho ffi), <.i..|
cnnid to the coiu-hision, Kpcukitig vory broadly, timt if uny of thi'ir [iatl<iniM worr . I

into Kn^'hiiid, or that if any of ours were made to replat-o theim, tlm cliangt* would invol . .; .i.-. i.i..,i
incongruity, and Itvul to <|Ut>«tionahle itnprovemunt. Another Huhjitct which struck ni« at one*",
and with which up to tho last nioninnt of my stay in Hfiain, I l>ocani(' no Icsm charmed, w.i
gract'ful, Kupplc and decorous movement of every Spanish woman'. It wa« a iiMistanl pi'
to mo to waU'h their walk, tlieir dresa, and their manner, iis it is a <'onstJinl jar !■.
of iieauty to see tiie vulgar gait, ugly outlines, mean faei-s, liati millinery and ill ..
of the vast majority of the female (lopulation that one iMuwes in an Knglish thorouglifaie.

Cjaltoii coiitra.sts the pea.suiitry, esj)eoially the Ba.s(jue peasaiitiy ' •'' '-' i,
with the iiit'eiiurity of phy-sitjue, uiaiiiier and a(l(hes.s of the upper <■. ,f

Madrid society, and with conditions in Enghuid, where he tells us that "the
higher chts.ses, speaking generally, have the higher make of Ixxly and mind
and by far tlie nobler six^ial tone." But the pejusstntry in almost every land,
if it has been long on the soil, appears to the visitor harmonious and even
l)eautiful tiiink only of the Italian, the Austrian, the U|)land Rjulen and
the Norwegian tillers of the earth, each admirable in their own way and each
suited by centuries of selection to their own environment. The grace of an
autochthonous pea.santry, the suitability of their dwellings to their climate,
of tiieir clutbing to their habits, and their artefacts to their domestic and agri-
cultural needs, impresses us in the same way as the grace of a wild animal,
ada])ted in every nistinct and habitude to its native haunts, impresses us if
we observe it unawares in its own surnnmdiners.

The reader of (Jalton's paper will realise how he Wius beginning in 1860
to turn his thoughts more to man, and this also may be read between the
lines of the account he gives of the public baby-dandle in Logrono:

"In the afternoon, the military were paraded, and the bands played in tho 8«|uare. (>f
courstyall the .spare population went to see them; hut what amu.se<i us especially, was the part
tiiken by the nurses and the children, Ixith here and at Vittoria. They came in hundreds,
scattered among tho crowd. Tho instant the mu.sic Ix-gan, every nurse elevatc<l her charge,
sitting on her hand, at half-arm's length into the air, and they all kept time to the music by
tossing the babies in unison, and slowly rotating them, in azitnulh (to s|>flak astronomically) at
each successive toss. The bjibies looked pvssive and nither bore<l, but the energy and enthusiasm
of the nurses was glorious. At each great bang of the drummers a vast flight of babieH was
simultaneously projected to the utmost arms' length. It wiis ludicmus beyond expn>8sion."
{V.T. 1860, p. 436.')

Another feature of this travel paper is Galton's increased interest in
meteorology and generally in climate. There is even a touch of it in his
description of the corona during the eclip.se: he is inclined to treat the

.\rctic tnivellets, sleeping bags had not up to tli;it date l>e«!n nse<l bj- Alpine climlx'rs. and
Ualton at a diinier of the Eugli.sh .\lpine Club was toasted lus the gre«t««t 'l>agman' in Kurope.
.l/emonV», p. 190.

' In a letter to his mother (.July 19, 1860) Gallon writes: "I cannot tell you how T enjoy
Spain. TIh> people are so civil and nice and ••(/•an. Italy won't bear comjwrison on • f

cleanliness with Sj»iin. Everybody is happy and graceful and well-to-<lo." This letter •• in

account of the eclipse and a rather brilliant pt^n and ink drawing of the corona.

8 Life and Lettern of Francis Galton

corona as a mock halo. His job at the eclipse was to have been the taking
of observations with an actinonieter", but on the day before the eclipse,
when the instrument was unpacked, it was found to Ix; broken.

" I cttiididly confess that a rising fiH»ling of exultAtion Hcconipivnicxl this discovery; I was not
now necessarily obliged to spend the precious three minutes of the eclipse in poring on an
ascending column of blue fluid in a graduated stem, and noting down the results by feeble
lamplight, but I was free to enjoy to the full the whole glory <>f the eclipse." {V.T. 1860,
p. 437.)

Galton decided to sketch the corona and to determine from its ett'ect on
coloure th«' e.xact colour of the eclipse light about which there had been
controversy. His account' of the eclipse is worth reproduction in part, if
only for the originality of his views on the corona.

"2 hrs. 50 m. Indian yellow, col)alt and emerald green are lower in tone. I can distinguish
all twelve colours perfectly. Light nmch fainter. 55 m. Light far fainter. I made a liole in a
paper screen, and watched the crescentic image of the speck of sunlight that shone through it on
the floor. The shadows were very dark and sharp. Air cold. .")S iii. The numerous pigi-ons of
the place began to fly home, fluttering about hurriedly, taking shelter wherever they could.
There was something of a hu.sh in the crowd.

At alx)ut 3 h. — I forgot to note the e.xact watch time, I am sorry to say — toUility came on
in great Ijeauty. The Corona very rapidly formed it.self into all its perfectne.Ks. It did not appear
to me to grow, but to stand out ready forme<l, as the brilliant edge of the sun l)ecame masked.
I do not know to what I can justly compare it, on account of the peculiar whitenes,s of its
light, and of the deflnition of its shape as combined with a remarkable tenderness of outline.
There was flrmness but no hardne&s. In its general form, it was well biilaiued, but larger on
one side than the other. It reminded me of some brilliant decoration or order, made of diamonds
and exquisitely designed. There wa.s nothing to impress terror in the sight of the blotte<l-out
sun; on the contrary the general effect of the spectacle on uiymind was one of unmixed wonder

and delight The Corona-light sufliw-d abundantly for writing rough notes and for se<>ing my

c-olours. Oddly enough, theii/rH/ tnenna and the rfiriniUion alone cejise<l to l»e distinguishable from
each other. Indian yellow ha<l greatly hmt brilliancy. I made a rough sketch of the Corona — it
was too manifold in its details and too iMMutiful in its pixiportions for me, bad arti.st as I am, to
do justice to it in the short time the s[K«tacle last«<l^yet the drawing which I matle and which
is given here [see Fig. 1, p. 9], is to my mind a fair diagram of this splendid meteor'. I drew it
without taking any measurements to guiile me, but simply as I would sketch any ortlinary object.
The uppermost part is that which was upjiermost when I drew it. I used no lantern and required
none; there was a sufficiency of light The principal facts were, firstly, that the long arms of
the Corona [see Fig. 2, p. 9] do not ratliate strictly from the centre, neither are they always
bounded by .straight lines*. The up|)er edge of a was truly tangential, that of d and others
nearly so; c was remarkably curved, and so wa.s the lower inlge of /), though less abruptly;
it WAS like a finch's beak, and remarkably defined. Secondly the shaiHs of the Coi-ona was not
absolutely constant; sjKsaking generally, it was so; but in small details it appeared to vary
continually, by a slow diorama-like change. There was no pulsjition or variation of intc^nsity,
visible in its light. I was particularly impressed by its solemn steadiness.

' Qalton had previously to his departure l)een instructed by Sir John Herschel in the use
of this invention of his.

« His sketches and other deUtils appear in the Royal Astronomical Society's Memoirt, Vol.
XLI, pp. 563-4, as well as in Vacatum Tonriiit*.

• Elsewhere in this paper (p. 4_'3 "eAch phenomenon of that strange and magnificent meteor")
Oalton uses this word in the s«ni.s<' of an unusual atmospheric iij)jM>arance.

* Even Sir Oeorge Airy doubttKl the curvature Galton gave to some of his rays, but photo-
graphs of sul»s<'<|uent eclipses ha\e confirmed the curve<l rays. There was no photograph of this
eclipse, the first probably at which phoU)grapliy was iwssible, although a j)hot<)grapher was
present. He inserted his slide and exjjosed, but hail forgotten to put a jAaU into hit slide I

Trnimltion Stiulieg

9

It Hf<<me(l scarcely |)OWiiblo t<i believe that the light of the Corona wni .>tti«-r than th^ ray«
friirii tlin sun iiiiwlc visihlo in sdine inc<miprchon.sil)lc tnanrior nmiiil tl
appeiiriinco Ix^iii^; eminently KU({(,'i'stiv« of 11 hriiliiint j,'liil«-riin>; Ixxly, I;
The nearest rem-nibliince I can tliink of, to exprens my nieaninj; (not that I am to Ik- i.
aH siippoNing the reniotefit analogy Ixitween the t-ituseH of the two ap|M<araiiL')>N), iH th' :

a jet of wat««r, playing from b(!hin<l agninHt some obstacle, ami throwing an irregular halo of

spray arounil it, on all sides. That a reasonable foundatioD may exist for ii- ■ ■^-■■■- ''■•• '" n

tosonuMlivorsionof the ordinary rays of the sun, however uninU'lligible the c.
may lie, and not t<i a luminous atmosi)lieru surrounding the sun, was powertiiiiy inn i

me by certain apisMirances that were observed when totality was pa8w<l : they \\
Four or five minutes after the reappearance of the sun, Mr AIwckkI calle<l uttention tu n-n:
able luminous radiations, like suids'ams ylanting through a cloud, and priK-e«!diiig in luu .
but long brushes from the cusps of the sun. They changMl their lingular dirwtions an<l even
their sha]K's with such rapidity, thai I was almojit bewilderetl in a first Httempt to draw tliem.
If I look<'<l down on my paper to draw a few strokes, the appearance had become changed, when

Fig. 1.

I again raised my head. Nevertheless between .'5 h. 11 m. and 3 h. 13 m. I managed to make
thrct> sketches; the two that were most characteristic are here very fiiirly repiiv'-ented. After
3 h. 13 m. fh(^ light of the emerging sun wius too strong to admit of further ol)servations. The
brushes were perfectly distinct and uiunistakeable, they were best seen by holding up the Itand
so a.s to mask the sun, and they were perfectly visible through the t«>lescope when it waa so
turned as to exclude the sun. There was no mistake whatever alxjut their existt-nce. I trust
that the attention of observers of future eclipses will l>e direct<'<l to them, both Ixrfore and after
totality. Now whatever may have l)een the cau.se of the brushes, would also, I should gues-s, l>e
competent to creatt> the greater part of the Corona: the two apjiearances iK'ing of identically
the same genus. It will Ix; observed that the brushes in Fig. 3' fnolose an angle of alMiut 130",
on the side of the emergent sun, and that the same angle had changiHl to aliout 19-)* in Fig. t,
to say nothing of the api)earance of a central bar of light. The angular change of the brushes
was contiiuious, so long as I hiwl an opportunity of l<Kiking continuously at them.

I have since often looked for, and have only just seen (Sunday Feb. 10th'), an almost precise

See Figs. 3 and 4, p. 10.

' Presumably 1861.

10 Life and Letters of Fraims Golfon

reprfsentatiuu uf these appearances, in the case of small black snow-liuleii clouds sailing before
the sun. When tin' clnuils are in any way transparent, though eonw indiciUioDK of these brushes

may be observed, their efftxit is proportionately feeble, and if the sun Ihj maskwl by an object
at no great distance, the etTect does not occur at all. Tlio conimon ai-tist representations of the
sun about to ri.se over a distant hill, show that these appearancea are generally recognised. Now
I can hardly understand what I have de«cribe<l, on any other supposition than that of sun-beams
being reflected from off the hack of the cloud at a very acute angle athwart the line of sight.
They would illuminate the haze of the atmosphere through wiiich they passed, and being seen
exceedingly foreshortene<l, would be the more apparent. But here I stop. I do not comprehend
why the wisps of light should l)e projected from the cusps of tlie uncovering sun, and therefore
have an apparent movement of rtivolution. Still less can I understand why the moon, which is
presumed to have no atmosphere of anj' description', capable of being illuniined by passing
rays, should exhibit this appearance so Ixjautifully. When I shall have seen wisps of light, as
in Figs. 3 or 4, coming from a cloud, but sha}>od in any way like tho.se of Fig. 1 — convergent
and not divergent, curved and not straight — whether owing to irregular distribution of the
adjacent haze or other intelligible reason, I shall hardlj' resist feeling satisfied that the Corona
is mainly due to the same description of cause that produces them, whatever that cause may
really be. There may, in addition, be some luminous effect produced by an enveloping atmo-
sphere of light round the sun, seen beyond the edges of the eclipsing moon

As to my colours: after a good deal of trouble, I find I can reproduce the exact effect that I
witnessed, by placing them in a closed lx)x having a dark ceiling, and admitting a faint white
light at a low angle. I then view the colours also at a low angle through a piece of dull yellow
glass. All these details seem essential to effect: they are in some sort, the equivalents to a
yellow sky near the horizon, and gloom above head." ( V.T. 1860, pp. 440-4.)

•

We have given this long extract from Galton's paper because it shows
not only the working of Galton's mind at the time, but is very character-
istic of the general manner in which he approached problems. He thought
and reasoned about things for hini.self even when they might lead liiin
astray. His cm^ed corona rays have been confirmed. He alone noted that
cusp rays were still visible when the crescent was masked by the hand.
Galton's observations (Ijut not his inferences from them) will be found
in Ranyard's "Observations made during Total Solar Eclipses" {Memoirs
of R. Astron. Soc. Vol. XLI, 1879), where his sketches are reproduced
(pp. 563-4) in more finished fonn.

' The brushes according to Oalton's sketch extended to three times the moon's diameter.

I'LATK U\

Ets

is

a 8

Is

C5 a

t. o

?^

.* X

50 S)

'I ^

's c

O I

TraiiKitlon Studies \ \

Galton himself says' of the Vacation Tourists, that excitiion waa often
fan unwelcome duty, and illustmtes it by the statement that amonjf the
ontribiitions offered for one vohime were thirteen 8et)anite df- *' f

ea-sickness! Yet the volumes have something of the chunn of It i
'ictorian journalism ; and should not be allowe<l to pass into complete oblivion.
In 18(;4 Galton wrote for John Murray a knapsack guide for Switzerland',
which just deserves mention under the heading of travel. It reached a .s<-c.)ii.|
edition, the one I have e.xamined. The late Mr John Murray paid Galton
£150 for the copyright. It was one of a series of four (Switzerland, Italy,
Norway and Tyrol) which have since passed out of sight. The general plan
is very much what we now associate with Baedeker, and the hints Jis to
hotels and the character of landlords were more or less original in those days.
Galton's name is not associated with the work and there is little to identity
it with his personality. He does not mention it in the Memories, it is
omitted in lists of his Ixjoks and memoirs, and the present writer n- • '
heard him refer to it. It is neverthele.ss a substantial piece of work. 11 ^
and when did Galton obtain his knowledge of Switzerland? The answer n>ay
be found in the brief yearly records of "Frank's Life" and "Louisji's Life"
on opposite pages from 1830 to 1853, and then carried on in common by
Mrs Galton until her death in 1897, which year is written by Francis
Galton himself. From this Record' we find that not only was a considerable
portion of the wedding tour devoted to Switzerland (1853), but in 185() the
Galtons were in Switzerland and the Tyrol. In 1857, 1861, 1862 both were
again in Switzerland, and in 1863, Fi-ancis Galton, probably to complete the
knapsack guide, was alone in Switzerland. Thus his experience was fairly
ample for a guide which was intended not for the high-peak climber, but for
the 'Thalbumnder,' or for the tourist in the broader .sen.se.

The autunni travel often extended to two or three months, and the visits to
Mrs Galton's family at Gayton or Julian Hill, or to Francis Galton's relatives
at Leamington, Claverdon or Hadzor were a constant feature of the Galtons'
life ; they consumed much time, but had no doubt compensating advantages
especially as the health of both was at times indiff'erent. Beyond these
travels and visits social life is often referred to, and the names of the Ilu.ssell
Gurneys, the (Jassiots, the Norths and of Spottiswoode begin to apjHiar in
the diary. After their return to England in 1853, the Galtons had occupied
lodgings in Portugal Street; then they lived at 55 Victoria Street, West-
minster, and finally in 1857 they took possession of the house in Rutland
Gate, which remained Galton's home till his death in 1911, and is the
environment with which most of his surviving friends will chiefly associate
him. The light and airy, white enamelled drawing-room, with its furniture
of many periods and styles; the long dining-room with its lx>okcase at the
back, Galton's working table* in the front window, and on the walls the prints

' Afemories, p. 187.

" The Knapmck Guide /or Travellers in Switzerland. New edition revised, 1867. "Fnmk
l)usy editing Murray's Handbook." L. G.'a Record, 1864.
■' [ii future to Ix! cited as L. O.'s Record.
* Now in tlie Galtoniana of the Galton Laboratory with his writing chair.

I'J A//r aii<l lA'ttvi'H of Francis Ga/fnn

of Galton's friends — Darwin, Grove, Hooker, Brcxlrick, Spencer, S|X)tti8woode',
etc.; the dark hack room with its slielves loaded with pamphlet cases filled
witli letters and nianuscrij)ts, the hoxes of models, and the notes of a long
lifetime of collecting, mostly indexed by Galton himself, all these will be
familiar memories to his friends, and formed a singularly uni(jue environment,
very characteristic of the man. A great reference lil)rary, one of the principal
rooms of the house devoted to a study, reproductions of modern or medieval
art, these were not essential needs of Galton's nature. Among his lx)oks were
no long series of foreign journals or transactions, and but few fundamental
treatises on anthropology or natural history. His library consisted chiefly
of books which their writers presented to him — such as Darwin's works —
or of offprints and papers sent to Galton when his name had l)ecome known.
There are .scarcely two dozen l)ooks in Galton's library as we now have it,
which we can <as.sert he must have purchased to forward his work. There
are masses of measurements and ob.servations of Galton's own, but unlike
Darwin he did not stjirt by analysing published material. He collected
afresh either dii'ectly or through others and formed his conclusions de novo.
I do not think he ever studied Laplace or Poisson; I am confident that he
had never considered the original papers of Gauss: even while CJalton's work
seems to flow naturally from that of Quetelet', I am very doubtful how far
he owed much to a clo.se reading of the great Belgian statistician. He
formed no collection of his books, and the few references to Quetelet in
Galton's writings are such as might easily arise from indirect sources. Galton
took up his problems one after anotlier and worked at them largely dis-
regarding their past history, when indeed they had one. Tiiis is only
possible in a man of great insight and brimming over with suggestive ideas
and novel proce-sses. But the method has some drawbacks, when adopted
by lesser men, and even, as in his above-cited account of his observations on
the Corona, we may find it open to criticism in Galton himself But unless
my readers grasp this characteristic of Galton's nature they will fail to
understand how, with all his travel and the social and executive calls on his
time, he was yet able to accomplish so much. It is dangerous advice to give to
every scientific worker, but it is the only useful advice to give to a young man
of genius: F'ind a little trodden path, and explore it rapidly alone, without
regard to the work of others; many precious hours will be wasted if you
follow up the spoor of each one who has pa-ssed athwart your path liefore.
Galton took some time to find his individual ti^ack, but having found it, he
went ahejid without much regard to forerunners or even to tIio.se working
on parallel lines. It was this individuality of metho<l which impressed
itself on his environment and rendered him so independent of the usual
appurtenances of the scholar. He thought and he wttrked with the simplest
of tools, and these mostly of his own making.

' Hung at the present time on the walls of the Committee Room in the Galton Ij«lK)rutory.
The family iKirtraits which hung in the »lriiwing-nx)m and flaltoHN bedroom may .still be seen
on our whIIh, and even the <|UHint htunted eupboani wardrobe from (ialtoii's di-essing-rooni now
serves as a store for iiicehanical calculators — a use which would have delighted his heart!

* In a card index prepan^d by Gallon himself to his books and pamphlets the name of
Quetdet does not appear.

TranHituni Stiitlini 18

1 have interpolated thiH punigmph into our liiHtory of the man himMeli*.
U'ciuise while those travels, that social life and that scientific executive
work' went on continuously, I shall only refer to them ajjain very ii
ullv, they serve nu-n^lv as a hack -ground to the intellectual life of t
with which wo shall in this second volume \w principally concerned.

The reader will perha|)S have ohserved that the year 1855 does not i>ccur
on our p. 1 1 as one in which Cialton visited Switzerland. It was the year
of tlie Crimean War, a year of gnive de[)re88ion for all those who had the
national welfare at heart. The crass ijrnorance which rules in hi^h places,
the criminal want of preparation characteristic of nearly all British executive
l)0(Hes showed themselves in the general breakdown of 1855, as intensely a«
they did in 11)14, or in the Bt)er War of 1900. The shame of 1855 is almost
forifotten now in the light of more recent impreasions. But it led tlie patriot,
man or woman, of those days to cry: "How can I aid this helpless, f(K>lish
country of mine ? Wliat can 1 contribute that it lacks? How is this brainless
executive to l)e pushed on to firmer ground?" And men and wonien steppetl out
of their seclusion and their studies in 1855 in their tens, as they did in the
liust war in their hundreds, and demon.strated that the nation's real strength
lay in its reserve of brain-power, and not in its political leadera and the paid
servants of the government. The world nnig with the glorious work — the
almost Joan d'Arc task of Florence Nightingale ; the inner circle might know
that her greatest services to the nation were not those which caught the public
Imagination; but the public were right in identifying its ideal with a definite
personality, above all with such a marked one as that of the ' Lady of the Lamp.'
But at the time of the Crimean War as in recent years there were others
also who asked themselves what is my tiy'tier and how can I supply in one
way or another what the nation lacks? Among these self-questioners was
Francis Galton.

He heard of the terrible sufferings of our soldiers in the trenches, due in
the first place to the ignorance of their officers, men who in the majority of
cases hatl had no experience of bivouac and camp. Galton realised the need of
our armies in one way as Florence Nightingale did in another. His own
words best express the situation :

"The outbreak of the Ciiiiienii War showed tl\c helplessness of our soldiers in the iiio«t
elementary matters of camp-life. Believinjf that something could be done by myself towards

' Council of the Royal Geographical Society 1854-93, Secretary 1857-63 ; General SecreUij
to the British Association (at first with W. Hopkins and then with T. Archer Hirst) 1863 67,
President of the fleogmphical Section 1862 and 1872, President of the Anthropological S«>ction
1877 and 1885; he was twice invited to b<' President of the Association, 1890 and lOO.'i, but
declined on the ground of health and stren;,'th. ["Tliey wante<l to nominate me as President of the
British Association for 181)3, but I have iletinitely declined, as I did for 1891 [(18901, being out
of my element in dining out day afU-r day, and making sj^eches, which I detest. B««ide8 I am too
deaf to do the ordinary presidential dut'ies well." letter to Sinli-r lifMie, Feb. 13, 1892. ) Ho w»«
Chairman of the B. A. Anthropometric and of the Local Societies Committ«H» in 1S,>-
Fellow of the Royal Society 18C0; Member of Council 1805-6, 1870-2, 1876-7, 1^-
VicePresident in the last three series, Meml)erof the Kew Ol)8ervatory Committ
man on the death of De la Rue 1 889 until 1 90 1 . Meteorological Committee 1 855. >
Council 1901. President of the Royal Anthropological Institute 1886-88; Chairman ot the
Royal Society Connnittee on Evolution 1896, etc. etc.

14 Life and Letters of Francis GaJtoii

removing this extraordinary and culpnhle ignorance, I offered to give lectures on the subject;
gratuitously, at the then n<-wly-foundi'<l camp at Aldershot As may be imagined from what is
otherwise known of the confusion of the War Oflii'o at that time', no answer at iiil was sent to
my letters, until I venture<l to ajiply personally to the then Premier, Ijord Pahuerston, who at
once caused me to he installed. It is evident from my old notebooks that I worked very hard to
frame a suitable course of practical instruction and of l(x;tures for those who cared to profit by
them-."

' leather at all times. The War Office should have inscribed over its portals: Crimea, 1855;
South Africa, 1900; Flanders, 1914; with a blank space for its future achievements.

* Memoriet, pp. 163-4. I have found a printe<l document in our Galioniana, marked
"Printed for Private Circulation only," which is proliably the actual form of Galton's request to
the War Office. It is date<l 4th May, 1855 and is entitled WayH and Means of Campaigning.
It begins:

"The helplessness of our soldiers, when they are thrown for awhile uj)on their own resources,
has been so frequently insisted on and deplonxl in the Evidence taken before the Sebastopol
CoDimittee, and in speeches in both Houses of Parliament that, while it becomes impossible to
doubt it as a fact, there arises a serious question whether, and in what way, wc should attempt
to remedy it.

"Now as matters bearing u|x>n this question have been my special study in extended travel,
BO far as to have inductnl me to write upon them, quite irresptx-'tively of the present war, I
thought myself justified in communicating to the military authorities a scheme that 1 had
matured to meet the present occasion, and, whilst my propositi remains under considemtion, I
embrace the opportunity of putting what had been scattered over many pages of writing, at dif-
ferent times, into the present condensed and legible form I have oflerwl my gratuitous .services

in organising a SCHOOL OF Isstri'ction in such of the ways and me^ns of campaigning as fall
under the following heads: 1st The best of those Makeshifts and Contrivances which tho.se
people adopt who have been thrown on their own resources in all parts of the world. 2nd The
elements of those Handicrafts which experience has shown to l^e most needful in those circum-
stances.

"My wish is to reduce the teaching of these matters to a regular system. I am quite con-
vinced it can be done, and that an interesting and very useful course in them could be afforded
to the army generally, at a very small cost and without clashing with their regular dutie.s. I
seek for an opportunity of proving this practically. If I succeed in doing so to the satisfaction
of our military rulers, they might extend the system as widely as they pleased, and my cla.sses
would have instructed a number of persons who would afterwards be qualified to teach. As yet
the matter is a novelty; no one can point to exjterience and .say : 'These things are the be.st to
be taught — this the Ijest way of teaching them — such is the time required for a good practical
instruction — such the likelihood of the course l)eing a popular one.' But if the ex|>erinient has
been once set on foot, even so short a period as two months, would go far towards deciding these
points, and affording sound ground for future planiiings."

Then follows the suggestion of l>eginning at Aldershot and a summary of what the contents
of the course might be, and the paper ends with a sincere hope that the Militiirj* Authorities
may think fit to countenance a scheme which requires a mere trifle of material support.

The Times of September 25, 1855 devoted two columns to Galton's work on travel and
campaigning in a very sympathetic spirit. "The camp of Aldershot" it wrote "at this moment
is the scene of a remarkable experiment. Mr Gallon, a gentleman of considerable experience
in the shifts and ajntrivances available for travelling in wild countries, has obUiined the per-
mission of Lords Panmure and Hardinge to tenant two huts with an enclosure adjoining for the
purpose of communicating his experience to the British soldier. His services are rendered
gratuitously at present, for his arts are untesUMl and his teAching is a novelty. But the day
will ])erhaps come when their value will be recognisetl and he hini.sclf l)e <luly installe<l as our
first Professor of Odology [1 Hoilology]. A priori we should say that a traveller may l>e com-
petent to supply a void in military education. A soldier, like a traveller, may he thrown upon
his own resources, but without having acquii-ed a tiiivcller's self-dependence. In such circum-
stances he may eventually obtain the knowledge which is prissed as the qualitioition of an old

campaigner, but neoesmty will lie his teacher and his apprenticeship will Ixi cruel Au reste,

whatever his auooeas may be in his immediate undertaking Mr Galton has the merit of having

TrnnHifiou Stin/irx 15

General Knowles then in commaiul f/ave Galton all the aid in hiH power,
two huts weni placed at his disposal and he took a Hinall houHe, Oriel Cottaj^e,
two miles away and walked to and Iro daily to his work. He staited in .Mdy
and, except for a short visit to Paris in Sept<^mljer, continued to lecture untd
the followinjj; spring.

The syllabus of (Jalton's lectures in I85G lies before me, and on p. 10 \h
shown the first page. The Lectures were to be illuHtrat^fl bv Pictures,
Models and E.xj)eriments.

" iVatei- deah with iiu'thods of linding us well iia usiii;^ ^llul ilyiiin anil liltciiii),'; iiiid cHirving,
grwwetl cunvas bags, skin.s, etc. Fire with 'Lucifer inatclics,' Imniiiig gliisws, fin'-MtiikH, sulphur
matches, etc. liivouiif with natural aiul artificial screens, Hleepitig Uigs from lilaiikets wjwn along
edges, slottpiug when in urjient danger, etc. Food with proi^-r projMtrtions of fat and meat, cooking,
grinding, preserving, tishing, game, etc. The March, watching, hearing, tracking, scouting,
prisoners, sore feet and drying clothes. Riven (iml Hwl Romln with t»'m|M)rary liridgcH, fords,
swimming cjitlle and waggons, rafts, rough lM>at«, steep pitches and waggon brakes, etc. (Jra/lm
and MechnnicK with felling timU-r. seasoning, making axle.s, lathes, l)ending woimI, caw hardening,
fuel, turning, soldering, rude capstans, pulleys, knots, etc. Animal l'rodurt» with (tones, horn,
catgut, bladders, hair, shells, hides, charcoal, glue, oil, candles, soap, etc. Next we learn about
writing materials, substitutes for paper, and ink, secret writing, inscriptions for secret informa-
tion, conveying letters, etc. Animiih of Dramjht and Burden deals with hobbling and tethering,
watering of cattle, noselmgs, pack saddles, saddlery, waggon harness and waggon-mending,
accidents to waggons and aninuil.s, etc. Tents and Iluttiiitj descriln's various kinds of tents and
matt'rial, U-st piiu'e for pitching, action of rain and dew on tents, huts rude and more
elal)orate, whitewash and plaster, seats and tables, windows, floors, etc.''

Much of" this .syllabus, which 1 have given in very abbreviated form, will
be familiar to the reader of the Art of Travel, but the matter was adapted
to the special needs of the army and to a special audience.

Galton writes in his Menwries (p. 164) with undue modesty of the attempt
he made in 1855-G to teach the soldier the art of campaigning which at that
time appeared to form no part of the military curriculum'. The sluggish
War Otiice at last seems to have recognised its value, for two years afler
the war was over it caused to be constructed and distributed to various
centres ten sets of cases of niotlels and specimens illustrative of Galton's
lectures to be prepared after the design of a set which he himself had niiide
and presented to Woolwich. These cases of models were accompanie<l by a
catalogue of "JO pages prepared by Galton himself, this being an enlargement
of the above-mentioned .syllabus. In the preface he writes :

" It is trusted that they may not only serve to interest and instruct the soldier, but especially
to suggest to officers, who take an active part in educating their men, the precise subjects on
which practical classes in the Arts of Camp Life may most usefully be employed An old

framed a code of rules for situations in which Englishmen of all men are most apt to find them-
selves. The most popular type of an Englishman ever conceived is that of an isolat<>d self-relying
unit; ami for this individual Air Galton has formed a manual, which he might properly term
'Robinson Crusoe niiule Easy.' He offers a consistent rule of life to the vagabond, and settled
principles to the restless wanderer. In this sense he converts the savage into the sage and makes
the whole wilderness blossom with his red handbook [i.e. 7'A* Art o/ Travel]."

' I have before mo the list of oflicers and others who attended his lectures in Jidy, August
and SepttMiiber 18.");"), anil if the lectures after the first were not cmwded, the total number who
attended was not insignificant. Galton had never had the training that an academic teacher
acquires, and his formal lectures, at any rate in his later life, were not as good as bis talks and
demonstrations.

16 Lije and Letterx of Francis Irulton

ARTS OF TRAVELLINCJ AND CAMl'AKiNLNc

THE FOLLOWING

UOUKSK

OK

PUBUC LECTURKS

WILL BE DELIVERED AT

THE CAMP AT ALDERSHOT,

BY

FRANCIS GALTON Esq., F.R.G.S.

Amtkor of the "Art of Tt'ifi-l'' itml nf " Kx/i/oration* in Tniplfnl Smi'li Afrini^'

The Lectures will commence at Half-Past Seven, and will bo delivi-rctl on
Wednesday Evenings, as follows -

Page \ Siihject nf hvtiirr Ihiif

3, Water for drinking Jan. Hi

4, 5 Fire. Bivouac Jan. •.'.'{

6, F(»«l .Jan. SO

7. 8, f» The March. Rivers and bad Roads ... F"(l). (i

10 Crafts and Mechanics Feb. l.{

11,12, IS Bush Manufactures ?"»»>. 20

\\ • Animals of Draught and Bur<l<ii Feb. 27*

15 Tents and Hutting March (5

Mr Gallon will also be present in the Lecture Room, from lOA to
12 o'clock, on the Thub.sday Jfornings, where he will be happy
t<i explain any matters coimected with the Lecture of the preceding
Evening; and to repeat it at 11 o'clock, in the event of there being
a .sufficient attendance.

LONDON

PRINTED BY T. BRETTELL, RUPERT STREET, HAYMARKET

1856

• Had Gallon overlooked thai 1856 was Leap Year?

Tranxition Stuffier 17

tmpaignor'H Acquirements consiHt partly in knowlmign and partly in han<lin«M. Field lectun«,
luHtnit«<l tiy nxporiments, may convoy tho firnt to an inl«>llig(<nt noviev, and thi«« nirxleU will
gxplaiii wlidt kind of tliingH n>unt !>« iniulo by his liandx, U-foru h(» can a*;<iuiro tli»! Iatt«r.

Fhancis Oaltojj.
42 Rutland Qate>,
Ai^5, 1858."

Only one of Gallon's Aldershot lectures, the inaii^rural one "on the
openinji; of his Museum and LalxM'utory in the South (Jatnp, V. Nos. 18 and
20," WHS, I l)elieve, printed. It was issued hy John Murray in ISSf) hh "Arts
of Campaigniuif, an Inaugural Lecture delivered at Aldershot." From this
lecture it would appear that one of the huts was turned into a nniseum,
illustrating by sketches and models and a small library the art« of camj)aign-
ing; it was open from 1.30 to 0.30; the second hut was a workshop, and a
place for storing tools.

" Next as ni^jiirils teaching tiio haml. I iim collectinj; a motley stock of very simple tools and
raw materials, plank.s, logs, twigs, canvas, cloths, and everything necessary for making with the
hand those very things that you will see pictured in the museum; I urge you to come and make
uso of them. In the palisadoed plot of ground, between the huts, you can sit and work just as
roughly as you would in the Crimea, and you will from time to time have intelligent workmen
to a.ssist you in your dilliculties, and explain the use of the tools you work with. ...Tlien! is ni>
hahitahlit country so wild iind so inhospitable a.s not frwjuently to art'ord ample materials for
making each thing I have nientione<i. But unless we learn to dniw our supplitw from nature,
and not thn)ugh the medium of manufactories, we may sit with our hands folde<l in unwilling
idleness, and complaining of want when we are really in the midst of abundance, and surrounded

by op|)ortunitieR of using them I hope that tlie.se huts may l>e Imjked u|>on mon- as a lalx>ra-

tory where learnei-s may teach themselves, which is the best kind of learning, — rather than as
a place where they are formally taught. I wish to make it a kind of hejid ipiartfrs of the know-
ledge of those shifts, contrivance.s, and handicrafts that are available in camp life; and I call
upon you to help mo with your assistance. Write to your friends from the Crimea, or from
the bush, who take an interest in these things, get hints of original experiences from them, and
communicate them to me; they will not lie idle, but will at once be turne<i to account in
incrtjasing a storti alieiwly large, and will remain ■■ecorded in pictures or in motiels for the goixl
of ourselves and all who follow us."

Throughout Galton exhibits his innate modesty; asking tor help rather
than ottering to teach, he proposes expeditions to distant points of the heath to
illustrate camp contrivances. He endeavours to give a thoroughly practical
turn to his instruction, avoiding scrupulou.sly all that was simply fanciful.

About the same time as these lectures, but at a date unknown to me,
Galton gave a lecture on the Art of Campaigning at the United Services
Institution in Whitehall Yard. On this occasion according to the Ti ■-
report (cutting without date) "there were present many wounded oHli ; ~
from the Crimea, and the gallery was filled as usual with non-conunissioned
oflicei-s from the Guard.s, Artillery, Household Cavalry and other tro..|is
forming the garrison of London and Woolwich." Cialton showetl exp<ii-
mentally how a tree might be cut down and turned into a pole without t<.>ols
and a hole dug in the hardest ground for it without a spade or other tool
than a small stick or iron ramrod. He lashed a fomnion cla.sp-knife to a

' This is the first published paper dat<Hl trom jlutlaiui (Jate.

18

Life and Letters of Francis Gal fan

piece of wood and made a spokeshave and so obt{une<l shavings to make a very
comfbi-table bed. Further he exphiined and demonstrated experimentally
how a tent peg might be fixed in loose sand drift to give a resistance of 70
to yO lbs., etc. He was reported as having been listened to with great
attention.

In 1912 one of Galton's cabinets of "Models illustrative of the Arts of
Camp Life," which had found its way to the South Kensington Museum, was
transferred to the Iloyal Geographical Society, where it still is, an object of
interest in the museum, if hardly of study; whether any of the othei*s have
survived I do not know. Probably Galton's activities to some extent helped
to relieve the situation in the Crimea, and doubtless had his work l)een done
in 1917 instead of 1856, he would have been offered an O.B.E.

Two memoirs by Galton {)robably arose from this association with military
campaigning. The'tiret is that describing his invention of the Hand Heliostat,
an instrument for the purpose of flashing sun signals', and the second "On
a New Principle for the Protection of Kiflemeu'." The latter would have
been more effectual with the spherical bullets and the lower muzzle velocities
of those days than with modern trajectories; it depends on the well-known
fact that owing to the resistance of the air, the trajectory of a shot is not
symmetricjvl alxjut its highest point, and accordingly a shot fired from A to B,
and another from B to A, do not follow the same curve. It is accordingly
possible to intercept one of these and not the other by a properly placed

screen.

' Briluh Auociation R'port, 1858, part II, pp. 15-17; also with diagram in Thi- Kntflnitfr,
Oct. 15, 1858, p. 292; R. Geog. Soe. I'ror. iv, 1860, pp. U-19.
• United Sisrvieeo Journal, 1861, Vol. iv, pp. 393-6.

Trmmtion Studies

Fig. 1 (p. 1 8) explains, of course without the detailH, Gallon's idea. I do not
know whether it was ever dealt with exjK'riinentally ; the extreii ' "it
trajectories of modern bullets, the fact that A would have to prote< ' If

not against a single rifleman at a definite range B, but against a numlx^r of
riflemen in different and ordy vaguely known |>OHitions, tells against the
method. ?2ven in the case of a single opponent li, tiie latter might, by
shifting his position somewhat, actually use A's protection as a protection
for himself Still it is conceivable that the metluKl might be of service in
trench warfare, when the ground in front had been accunitely ranged, and the
danger of drawing artillery fire by the screen had been if |K>88ible overcome.

Gallon's other paper, namely on the heliostat, is of more direct interest as
indicating the mechanictil l)ent of his niind. He had been interested in helio-
static work since his Long Vacation reading party at Keswick in 1841 when he

N

Fig. A. From Qalton's original drawings for liis heliostat. Diagrammatic figure indicating how the moek-tan
18 formed and seen covering a portion of the field of view at V. The small screen A' only intercept* a imall
portion of the field of view. Cf. Fig. 1, p. 20.

Fig. B. From Oalton's original drawings for his heliostat. Field of view of the
telescope with the mocksun covering the point of a promontory to which
the instrument would flash light.

found on the top of Scawfell a party of ordnance surveyors endeavouring to

get into touch with Snowdon and obtain its bearing by aid of a heliostat'.
ralton's ambition was to construct a pocket heliostat and he spent much
time in preparing models, of which the Gallon Laboratory possesses almost

Menuyriet, p. 61.

3—8

20 Life ami L^'tttrn of Francis (ialton

as many as it does of his 'hyperscope,' a forerunner of the modern periscope'.
Galton's hand-heliostat while descriU^d in 1858 in a form which he himself
carried in a large waistcoat pot'ket and which he considered efficient up to
ten miles and said would on many occasions have been most valuable to
him in Damaraland wjls, in a larger si/e and with a stand, ultimately nianu-
facture<l by Messrs Troughton and Sinuns under the name of (jullon's Sun-
Signal. According to the former Admiralty Hydrographer, Sir William
Wharton, it was used (juite recently in nautical surveys to enable shore parties
to make their exact whereabouts visible to those on the ship'. The principle
on which Galton based his heliostat is a fairly simple one. He intercepted a
small part of the flasli and by aid of it created an image of the sun in the
field of view ol" a telescope ; this image was then thrown on any required
point of the landscixpe, and when so thrown any one at that point would see
the fljvsh. In his paper to tlie Briti-sh Association 18.')8, (Ialton describes his
own rough model' which he stiys any carpenter could make for four shillings,
indeed the tube was of wood, the lens a convex spectacle glass, and there
was a piece of good looking-glass 3" x 4^". The mirror turns on an axis
perpendicular to that of the tube, and the lens pai'tly in and partly out of
the tube brings a portion of the fljish to a focal image of the sun on a small
screen inside the tube. When the image of the sun covers the point to
which the flash is to be sent, then the flash will be seen at that point.

Fig. 1 explains the working; M is the mirror with the sun's rays falling
on it and reflected in direction D, F is the screen at the focus of the lens,
which is seen by the eye as supeiposed on the object at D. Fig. 2 is a
simple pocket form; Fig. 3 a more elalxjrate form, which has a theodolite
telescope A, and a plain tube B asn. finder. Fig. 4 shows the section of Fig. 3
at C with a holder which can be screwed on to a camera tripod. A fairly

' Both are arrangements of parallel mirrors set at an angle of 45° to the axis of a sijuare
tuJw (generally of card!) with a hole in the opposite walls facing each mirror. Galtxjn designed
them in order to see a ceremony over the heads of a crowd or U> inspect what lay beyond a high
wall. The instrument has hIso Ijeen called the altiscope, and the principle of the modern peri-
Bcope of the submarine is identically the same. Hyperscopes, prol»ably not under this name or
with any knowledge of Galton's early work, were used in the trenches in the course of the
recent war.

* Metnories, p. 165. * In the Galton laboratory.

Transition Studies 21

IiiU account of the instrument is given in the jjaj)er of November 28, 1859,
n "Sun-Sijfiials for the use of Travellers," antl ample directions for its use are
rovided in the instructions for (Jalton's Sun-Sjirnul in the larger size which
ccoinpany the instriunent as it was made by Mt'ssrs Troughton and Simms.
Two other researches belonging to this period (18G0-62) exist among
Jalton's voluminous papers. I no not think they were ever printed. In the
first he considers the bulk of gohl in the world — i.e. in currency, ormunenta,
etc. This in 1800 was estimated at £225,000,000. Galton computes the
volume of pure gold therein and concludes that it would (Xjcupy .'JOS.'l cul)ic
feet. "Hence my room without extra window space, but disregarding curve
at corners of cornice, would hold more gold than was extant in 1800 by 94
cubic feet."

The second paper contains a suggestion of how to reach a decimal coinage
for England by the introduction of two new coins, the 'mite ' or 'quint,' a fifth
part of a penny and the ' cent ' or 'groat' of 12 quint.s. The groat would thus
he Y^ of a pound, and the florin =10 groats the intermediate link. The object
of the mite or quint was to get the existing coins in easy terms of groats
and (piints. Thus :

one p«niiy thi'eepence

= 6 iiiit«8 = 15 mites

~\\ cents

sixpence one Rhilling

= 30 mites = 60 mites

two shillings
= 120 mites
= 10 cents

= 2J cents -- 5 cents

Galton put his scheme before Archibald Smith whose gravest objection
against it seems to have been that the smallest ultimate divisions were not
but ought to be binary.

B. GEOGRAPHY

While Galton was thus turning his travel experience and his study of
the works of travellers to national use, he did not overlook geographical
reseai'ch. In 1855 he had contributed a paper of thirty pages entitletl
"Notes on Modern Geography" to a work issued by Messrs Parker and Son
entitled Cambridge Essays contmhuted by Members of the University.
I have not succeeded in discovering the real origin of this work, but if all
the essays came up to Galton's in suggestiveness, it must be a matter of
regret that it has passed out of recollection. Galton's aims with regard to
geography were of a three-fold character, namely : (a) to encourage geo-
graphical research by travel, and to make it easier by suggestion of methods
and instruments to travellers, (/>) to make geography a school and academic
study, and (f) to revolutionise and humanise maps. The object of the essay
just referred to was undoubtedly to popularise modern geography, but
throughout his interest in the improvement of maps is dominant.

"Tliero is usually" he writes' "as great a difiference in geographical value between an ortl-
tmnce map and, it may be, a beautifully engraved, popular one, as there is in poetical merit
l>etwi^n a copy of Shakespeare and a gorgeously Iwund volume of the vilest trash that was ever
puhlislied by aid of titled interest and half-extortcd subscriptions."

' Loc. cit. p. 91. The Cambridge Essays were issued from 1856 to 1858; their pages excluded
'scientific' subjects according to the preface (1 written by the publisher) so that they might

22 Lif<- and Lrtti'iH (tf Frauds (Halton

But GjilU)n wanted more than tlie accuracy of the ordnance map, he
wanted a pictorial map, a bird's-eye view of a coloured model.

"It is hHrdly to be expected that travellers should always find it advisable to draw up for
publication large pictorial charts <if the routes tliey have ti-avelle<l, but duplicates of their
sketches and surveys would l)e a very valuable acquisition to the records of Oeojjraphical Societies,
where they could be studied by map-makers, who wished to compile a pictorial chart of the
country in which they lay. It would, I should think, l»e a very interesting task to endeavour
to map a district on this method, and the result would be sure to l)e a gratifying one, if the
traveller had the eye and the touch of an artist '. The strictly accurate, but meagre information
that is atTorded to a student by ordinary maps is more tantali.sing than .satisfactory. A blind
man fingering a model could learn its much from his sense uf touch alone, as they convey to our
eyes. They are little more than an abstraction, or a ghost of the vivid recollections with which
the memory of the traveller is stored, not that these recollections are very varied or shifting —
one image succee<]s another in rapid changes — but that the somewhat stereotyped survey which
the mind recalls when it attempts to image to itself the feature-s of a once-visited country, is
a matter of colour and blaze of sunshine, and dancing waters and quaint crags or well-marked
headlands, and here and there stretches of level land clothed with nisset forests or lying open
in tawny plains. It is surely not too much to expect that at lea.st some allusion to these features
— which are everything to the memory, which are precisely what every traveller whom we address
is mentally referring to as hig map, whilst he answers our questions — should find a legitimate
place even in the highest and driest system of topography*."

In short Gralton wanted geological and vegetational information added
to the maps then in voi^ue, and he thouj,'ht it possible to combine a graphic
picture with a sufficiently faithful ground-plan. He had great hopes from
the art of colour lithography then being rapidly developed'. Galton's
senses were keenly alive when travelling and he remarks in this paper that
France, Switzerland, Germany and almost every European country has its
pervading smell, and its pervading sounds, all widely alien to the experiences
of our own mother-country. It was something of the impressions of all this
local colouring which Galton found so painfull}^ missing in maps.

"be made intelligible and interesting to the general public of educated men" (!). In the first
volume, besides papers by Galton's friends Charles Astor Bristed, the American (see Memoriei,
p. 77), and Charles Buxton (Ibid. p. 69), there were paj>ers by Liveing, Fitzjames Stephen, and
W. Q. Clark (Ibid. p. 70), also a close intimate of UalUni. The Essays thus were the product
of Galton's close contemporaries, if they did not actually spring from his entourage. I have
failed to find who really set them going.

' Galton refers in this matter to popular coloure<l bird's-eye views of the Crimea and Baltic,
poor in execution, but 8uppl3'ing a distinct want. He notes also Ziegler's geological maps.

* Loe. cit. p. 97. Eighteen years later a letter to George Darwin shows that Galton's thoughts
were still working on the same lines. After referring to projecting mouldings on maps to repre-
sent mountain chains, modelling from successive contours, Galton continues:

"I have often thought of procuring a really artistically made and coloure<l globe [elsewhere
he suggests one of 9 feet diameter] and once had much correspondence alx>ut it. Kuskin wrote
a very good letter. It seems to me that one might set to work by making a spherical shell,
cutting it up into conoenient parts like a puzzle map, and mount the parts that were tem-
porarily wanted to be con8ult<Hl on a convex table. These could be multiplied by casts, also by
electrotj'pe." (British Association, Bradford, Sept. 24, 1873.) The last s<'ntence shows that
Galton intended his globe to be a mo<lel of the world's surface, not a mere nuip.

• Seventeen years later Galton proposed at a council meeting of the Royal (Geographical
Society that the interest on the Murchison Fund l>e expended this year (1 1872) in procuring
specimens of, and a report on, the various styles of cartographic representation now in use Ixitli
in England and abroad, as regards shading, colours, symliols, and method and cost of production,
but not as regards projection, and that a committee should be appointed to arrange particulars.

Trnimtion Studies 28

Gulton speaks highly of geogniphical Hocieties in the help they provide
for <|U!ilifie(l travellers, and then douhtless comes a touch of hiH own
pxpeiieiiot!, and

ilioir moral iriHuuiioe in nut to be cli8roK<ir(le(l, by wiiic-h they KUHtain the courage and p<TiM>-
vt-rnnce of li traveller, wlumo special t)i.HtPH find little countenance and Hympathy from the
asstK'iateN whom the aucidentH of birth and nei){hlMiurh(KKl have miuie nearest to htu)'."

He kept frecjuently in his mind the discovery of any means of easing the
path of the travelling geographer. Thus we nave his "Table for Itough
Triangulation without the usual Instruments and without Calculation " of
March 18(30. This wjts a simplified form of measuring the distance of an
object (bieadth of river, etc.) lying off the traveller's path first suggested
witii more rigorous calculations by Sir George Everest, formerly Surveyor-
General of India'. Galton appears to have issued his tjible on a single
leaf probably for the use of travellers, and it was afterwards incorponited
in the Uinta for Travellers he edited for the Royal Geographical Society.
The idea is an e.vceedingly simple one. We proceed thus :

C,' aC'

/\ A .

A b OB

C is the inaccessible object assumed to be either in the same horizontal
plane as our base line AB, or else to be the projection of an object on that
plane. We walk ten paces Ac from a peg at A towards C and uisert a j>eg
at c. We then walk ten paces towards an accessible object at li and set a
peg at h. We pace ch to the nearest quarter pace. Then we walk 100 paces
from A to B and in order to maintain a straight line always look at a
distant object E beliiud B ; at a which is 90 paces fronj A we insert a peg
and then do ten more paces to B (peg). Next we step ten paces Be' from d
towards C, and finally pace c'a to the nearest quarter pace. The numlier of
paces in eh and c'a are the two arguments by which we enter horizontally
and vertically Galton's Table, and under them we find AC given in paces.
If we enter with c'a and ch horizontally and vertically we find BC. If AB

' Loc. cil. p. 100.

^ Jimrnal of the Hoyal Geogra/ihicn/ NunV^y, 1860, pp. .TSI rl ii«/.

24 Life and Letters of Francin fHalton

be a north and south line, the angle cAh is the hedriiKj of C and this is
given in the tiret vertical column of the table. There is no instrument
needful and no calculation. Of course the method is rough, but if care be
taken that no angle of the triangle be less than 30°, practically valuable
results may be obtained.

Another paper with the same intention of aiding the geographer was that
of 1858 on "The E.\ploration of Arid Countries'." Galton states his problem
as follows:

"I suppose an 'exploring' party, an few in numbers as is consistent with efficiency, to Ix-
aided by a ' supjtortimj' party, who may 1h! divided into two or more sections. The duty of tliis
supporting party is to carry provisions, partly to l>e eattni on the way oiit^ and fuirtly to he
'edehed,' or buried in the ground, in order to supply tlie wants of a homeward journey. After
a certain distance from camp had been reached, and the loads of one 'sfction' of the supporting

' Proc. R. Geographical Society, Vol. ii, pp. 60-77. Galton was much interested in the
difficulties of exploring the arid centit; of Australia. Among lii.s pa]K-rs I found a little map of
Australia indicating by differt-nt shading tlie settled and S(|uatting districts, and with the desert
routes of the Gregories, Stuart and of burke's cross-continental fatal journey. It was marked
in pencil "From my article in the ." This article, unsigned and not recorded in (lalton's

fi^t^alWiiii^^^feig

1^'^:-

^^^r^^^SmS

yy^:

^ ■** L

• (•1

'. *0«T

M A 1 1 ( -

■^ y

r'

•' __>"

list of published papers, was ultimately run to ground in the Coruhill for 1862, pp. 354-64.
Ita title is "Recent Discoveries in Australia" and it descriljes the work of the Gregories, Bab-
batge, McDonal, Stuart, Burke and King. It might Ix- read to-day by anjone dt«iring to get
■o interest in Australian discovery. One wonders whether Burke's life would liave been saved
if Galton's system of caches had \)een fully adopted. One passage may be cited: ''It appears
hopeless to ascertain the habitable qualities of any district of Australia by seeing it only once.
The arid plains after a month's soaking rains are wholly alt^-red. An unexpecte<l fact still
remains, it is that wherever a sheep station is by any mejiiis (•stAblish>'d, the country Ikjcouios
rapidly i(nprove<l by its influence. Tt is a sulject for Darwinian s}>pcidation. Grazing improves
grasses, occupier (lams up creeks and deejKnis water-hole. Perhaps the grasses and bushes
flourish through the moisture. Their roots will then form a natural matting that checks evapora-
tion while long fibres of the roots encourage more water to enter deeply into the soil."

Transition SfmlitH •2T)

Im'cimiic extmiiHtcd in fiiriii.slijn); iikhI.s iiikI (■iiclii-s ti> tin- •
iroulil Kt'parato friiiii its <'i)iii|>iiiii(>nH iiiid n-turn Ikhiic. A si-<'cinil 'if
the firNt hiiil doiif, iirxl iiftcrwunl n third mid uvrii » fourtli
kuiiilx>r. Finally the irxplon^rs Would Im- left liv thoiiiKflvcN at souk; <i
irtlii'sl known watering |>liice, witii llicir own loads of pniviNioim iinUiuclutl, anil ■
Provisions stored in cAolios, fully Hullicicnt for their n-turn, and in every reMpect a« • ,
mrther exploration as if it was from their own (-amp, and not from a spot in the heart of the
lesert, whence they were alK)ut to tiiki- their departuiv.

Doubtless the winie ^eni^ral idea must often have occurred to other travellers l>ecideM myself ;
it whether it is U^cause the details have Injen found puzzling and difficult to work out, or
amse the necessary vesst>ls for carrying water were not to l>e met with when wnnte<l, no
traveller in arid countries has ever availed himself of the great power which this method of
exploitation atlVirtls'."

Galton starts with a table of the weight of wat*;r and food, neede<l &»
rations by horse or mule, ox, and maji per day, and also the total ' *

which each can drag or take on its back. The problem is then to di i
at what distances each section of the party is to return so as to leave the
ultimate explorinjr party with full weights of rations and full c:\ches for the
rt'turn journey. It was exactly the sort of problem which delighted (ialton;
there was a little of mathematics^ a little of statistics and considerable amount
of ingenuity recpiired, and the whole had a practical bearing. He a<li)pted
the hiiKiry .system by which half the remaining j)arty returned at the end
of each stage. It would not be fitting here to discuss at greater length
Galton's tables and results. He had chiefly in view the then unexplored regions
of Australia.

As Secretary of the Royal Geographical Society Galton came into touch
with many f-imous travellers — Burton, Speke, Grant, Stanley, etc. Galton
himself drafted the instructions for the Burton-Speke expedition of 185G,
which led to the discovery of Tanganyika and the Victoria Nyanza lakes,
a di.scovery made at the painful cost of a quarrel between Burton and Speke.
( Jalton liiKl an all-round admiration for Speke and Grant, and a respect for the
eccentric genius of Burton. Of Stanley he thought le.ss favourably as of a man
inclined to sacrifice the scientific aspect of geography for what the younger
generation would term journalistic 'stunts.' The letters of both Burton and
Speke to Galton give evidence of the difficult position of the latter in his re-
lation to the two former as Secretary of the Royal Geographical Society'.

' Luc. cit. p. 61.

^ There is a misprint in Ecjn. (3) of p. 65 where in the value for «, the section that turns
back first, the numerators of the two fractions should of course l)e a''"' and a"""' respectively.

' GalUm was first among those who worked for the .'^peke OlM-lisk in Kensington (iardens,
and he desired above all things that a joint memorial to .Speke, Hurton, Grant, liaker, .Stanley
and Livingstone should be arranged near the Speke Olielisk iis a reminder to laU'r generitions
of what our nation has done for African iliscovery. — We might well luld Galton himself to the
list. — The lime has, {H-rhaps, come now when the smaller, if very human, side of these men
might be forgotten under a common monument. Galton wrote a letter to the Timfg, May 2.5,
1904, advocating such an African memorial to include the names of earlier travellers — Bruce,
>[ungo Park, I^jinder, Clapperton and Harth (who was subsidised by England). He suggested
a ma.ssive lilix'k of stone with a map of Africa in bold coloare<l masaic on its curved top, even
Its Africa would appear on a five fiHit glol>e. The memorial was to be surrounded by such
African trees, shrubs and flowers as will grow in this country. Hut although Hurton and
^ITcke were both dead, the wound was not yet healetl and nothing came of Galton's plan.

roil t

28 LiJ\' and Lrttfrx of Francis GaJtnn

We c«n here only affoni space for one letter ol" interest, that from Speke of
February 26th, 18()3; it indicates the growing feeling bet\vi>en Speke and
Burton and at the same time the ditiiculties that Galton had to encounter.

" (My report* will be oent fniin Kh«r-> Oonimkoro 26 Fehrtuiry /63
\ toiim as soon as we arrive there. / (to be posted on arrival at [Khartoum'.]

14' 30' N. Ijit. Head winds koi^) us hack.)

27 MareJi.

Mv IlKAK (•ALTON

Pi'llifrick Las shown uie a paper of tlie H. G. Society by which I infer you wruti! me a
letter Kuspocting the V. N'yanra to l)e tlie source of the Congo or perhaps one of l)u Chaillu's
rivers In-cause a river was made to run both in and out of it. I fear you did not riM^eive the
letter I wrote from Madeira after reading Burton's journal in the Society's volumes, else you
could not have supposed so, for iu addition to the fact that eiteri/ Arab knew the 'Kiuiva'
river ran out of the Lake and told us they supposed the I^ake to be the source of the Jul), every
Arab had heard of the vessels on the Nile thou^;h l?urt<in tried to hide these matters from the
public: I suppose lo excuse himself for not visitiiij; the N'yanza. I can only say it is a pity my
geographical papers read before the Society were not put into tlie Society's Journal in preference
to Burton's papers, which were not retui and therefore not commented on, for that alone has put
everybody wrong. Burton's geography wa.s merely a copy of my unfinished original maps, left
open until I reached England for further information. Burton wanted me to instruct him,
acknowledging that he knew nothing of the typographical filatures of a country. He could not
have written one word unless I had instructed him, but he gave up his lessons too soon, imagined
largely on the nucleus I gave him and fell into error accordingly. — You will find all the infor-
mation you require ujxtn this journey in my reports, so I will now open a new project to you
for crossing Africa from Kast to West following as clo.se as possible u|K)n the line of the Equator;
for unles.s 1 do it, it will not Ix; done this century. It can be done easily enough on a large scale
and with a power of money, but not aa I have lieen travelling at the beck and call of every chief
that falls in the way. Thi^ is the sum total of my requirements, provided the Uovt. is enlightened
enough to accept it, which is doubtful we know ; Four men of science as captains to 400 negroes,
half Crue men from the Weat Coast, and the other half from Zanzilwr, all hands Ut be furnished
with carbines. I should then want a ve.ssel to visit Venice and pick up boats, pa.ss round the
West Coast for Crue men, and continue to Zanzibar where the vessel would wait until I com-
menced the march and then return by the Cape to the mouth of the Congo, where it would
await my arrival and convey the 400 men to their respective homes. But this is not all, for I
should require another vessel to go up the Nile and form a dep'it at Gondokoro. The rest you
can imagine. With one word more, I will close ni}' letter and I tell it to you as an overseer to
the Society — I firmi)' l)elieve I should have reached this one year ago and at ^ less expense, if
my proji-cts for the journey had been promptly att^-nded to. I asked for leave and money 12
months before starting in onler that I might form two Depots in the interior, but 1 neither got
my leave nor the money until 2 months or so Ijefore I startetl, and therefore could only form
one Depot in advance. That has been the root of my disasters and delay — but 'all's well that
ends well,' and there is an end of it, oidy let the warning be a caution for the future. How 1
should have rejoiced to receive your letter, but nothing has reached me, not even a letter of
advice from Kigby, which announced the departure of some letters and a host of delicacies sent
by kind friend Kigby. And now old Galt<jn with Grant's Insit wishes and my own to yourself
and Wife, believe me

Yam's ever sincerely H. Spkkk.

P.B. I have sent a map and several papers as 1 shall not be home in time to contribute to
this year's Journal and I fancy it important this should have an early issue."

Let us pity "old Galton" as he read of those 400 men, each to be
furnished with a carbine! That great journey, which would have antedated

' Delete»l.

Trnimtlon StmlirH 27

Stanley's, never came off. In \\\h Menion'i-H ([ip. 201 -2) (ijilt<»n \i\ "

Idescrilxjs the scene ut the Hatli Meetiii*,' <»f the British Association in 1 '; i,
where Burton was to read a paper attacking Speke, and Hpeke shootinj? in
the neii^filMMirhofxl hiwl })et'n invited to reply. In th<' f'ommittee of tlie
Get)j|raphical Section (which meets before the open session), at which the
President Sir Roderick Minchison, Sir James Alexanrler. Captain Burton,
Galton and others were present, a letter (in the course of a discussion whether
the Council of tht^ Association should be re<juested to bring Speke's services
to the notice of the Government) went round the table. It was to announce
that Speke had accidentally shot hini.self dead in drawing his gun after him,
while getting over a hedge. Thus ended the life of a man — whom (Jalton
described as "a thorough Briton, conventional, solid and resolute... a fine
niaidy fellow" — in a tragedy, which, one might have hoped — but would have
hoped in vain — must stop controversy and bitterness. Burton, Galton t^'lls
us, "had many great and endearing nualities with others of which j)erha[)s
the most curious was his pleasure in ures.sing himself, so to speak, in wolfs
clothing, in order to give an idea that he was worse than he really was."

I have not dwelt more at length on this painful controversy as it only
indirectly concerns Galton, but it made a very deep and lasting impression
on his mind. I am not at all sure it was not the origin of his very strong
dislike in later life of all forms of controversy, so that he would let a
criticism pa.ss without reply which is not always the most effective manner
of fostering the growth of a new and therefore reluctantly accepted branch
of science. No reply is too often taken by a thoughtlass public to l>e identical
with an admission of error. When the Biometric Laboratory started the
series of papers Questions of the Dai/ and of the Fray in 1 906, Galton ex-
pressed his grief at what was not indeed an offensive but in many cases a
too long delayed defensive.

Besides preparing plans of travel fur various discoverers', Galton took,
as his manuscript notes show, a large part in the executive work of the
Royal Geographical Society. Thus we find about 1858 numerous plans for a
meeting-room, the main outline of which he adopted from the old debating-
room of the Cambridge Union Society. This, I suppose, had impressed him
in Cambridge days as an excellent speaking-chamber, and he wrote to Montagu
Butler for a plan and details'. Galton further started the movement for
increased interest in geography in schools, and it resulted in the Society

' Ct. for pxaniple tlie paper "Addilioniil InstriimciitJil liisiiiuii.ins tor .VIr < '<>iisul IVtherick"
by F. Galton, Pror. R. Geog. Soe. Jan. 28, 1861, p. 96, which is a model of what such instrnclions
shonid l)e. And ivjfain, we may note the "Rep<irt on .Vfrican Explonitioiis," I'roc. R (.'ntg. Sor.
May 2t>, 1862, p. 175, as indicatinf; how Galton kept in touch witii African exploration and how
fully he carried out his duties of Secretary to the Society. In tliis piip«T his condemnation of
uncontrolled trade on the White Nile "mostly in the hands of nt-kless adventurer! .md lawlfrss
crews" is characteristic of the n>an, who was later greatly i-evolted by SUn "odings.

' The tteci-eUry informs me that the minutes of the lloyal Gwxraphim - v make no

reference to these plans, but that the House Conunittee consideretl in ixbl proposals for
extending the premi.ses. Galton is not named as a meml)er of this committee, but he wm pro
bably e.r officio one of their nuinlier, and prepared the plans for their consideration.

4— S

28 Life ami Letters of Francis Gaiton

offering an annual gold medal to be coni])eted for by public school boys.
He afterwards took a cojisiderable part in tbe agitation which ended in the
recognition of geography jus an academic study.

Cialton was active in many other ways for the cause of geography. In
180 1 he was asked to give the Church Missionary Society some information
as to Zanzibar ius a possible centre of missionary enterprise, having regard to
its climate, physical features and the moral and social condition of the people.
Galton read a paper to the society on June 1st and it is published in their
journal T/ie Mis/tion Field'. In the paper he points out the dominant Arab
and Moslem influence which radiated from Zanzibar, not only all along the
coast of the mainland but far into the continent, periiaps one-third across.
Galton gave his infornmtion from manuscript notes of Burton and from
photographs of (Jrant lent by Speke. Galtcm on the whole spoke well of the
Arabs, but ill of the negro natives of the mainland, thus following Burton
rather than Speke. He concluded as follows:

"The natives are most assuredly no inquirinf; race, open to influence, but the very contrary.
Again tlieir countries are intersected Ijy coimnercial routes through which a tide of Moslem
ideas is constantly flowing, and could h handful of missionaries, looking at past and present
history to guide us in our speculations, Ix' supposed to avail against it? It strikes nie, too, as
something not (|uitc generous to avail ourselves of the courtesy and the unusual tolerance of a
Moslem power to sow seeds of a certain harvest of discord. What we find in Zanzibar is a far-
reaching and far-influencing, but not a strong power; anxious to do well, seeking to consolidate
itst^lf, amenable to a good English influence, hut above all things, the gine qud non of its existence
is that it should l)e Moslem. With our very limited missionary agency, it seems to me that we
should tlivert its current to healthier and more hopeful fields than Zanzibar, and that England,
so far as she may interfere at all, whether through her representative or by any other agency,
should try to effect the following results: To relieve the Sultan, by means of our moral support,
from the embarrassment of foreign pressure; to promote safe lines of legitimate and civilising
traflic into the far interior of Africa; and to open Ijetter conmiunication between Zanzibar and
the more civilised world than now exists. This is the schedule of what England is a<:tually
doing, and I further believe it is all she ought, for the present, to undertake in Zanzibar'."

This is not the first, nor the last, occasion on which Galton' emphtisised
the po.ssibly su|)erior civilising effect of M(^slem8 over Christians on bar-
barous races. Of course he speaks here of the state of affairs in 1861,
before the medical work (India and C^hina) or the craft-school factor
(Nigeria) had been added to the purely religious activities of the Christian
missionaries. There is a cliaracteristic table of the Zanzibar climate on
p. 124, detailing the wind, the rainy, cold and hot .sea.sons and the seasonal
healthiness; the paper probably has now fdlen much behind the present
state of knowledge.

In 1862 Galton took Sir Roderick Murchison's place, who fell ill ju.st
before the meeting, as President of the Geographical Section of the British
As.sociation. If he gave any opening address, it was certainly a makeshift
effort and has not been published. Mrs Galton merely notes that her
husband was at Cambridge for the As.sociation\ Ten years later, however,
1872, Galton was again President of the same section and gave the cus-

' Vol. VI, No. 66, pp. 121-30. > Loe. cil. p. 130. » See Vol. i, p. 207.

' Galton recounts an amusing incident of the meeting in his Memories, pp. 208-9.

g

I

Traiixilioii Stiit/lix 28

mary opening addresH. In this tuldreHS Galton ernpliaAist^ the important
VflatioiiH of climate to geography and remarks how liunian agency can

iutlufUCtf lK)tll.

"Wt> are buKtnning to look on our lioritiiKe of the earth much iw a youtli iiii){ht look upon
largt* aiK'i'stral jioHsession, long allowt<<l to run waJtt*, vinit«l !• ' ''V him for

me, whose l)ouii(laric8 lie wii.s leaniitig, an<l whose c-apahilitieH In- iTiini; fo n

TliiTc are tnictH in Africa, Australia, and at the Pol€>8, not yet m-. .iv-ililc ■ '

wonders may l)e contained in tlieni; l)ut tlie region of the ahsolulely unki.
and the career of the explorer, though still brilliant, is inevitalily coming to an end. The
;,'eograj>hical work of the futun^ is to ohtain a truer knowletige of the world. I do not mean liy
.iccimiulating nia.sses of petty details, which subserve no common end, but by just and clear
Lfeneialisations. We want to know all that constitutes the individuality, so to speak, of every
Ideographical district, and to define and illustrate it in a way easily to be undemtood; and we
have to use that knowledge to show how the efforts of our human ractr may Ixat conforu) to the
geographical conditions of the stage on which we live an<l lalxjur."

Galton finally turns to maps ; he does not refer as in the CamhriiUje
Essfti/s to the ultimate goal of the geographer — a map of the world with
ordnance map accuracy — but he doe.s retin-n to the idea of coinhininc/
geogi'apher and artist.

"The facility of nmltiplying coloured drawings will probably lea<l to a closer union than
eretofore l)ctween geography and art. There is no reason now why 'bird's-eye views' of large
racts of country should not be delicately drawn, accurately coloured, and cheaply prtxluced.
It is therefore to bo hoped, that the art of designing the so-called 'binl'.s-eye views' may
[become studied and that real artists should engage in it'."

Galton finally concentrates on two practical map proposals. He notes how
ditHcult it is to procure ordnance maps and how much their format hinders
their popular use. He suggests that pocket forms of Government maps
should be issued, and what is more be sold at every head post-office. We
have had to wait many years for anything like the carrying out of (ialton's
proposal. Why shoul<l we, he asks, not succeed in getting '* the Ijeautiful
maps for which we, as tax-payers, have |)aid, but oidy copies or reductions
of them, not cheaper than the original and of very inferior workmanship
and accuracy"? Galton's .second proposal wjvs that the (lovernment should
be petitioned to issue a five mile to the inch map of the country "to serve as
an accurate route-map and to fulfil the demand to which the coui-se county
maps, which are so largely sold, are a sufficient testimony." Yet 1872
antedated the cycling and by nmch more the motoring tourist !'

• Gallon's suggestions were not carried very far, but has not the time come for resuscitating
two of his ideas by means of air-plane colour photography and the use of the stereoacopet So far
I have not set^i any attempts at air-plane colour photography, nor using air-plane stereoscopic
cameras, but such may exist. There seems a real field for ex|>eriment in this direction, which
might jxissibly fulfil some of Francis Galton's fond hopes. Stereoscopic air-plane photogniphy
might also have military value. [Since writing these lines I have learnt that the latter asf>ect
of the matter has been considered by the .Vir Ministry.]

^ (Walton's criticism did not wholly fail. The General Committoe of the British As.s<x-iation
resolve<l : "That Sir Henry Kawlin.son, F. Galton, Admiral Onnuanney, J . 1 lawkshaw, Bramwell,
VV. De la Rue, Godwin Austin be a Committee (with ])ower to add to their number) for the
purpose of represtMiting to the Government the advisability of an issue of the one-inch ordnance
maps, printed on strong thin pa|)er, each sheet having a portion of an index niap impressed on
the outside to show its contents and those of the adjacent sheets and their numbers. Also that

30 J Aft' and Lettn'x of Francis Gal ton

Galton's presidency of Section K at Brigliton was marked by the readintf
of a paper by Stanley concerning his Congo travels. The ex-Eniperor
Napoleon and the Empress Eugenie wei*e present, and it was feared Stanley
might use the txjc^uiion in an inappropriate way'. The int»eting pjisaed off,
however, with only one interference on the President's part, hut with some
tension. For those who would realise (ralton's strong feehngs about Stanley's
pn>ceedings the following extract from an article — really hy Galton — in the
EJinbunjIt Review for January 1878 (pp. 1G6 S)l) will \ni indicative.

"The exploration of Africa has b«en conducted of late on a new system. Tlie routes of the
earlier travelU-rs {mi.s.s(><I pither thrmijili parts of the continent where the {lopulation is spnr.se,
•8 in Caffre-land or in the fSaliara, or in those wliere it is organised into large kingdoms, such
as lie between Ashanti and Wadai, and which are much too jx)werful to admit of any traveller
forcing his way against the will of their rulers. The older explorers were therefore content to
travel with small retinues, conciliating the natives of the larger kingdoms by patient pereistence
and feeling their way. But of recent years all this has been changed. The progress of discovery
has transferre*! the outpost-s of knowledge and the starting-points of exploration to places where
the population is far more abundant than that which i.s met with in either the northern or the
southern portions of Africa, yet where it is for the most part divided into tribes. Hence modem
explorers have found the necessity for travelling with large and strongly armed retinues. This
new method has been fre(|uently adopted in the upper basin of tlie WliiU' Nile, which has been
the scene of many militHry expeditions sent by the Egyptian Government to force a way into
the Soudan, including that commanded by Sir Siiinuel Baker. So, in the south, Livingstone's
comparativelj' small liand of determined Caffres, placed at his disposal by a chief whose con-
fidence he had gained, enabled him to cross the Continent in the latitude of the Zaml)e8i. Sub-
sequently other travellers like Burton, Speke, Grant and Cameron, starting from Zanzilmr,
have adopted a similar plan. Their forces were large enough to enable them to pass as they
pleased through regions where the tribes were small, they were sufficiently powerful to make
larger tribes fear to attack them, and as they invariabi)' ado|)te<l a conciliatory policy with the
latter, they never came into serious collision with the natives. Mr Stanley has adopted the
plan of travelling with an amied retinue on a much larger scale than any of those we have
named, and he has certainly carried, by these means, a great expjxiition successfully through

these maps should he sold in all important towns and, if possible, at the .several post-ofl5ct;s, and
that -Mr F. Galton Ix; the Secretarj'." Mr Ayrtoii, the minister under whose control the Ordnance
Survey Office was, saw the deputation but it is not very clear that any definite impression was
made on him. On the other hand, Major-General Sir Henry James, Superintendent of the
Ordnance Survey Office, wrote a number of appreciative letters, and ma^is were prepared in
accordance with Galton's suggestions. James writes: "As to the difficulty of getting our maps
it arises from the fact that we have. four agents onlj* for England and Wales instead of at least
250 or one in every tolerably sized town, and these agents are all in London and nyieive .33)^
per cent, instead of 25 per cent. But few and dear as the agents are, they seem Uj have been
selected liecause they are thems«'lves map-makers and sellers, and sell to the public bad copies
of the ordnance maps taken by robb«>ry! This was done against my earnest prot*«t and the
Oovemment is losing some £3000 a year by the arrangement, and the public are everywhere
dissatisfied. " Henrj' Fawcett wrot«' a sympathetic letter and regretted that the matter had not
alto been brought before the Committee of Section F, of which he was a memlier.

Galton's index map, however, is now a commonplace of many map publications.

' "Mr Stanley had other interests than geography. He was essentially a journalist aiming
at producing s<*nHational articles." Afemorie*, p. 207. What vexed Galton peculiarly was that
Otenkty had made no proper positional obs«Tvation.s, and (ialton ventured to utter the words
••aenaational geography. " Stanley in his letters used violent language aljout the Koyal (Jeog.
Society, and about Slarkham and Galton. He was no doubt excit«Ml by the inquiries as to his
btrtb, from which that Society had not and could not entirely disa.ssociate itself. He did not
meet that question straightforwardly and fearlessly as he might well have done. (Ijnttera of
Stanley and others in Gdlloniana.)

LfricA. TliUH he slutos, 'I led 2,2fU men ncrosM luMitili- I'liyoro' on an pxptidition tnt«ncl<

the All)«rl Nynnztt. Aguiii, when lie h-nves NvaiiK*'' "" hi« linnl ex[M-<liti<in <lowii .■

uahibtt, lie Htiirtti with a luMly of TiOO ti>;htiiig men. TIiuh witli u larger military forct; than

litliHrto employed, and making a deU'rminrd uho of it, Mr ^jUtllley hus c<mduct(xl m L'i-..L'iiii.lil, ,il

kid ocroHN the middle of Africa, which Iiiim led him int«j Hcenea of hloodHhed i

Cginning at the Victoria N'yanza, and not ending until he arrived in the neighli<>». ..•^-, .., ....

YeHtern Coast. (TIum achievement untloul)t«)dly placeH Mr Stanley in the foremowt rank of

African discoverers and (>nsurex to him a hardly-earned and la*ting fume'.] The queittion will

Bodoiiht lie hotly discusstsi how far a private individual, travelling a^ a newHpajKjrcorriwpondent,

hii.s a right to u.s.sume such a warlike attitude, and to force his way through native trilws

regardless of their rights, whaUiver thoi«« may be. A man wh" d<>e« so acts in detinnce of the

laws that are supf>osc<i to hind private indi\i<lual». He assumes privilegtw, and punixheH

with death the natives who op[)08e his way. He voluntarily i .'-If into a jsjsition from

whiih there is no escape, except hy l>attle and hltHslshed; an<l it ih a i|Upstion, which we shull

not argue here, whether such conduct does not come under the head of tilihustoring. Nation*

u-e alxjve laws, and may and do decide what expi^litionn they may care to launch, but the

cutumiition of such a right of private individuals is certainly open to abuse, and seenui hard to

Icfeml. It is impossible to .sjwak of Mr StAiiley's journey without noticing this exceptional

character of it. At the sjinie time it is not our present object to discuss the morality of his

proceedings, but to occupy ourselves with his discoveries, which arc unquestionably of the

iiigliest geograpliii-al importance, and may lead to consecpiences in comparison with which the

clcjith of a few hiin<lred barl)arian8, ever ready to fight and kill, and many of whom are professed

cannilmls, will perhaps be regarded ns a small matter'."

Ciiilton iit'.xt pioceedK to discuss Stanley's jreo^rapliical discoveries in
jlatioii to those of Schweinfurth and of Haitli. Then he turns to the trade
jroducts of Africa and its means of transport. Under the latter heading
le certainly did not anticipate the modern railway developments nor the
ipid increa.se in mineral and agricultural exports. The general sense of
lis papers seems to be that the trade is scarcely worth the Euro|>ean'8
^hile and is best undertaken by the Arab. But the most valuable and
iteresting part of the paper which indicates surely the change which
iad occurred in Galton's outlook — his advance towards anthropology — is
the long account he gives of the physical and mental characters of the
negro. His judgment is not favourable :

"By picking and choosing out of a multitude of negroes, we could obtain a very decent body
of labt>urers and artiziins; hut if we took the same number of them just as they came, without
any process of .selection, their productive power, whether as regards the r<>sults of toilsome
labour or of manual dexterity, would be very small." (p. 180.)

"Leaving for a moment out of consideration the combative, marauding, cruel and supersti-
tious parts of his nature, and all that is connected with the satisfaction of his gro8s«ir Inxlily
needs, his supreme happiness consists in idling and in gossip, in palavers and in |>etty marketa.

le has no high aspirations He lo.ses more of that which is of value to him in conse<juencc

of his lalx)ur than he gains by what his labour pnxluces. He has little care for those object*
of luxury or for that aesthetic life which men of a more highly endowed race lalxtur hard to attain.
^is coarse pleasures, vigorous physique, and indolent moods, as compare<l with tho-se of Euro{ieali8,
»r some analogy to the corresponding qualities in the .African huflalo, long since acclimati.-«<«l

Italy, as compared with those of the cattle of Europe. Most of us have obwrved in the

In (Jalton's own copy these words are enclosed with an ink lx)rder and against them is
irritten "an editorial in.sertion— not mine. F. O." Thus does the smaller intelligence, e«iiting
the broader mind, make nonsense of Galton's meaning. If "liarabbas was a publisher," of a
•urety the railing malefactor was an interpolating e<iitorI

' Were it not for the 'perhaps' we might suspect the last few lines to be another editorial
Linterpolation.

32 Lift ami LeW-rs of Fraiicij< Gallon

Canipagna of Rome the ways of that femcious, powerful anrl yet indolent brute. Wo may have seen
him phuij;«<H stntioimry for liourK in mud and iiiarHh, in jjross contentment under a lilazinf; sun ;
at other times we may have noticed Home outbreak of stupid, stubliorn ferocity; iit othei-s we
may have seen him firmly yoked to tlie rudest of carts, doin^ powerful wrvice under the per-
Mstient goad of his driver. The buffalo is of value for coarse, heavy and occasional work, being
of strong constitution and thriving on the rankest herbage; else he would not be preserved and
bred in Italy. But he must l»o treati-d in a <ietermin('<i sort of way, hy hei-dsmen who understand
his disposition, or no work will be got out of him, and Iwsides tlmt, he is ferocious and
sufliciently powerful to do a great deal of mischief." (p. 180.)

For (ialton in 1872, as one race of animals differs froni another, so all
races of men are not eijual. He has started on his recognition of hereditary
superiorities. Because the negro belongs to an inferior race, the Arabs, who
coalesce with the natives, inter-marry, and do not look upon a converted
negro as an inferior, have done far more than Christian missionaries to
educate and civilise the negro.

"Of Mohammedanism and Christianity — we do not speak here or elsewhere as to their
essential doctrines, but as they are practically conveyed by example and precept to the negro —
the former has the advantage in simplicity. It exacts a decorous and cleanly ritual that (mt
vades the daily life, frequent prayers, ablutions and abstinence, reverence towards an awful
name, and pilgrimage to a holy shrine, while the combative instincts of the negro's nature an-
allowed free play in warring against the {Miganism and idolatry he has learned to loathe and hate.
The whole of this code is easily intelligible, and is obviously self-consistent. It is not so with
Christianity, a.s practised by white men and taught by example and precept to the negro. The
most prominent of ite aggre.ssion.s against his everjMlay customs are those against j)<)lygai»)-and
slavery. The negro, on referring to the sacred book of the European, to which appeal is made
for the truth of all doctrines, finds no edict against either the one or the other, but he reads
that the wi-sest of men had a larger harem than any modern African potentate, and that slave-
holding was the establishe<l custom in the ancient world. The next m()st prominent of its
doctrines are social equality, submission to injury, disregard of wealth, and the propriety of
taking no thought of to-morrow. He, however, finds the practice of the white race, from wliom
his instructions come, to be exceedingly different from this. He discovers very soon that they
aljsolutciv refuse to consider him as their equal; that they ai-e by no moans tame under insult,
but the very reverse of it; that the chief aim of their lives is to acquire wealth; and that
one of the most despised characteristics among them is that of heedlessness and want of thrift.
Far be it from us to say that the modern practice in these matters may not be justified, but it
appears to require more subtlety of i-easoning than the negro can comprehend, or, perhaps, even
than the missionary <»n command, to show their conformity with Bible teaching." (p. 187.)

Gralton's anthropological sense was "rapidly developing ; he was firmly
grasping the relativity of religions, how they have no absolute validity, but
the suitability of any creed dej)end8 on the stage of the mental and even
the physical development of a given race. Shortly, a religion must l>e in
harmony with the habits and culture of a given people at a given time, or
it will fail to fulfil its purpose — which, from the anthropological side, is to
strengthen and to stabilise the social purposes and gregariou.s instincts of a
definite group of men. As Galton realised, Christianity has built up no
negro kingdoms, but Mohammedanism has done so, and the negro converts
erect mosques, maintain religioii.s services, and conduct their schools without
external support.

That Galton was not wholly content to leave Africa to Negro an<l Arab
is evidenced by his letter to the Times of June G, 1873. In that letter he
recognised that much of Africa cannot be occupied by the European, that

I'LATK IV

Ortler 8pitze and Stelvio Pass.

Island of St Paul.

Stereoscopic views of Cleographical Moduls (sliould be examined witli a stereoscopic lens-doublet.)

Tranaifion f^ufliftt 33

''avcrago ncj^roes poMOSH too littl« intellect, wlfrfilinnw and wlf control to make it ponmibl*" fr)r
fchein to Husliiin tho burden of »ny r(wp<*cUibli! form of civiliiuition without a lun'i' m./iKiir.' ..i
txteriial Kuidiiiicunnd KupjKirt. Tlio C'liiniimaii in n Wing of another kind, who i
, remarkable aptitude for a hij^li material civilisation. He is se^-n to fli-- '■■■•'• •■
^wn country, where a tomj)orary dark age Ktill prevails, which hft« not
ace, tliouK" it hiw stunt<Kl the development of each meml>t«r of it, by tiir n^jm nit'ir. ■•mi'in Mt

elTet<' Hvstem of classiciil education, which treats ori){inality as a Hocial crime' The

Vnatural capacity of the Chinaman shows itself by the huccchh with which, n-
'timidity, ho ('ompeteH with stranj{ers, wherever he may reside. The Chines,
an extraordinary instinct for [H)litical and social organisation ; they contrive t. . .
selves a police and internal j^overninent, and tlieyj{iveno trouble to their ruin-.
are left to manage these matters for themselves."

"The history of the world tells a tale of the continual displacement of population , ;.

a worthier successor, and humanity gains thereby. Wo ourselves are no desoendanta of the
aborigines of Britain, and our colonists were invaders of the regions they now occupy aa
their lawful honi(>. Hut the countries into which the Anglo-Saxon race can lie tronsfused are
restricted to those where the climate is tempomt<'. The tropics are not for us to inhabit per-
manently ; the greater part of Africa is the heritage of a people differently constituU-d to our-
selves. On that continent, as elsewhere, one jK>pulation continually drives out another. We
note how Arab, Tuarick, i'Vllatah, Negroes of uncountwl varieties, Caffre and HolUfntot surge
and reel to and fro in the struggle for e.\islence. It is into this free fight among all pres«>nt that
T wish to .see a new comjH'litor introduci^ — namely the Chinaman. The gain would Ik- immense
to the whole civilised world if he were to outbreed and finally displace the negro, aa comp!' ■ ' ■
as the latter has displacwi the aborigines of the West Indies. The magnitude of the gain i i\
be partly estimated by making the converse supposition-— namely the loss that would ensue if
China were somehow to be depopulated and restocked by negroes."

Whatever opinion we may hold of Galton's views on the Chinaman,

there is no doubt tliat this passage marks not only his full acceptance of the

Pdoctriiie of the survival of the titter race a.s applied to man, but further his

lopinioii that civilised man could himself directly expedite the proce.'we.s of

levolution.

A few further memoirs having a bearing on geographical or allied topics

nay be noted here. We have already referred to his views on maps. In

-1865 the idea occurred to Galton that, as maps so conspicuously fail to give

Ins the leading features of a mountainous country and are indeed so incapable

[of representing crags and clitis successfully, a stereoscopic photograph of a

Imodel would be of extreme value'. Indeed a coloured model on this plan

with reproduction by colour photography might go a long way to satisfy

Galton's craving for something more illustrative of the tloral and geological

environment than an ordinary map can provide. He suggests what might be

(lone in this way by photography of the models of the English Lakes at

Keswick, of the Pyrenees at Luchon, and of the Alps at Berne, Zurich,

[Lucerne and Geneva. With the assistance of Mr R. Cameron Galton he was

Skble to obtain and exhibit stereoscopic photographs of the following models:

(1) Island of St Paul in the Indian Ocean', from an Austrian bronze

model.

' Was this sentence a thrust at another race, and was Galton thinking of hta own bitter
experience? See Vol. i, pp. 12, 142.

" "On Stereoscopic Maps taken from Mixlels of Mountainous Countries." Ji. Gttxj. .V.«-.
[Journal, 18G5, pp. 99-106.

' Midway on Mercator's chart between Melbourne and Cape Town.

p o II ft

J*4 Life and Lrttt'rn of FroHciH Gallon

[J.) liiL- DitliT f^iouj) of inoiiMtaiiis, from an Aiistri)m model.

is) Mount Hliinc iliKtrict, from liuiU'rkeller'H rulief miij).

(4) Cape Town and Table Mountain, from a coloured model.

(5) AhjKsinia. from a rude model.

(6) 'I'lii' Isle of Wijflit, from u rude model.

The paper itnelf is accompanied only by a photograph of (1)', Homewhat
confuHing as it illuHtrat<'H also the proposjii of Galton to build uj) large mapH
in 8toroo8C()pic section.s.

The Galton Ijjiboratory possesses stereoscopic slides of (I) giving the
whole island, and of (2) — (6) inclusive, and also of a seventh slide-part of the
He de I'onpicrolles in the Mediterranean off Toulon. Our ))hotographs have
faded in the course of nearly sixty years but they show still witn extra-
ordinary eflect the success of (ialton's i<lea. The Stelvio stands out in a
way that no map can compete with, and hardly a bird's-eye view from the
Spitz itself could give such a gofnl conception of the 'lie of the land.' It is
a grievous j)ity that the stereoscopic idea of maji-models has been forgotten,
and we might hope for its resuscitation in association with the air-plane an
already suggested. We provide in the accompanying plate cojiies of the faded
>hotograplis of (l) and ('J) which iieveitheless will suflice— if the reader lx<
ucky enough to possess u pair of stereoscopic len-ses —to justify this statement.

Another paper of this same year is entitled: "Spectacles for Divers and
the Vision of Amphibious Animals." In this paper Ualton states that if water
is in contact with the human eye' a double convex lens of flint glass, each of
whose surfaces has a radius of 04 H inch, will C(»rrect the concave water-
lens. It will reijuire to ht' supplementi^l by another* of moderate j)ower
according to the convexity of the indivitlual eye and refmctive power of the
different kinds of flint glass. Galton found, however, that even with a lens
of this kind under water the eye had not much power of acconunodating
itself to different distances, and his own distinct vision was restricted to a
range of alH)ul eight feet. He considered, however, the glasses he used only
provisional'. He thought such spectacles might be useful to divers in pearl
and sponge fisheries, or to sailors examining tne bottoms of ships. The paper
suggests that amphibious animals must nave a power of adjusting their
sight, i.e. seals, otters, diving birds, etc., but does not enter into the modus
ojtei'andi. Here again as in the case of stereoscopic maps 1 think an interest-
ing question has failed to be carried further.

As late as 18KI (iaiton still maintained some interest in geographical
resenrch, but his maiti work was directed into other and more congenial
channels. In the British Association Report, 1881*, there is a brief com-
parison by (iaiton of the e(piipment of exploring expeditions in 18,']0 and
1880. He notes the progress that has been made in certain instruments:

' Hcnrch al tlin Hoyal Oeogrmphical iSocuity liuving failiHJ tu diHcover the originals, a further
hunt aiiioiiK tlio ncgativctt of the GalUmutun haH l>rouf(lit to light the originaU — too lato for
rfprcHluction hi'rtv

' H. A. Jii^Mirl, Vol. XXXV, lHf)/i (Sj-ot), pp. 10-11, not ftH when the diving helmet i« uwd.

» Still exUnt in tlw f:-h„„;„„a. « pp. 73fl-40.

Transition Sfu/lic-it 36

e.g. incrcurial horizoiiH, thermometers and l)aromc>terH, the binoculnr jflawMW,
stt'ol and Htylographif pouH ; the jirngtcsH in clothing', ttaiinel, |)eiw-<' i

inacintoHhuH; progress in preserved ((mmIh; progress in the jternon
e(hicated classes are physically better developed, wiiich (ialton attrihutvs to
their leading healthi«'r lives, owing to the heavy eating aiifl drinkin;.'
ceaseil, to the Ix^tter ventilated hedrooiiis and prop«<r holidays. L^i
notes the greater ease and cniickness with which an explorer can reach the
start ing-ponit of his wanderuigs. The idea - '>(\ in the last ^'

prohahly led Gallon to what, 1 think, was his I.I i ihution to geogi , 1

science. In the same year' he constructed an "isochronic passage chart for
travellers." Ft consists of a map of the world on Mereator's proj«iction indi-
cating hy live colours in two shades the number of days re(|uired to reach
from London all parts of the world. The map might easily be a little more
detailed as the unit of time ten <lays is rather large, e.xtending from
Loniloii to Jerusalem, Peru, and llanunerfost, but not ue it noted in those
days to New York. A similar map nmde to-day would he of much interest,
es|)ecially in view of the great development in forty years of trans-continentul
railways and fast steamship.s. (Jalton took, as his authorities, time tables
of steamship companies and railways, with public and private post-office

Information.
It cannot be denied by those who study (ialton's memoirs on geography
ihat they mark a continuous development. He remains to the end keeii on
he mechanical 'dodges' and graphical artilices which had delighted the boy
A Atwooil's' and the youth at Cand)ridge\ but travel for novelty soon
tecame for him travel for a knowledge of physical environment; m this
stage Oalton was a pure geographer, l)ut then very rapidly the important
|)art of this environment became for him its relation to man and (Jalton,
without realising the full meaning of the change, had passed from the
L,^t'ographer to the anthropologist*. Even by the 'seventies' geography
iiad become a secondary study.

The last of Galton's writings that touches on exploration was his graceful
prefiice to W. PI Oswell's William Cotton Osivell, Hunter and Exjt/orer of
I'JOO. In tills Galton claims justice for Oswell as the Hint explorer to reach
Lake N^ami; Livingstone simply went with Oswell and Murray as a guest,
but Livingstone's later fame and Gswell's reticence led to a retrosj)ective
cre<lit being given to the former for this firat great journey.

C. CLIMATE
Parallel with Galton's geographical research we find a correlated study —
that of meteorology. The services he rendered to this science have been only
occasionally recognised at their full value, an«l much that he has suggested
would bo worthy of reconsideration and adaptation to the m<xlern state of
meteorological knowledge.

' "On the Construction of iKochronii- Pushiij;*' Charta," Britxnh AmiK-itituin Hrporl, 1881,
pp. 740-41; Roy. (le.uj. Soc. J'roc. ISSI, pp. t3.'J7-r)8. ' Vol. i, p. 77. ' Vol. I. p. 148.

* A very valuHlilo loltor of Oalton'.s, lulvooatiiig tlie ftilt'<]iiatt< rcprpsontftfion of (I. ' v

and Anthropology in the 'Proposed Imperial Institutes,' will be found in the Tinm, (»
1886 (p. 8).

5— a

36 Life and Letters of Franr'iM Galton

Galton's first considerations on climate sprang directly from his geogra-
phical work and were closely associated witli the relation of the health of
the explorer to the climate'. Thus we have already referred to his little
table of climate in Zanzibar in the lecture of 1861. I'wo yeara later he pre-
pared a table giving the "Climate of the countries bordering Lake Nyanza,
1861-2." He published it in the Royal Geogrnp/iical Suciftj/ Proceedings,
Vol. VII, 1863 (pp. 225-8), in a paper entitled "On the Climate of Lake
Nyanza": it gives with the exception of the middle fortnight of November
meteorological details for every 'week' of every month'. The mean tem-
perature for the week, the maximum and minimum and the extreme ranges
are provided. The rainfall in inches is given where available, the number of
rainy days j)er week, the numl)er of davs per month of rain .sutticient to be
measured, and the total number of tiays per month of rain and slight
showers, also the prevalent wind for each month. The whole of the mate-
rial Wii8 due to Speke and Grant, but it obviously required much 'dressing,'
i.e. smoothing and interpolation, etc. It was based on observations taken at
Karagwfe (5100 ft), Uganda (3400 ft.), Unyoro (3200 ft.) and in a camp
3400 ft. above sea-level, so that there is considerable heterogeneity in the
data. Speke's original log is among the Galtoniana.

The tables thus formed led Galton to consider the possibility of maps
combining at a single glance much meteorological data. This occupied his
mind largely in 1861-2, and there is no doubt that Galton was the tirst to
publish meteorological maps of Europe, possibly of any country at all. He
uuluced his friend W. Spottiswoode, the nead of the great printing firm, to
cast movable types which were u.sed in Galton's fii-st maps. These repre-
sented by shaded rectangles llain. Snow, Dull and Overcast, Overcast,
Mostly clouded. Half-clouded, A few clouds, Clear blue sky; the direction
and force of the wind were given by another series of .symbols, and finally the
height of the barometer and the temperature — ordinary and wet bulb — were
printed in figures. Thus a rectangle 8"5 ram. high by 5'5 mm. broad contained
the information as to rain and cloudiness, intensity and direction of wind,
state of barometer and thermometers at a given meteorological station, and
these rectangles were placed centrally to each station on a map of the
stations at which observations had been made. Galton's first map' is

' The efft-ct of climate on the tniveller luid Ijeen ))rouglit lioine to Galton very emphatically
by his own ex|ierience of the after-t'tfects of his travels in .Syria and tropical Africa.

« Ist to 7th, Hth to 1.5th, 16th to 23rd, 24th to end. Thus the first 'week' was 7, the
second and third 'weeks' each 8, and the fourth 'week' 7 or 8, or in the case of February only
5 days.

' Among Galton's papers is another "Weather Map of the Hritisli Isles for Tuesday,
Sept .3, 9B.m " No year is stat^ni, hut I should think it was more prolwhly Tuesday, Sept. 3,
1861, than Tuesday, Sept. 3, 1867. In this map five conditions of wind int^-nsity, five conditions
of sky (clear, def-achwi (-loud, overcast or fox. showers, rain) and three pressure conditions
(barometer falling, stationary, rising) are indicjitj-d by no less than 75 circular 'stamps.' The
direction of the wind is given by the direction of the arrows which measure wind intensity and
the circular stamps are rotated to give this direction. A map is printed with the names of the
60 to 70 recording stations, and underneath these names the appropriate stamp is affixed with
the right orientation. 25 copies of tiiese attachable stamps for the case of rising barometer

PLATE Y

SYNCHRONOUS WEATHKR CHART
OF ENGLAND.

ICthJaauuy 1861, 9a.m.

ff Lomdom, hg tk^ Board t^f Trmd*. mmd

By FKANCI8 G ALTON. F.R.S ,

and Ht.i>nr«ry KccroUrjr lo tlm Hoyil
U«(V*vphic»l lodtty of U»mI<»i.

IV.

,W^-

One of Galton'M earliest KynchroiitiUH weather iiiajw, JHsued with liis circular concerning
Ktii-ojM'nn weather in 1S61 : wie our p. 38.

ri.ATK VI

One of Galtou's earliest synchixmous weather nia|iR, j>rol>ably for Sept. 3, 1861, i^howing the use of
his circular stamps to indicate direction of wind and nature of barometric chiuige.

Trnnntion Studiex

87

printed odIv in two column, ii;<l outline for England and black shading for
niin and cloudiness. It is entitled: " Knglish \V i-ntlier l)aUi, Feb. 9, 1861,
1) h. am.," and is part of a circular isstie*! from 4'J Rutland (iate and dated
.June 12, 18G1. " The accompanying sheet lias U'en printe<l as an exjwriment,
by means of movable types vvbicb 1 have had cast for meteorologiail pur-
poses." To save confusion of figures, barometric heights were not inserted
on the map, but lines of etpial pres.sure having l)een deduced, the places where
the isobars of each ^ of an inch cut the right- and left-hand borders of the
map were marked, and a straight line joining any pair of corresponding
figures was taken to lie approximately the corresponding isobar. These isobars
were not given on the map'.

In July 18G1 Galton issued another circular, this time addressed to
European meteorologists and printed in English, French and German'. He
appeals to them to provi<le synchronous meteorological data for a series of
aerial charts of Northern Europe (latitudes, 42° 25 on the south, including
all France and Perugia, to 61° on the north, including Shetland, Bergen and
Christiania; from the westernmost limit of the British Isles to Konigsberg,
Warsaw and Budapest). The data were to be for the whole month of

have survived. Wlicn the proper stampH have lieen attached the map is ready for photography
or ciigniving. I do not know why Galton i-eplaced these circular .stAuips by the oblong blocks
of Ills later maps, possibly l)ecau.st! the oblon^fs were easier to set up in a press and actually
print on to the map. This; map look.s more graceful than those of the circulars, but contains
somewhat Ics-s information. Tho two maps can be conipari'd in tin- iiccoiiifmnving plates.

Specimens of Onltou's circular stamps for attaching to maps sad
so forminR synchronous weather chart!). See footnote 3, p. 36.

This circular almost in the same words appears as an article entitled "Meteorological
Charts" in the I'hilosophkal Mayasinr, Vol. x.Xli, 1861, pp. 34—5.

' This is, I l)elievc, Galton 's tirst appeal by circular for the tilling in of schedules, a practice
considerably developed by him later.

88 Life and Letters of Francis Qalton

December 1861, and synchronously at 9 a.m., 3 p.m. and 9 p.m. for each day.
The s{)eciineti map sent with the chart is a considenible improvement on that
of the June circuhir. It is entitled : '' Synchroiious W'catJicr Chart of Emjktnd,
16/A January 9a.m. From Reports received by the Meteorological Society
of London, by the Board of Tnide and by the Tiinity House." AlMjut 50
stations were used. It is printed in three colours — the outline map in green,
the rain and cloudiness rectangles in brick re<l, and the wind symbols and
figures for barometer and thermometers in black. The circular itself gives
the most minute directions for observations, and even rules as to postal
dispatch. Finally also a blank schedule was sent on which the desired data
would be written in together with printed tables for reducing Centigrade
and Reaumur to Fahrenheit, and millimetres, Paris lines and Russian hnes
to English inches for the barometer. As a return for assistance Galton
promised a copy of his publication to con tribu tore.

We reproduce here Cialton's map of 18GI in a single colour atid reduced
to the size of our page, and also one of the Metcorographica maps of 1863.

The materials obtiiined by Gal ton's circular were somewhat disappointing,
yet Gralton proceeded to reduce them; his book or better atlas: Meteoro-
gi'aphica or Methods of Mapping the Weather; illustrated by upwards of
600 printed and lithographed diagrams referring to the Weather of a large
part of Enrope during the month of December 1861, was published by
Macmillan and printed by Eyre and Spottiswoode. In the text of this
work Galton insists not only on the need of tabulating observations, but on
representing the results in map form if general laws are to be drawn from
them. Maps are as essential to meteorology as to geography. I believe
Galton was the first or among the first to insist on this almost obvious truth.
But, alas ! —

"A scientific study of the weather on a worthy scale seems to me an inipos.sibility at the present
time frooi want of accessible data. We need meteorographical representations of large areas,
as facts to reason upon, as urgently as experimental data are required by students of physical
philosophy."

Galton draws attention to the fact that meteorologists are strangely
behindhand in the practice of combining the materials they possess. While
there are more than 300 skilled observers recording thrice daily with ex-
cellent instruments, the practice of combining their material is absent. "No
means exist of obtaining access to any considerable portion of the.se observa-
tions without great cost, delay and uncertainty'." For the most valuable
results in meteorology it is needful to study very large areas, or indeed the
world as a whole. No single nation can provide adequate data spread over a
wide enough area for valid conclusions.

"The labour of a meteorologist who studies the changes of the weather is enormous before
he can get his materials in hand and arrive at the starting-point of his investigations. In the

' Thirty or more years later the biographer found the sanic difliculty still in existence, when
correlating barometric heights across the Atlantic, pjistwanl from ilammerfest to Capo Town,
westward from Halifax to the Falklands; the required data existed in manuscript, but were
very costly to get copied.

PI^TE VII

I

Trntmtion Stutiies ^ 89

ordinary counto he liaH to npply, with doubtful ulmncu of buoc«mi, to upward* of 10 Metooro-
InHtitutoK ill HritMin and Euro[H>, for thu favour of acceaa to thi^ <•!- ' InoaiDMtta
cuivt<d hy them, and to fully 30 iudividualM In'Midt-H. I(i< hoM ii<<xt to pro< ' , then to

KJucc tin) barometer and thfrmonictur rradin^'H to a coiiwimhi nifa.sure, and tiiiully in protract
1 a map. I U•i^\ tluit all this dry, lulx)rii>UM, and contly work, which ha.s to l>e unil"i<»c)rM« in<l*«-
'pt'iiilently by every real student befort) he can venture a step into scientific wof '
that which should Ix- uiidiTt^iken by Iimtitute-H eNtabli.sluHl for thw advance of "•;
(p. 3, col. i.)

(Jalton's own list of failures is considerable:

"There was no ceiitnil Institute in Switzerlund neither wiim there any reco){tii.se<i inst iti]t<-

in Denmark oi' Norway. Whether by accident or iiii.sundeniUiidinK, several promiwd , um
muni(;ationH from Denmark liave never reacliwi mo, to my great n^gret, for its weather won
clo.sely linked with our own. From Hwe<len I could obtain nothing, from France next to
nothing', from Havaria only the valuabh^ olraervntions niatie at Munich. Fn<m Italy I had
lonNiderable ho|>e.s held out to me, but little fruit. The interior of Ireland is wretchedly repre-
sentiMl, and would have presented a gap, like France, were it not for two eminent astronomen
and some chance a.ssistance besides." (p. 4, col. ii.)

The hulk of Galton's data came from Belgium (with the aid of Quetelet).
Holland (with the help of Buys Ballot), Austria (from Kreil) and Berlin
(from Dove). To the three former (lalton tenders his special tlianks. Then
comes Galton's e.xcuse for his pul)lication of a work ba.sed on admitt^Mllv
inadequate data:

" Kntcrtaining the views I have expressed on the necesjiity of mett-orological charts and mapa,
and feeling confident that no i-epresentation of what might be done would influence meteorolo-
gists to execute wliat I have described, so strongly as a practical proof that it could be done,
I determined to make a trial by myself, and to chart the entire area of Europe, so far aa
meteorological st^itions extend, during one entire month, and 1 now publish my results." (p. 3,
col. ii.)

A mo-st important discovery was made by Galton as soon as he had
begun plotting his wind and pressure charts. While Dove had recognised
that centres of low pressure in the northern hemisphere were associated with
counter-clockwise directions of the wind round a centre of calms, and termed
this system a cyclone, Cialton noted that centres of high pressure jire associated
with clockwise directions of the wind round a centre of calms. Galton termed
this system an anticyclone, and the name nipidly came into general use, and
is very familiar now although few who use it rememl)er that Galton first
noticed the system and coined the name*.

When one studies Galton's tiny charts of pros.su re and wind for the thirty-
one days of December ISfil, each chart extending over the whole of Central
Europe, and thinks of the paucity of his data, one cannot but wonder at the
inspiration which led him to his conclusions. Luckily Deceml>er 1861 was a
month of contrasts, the first half of the month marked a series of cyclones —

' Appeal to France for scientific information is even after the war nearly always in vain ;
letters remain unanswered, and presents of memoirs unacknowle<lgetl. From Ixith (tennany
and Austria, even at the pre.sent day, one is fairly certain of a full and courteous reply, and
almost any (Jerma'i University Library will still lend a book inaccessible in this country.
Narrow nationalism in science is a crime against our common humanity.

' "A Development of the Theory of Cyclones." Receive*! Dec 25, 1862. Royil Sodely
Froee«dingn, Vol. xii, IHtiS, pp. 38.5-6.

40

Life and Lettertt of Francin Galton

the black areas of low pressure on the baromet<>r charts corresponding to a
whole series of counter-clockwise runninp; arrows on the wind charts; and
the second half of the month marked a series of anticyclones — the red areas
of high pressure on the barometric charts corresponding to a whole series of
clockwise running arrows on the wind charts. About the middle of the month
we have the transition from black to red areas on the Imrometric charts, and
here sure enough ai*e two systems of arrows on the wind charts one counter-
clockwise and tme clockwise. Hut it is very clear that the broad band from
the Skelligs to Konigsl)erg, west and east, and from tSiena to Cliristiania, south
and north, was largely insidequate to exhibit the 'cores' of a cyclone and

G5.Ron''$ Ee>.rlL) Ide^ of
/intACL{clon.e bxiA CLjclone

SCALE lOOO MILES

/Inticijclone
(dispersion)
Hi^h Bi>.rometer

Cijclone
(indraught)

anticyclone on the same chart. The cores of one or other or even of both lay out-
side the lai-ge area for which Galton was plotting simultaneous observations.
As I have already remarked, a single continent is scarcely sufficient for the
study of meteorological observations. Such is one of the jnain lessons of the
Met€oro</raphwa,and one doubts if it had been realised l>efore that publication.
Yet Galton recognised that if an observer in the northern hemisphere supposed
himself standing at the core of an anticyclone — i.e. a centre of high pressure —
and facing towards the core of a cyclone — i.e. a centre of low pressure — the
winds would pass from his left to his right hand. If we term the line of his
sight a bi-cyclonic line, Galton in his Royal Society paper of December 1862

I'LATE VIII

Kriiiicis (iiilton, iinptl ."JS, from ii photograjih "f 1 >;i'<l.

I

Tnnmitiim Stntllrs 41

ipposed tliat the wind would cross this bi-cycloiiic line at an angle of 45*.
\\\ his Mefcorof/rapfiica he had niotlified this statement. Hf writeo:

"Many iiii-ltNii-olo^iHtN will refer with eaf{eriieH)i to tliei«i wind dim'

may coiiKrni or i>|)p<>»(» the theory of eyel<>iie«. I iliMluce from them

existenie, not only of cyclones, liut of wlmt 1 ventured to cull anticyelonex If the line* of
wind currentH, in the hhick and red litlio^r»|>hi4, are c(>ni|Mire<l with the l>aruhietrical charta

i lediately alx>ve tlieni, one univerwd fact will l>e found tlirou){liout the entin' month. It iw

that on a lint^ l)einj» drawn from the locus of liijjln^Ht to the Iocun of lowest Imrometer, it will
invariably be cut more or less at rij,'ht angles by the wind; and especially, that the wind will
lie found to strike the If/l side of the line, as drawn from the locus of hi>{hest Imnmieler. In
short, as by the ordinary well-known theory, tiie wind (in our hemisphere) when in<lrau!.'ht«l
to an area of li;,'ht ascendinff currents, whirls round in a lion to tii' 'nt*

of the hand of a watch, so, conversely, when the wind li. /rum n r. i of

dense de,scendin(» currents, or of lieaptMl up utmosphere, it wliiilh round in th< u an

the hands of a watch. I conlideiitly appeal to these maps, and esjiec-ially to i - .l.SH.

whence these charts have been retluce<l, to confirn) the theory." {Mflforoi/raphica, p. 7, col. i.)

From the temperatme cliarts (Jalton did not dfaw couchisions as e|)Och-
makin^ as from the pressure charts, perliaps lie laid overmuch stre-ss on the
direction of the wind as the chief 8f)urce of hot and cold areas; but when
we persist heyond that first feeling of repuj^nance which the crudely hatched
masses of red and lilack on his charts e.xcite in our minds, we catch glimpses
of broiwl generalisations, or if the reader prefers suggestions, of what might
flow from the more accurate synchronous data plotted by similar methods
for still more extended arejis.

"The areas of Imronietric elevation ami deprtssion an; enormous, and in their main features
are very regular. They are easily recngnise<l by the lithographic maps, in black and red. There
is no case in which the Charts include the whole breadth or length of any one of these areas,
and there are cases where clearly not one-half of them is included, yet the map is alK>ut 1,200
geographical miles in height and 1,500 in breadth. They do not move with regularity, ridge
iH'hind ridge, like waves of the sea, but they are ever changing their contours and their sections.
They also vary in the speed and directions of their movement of translation." (p. 7, col. ii.)

Galton had seen that Great Britain was not a large enough area for
meteorological inquiry; he then attempted what might be learnt from what
he terms an "enormous area," only again to realise that 'JOOO niilfts is hardly
adequate to exhibit at the same time a cyclonic ami an anticyclonic system.
He thus prepared the way for that world meteorology on which modern fore-
casting essentially depends, and which is now-a-days a commonplace of our
daily papers.

Nay, it is to Galton himself that we owe those little weather charts which
form a fomiliar item of our morning news, e.g. in the Tmies newspaper.
There is a little series of maps in the (Tultoniana of the Galton Laboratory
of which the diagram on page 42 is a reproduction, under which Galton
has written "First attempt made for Times by a drill pantagraph in phwter
and a stereo taken from it, my propositi." The maps are for Decemiier 10.
Evening, and show by different types of shading the areas which lie between
certain ranges of the meteorological characters'. It is interesting to compare

' Galton does not on those first maps state what characters were ropresentetl by the two
systems, probably pressure and cloudiness; there are no indications of wind direction and no
printed figures.

!■ o n «

42

Life and Letters of Franci« Galton

Galton's suj^jestions with the isobar maps of to-day. still giving wind by
arrows, recording temperature by figures and state of the heavens in words.
This original meteorological map for the Times must have been at a later
dat« than we are now considenng, perhaps about 1 869, as the drill panta-
graph must have been previously constructed.

■^"S571

oV*

ur-

T

ii-ij:^-.

^^

^f^^

'^■

^f^

0'

^A

J

S .

10.Ucc.V-v:,

ft,

^*^

i;v ^^^

ik^i^

But I cannot find that it was ever published. The first issue of a
weather-map in the Times was on April 1, 1875, and we give on p. 43 a
reproduction of it. An account of the matter was published in Nature,
April 15, 1875. We give a few sentences from it:

"The method of preparation of the chart seems simple enough at present, but it has been
the fruit of much thought, as the problem of producing in the space of an hour a stereotype fit
for use in a Walter machine has not been solved without many and troublesome experimeuta"

Then follows a brief description of the material, the drill pantagraph (see
our p. 46) and the engraving of the block.

"The initiative in this new method of weather illustration is due to Mr Francis Galton

It is hardly necessary to allude to the value of such charts as these as a means of leading the
public to gain some idea of the laws which govern some of our weather changes."

The Shippincf Gazette started publishing on January 4, 1871 a daily
chart for the winds round the coast of the British Isles on the basis of
report* telegraphed to the Meteorological Office. It states in its issue that
"this new system of showing the direction aiifl force of the wind by movable
types etc. has been entered at Stationers' Hall." After Galton's maps of
1861 and 1863, it is difficult to see why the system should be called 'new.'

The publication of the Meteorographica placed Galton at once among

Tra unit ion Studies

43

the lejuling Eiij^lish meteorologists. The history of weather forecasting in
Ein-'lanfl startH from Athiiinil II. Fitzroy of 'storm cone' fame'. By his
exertions the Kiiglisli MetuorologicJil Utnce was founded in 1854. Kilzroy
had more entiiusiasni than science. On his death in 18G5 the Board of Tnuie
appointed a small departnn'ntal committee to consider the whole subject.
It consisted of Mr (afterwards Lord) Furrer, then periuanent secretary of the

e»r: ftlJinf Slawtf
rvy /

305 \

The dotted lines indicate tl-.c grarfation-;of baromelrirat pressure, the (Inures
at the end showing the height, uiih the words "' Kuing," ** KalhnK." &(i,
as required. The temperature at the principal stations i^ niaiked by
figures, the state of the sea and sky by words. The direction aoil force
of the wind are shown by arrows, barbed and feathered accordin,' * ' •»*
force. © denotes calm.

Oalton's Weather Map, Tht Timet, April 1, 1875.

Board of Trade, Captain Frederick Evans, the Hydrographer, and Francis
Galton. They reported in 186(5, and as a result of their report the Meteoro-
logical Committee was appointed in 1868 with Galton as a member. This com-
mittee worked for some years, but it was felt that a wider scope of action was
desirable, and after a second Government committee appointed by the Board
of Trade and Treasury conjointly, Galton again being a member, it emerged
as the Meteoroloirical Council, and of this Galton was a member until 1901.

' Better known to some of our readers as the CupUin Fitzroy of the Beagle, the surveying
pp on which Charles Darwin sailed as Naturalist.

6—8

44 Lift and Letter* of Francis Oalton

Thus for nearly forty yfars Galton was intimately associatt'd with both tlie
theory anil practice of meteorology in this country. In a letter to Galton
on his resignation from the Meteorological Council in 1901, the then chair-
man, Sir Richard Strachey, wrote :

"It is no exftf^jjeration to say that almost every room in tlui Ortio- and all its records give
unmistakable eviilence of the active share you have always taken in the direction of the opera-
tions of the Ortice. The Council fe<'l that the same high onler of intelligence and inventive
faculty has charact-erised your scientific work in Meteoi-ology that has lieen so conspicuous in
umny other directions, and has long bocome known and appreciated in all centres of intellectual
activity'."

We have already seen how the importance of a knowledge of climate to
the traveller and explorer led Galton to study meteorology ; but as soon as
this subject had 'gripped' him — as every new subject he attacked did— he
recognised the importance the explorer had as a contributor to meteoro-
logical science. He also realised how much iielp could be obtained for this
science from residents and officials abroad. Thus he prepared for the Meteoro-
logical Society about 1862 a pamphlet entitled: "Meteorologicid Instruc-
tions for the use of inexperienced Observers resident abroad." This pamphlet
Galton in his collection of papers inscribes "Meteorological Instructions for
Travellers." He writes:

"The following instructions have been framed to facilitate the lalx>urs of those who have
little leisure and experience in conducting meteorological observations, and show the minimum
of effort with which trustworthy results can be obtained." (p. 2.)

The Meteorological Society provided four instruments at a small cost, —
maximum thermometer, minimum thermometer, and an ordinary thermometer,
with a rain-gauge, and it is the efficient u.se of these which Galton describes.
The object was to obtain mean monthly temperatures, monthly ranges, rain
and wind return.s. There is no reference to barometric ])ressure. Geographi-
cal position and a determination of the meridian (for wind observations) are
also referred to.

To Galton also must l>e given a large share of the credit for devising and
organising well-eijuipped .self-recording meteorological observatories. Con-
tinuous photographic tracings were arranged for the chief meteorological
instruments. These are very familiar now, but they required much time and
thought in those early days of meteorology and photography*. When these
'tracings' were obtaine^l they were not in a form for reproduction and
publication, and the difficulty, which meets the editor of every journal, was
encountered by Galton, namely: How c;in diagrams be reproduced so as

' Letter of May 9, 1901 from Meteorological Office. It would be impossible to enumerate
here all (ialton's work for the Mel<'<)rologicul 0>niniitte<?. The index to its MIiiiiUk must be
consulted by those desiring further information. liis plans fn>m anemometers and pauta-
graphs to methods of "weighting" ship-logs, of lithographing and charting are scattered
broadcaet through these Minute*. Oalton devised a "Torsion anemometer" and a "Hand
anemometer" for u.se on ships. The latter may still be seen in the Science Museum, »South
Kensington. Se*- C'it<iIo</itf n/ Mfl^orolmjy, pp. "j.l, (51, 1922.

' "I ha<l the satisfaction in its [i.e. Metx'orological Council's] early days, when new instru-
ments and methods were frequently called for, of being able to do my full share of the work."
Memories, j). '2'M.

Trii unit ion t^udlfH

45

to reduce the scales in two directions at rij,'ht anglt?8 in any desired and
different ratios? A photo^aph, or with tnore lalnnir a pantaj;ntph, will re-
duce in />(>//( directions in the smiie ratio, hut this is not what is ncedtnl.
A contrihutor of a memoir rarely pays any attention to the pro|>oi'tions of
the page in which he desires his pa|>er to appear, and then it is a mere chance
whether his diaj^rams however neatly constructeil can be used without re-
drauirjitijiif. The ideal remedy wouldbe a photographic process of bi-directional

%,rt-r »"y »«i'" «.•/■•

h ItLkLt^ l^y^h

One of Oalton's oriRinal deeiKOB for double pantagrapli, coloured in the actnal drawing.

leduction, because photographv is so much shorter and cheaper than panta-
graj)hic work. The difficulties as to distortion of k-ttering would be over-
come by pasting on the printed lettering to the reduced photograph, instead
of to the original drawing. But although this topic more than ouee formed
the sxibject of long talks of the present writer with Francis Galton, no

46

Life and Letters of Francis Galton

practiciil photographic sclieine was then evolved'. The difficulty of hi-projec-
tion met Galton at a very early stage of his nieteorologiciil work, and he
solved it by the construction of a compound pantagraph. He gave a great
deul of thought to the subject, and his pa|>er8 contain numerous devices and
suggestions for an instrument of this character. His work upon it Ijegan in
1867, but was not ccmipleted till 1869, when the first compound pantagraph
constructed by Mr ('. Beck was placed in the Meteorological Office.

The general idea is that of a double or compound pantagraph. The
tracing pointer has a horizontal and a vertical motion. Tne former is con-
veyed through one pantagraph to the drawing-board on which the paper for
reproduction is set ancj the latter through a second pantagraph to tlie re-
producing pencil or style. The design on page 45 — not the one finally
adopted — in Galton's autograph indicates his ideas. The two pantagraphic
linkages uACBb and a'A'C'B'h' are the fundamental features. C is a fixed
pivot which may be either in AB or in a continuation of the rod AB; then
if the lengths of a^, CA, CB and Bh be so adjusted that the triangles CAa
and CBh are similar for any one position of those triangles, they will Ixj
similar for all positions, and consequently the distances a and h move in
their constrained horizontal paths will be in the adjustable ratio of CA to CB',

(ialton'R doable or drill panUijnipli.

' Wo shall see liiU-r that (JalUm actually solved the problem, but did not publish his solution.
A simple 'biprojector' was mode for the writ<T by Mr Horace Darwin many years ago
for drawing paral)olae, ellipses, probability curves, etc., but it involved the cutting of a definite
metal tetnplaU,' for each type of curve; it might possibly be adapt<>d for reducing drawings.

* This fundamental principle of Galton's compound pantagraph is discussed by him with
proof in a letter of July 15, 1869, but he was inquiring for a maker even in May of 1869.

Ti'iiHUf'tioii Stml'n'H

M

I

Perhaps u simpler unungtMuent would be to replace the liiikiif^e \>\ j.ji.-. ai,
a and h running in a slotted Iwir turning about a pivot C We reprwluoe
(page 4(i) an illustration of the tinal apparatus; the pencil or style could be
replaced by a drill '. W^ith this instrument for twelve yeare the ronlinuoua
automatic weather records for seven stations (velocity and direction of
wind, drv and wet bulb thermometers, barometer, vapour-tension and ruin)
were reduced to manageable dimensions and published. Of this [>ublicatioti
Galton remarks:

"It 8urpris«>H nie that meteorologists have not maile much more use than they have of these
comprehensive vuiiimeM. But thHre is no foretelling what asf>ect of meteorology will In? tnken
up by the very few earnest anil capable men who work at it. Kiu-h of them wnnt« voluminous
(InUi urriiiigwl in tlu; form most convenient for hi.n own |Mirticular inquiry'."

Probably the use has not been made of these graphical charts that might
well have been made; but Galton's own results indicate that we need aimul-
taneous data for a far wider range than Great Brituin, and further modern
methods of multiple correlation, which seem likely to be most productive of
result in present day meteorology, demand numerical values, and these are
hard to obtain from the graphs; not only can they scarcely be read off with
the requisite accuracy, but to reconvert the graphs into any numbere whatever
is in itself a most arduous task.

Galton's compound pantagraph has indeed a far wider field of u.sefulness
than reducing automatic weather returns. The difficulty is that it is not
made commercially and procurable at a moderate cost.

A second instrument devLsed by Galton about this time will be found
described in the Report of the Mcteoroloyicul Committee, 187 1 (p. MO). It was
devised for obtaining mechanically the vapour-tension curve from the curves
of dry and wet bulb thermometers, but again it can be used to serve a much
more general purpose, namely to obtain the curve of a variate whose ordinate
is a given function of the ordinates of two other curves — all three curves
having the same abscissji. The machine depends upon the construction of a
surface corresponding to the function the variate is of the two other ordi-
nates (i.e. in CJalton's case the vapour-tension in terms of wet and dry bulb
thermometer readings). By fine screw adjustment the cross-hairs in two
microscopes are brought into accordance with the tops of the ordinates in the
two curves, but the screw which adjusts one microscope moves the surface
parallel to one axis, and the screw which adjusts the otner microscope moves
the surface perpendicular to this direction. Thus a vertiail style resting
on the surface raises to an ade(juate height a scriber which marks the
ordinate or function-value of the compound variate*. It would be out of
place here to give a more complete iiccount of the in.strument. but my
more mechanically minded readers will gnisp the general ideji from the

' The theory is fully described in the Minuteni of th« MettorolofficfU CommitUe, 1869, p. 9.
It is alst) figured in the Katahuj vuUhfmntinclier AfodelU, Apparate und InttriimmU, of the
Deutsche -Mathonuitiker-Ven'inigung, 189l', p. 232. ' Memori't, p. 236.

' In Galton's actual instrument (see our p. 48) the required curve w^as rec»)r»led on a xinc
plate (partly removed in figure to show scriber R). The scrib«'r received when adju^ted a
blow from the hammer H worked by the action of the operator's foot on a treadle.

48

Life atid Lettertt of Frane'iH (ru/fon

aocompaiijiiig figure. Galton constructed his surface from a table of 400
values of the vapour-tension, 4(»0 iioles being l)()re(l into a solid rectangular
l)lock to these 400 values spaced pro|>erly apart, and then the remainder cut
away, Hletl anil smootluHl. The construction at that time did not cost more
than £6. Here agjvin it is easy to think of many purposes to which a machine
of this kind could Ik* put, but jis it luus never been made as a coiinnercial
article, it has never come into general use. Perhaps this brief notice may
remind investigatore of the existence of Galton's design.

^ii*^

Galton's Trace Compnter— a machine for tracing a curve, whose ordinate in any arbitrary function
of two other variate vahies at the game absciRHa or time.

A third instrument designed by Galton a little earlier (18G7) never came
in being, owing probably to a discouraging letter from Balfour Stewart at
that time at the Kew Ob-servatory, who laid great stress on comparison
of pairs of automatic jneteorological records at different intervals. Galton
was easily discouraged and was apt to treat the judgments of the really able
people whom he consulterl as sure to be better than his own. It certainly
was a pity that in this ca.se he was put off completing his model. It was
of the following nature: a map is mounted horizontally on, let us say, a
metal plate; then holes are drilled at each meteorological station, and a
rod of a convenient length is free to move vertically up and down in the
hole. Templates are now cut to the continuous automatic records of any
meteorological character for these stations and are fixed in vertical planes

Trnnxifion Stiidux 49

ruuiiiiip; eiust and wewt on a carria^t- wliicii runs oiiHt and west «»n rniln under
the map. Let uh Huppose the top of the rtxls to i-eHt on the templates; then
it" the tein{)hites he adjusted hy shiftinj^ east and west, so that the rodH
all rest on tlie points of the templates corresponding to the same instant
of time, their tops will mark the cor»teniponineous value of the chosen
variate at that time; and, if the stations Ih; fairly numerous, will indicate a
sort of surfiice of the variate. Let now the carriage l)e ir • •■! dong, and
the surface will change with the time, and the eye will r. how the

fall in one area is accompanied hy a rise in another. For example we should
actually see a cyclone or anticyclone })assing along.

As a matter of fact Galton linked up his vertiod rods with his templates
by a system of levers, and this might be neetlful for one or two stations
aosolutely in the sjime latitude, hut the cheapest construction would be
fairly light rods endinj' with knife-edges to rest on the corresponding tem-
plates. He proposed also to convert the up and down motion of the wind
curves into the angular motion of an arrow turning round a vertical axis at
the station on tlie map. Galton's drawing of his apparatus is dated April 6,
1867, Sorrento, Italy, and his description of it April 1 1, 1867'. Mrs Galton's
diary says that they travelled to Italy at the end of January 1867. "staid
chiefly in Rome and Naples and the neigh L>ourhood of Venice, then by S.
Tyrol to St Moritz, where the cure did wonders for me, but did not suit
Frank." Then the Galtons went to Heidelberg and Bavaria, reaching England
in October, where after a n)und of visits they .settled in London by the
end of November. Such were the conditions under which Galton had largely
to do his work ! One is forced to believe that he walke<l and thought, and
his jiocket notebooks suggest that he jotted down his diagrams and rougli
calculations at odd moments.

D. OTHER MECHANISMS

We have already referred to 'Galton's Toys,' models made up of strings,
pieces of wood, lenses, or often of card and bits of gla.ss only, which it is
now practically impossible to interpret. But these 'Toys' are not all, there
are constantly diagrams and schemes for instruments or the improvement of
instruments among Galton's papere. I take almost at raiulom a bundle with
papei-s dating from 1858 to early in the 'seventies; this contains intm- nJin
the following packets :

(a) One entitled "Examination of Sextants." It appears that at Galtons
suggestion in 1858 the General Committee of the British Association passed
the following resolution :

"That the consideration of tlie Kew Coniniittee hv re<iue8t<Hl to the l)est ni' iioving

the (iitSculty which is now experienced hy officers proceeding ou Government I. , ■^. and

by other scientific travellers in procuring instrumenta for determination of j: il

positions, of the most approved portable construction, and properly verifieit That i. -i-^t

of geographical science would be materially advanced by similar measunM being taken by the
Kew Committee in respect to such instruments to those which have proved so beneficial in the
case of magneticid and meteorologiciil instruments.''

' Balfour Stewart's letter is dated Kew Observatory, May 1, \^fu.
run J

60 fjifr (till/ Liltri'H of Franris iialton

This resolution led to Galton being pliiced on the Kew Committee, and
to an endeavour being made to raise the standard of angle-meiusuring instru-
ments in this country, and their comparison with those of foreign make.
The Royal Geographical Society was approacheil in the matter and that
Society passed a resolution to offer a prize of £50 or a gold medal to the
"Designer or maker of the most serviceable Reflecting Instrunient for the
Measurement of Angle* " — doubtless at the instance of its Honorary Secre-
tary. There exists a whole series of letters to Galton on the pomt. Sir
Edward Sabine in a letter of Feb. 1 (5 refers to both resolutions as Galton's.
The latter proposed a Kew certificate for sextants, and a study of errors
due to special forms of mercurial horizon, as well as of those peculiar to the
prismatic compass.

{b) But Galton did not confine his attention to the above instruments.
In 1864 Casella brought out a pocket 'altazimuth,' "improved and modified
by the kind assistance of Francis Galton Esq. F.R.S." It could he u.sed in
two positions, in one as a good azimuth compass, and in another as a weighted
disc for altitudes. It could also be used as an ordinary compass or as an
ordinary clinometer'.

(r) Galton also designed for Casella a small pocket instrument termed a
Zeonu'ter^ (from Greek {c'w, boil), Ijy means of which with an ounce of water
and drachm of spirit the height of any mountain could be obtained and
index correction of the aneroid determined ; Galton provided a table of cor-
rections for cases in which there was a considerable portion of the mercury in
the stem of the thermometer outside the vessel containing the boiling water,
and this table accompanied the directions for the use of the Zeometer.

((/) There is the design of another instrument to show by the action of a

{)iece of catgut or of whalebone strips on the motion of a clock the number of
lours per day in which humidity has exceeded a datum value. Galton con-
sidered that a similar arrangement could be made for temperature.

(e) Details of a linkage for determining the conjugate foci of a lens
mechanically'.

(/) A note on lighthouse signals. Galton notes that the period of a
complete breath is very nearly and very regularly four seconds. That this
four seconds as a period recognisable by everyone should be taken as the
base unit for lighthou.se flashing signals.

(g) The original design of the hand-heliostat, with diagrams of its
working and a water colour illustration of the field of view witli the mock-
sun covering the requisite flash point of tlie landscape. See p. 11> above.

(A) An instrument termed the "Tactor" machine. The diagram shows
it to consist of two levers each with a tooth working on one of two com-
plicated eccentrics on the same axis and apparently causing certain blocks
to rise, fall and grip. I have no idea for what purpose the "Tactor" machine

' There exists still Qalton's determination by aid of it of the latitude of llutjnnd Uate!

' Then; are very full detaiU for the construction of this instrument, apparently in the draft
of a lett<;r to Casella.

* TtiiH occupied Galton af^ain later, when he wa.s busy with photographic change of scales, and
in conjunction with Mr (now Sir) Horace Darwin a very rea-sonable linkage was devised t<j keep
object and focal plane image at their proper distances from the optical centre of the objective.

I

Tntuxitioii Sttithru 51

was designed, and there Ih nothin<^ hut the design, no ac<v>nipnnyingd*>*«'rii)-
tion to e.\[)hiin nmttere.

(i) A very detailed account ni the "Wave En^im- m iwi» ; r.v.

dated 1871-2. (ialton was very busy during these years with an < ur

to invent an engine by which the energy of waves might \ie rendered avail-
able for useful work, aiul in particular for the propulsion of ships. Galton's
attention was prol)jil)ly first drawn to the matter by the ditticulty there is
in getting from an open boat on board a vessel at sea.

"TlioHti who ill i'oiii;li weather have had occasion to get on Ixtard a voascl at soa are well
aware of the hirge and rapid changes of relative jKwition Iwtwoen the boat and the vesKel. At
one inoineiit the Ixwit has to tx; fended ofT from the side.n of th(f com|>anion ladder againitt which
it is violently dashed, at another it is lying many feet below its lowermost 8t«)>s. No ordinary
activity and presence of mind are re(|uired in a person unaccustomed to the rhythm of theae
changes to seize the exact moment when it is possible to jump onto the ladder without accident.
Even if the waves lie so short compareil to the length of the vessel that she rent* in perfect
steadiness while the lioat is tossing about, the difficulty of eml>arkatioii is still very great, for
the rise and fall of the boat is 4 ftiet in moderate weather in a roadstead like Spitheajl' (of
course it is much more in the open sea) and it will Ik- repeated jxrhaps 12 times in the niinut«.
It is clear that this energy might be made to do work, if the l)oat were secured to the end of
an arm, moving vertically up and down like a pump handle, that handle might be connected
with suitable mechanism and caused to perform ust^ful work."

The simplest conception is that of a buoy attached to a lever with fixed
fulcrum ; the up and down motion of the lever may be turned to useful
work. Galton calculates a table of wave energy, meiisured in horse-jx)wer per
ton of surface water. Thus for a wave of 5 lb. height (from trough to crest)
with a period of 5 seconds, and a vessel displacing 1 ton of water, the horse-
power would be rS. Galton next takes two veasels F and IT and he pro-
(Kises to link them together in such wise that they have complete liberty
within the range of the slide which forms part of the "link."

"The link consists of a Hooke's joint at the side of IK, which allows W to mil and to yaw,— it
will be obvious that the same movement which permits rolling obviously includes h(«ving. An

' A few extracts from L. G.'» Record throw light on these years: "Frank gave op his
rabbit-breeding and tiK)k to machine in venting... We were at South.sea enjoying the I>ockyard
at Portsmouth, and the sight of the great ships of war. CapUin Hall took us al>out in his
.steam launch. We went over the Wellington, the Victory, the St Vincent training ship, the
Queen's Yacht the Enchantress, and the Monarch and Oevast«tion. the great ironcla-ls, also the
Trafalgar previous to its sailing next daj-.... Frank Uken up with spiritualism and att<nided
meetings at Mr Crookes's and Mr Cox's. We went to Brighton for the British AH.s<Kiation,
and Emma [Francis Galtons sister] joine<l us on the 10th [August). Frank President of the
Geographical Section. Stanley inatle himself most con.spicuous and obnoxious" [s.* our p. ."M)].

52

A//r ilinl l^rtti I's (>/ I- iiiiiris (•'(il/ioi

H\\e pitSNtiig nil-oss r nllows tlip ivliitivc pilcliiliK ami t4msiiig of the two voxkcIs. Tills axlo is
ciJiiiuvt«ti !)>• H Hooke's joint which iiIIowk exactly tho siimc iiiovciiiciit.s of rolliii;; (inclusive of
h«aviiij{) luu) yaNs inj; t4i T that tho fii-st-incnliontHl joint did to W. And lastly the two Hooke's
joints are conn«vt«<d l)y a sliding ari-HMgi'inent, which |>erniit8 the vessels to approach or separate
from one another within the range of the slide."

"In the case I am al«mt to consider, 1 will suppose the thi-w motions consisting of (1) the
relative pitching of the two vessels, (2) the rolling of V and (3) the yawing of V to lie trans-
ferred to a 'wave engine' on T, and the other thrt-e motions consisting of (1) the rt^lative
aeparation (or approach) of the two vessels, (2) the rolling of 11' and (3) the yawing of W to lie
transferred to the 'wave engine' on II'."

The bulk of Galton's paper is then concerned with the mechanical
arrangements by which every phase of the relative motion of the parts of
the " link " can be applied to proflucing rotatory motion on V and W.
Such mechanical arrangements constitute the "wave engine." To describe
them woidd take us beyond our proper limits, but they exhibit all Galton's
ingenuity from the mechanical side. I do not know whether any one had
considered previously the possibility of using the relative tossing and pitch-
ing of two hulks as a source of power.

^

Part of the drawings for Galton'.s "wave machine."

Galton consulted three friends about his "wave machine" — Mr C. W.
Merrifield, the Rev. H. W. Watson the mathematician, and Mr George
Darwin. Merrifield considered the matter at considerable length with regard
to the horse-power available, the actual mass in motion and the friction.
He sums up as follows:

"My theoretical conclusion is therefore against the machine being of practical utility, hy
reMon of its prol)able erticiency not being adequate to its cost and its inconvenience. I consider,
however, that lx>th the idea and the machinery are ingenious in a very high degree; and I
should l>e sorry if you allowed one adverse opinion (coming from myself) to discourage you
frr>m trial."

I

Tninxitlon Stml'iDt 68

(ialtoii Nt't'iiis ill tirst to have iiad an idea of iitiliMin^ his relative
motions to work soiiit" form of afr-engine, antl it was alxjut this phase of hi*
invention that he wrf)te to Mr Watson, who rephed hh follows:

"I Hill truly rejoiced ti> find that you are so sanfjuiiic. I am coiifiili-tii \i.ii Iiiw Kit uivin
nonicthin^ lenl, and not a cliiiiiacra, and only hop«^ you niny Im- uIiIp to Itri! aj

end. I am not inclini-d to tliiiik you <<)uld iitdiw tli« |M)w«r you lmv« il.-.. ...... .i m .... *«y

you MUggCsttHl."

Galton had also suggested that motive fxiwer for a double ship might be
obtained from the relative motion of its twin parts, and this point is taken
up by Cieorge Darwin:

"I will keep your secret Htrictly. I am glad to hc^r that you an- ^oing to |>at«nt it, »a it
Houndw a-H if it ought to liP a groat morcantili? invention

Will it Im' |><>.s.sil)lt: to unyoke your .slii|i.sl If not they would be rather unnmuageahle in
rivers and Inirlxxirs. Will not the danger ut° eollisions be much increased by the great width
and what will liup|ien when the helm lia.H to 1h> turniNJ hard to avoid anything? If one of the
ships got at all out of hand, it would he rather an awkward combination wouldn't iti My
father is very incredulous in m the si)irit8. 1 am sorry to liear that Miss F. is to have her
familiars with her as .') conjurors could combine to do their tricks without much chance of
being found out'."

Whether it was Merrifield's criticism or George Darwin's irony' which led
Galton to abandon his scheme, I cannot say; a last letter from Merritield
indicates that in April 187"2, Galton was proposing to employ bis appar.itus
to measure the energy of a .sea-disturbance, (laltons ideii, which mu.st of
course be distinguislied from the use of tidal energy, seems to possess much
originality. As our coal and oil supplies run short, possibly men will turn
.lijiUH to Galton's suggestion of iiarnessing the waves.

E. CLIMATE {continnfd)

A meteorological paper of August 1866', read Ijefore the British As-
sociation in that year\ deserves a pa.ssing notice. In this pa|>er (Jalton
criticises the statistical methods of the old Meteorological Office — otherwise
of Admiral Fitzroy. It is entitled: "On an Error in the usual method of
obtaining Meteorological Statistics of the Ocean." He points out that the

' See our p. .'il ftn. Galton's investigation of spiritualism interested Charles Darwin and
will be r(>ferred to again later.

" Major L. Darwin ns,sures me that the irony would be quite unconscious on Sir Oeorg©
Darwin's part.

■' /;. A. Report, Vol. xxxvi, 1866 (Sect.), pp. 16-17. A\so Athenaeum, Sept. 1, 1866. We
may just mention in this footnote that in the previous year (Octolx^r ISO.')) Galton wrote a
long notice in the Edinburgh Jienew, pp. 422-5.') of J. F. Campliell's Front and Fire. There
was much in this book to interest Galton and excite his criticism and suggestion ; thus he ex-
plains from close observation (p. 433) that trees do not as Campbell suggests 'bend to the wind,'
they Ijend under the weight oit branches, which can only llourish on the lee-side of the tree*.

'' Read by the SecreUiry of the Section as tialton was ill at the time. He liad gone to the
British Association at Nottinglinm, but had been "done up and obliged to leave.'' ThefJaltons
then went to I>'aiiiington where "Dr Jephson prescribed for Frank, he grew very weak under
the treatment. Kud of Septeinlx>r returned home and remaiiie<l six wi-ek*, then went to the
Norths, and took liKlglngs at Hastings in Hretnis Place; stayed tliere till iry

1867. Frank rwle constantly."' L. G.'s h'eeofd. It was this illness which | • to

i-esign the Secretaryship of the British Association and spend much of 1867 in travel.

54 JAfe and Letters of Fronds Gnlton

ocean l)eiiig divided into areas of 5° angle in longitude and latitude, and
the ship returning all its observations, sulfject to the sole condition of an
interval of eight hours between observation and observation, a ship will give
more ol>servations when the wind is unfavourable than when it is favourable ;
accordingly there will be an error produced — since favourable and un-
favourable winds are peculiar to certain areas, and ships outwiird and inward
l>oinid follow different courses — in talking not only the mean direction of the
wiiul for certain ai-eas but also in other meteorological variates highly corre-
lated with the wind, such as temperature and dampness. The remedy would
be to enforce not only an interval in time, but an mterval in distance of the
positions of successive ol)servations.

Galton's criticism is of less importance now that steamships have replaced
sailing vessels, but the paper is of interest as marking probably the first
occasion on which Galton exhibited publicly his tine instinct for the discovery
of statistical fallacies.

The reader will not appreciate Galton's work at this period unless he
remembers that Galton's earliest travels were associated with sailing ships;
it wtis in such a vessel, the Dalhousie, that he sailed for Africa; and he
thought for many years of his life in terms of wind and not steam as a
motive power'. Thus it came about that when Galton turned his study of
meteorology in the direction of ocean travel, he thought in terms of sailing
vessels. The wind had for Galton a singular fascination, and for him the
problem always was : What can we learn from the wind, how can we makd
it of greatest service?

Three or four of his papers touch on wind problems, and these we will
now briefly consider.

The first one that may be refeiTed to is entitled: "Barometric Predictions
of Weather." and the paper was read at the British Association Meeting in
1870'. fJalton's paper is suggestive, because, what he is actually seeking
for in his linear prediction formula of the velocity of the wind in terms of
barometric height, temperature and damp is what is now familiar to statis-
ticians as a multiple regression formula. Galton very properly saw that the
relation of barometric height to wind-velocity dici not depend upon the
instantaneous wind, and he accordingly experimented with average wind-
velocity for a series of two, three, etc. hours. He came to the conclusion
that the best period for the average was about twelve hours. He con-
sideretl that twelve hour averages should also be taken for temperature and
damp. Galton ettsily found his averages from the automatic record of con-
tinuous temperature, wind-velocity and damp. He explains clearly why he
takes an average, namely the barometric pressure acts in sympathy with
a much larger wind-velocity area, than that immediately in its own neigh-
bourhood. The pressure (as in the case of water) is affected some time

' I tliink this is true even a,s late as the early 'seventies when Gallon wan busy with his
"wave eiiffine'' (see p. 51). Such an engine as a propulsor would hardly have occurrecf to one
who had grown up in an era of steam vessels.

» Brit. Amoc. Report, 1870, Tran«. Sectiow,, pp. 31-33; Nature, Vol. ii, Oct. 20, 1870,
pp. 501-3.

TraiiKitloH StmltiH ;')5

l)efore thu arrival of the centre of jjreatest disturluiiice. Accordingly (>alton
reaches a formula of the form

//,-/i, = mh(12)-v,(liJ)}+/>{<,(12)-<.(12)}+7H(l2)-c/.(l2)},

where /t = pressure, i'(l2) e<]ual average wind-velocity, <(12) eq«ial average
temperature and d{\'l) equal average damp for 12 houi*H round an epoch,
and the subscripts 1 and 2 re[)re8ent epochs of time at a few hours interval.
Galton then determines in rough figures the values of in, p, (j from observa-
tions at Falmouth. So far he might — by very crude methods indeetl — be
determining a multiple regression formula. Hut the next step he takes i«
erroneous; he transfers what amounts to v, to the other side of his equation,
and proceeds to predict v.. from Ixirometric height, etc. It wiw not till much
later that (Jalton realised that in the simplest amu the prediction formula
of V from h is not the same formula as that of A from v. Hence although his
conclusion that average wind-velocity cannot l)e closely predicte<l from baro-
metric height is true, his method really failed to demonstrate it rigidly.

"The barometer when consulted by itself, without a knowledge of the weather at adjacent
stations, can cluini but one merit, nitmoly, to guide us in a form of storm which does not occur
once a year in tin- Hritisli Isles, of iv fall in the mercury out>st ripping in an extraordinary (h-gree
the increasing severity of the weather; Jind I Ix-lieve it to be on account of this rare phenomenon
here, and of the reports of sailoi-s from hurricane latitudes, where it is much more frequent, that
the fanie of the instrument ha.s been so widely spread."

With his usual instinct Galton had reached a true conclusion, although
his method was at fault. For us the interest of his paper lies in the evidence
that he was feeling his way towards 'correlation''.

A series of three papers nuist now be considered in conjunction. The
earliest of these is entitled : "On the Conversion of Wind Charts into
Passjige Charts." It was read in Section A of the British Association, 1866
{Tran,s. Sections, pp. 17-20), and published also in the Philosophical
Magazine, Vol. x.vxii, pp. 345-8, 1866. Galton explains his purpose in
the following words:

''The most direct ]in(! between two points of the ocean is seldom the quickest route for
sailing vessels. A compromise has always to be mode l)etween directness of route on the one
hand, and the best chance of propitious winds and currents on the other. Hence it is justly
argued that an inquiry into the distribution of the winds over all parts of the ocean is of high
national importance to a seafaring people like ourselves. A knowledge of the distribution of
the winds would clearly enable a calculation to be made which would show the most suitable
passage in any given case'''. But as a matter of fact, no calculations have yet l)een made upon
this base; much less have charts Ijeen contrived to enable a navigator to estimate by simple
measurements the prol)able duration of a proposed voyage. The wind charts compiled by the
Meteorological Department of the Board of Trade are seldom used by navigators; for they do

' Galton's paper le<l to a long correspondence with G. H. Darwin (afterwards Profe8(K»r
Sir George Darwin), chieHy nott^worthy becaiuse from this date an intimate correspondence
sprung up and touched many other problems that Galton was considering in later years.

t" Galton was clearly endeavouring to replace the straight lines and loxodromes of Mercator's
Chart by a modern tlKH)ry which should take account of the variations of the wind— less suited
indee<l to the examination room, but of more practical value. How few Cambri i rnatical
examiners appear to have realised even since Galton s time the futility of K'\ , which

56 Lift (iitti Litfrrtt of Fiuinris (UUton

not affurd the rosulu that seamen principally require; they are only data from which thosu
r<»siiiu might b«' cnU-ulattyl hy some liitherto unexplained procewH, which, we can wisily foresee,
must Ik- ail excee«linj;ly teilious one."

It is this process which Cialton proceeds to unfold for moderate winds in
the case of a "merchantman of the class that usually navij^ates the Atlantic."
To carry it out we rec|uire to know: (1) the proportionate time (or the
relative fi-etpiency) that the wind blows in a given area from each of say
eight points of the compass, (2) the numl)er of miles that the particular ship
will make in an hour at each angle to the wind. Combining these two
results we can measure for the average of the winds in that area the average
progress of the ship towards each point of the compsiss in an hour. If the
distance reached' in an hour be plotted from a centre in the arc, we obtain a
closed curve whose radius vector measures the efficiency of the ship in that
particular area tor a particular coui-se. If now the chart be divided up into
areas and in each area be placed the corresponding polar diagram, we have
convertetl a wind chart diagram into a passage chart diagram. A navigator
now plots his proposed course acro&s these areas, and sets off' with his
comjMisses the distance run jier liour in the direction of the course from the
nearest polar diagram. In this way he is able to calculate the average time
on the proposed course and cjin compare it with the time on other courses.

"He will thus be able to si'lect the quickest out of any Mumlx»r of routes that may l>e sug-
gested to him, and to d(>terniine, on the most trustworthy of existing data, what is the best
course to adopt in sailing from one part of the ocean to another."

Galton suggests the modiffciition of the polar diagram when (a) force of
wind and {h) current are taken into account.

The next paper on this subject wiis published in the Miimtes of the
Meteorological Council for December 2, 1 872". In this communication Galton
advances a considerable stage further. The Meteorological Office had sorted
out the whole of the data for direction and force of wind and for current into
"single degree scjuares." Thus the resultant direction and strength of cur-
rent, the average force of the wind and its proportional directions were more
or less accurately known for each area, for each month of the year. Galton
now terms the polar diagrams of his earlier paper "isixiic curves" or brieffy
"isods." He calculates tliem for the month of January for "2 squares" from
Longitude 0'' to 10° N. and from Latitude 20" to 30' W., allowing for current,
and force of wind as well as direction, and taking as his standard type the
" Beaufort ship." The rays now represent the average space run in 8 hours,
and Galton enters into details of how to construct ' isodic' charts and passages
He seems, however, to have been in some doubt as to whether nis name
' is<Ml ' wjis appropriate. In his own copies of this paper, he (piestions in pencil
whether the word shoidd not be 'ishodic' But another doubt must have
arisen in his mind; his isods did not represent equal paths, but the paths

' Not the distance traversed, IxM'ause to reach a given point the ship will generally have
to tack.

' Preaented to Sir Edward Sabine, the Chairman, Mr Galton, Major-General Hmytlio and
Sir Gharlea Wheat«tone.

Tniimitiim StiiditH

57

run ill lufiial times. Thus a suitable name would have been 'hoclograni' had
not something like that word been alifudy appropriated in anothfr and
rather unfitting sense by Sir William Hauiilton. Cialtun in his third paper,
publislied in the lioi/al Society Proceediru/s', and entitled: "On tlie Kni-
ployinent of Meteorological Statistics in determining the l)est couixe for a

8 lldiii'lv Isodii- CiirveH in .Si|iiiiri' 3. J«uiii.iry
TliriliiTclKin iiihI aiiumiil «C tlii- Curn-iil ia shrwii. ami i»» i-flW-t m infliiilril in Uic Uod.

fiift'cun* »•■• » »**«

t*'

If

IMAN 4M-

I *' itf &r cum wo*^ M.TsTw,

KS'RAT[0«M.
/

\

MtTCVRr 9IRT N.nt<^

■Mtrcvit* omr N.n %

/ \

ItCft'CURT Dill? N.S»Tw

/ \

28"

JIMT CUKT Dt«? « W«

r.'un aj»

«ltt M*' Dint •.!•**.
■PUTt 0 IN.

•vuitMa

•(•• on M» t iim.

K Mil 011^

ii^'MTto^a

(!)

\

'Jit»T cunt [»■• n.«»*«r.

(9::

2«*

KSrcuR* SIR'

llR*N.>l.lb

(^..

MS' CURT M«? N.7<T«'
»«IUTtft*M.

2rt"w.

NotC! KCST CUI! . KCSUIUNT cintum.

Speaimen of Oalton's Isodio Carres from Minutes of Meteorological Council, 1873.

ship whose sailing qualities are known," terms these hodograras "isochronous
curves" or simply "isochrones." The discussion of the construction of iso-
chrones, if somewhat fuller, follows here the lines of that in the Meteorological
Council Minutes. A new feature is the description of a somewhat elaborate

' V"ol. XXI, pp. •J63-74, April IS".}.

p o n

68 LijV (111(1 L<((( IS oj Francis (iaffon

machine for plotting isochrones ; the individuaUtv of the ship is represented
by zinc teniphites cut to its sjiiling qualities unaer each force of wind, and
each t*?niplute corre*iH>nding to the number of |X)ints the course of the sliip
lies off the wind. Galton considered that such templates could be cut for some
moderate number of classes of ships, and charts of isochrones for such classes
hv then issued for the principal oceans, (ialton remarks in liis Memories' :

"I wu rather scandalised by finding how little whs known to nautical men of the sailing
qualities of their own ships, along v»ch of tlie sixt'Oen points of the conii>as.s, a.ssuming a
modernto soa and a moderate wind blowing stoAdily from one direction. I think, if I had
a yacht, that this would be the first point I should wish to ascertain in respect to her
perfonnances."

In his Royal Society paper he states that no human brain from a mere
inspection of the crude data of winds, currents, etc. can deduce a correct
result as to the distances likely to be run by a given ship on various
courses.

"As an example, I may be allowed to mention*, that I asked a naval officer of unusually
large experience in the construction of weather charts, and who was familiar with the sailing
quslities of a ' l^aufort staml'ird ship,' to csliniatp portions of isochrones in certain cases; and
I found the mean error of his estiinat^^^ to exceed 15 |)er cent. The guesses of ordinary navi-
gators would necessarily be much wider of the truth. Now we must rrcollect that a very small
saving on the average length of voyau<^ would amount to an enormous aggreuate of commercial
gain, and that, where precision i.s practicable, we should never re-sl satisfied with rule of thumb.
Our meteorological statistias afTord the best information attainablti at the present moment, and
they exceed by some hundredfold the experiences of any one navigator; their probable errors
may be large but that is no reason for needlessly astiociating them with additional subji'cts of
doubt. The probable error of a navigator's estimate of an isochrone, and consequently of the
data which he must use whether ccn.sciously or not, whenever he att(>mpts to calculate his best
track, is due at the present time to no less than tliree distinct sets of uncertainties: (a) the
average weather; (6) the performance of his ship on different courses with winds of difTerent
force (which I undci-stand to be hardly ever ascertained with much precision); (c) the computa-
tion of the isochrone."

(ialton propo.sed to reduce the uncertainty to (a).

There is much of interest in this series of papers which are very charac-
teristic of the author's originality in idea and in method, but alas ! the
papers ought to have appeared 20 years earlier. The modern reader hardly
realises that the bulk of our stores were carried in 1857 to the Crimea in
sailing ships; that even at the time Galton wrote these pa|)ers a considerable
proportion of trade was still carried by sail. Published in 1850, these
papers would probably have been followed by the universal construction and
use of isochronic charts, and Galton 's name would have been honoured in
the history of navigation. But in the 'seventies steam wiis rapidly super-
seding sails, and sails were practically discarded before the Meteorological
Office had time to collect the more ample and trustworthy data of ocean
statistics, on the publication of which Galton's charts depended. Each
mfxle of transit is succeeded by another, the railways killed «inals, as motor
traffic is killing the railways. It is hard on the discoverer and inventor to
be working at a period of transition on a method of transit which has not

' p. 240. « Nin,. Soc. Proc. Vol. xxi, p. 267.

I

TraiiHition Studies 60

yet been recognised as njoribund. His work, however good, perishes with
its subject. The greatest tragedy in the history of discovery is the invention
of a great improvement on some existing process, which process itself is
then in a brief time complt'telv replact-d by some novel and wide-n-afliirifr
development.

Olosely allied to (ialton's meteorological work was his ass vsilli

the Kew Observatory. The Kew Observatory, constructed for ' ^ Ill's
amust^nient, had been handed over by the Government at the suggestion of
the Council of the British A.s.sociation (1842) as a centre for testing scientific
instrument.s, and it ultimately fell under the control of the Itoyal S<H^iety
(1872). We have already seen that Galton was placed on the Managing
Committee in 1858 as a result of the movement set going by him for the
standardisation of sextants and other portable angle-instruments. On this
Con)mittee Galton made or strengthened several scientific friendships,
notably those with Sir Edward Sabine, who largely influenced Galton'a
scientific career, with .1. F. Ga.ssiot', and with Warren l)e la Rue. Galton
succeeded I)e la Rue as Chairman of the Kew Committee in 1889 and held
that po.st till 1901, when the Committee ceased to exi.st as an independent
body on the constitution of the National Physical Observatory. Sabine
had made Kew a central magnetic ob-servatory for the world. Galton
busied himself mostly with apparatus for the testing and standardisjition of
instruments of all kinds. Sextants, thermometers, watches, telescopes, field-
glasses, photographic lenses were all tested at Kew, and in many of these
cases it was Galton on whom fell the chief responsibility for selecting the
methods and instruments used in the tests. We have already referred to
Galton's first j>roposal to test sextants* by heliostatic processes, i.e. by
flashing light from the Observatory to distant fixed mirrors, which would
reflect the light for angular measurement back to the Observatory. This
method was discarded owing to its dependence on suitable weather ; it was
succeeded by a system of collimators rJext, an instrument for standardising
thermometers devised by Galton with the aid of suggestions by De la Kue
was made by Mr R. Mnnro, and set up at Kew in 187 5. After two years
service, which suggested certain modifications, the instrument and its method
of use were described by Galton in a paper entitled : " Description of the
Process of Verifying Thermometers at the Kew Observatory," read at the
Royal Society, March 15, 1877*. The apparatus reveals Galton's charac-
teristic ingenuity, but is of too specialised a nature to be descriljed here*.
In 1 890 a pamphlet entitled : Tests and Certijicates of the Kew Observatory.

' The Gassiots are frequently iiietitioned in L. G.'s Record, as present on social occasions
and as joining the Galtons when on travel.

' Even as late as 1889, if we exclude thermometers, sextants stood second only to Navy
binoculars, 292 to 341, in the statistics of instruments tested at Kew. In 1912 over 1000
sextants a year were being examined.

• Proc. Roy. Soc. Vol. xxvi, pp. 84-9, 1877. See also PhU. Mag. 1877, pp. 226-31.

* In 1911' it was still in use at Kew and wius familiarly called "The Galton." That it
should have survived nearly forty years service is a strong testimonial to itii inventor's
instrumental thoroughness.

8—8

00 Lift' and Letters of Franeh Galton

Issued by the Kew Committee of the Royal Society, was publislied. Galton
includes it both in his list of niemoii-s and in the bound volumes of his
paj)ei-s, so that it was doubtless compiled by him. It ^ives information as
to the history of the Olwervatory, the wide range of instruments tested by
the stai!', the nature of many of the tests and tlie charges for testing. The
Conmiittee* of which CJalton was then Chairman was indeed a strong one,
and the general progress made in thirty years very noteworthy.

But Galton was not only intei-ested in the methods of testing, but also in the
convenience of the building itself and of its enviroinnent. General Strachey
coming out one day from the Observatory noticed that the Mid-Surrey Golf
Club had established a green immediately in front of the Observatory, and
thinking how the matter miglit develop held that some means must be
taken to secure a protected area round the building. But the institution
possessed no funds for such an expenditure ; accordingly Francis Galton
(1893) generously and quietly provided the money, between £300 and £400,
for placmg a fence enclosing about six acres of ground round the Observatory.
Dr Chree, the Superintendent, writing to me in 1912, said :

"Sir Francis' interests according to ray recollections were more with instruments and their
verification than with olxservational work. He usually professed to regard hin)sel{ as a poor
man of business and finance, but 1 think this was partly a pretence intended to form an excuse
for leaving financial matters largely to General Strachey, — a very great friend of Sir Francis' —

who like<l to deal with matters of that kind The Kew Committe*' used to meet once a month

with a long vacation in summer — and generally Sir Francis got n>e to go up to Rutland Gate
before each meeting and go through the business with him. His long experience of the Obser-
vatory rendered him so familiar with the work that he used to get along wonderfully well as
Chairman, notwithstanding his deafness."

An amusing anecdote may be told to illustrate Gralton's kindliness of
spirit. With tlie increase of the testing work the Royal Society officers
decided that the then existing system of Kew Observatory accoimts — which
was of General Strachey's arranging, somewhat j)rimitive, and not requiring
any special financial training in the Observatory officials — must be altered,
and the Royal Society's auditor proposed a scheme of the complexity natmally
dear to the professional mind. General Strachey wiis much hurt and Galton
said privately that something must be devised to soothe General Strachey.
This proved easier than might have been anticipated, for the non-financially
trained, on close scrutiny of the accounts, discerned that the Royal Society
had been recovering income tax and inadvertently not paying it over to the
Kew Committee I That Committee was accordingly able to extract a sub-
stantial sum from the Royal Society and General Strachey was thus led
to feel he was a match for the financial experts of the Society I

One or two miscellaneous papers may be fitly touched on in this chapter
because they illustrate either Galton's instrumental ingenuity, or have more
or less relation to the subjects here discussed. About 1877 Galton sent a
letter to the Field newsj:)aper suggesting a ver)' simple speedometer for
bicycles. This was a small sand-glass and all the rider had to do was to

' Abney, Orylls Adams, ("reak, Carey Foster, Admiral liichards, the Earl of Rosse, Riicker,
R. H. Scott, Generals Strachev and Walker, and W. T. L. Wharton.

Ti'diixilinn SttuliiH »H

count till! muiiiIm'I' i)t .strokes lie mi.kIc with tli»' fodt on one tiffidlc, wlnle the
sand-glass iiin down. This provided the nuinher of miles per hour at wiiich
lie was moving. For example a sand-glasfl running out in fi sees, is appro-
priate to a wheel of 'J fl. !>J inches dianieter, while one of 10 sees, corresponds
to one of 4 ft. 8 inches diameter'. I am not aware that these aand-ulaases

with the free-wheel, several moditications would l)e nee<lful.

ever came into use ; with the differential gearing of the modern cycle, and

nu-gia
cycle.

A last meteorological paper hy (jalton was read at the British Association
meeting 1880*. It is entitled: "On determining the heights and distances
of clouds by their reHexions in a low pond of water and in a mercurial horizon."

"Tlie culm surfiict- of a Kheot of wiili-r, " Giiltoii writes, "may Ih> ma«lo to wive tlir purp<me of
a hugo mirror in a gigantic vertical range-tiiulcr, whereby a sutticieiitly largi- parallax may Ije
obUiiiKHl for the efVectivo measurement of clouds. The observation of the heights and thick-
nes.seH of the liillerent strata of clouds, and of their rates of movement, is at the present time
perhaps the most promising, as it is the least explored branch of meteorology. .\n then' are
comparatively few places in England where the two conditions are found of a pool of water well
screened from wind, and a station situated many feet in height above it, the author hopes by
the publication of this memoir to induce some qualiKe<l pi^rsons who liave acceiw to favourable
stations to interest themselves in the subject, and to make observations."

The observations were to be made witli a sextant and mercurial horizon,
and demand a knowledge of, or a di.scovery of, the following quantities :

(a) the difference of level between the surfaces of the mercury and of
the pool (</) ;

{h) the angle between the rellection of a part (jf the cloud in the
mercury and in the pool (p, = « minutes of angle, say) ;

((•) the angle between the portion of the cloud and its reflection in the
mercmy (2a, Galton identifies a with the altitude of the cloud and suggests
that it may be measured directly by a pocket altazimuth : .see our p. .^0).

Galton gives the approximation :

Vertical height of cloud = - 6875 "5 cos (a +/>) sin a

and tabulates the factor by which djn must be multiplied for various values
of rt+|) and i>, or n, to obtain this vertical height. He mounted his horizon
on a bar attached to a camera tripod, so that the reflection from the pool
Wits seen under the mercury'.

In this chapter of Galton's life I have endeavoured to indicate the chief
scope of his activities during the ten years which followed his South African
travels and his marriage. On his return home he came into touch with men
like Sir Edward Sabine and Sir Roderick Murchi.son whose etithusiastic
spirit caused Galton's labours to be directed in their own specialised direc-
tions, and the inipul.ses thus given led to phases of study the ramitications

' Only those who remember the cycles of the 'seventies will appreciate this diameter.
' Kfimrt, pp. 459-61.

' I have checked Galton's formula of which he gives no proof on the assumption that th«
ot)server may Ije assumed to have his eye at the mercurj', but I have had no opportunity of

I testing whether the method is fairly eiusy of application. Pools and clitTs are innumerable, hut
few of them are lutsociated. The ideal spot would hv: a disused and Hoo<ie<l quarry.

62 Life and Letters of Francis Galtun

of which lasted throup^h many years of a long life. But Galton, while he
maintikintHl a keen interest in these topics, at leitst till I'JOU, j^new less and
lees actively pi-otluctive. A new and wider aspect of the cosmos was opening
up for him, and evidence of an entirely different intellectnal influence be-
comes ammrent even in the 'sixties. His thoughts had l)egun to turn from
the stuay of physical environment to the study of the organic contents of
that envinitiiiient. or in a narrower sense from cosin()gra[)liy to hiology —
from geogruj)hy and meteorology to anthropology and psychology. There can
be little doubt that the incentive in these directions came from his growing
friendship with Charles Darwin, and the appearance of Herbert Spencer ana
Hii\lt\ ill the cinlc of his acquaiiit.iiiccs.

V. SPIRITUALISM AND JOURNALISM

I have attemptetl in this chapter to give a more or le.ss complete account
of those labours of Galt<:)n which deal with the physical and the mechanical
rather than the human side of his studies. In case some of my readers may
have found this account tedious, for not everyone can have understanding
and sympathy for the Catholicism of Galton 's pursuit of knowledge, I will
conclude this chapter with brief accounts of two other matters of more
general interest, which occupied a gootl deal of Galton's time in the period
under discussion; The man of science, who with the history of the world
before him finds it impossible to accept a primitive folk's account of man's
creation and its purpose, is tempted to consider whether the methods in
which he puts his trust for solvmg problems of the phenomenal universe
may not be adequate as instruments of research in the unknown vast of the
hyper-phenomenal '. Such a man of science, possibly owing to a lack of epi-
stemological study, forgets that his senses have been developed to grasp
physical phenomena, that his concepts are deductions from his sensuous
perceptions, and that neither his sensuous nor mental outfits are adapted for
sensating, perceiving and conceptualising the hyper-phenomenal. Some men
grasp this truth by the logic of reasoning, others by the logic of experi-
ence, others by a healthy instinctive appreciation, and some never grasp it
at all. To the first group we may, perhaps, say Huxley Ix^loiiged, to the
second Galton, to the third Darwin, and to the fourtii Crookes and Alfred
Russel Wallace.

Galton at any rate thought in 1872 that that branch of the 'supernatural'
which we term spiritualism wjis at lesist worthy of inquiry. He endeavoured
in a series of lettera to interest Charles Darwin in his inquiries, and the
latter appears to have been willing to give the matter a trial, but I have not
been able to trace his letters; one at any rate went to Crookes, and another
to Home, but in a letter of Darwin's son George to Galton there is a report
of his father's incredulity as to the doings of Miss F.' It seems clear from
the letters that Home had no great inclination to exhibit his powers to

' The good word 'supernatural' has become vulgarised until it signifies little more than
something of which the user has inadequate previous experience occurring as a phenomenon, i.e.
in the 'natural' world. * See above, p. 53.

Triiiixition Stniliix tV.\

Darwin iuid (ialton iilnnc. It is jnohahle that this n-hictance Ird (iajton i<i
a less agnostic attitude towards spiritualism. If there w«Te any other ex-
periences which \vx\ to his final rejection of spirituahst clainis, I have not
found traces of them in his correspondence. It is possihle that he In'rame
acijuainted witli iiohert JJruwning's poem, Mr SlmU/f, " The MnHniii," and
he would be certain to read Huxley's ref)<»rt to Darwin on the trickery of
another medium. The letters and paragraphs in letters to Charles Darwin
on this subject are as follows:

a Bertie Terrace, I.«aniin!rton. March 28, '72.
My deak Dahwin I enclose tlie reviswl HtaUMiu-iit libuut tlie curious trick' in Dr X's
family. I questioned hi.s widow only a fortnight lx!fore lior death, all his 7 children, his son's
wife and her 2 nufst<s. There is no contradictory evidence whatever.

Now about Mr Crookes, T have Ix'en twice at his house in seance with Miss P. who puts her
powers us a friend entirely at his disposal, and once at a noisy but curious st^ancn at .Sergeant
Cox's. 1 can only say, as yet, that I am utterly confounded with the resultH, and am very dis-
inclined to discredit thoni. Crookes is workinsj delilierately and well. There is not the slightt-st
excitement durin;; the sittinjtjs, but they are conducte<l in a chatty ea.sy way; and though a
large part of what occurs might lie done, if Uie ni'-diiitn wert free^ yet I don't see how it can lie
done when they are held hand and foot as is the case. I shall go on with the matter as far as
^^^^I can, but I see it is no use to try to enquire thoroughly unless you have (as Crookes says) com-
^^fclete jHjssession of « first chuss mediuui. The whole rubliish of spiritualism seems to me to stand
^^Knd fall together. All oniers are given by nips, — levitation, luminous appearances, hands,
^^■Writings and the like are all part of one complete system.

^^H The following is confidential at present. What will interest you very much, is that Crookes
^^Bias needles (of some material not yet divulged) which he hangs in vacuo in little bulbs of glass,
^^^^hen the finger is approachi^d the needle moves, sometimes (?) by attraction, .sometimes by
repulsion It is not affected at all when the operator is jaded but it moves most rapidly when
he is bright, and warm and comfortable, after dinner. Now different people have different power
over the needje and Miss F. has extraordinary fujwer. I moved it myself and saw Crookes move
it, lint I did not see Miss F. {f-ren the warmth of the hand cannot radiate through glass).
Crookes Ix^lieves he has hold of quite a gratul di.scovery and Ujld me and showeiJ me what I have
described quite confidentially, but I asked him if I might say something about it to you and he
gave permission'.

I can't write at length to describe more particularly the extraordinary things of my last
B^nce on Monday. I had hold in one of my hands of bulk han<ls of Mi.ss F.'s companion who
also rested both her feet on my in8t«>p and Crookes had equally firm fKwses-sion of Miss F. The
other i>eople present were his wife and her mother and all hands were joined. Yet paper
went skinmiing in the dark about the room and after the word 'Listen' was rapj)ed out the
1^^ pencil was heard (in the complete darknes-s) to be writing at a furious rate under the table,
f^J between Cnwkes and his wife and when that was over and we were told (rappetl) to light up,
the paper was writU'n over — all the side of a bit of marked note pajwr (marked for the ocensidti
and therefore known to be blank when we began) with very respectable platitudes — rather alxive

te level of Martin Tupper's compositions and signed "Benjamin Franklin"'! The absurdity on
' An hereditary habit of rather violently stroking the nose, while aslet>p, .so that the thumb-
il occivsionally laoerate<l that organ. I have just ascertained that it has been transmittetl to
Mneration liorn since 1872.
^ It is not clear from this passage how far either Crookes or Galton originnlK- «svo.-|ated
l/Tookes' radiometer with mediumi.stic powers.

' As to Franklin : " yourself

Explaine<l the case so well last Sunday, sir,

I^|i When we had summoned Franklin to clear up

^^t^ A point about those shares i' the telegraph:"

^fr Sludge, ''The M/'dium,' R. Browning's Works, Vol. VII, p. 1^3, i -■-.'
Sludye was Home, and Browning although, unlike Galton, he was able to con^^ct him of ti ,u;.i

ti4 Life ami Lctteftt of FranriK (kUton

the one hand and the extraordinary chamcler of the thing on the other, quite staggers me:
wondering what I shall yet see and loam I remain at present <|uite passive with my eyes and
ears open. Very sincerely yours, Fkancib (jALTOn.

5 Bertie Terraci', Li'iiiiiiti;;tiiu. Murcli ;Jlst, 'I'l.

Mt ueab Dakwin Your letter will he a great encounigoment to Crookes and I have for-
warded it to him to rvud, telling him what I had written.

About the 'female' — 1 hesituted a full 10 minutes before inserting the word 'it' on the
ground that the subject of the story might be identified in after life and that the knowledge of
the trick might damage her marrying value! I do not know if I am over fastidious. It is purely
my own idea — no objection was raised by iiny of the family. So do entirely as you like'. Very
sincerely yours, Francis Galtok.

42 Rutland Gate. A/n-il 19/72.

My dear Darwin I have only had one seance since T wrote, but that was with Home in
full gas-light. The playing of the acconlion, held by its ha»e by one hand under the table and
again, away from the table and l>ehind the chair was extraordinar}'. The playing was remarkably
good and sweet'. It playe<l in Sergeant Cox's hands, but not in mine, although it shoved itself,
or was shoved under the tablp, into them. There were other things nearly as extraordinary.
What surpri.ses me, is the j)erfect apparent openness of Miss F. and Home. They let you do
whatever you like, within certain rea.sonable limits, their limits not interfering with ade(|uate
investigation. I rejilly Itelieve the truth of what they allege, that people who come us men of
science are usually so disagrtt^able, opinionated and obstructive and have so little patience, that
the seances rarely suceee<l with them. It is curious to observe the entire absence of excitement
or tension alx)Ut people at a seance. Familiarity has bred contempt of the strange tilings
witnessed, and the people find it as pleasant a way of passing an idle evening, by sitting round
a table and wondering what will turn up, as in any other way. Crooke-s, I am sure, so far as
it is just for me to give an opinion, is thoroughly scientific in his proceclure. I am convinced,
the atTair is no matter of vulgar legerdemain and Ijelieve it well worth going into, on the
understanding that afirtt rate medium (and I bear there are only 3 such) puts himself at your
disposal.

Now considering that the evenings involve no strain, but are a repont;, like the smallest of occa-
sional gossip; considering that there is much possibility of the aiTair l)eing in many strange
respects true; considering that Home will, Iwna fide, put himself at our disposal for a suliicient
time (I assume this from Crookes' letUfr and IxOieve it, l>ecause it would Ije bad for Home's
reputation, if after offering he drew back; but of course this must be made clear); considering,

(Griffin and Minchen, Li/e of liohert Brovnituj, p. 203, 1910) only did so publicly in this
poem, which .so strangely echoes Galtou's account of the seances.

' This last paragraph refers to an entry in the pedigree of the nose-stroking family.
' So Browning again :

"All was not cheating, sir, I'm positive

I don't know if I move your hand sometimes

When the spontaneous writing sprejids so far.

If my knee lifts the table all that height,

Why the inkstand don't fall off the desk a-tilt,

Why the a<;conlion plays a prettier waltz

Than I can pick out on the piano- forte,

Why I speak so much more than I intend

De«cril)e so many things I never saw.

I tell you, sir, in one sense I believe

Nothing at all, — that everybody can.

Will, and does cheat; but in another sense

I'm ready to Iwlieve my very self —

That every cheat's in8]>irod, and every lie

Quick with a germ of truth."

Mr Sludg*, "The Medium," loe. eil. p. 236.

I

Tra unit ion Stiulies 66

all theM thingH, will you no in for it, and allow me to join I Homa is • rMitlaM iB*n, an
Is hiR iDovementH, and could l>e induced to go to and fro. I am iturc I could — if I ooaid

ire a dozen Kemiccn, at which only our two mlvea and Home were together. (Others wight
be in tho room, if you likod, but, I would say, not present within reach.)

It is impossihlp, I soe, to prearranKo exfjerirnenta. One must take what c<(n«"t, and H<»ize
upon momentary mnanR of checking niHults. Honui enconrmjeH going undor the tahle and peering
evprywhcrt' (I did so and held hi.s feet while the table moved), ho I am sure you ne*-*! not feel
like a spoctiitor in the boxo.s while a conjuror is performing on the stage. He and Mi"-* F. jimt
want civil treatment and a show of inUirest. Of course, while one is civil an' :, it is

jierfectly easy to Ixs wary. Pray tell me what you think of tlie proposal in i i''tt<?r.

Very sincerely yours, F. Oaltox.

42 Uutlunci Oiitf, ,S.U . May Jtl, '~r>.

My dkak Darwin I feel perfectly ashamed to apply again to you in my recurring rabbit
diU'ioulty', which is this: I have (after some kwses) got .3 does and a buck of the stock you so
kindly took charge of oroes-circulated, and so have means of protracting the experiments to
another generation of bi-eeding from them and seeing if their young show any signs of nion-
grelism. They do not thrive over well in Ijondon, also we could not keep them during summer
at our house, because the servants in charge when we leave could not be troubletl with them.
Is it pos.sible that any of your men could take charge of them and let them breed, seeing
if the young show any colour, then killing the litter and breeding afresh, 2 or 3 times overl
I would most gladly pay even a large sum — many times the cost of their maintenance — to any
man who would really attend to them. Can you help me?

As n>gards spiritualism nothing new that I have seen since I wrote, for Home and Miss F.
have b«>en both ab.sent. I wrote a letter of overtures to Home when I enclose<i yours, but got
no reply. 1 have kept up communication with Crookes, and am witisfied that he has the inves-
tigation thoroughl}' in hand, and delays publication on grounds of desiring a little more com-
[pleteness of data. He is a most industrious taker of notes.

How \ery kind your letter was about Home. It grieved me much that you had to speak
in such terms about your health. Ever sincerely yours, Francis Galton.

Three days later, to a letter arranging to lunch at Down, Galton adds the
postscript: "The s|)iritualists have given me up, I fear. I can't get another
invite to a stance." Darwin evidently wrote about this time to Galton
lasking the latter to introduce a friend to the spiritualistic fraternity, for on
June 7, 1872. Galton writes from Rutland Gate:

My dear Darwin I did not reply yesterday about the Spiritualists as I expected that
day and this to have heard from Mr Home, and CJrookes is out of Town. It will give me great
pleasure to do what I can for X.Y. but I rather doubt whether I shall have power to do much.
I can't mj'self get to the.se seances as often as I like — indeed I have had no opportunity for a
long time past. The fact is, that first class mediums are very few in number and are always
acting. Also that Cixwkes and others are working their very best at the subject and entertain
a full belief that they will he able to esUblish something in)portant and la.stly what, I see,
is a real difficulty with them, tho introduction of a stranger always disturlw the seances. I say
all this to excuse me in your eyes, if I don't fulfil your wishes us you would like; but I will do
my best and write — -whenever I have anything to say to X.Y. as you propose.

The per.son most likely to help would, I think, be Lord L.

I wonder if I have oftended Home by my last letter to him — he has never replied and I hear
incidentally there is to be an important seance this very night! Alas for me! Ever yours
sincerely, Francis Galton.

The last letter to Darwin concerning Home was in November of 1872.
In the concluding paragraph of a further communication regarding the nose-
stroking family Galton writes :

' This refers to a continuation of the 'Pangenesis experiments after the publication of th«
memoir of \)<~\ to tx' discussed later.

r o II *

66 Lift- and Letters of FraitcM Galton

"Crookea wrote to me that Home's preMnoe was very important, for the experiments w«re
tmr mora sucoe— ful whi-n he wan the nKxltuin, than when anyone else was, and he is now in
Russia and will not return until May. So I will wait."

One almost imagines that Home fled' before the courteous manner but
scrutinising eye of Galton! Our truthseeker did not immediately give up
the pui-suit of the hyper-phenomenal. In February of tlie following year
(1873) there is a letter to Huggins ulMUit the psychology of tht' hitter's dog
' Kepler',' and it ends with a few remarks on a suggestion of Huggins' that a
meduini who untied himself in a room — presumaoly through spirit assists
ance — should be wat«lied througii an aperture. Galton fears the room would
be too dark, but says that he will suggest to Crookes that previous experi-
ment be made to see if it is.

Certain letters given in Francis Darwin's Life of Charles Darwin, Vol. ill,
p. 187, probably indicate the end of Darwin's and Galton 's inquiries into
spiritualism.

"Spiritualism was making a givat stir at this tinu'. During a visit U) Krji-snius Darwin's in
January 1874, a seance wa.s arrangwl with Mr X., a paid medium, to conduct it. We were a
largish party sitting round a diniiig-table, including .Mr and Mrs (5. H. lyewe^ (George Eliot).
Mr Lewes, I remember, wa.s trouble.MJine and inclined to make jokes and not play the game
fairly and sit in the dark in silence. The usual manifestations occurred, s^>arks, wind blowing,
and some i-appings and movings of furniture. Spiritualism made but little effect on my mother's
mind [Mrs Charles Darwin] and she maintained an attitude of neither belief nor unbelief."
A Century of FaviUy Letters, 1904, Vol. ii, p. 269.

Darwin himself wrote [Jan. 18, 1874] about this sdance :

"We had great fun, one afternoon, for George hired a medium, who made the chairs, a flute,
a bell, and candlestick, and fierv points jump alxiut in my brother's dining-room, in a manner
that astoundtxi everyone, and took away all their breaths. It was in the dark, but (ioorge and
Hen.sleigh We<lgwo<xl held the medium's hands and feet on both sides all the time. I found it
so hot and tiring that I went away bi'fore all these astounding miracles, or jugglery, took place.
How the man could possibly do what was done pa.s.ses my understanding. I came downstairs
and saw all the chairs, etc., on the table, which had been lifted" over the howls of those sitting

' As Browning puts it :

"Whati If I told you all about the tricks?

Upon my soul — the whole truth and nought else.

And how there's been some falsehood — for your part.

Will you engage to pay my passage out,

And hold your tongue until I'm safe on Ixjanl?

Begin elsewhere anew!

Boston's a hole, the herring-|)ond is wide,

V-notes are something, liberty still more.

Beside, is he the only fool in the world?"
Mr Sludge, "The Medium,'' lor. cit. pp. 184, 245. Browning's contact with Home appears
to have been in 1857 or \iSM. Sutherland Orr, Life ntid Letter* of Ii. /imimini/, p. 216, 1891.
/>r(ima/ur/)«r«o»n4; containing Mr .Sludge, "The. Medium" (\ates from l><(i4. The Galton-Darwin
lett<T8 from 1H72. Did Gallon chance to read Bn>wning? Home's habit of slipping across the
'herring-pond' when the environment was growing dilHcult for him seems to have been
characteristic.

' 'Kepler' was one of a family of dogs that feared a butcher's shop and were furious at
butchers. Galton writes " What you say alwut dogs' reasoning reminds me of a phrase used by
the master of some performing dogs: 'Dogs, sir, do a deal of ponderiny'." See Nature, Vol.
VII, p. 281, 1873.

TLATK IX

I'liiiiris fiiilton, a<;c<l 4l', from |iliotii;;i;i|ilis of 18(i4.
Co-editor with HcrlK'rt Spi'iiccr anil Xoiniaii Lockyt-r of The Reader.

Traimtion StiuUes 67

round it. The Lord have mercy on ua &1I, if we have to believe in such rubbish. F. Oalton was

there, nnd says it waa ii good stance.

Sut'h iu< it wtw it lixl to a second Hniallor ami more carefully organiMd one with Huxley
present, who reported to Darwin."

That report is printed in Huxley's Life and Letters, Vol. ll, pp. 144-9.
His conclusion was that the medium was "a cheat and an impostor." It
prmluced the followiii<f letter from Darwin :

Down, Jnniutry 29 [1874J
Mv DKAR Hu.xi.KV. — Tt wa.s very gcHnl r)f you to writ<' .so long an account. Thougli the
itenco (lid tins you 80 much it was, I think, really worth tin- exertion, an the same nort of tliingx

are done at all the seances, even at 's; and now to niy mind an enonnoUH weight of

evidence would Ix? requisite to make one believe in anything beyond mere trickery....! am
pleased to think that I declared to all my family, the day l)eforo yesterday, that the more I
thought of all that I had heard happenetl at Queen Anne 8t, the more convince<l I was it waa
all imposture.... My theory was that [the medium] manag^l to get the two men on each aide of
him to hold e^ich other's hands instead of his, and that he was thus free to perform his antics.
I am very gliul that I is.<>ued my ukase to you to attend.

Yours affectionately, Ciiarlks D.arwik.

Probably Galton also saw Huxley's report and concurred in his judgment.
At any rate he very soon became a despiser of ' spiritualistic ' seances.

Such are the last traces I can find of Galton's investigations into
spiritualism. Some thirty-Hve years later Galton knew that the present
writer had been invited to attend a seance by one who had sought aid from
spiritualism in what formed for different reasons a crisis in the lives of all
tnree. From his few written words on that occasion I know that Galton
must long and definitely have been convinced of the futility of any light
reaching human affairs from that strange medley of self-deception, chicanery
and credulity which passes under the name of spiritualism. But I have no
clue to the events or mental processes by which his attitude passed from the
stage of agnosticism to that of complete rejection.

1 have already indicated elsewhere that Galton was young till liis death.
Even between forty and fifty he was a boy who must try his powers on all
things that came his way; it is true that he had had for some years experience
of editing the Royal Geographical Society's .7o"rn'</, but in 1865, amid all his
other projects and work, Galton took upon his shouldei-s a very considerable
share of the editorialdutiesof a weekly journal — The Header. Galton himself
says it was an aniu.sing experience, and indicates that the loss of the guaran-
teed .£100 was more than compensated by the gain of an unexpected view
of the seamy side of journalistic enterprise'. The attempt was a brave one,
and one of the committee of three, Spencer, Galton and Lockyer, which was
appointed to make the preliminary arrangements, very shortly after made a
marked success with a .somewhat similar journal — Nature.

The Reader \\a.6.\>een establi-shed in January 1863 as a journal of Litera-
ture, Science and Art, and when purchased towards the end of 1864, the
programme of its future aims was propounded as follows :

"The very inadequate manner in which the progress of Science and the labour and opinions

' Afemories, pp. 167-8.

9—i

tJ8 TAfi' and Ltttera of Francis Galtott

of our M-'ifutilic luen liavc been n-oorded in the weekly press, and ihc want of a weekly organ
which would afford soicntitic nii-n n. nutans of rotnmunication between themselves and with the
public, have been lonj{ felt."

The aim of The Readier, without neglecting Literature, Art, Music and
the I>rama, was to supply this need. The pros|)ectu8 then goes on to say
that "the scientitic arnmgenients of Tfw Ifendcr \ui\e the siij)j)ort and ap-
proval of" — and then follow 75 names, which cover practically all the men
who created mid- Victorian science: Darwin, Galton, Grove, Hooker, Huxley,
Lubbock, Lyell, Murchison, Sabine, Sjwttiswoode, Tyiidall and Wallace;
Adams, Balfour Stewart, Cayley, Crookes, Ue la Hue, Frankland, Glaisher,
Hind, Hirst, Hofmann, Maskelyne, Odling, Roscoe, Stokes, Tait, William
Thomson (Lord Kelvin) and Williamson ; Babington, G. Bentham, G. Busk,
John Evans, W. H. Flower, Andrew llamsay, Sclater, Sharpey and Woodward,
with many other names familiar enough to the scientific world of the third
quarter of the nineteenth century. 1 1 was a tremendous force to bring together,
and, all l)ecause there was no one man who would devote his whole life and
whole energy to the projected task, T/ie Header came to nought.

The original shareholders in the company were G. Burges, J. E. Cairns,
Rev. LI. Davies, Galton, Gassiot, Huth, T. Hughes, Huxley, Lubbock,
Lockyer, Robins, Roget, Spottiswoode, Spencer and Tyndall !

The first meeting was held in the looms of Tom Hughes' in Lincoln's Inn
Fields on Nov. 15, 1864, and the rough notes of the proceedings are in
Gralton's handwriting. £2250 were to be paid for the paper, plant and lease.
Cairns was to take charge of the Political Ex;onomy, Galton of Travel and
Ethnology, Huxley of Biology, Lewes of Fiction and Poetry, Spencer and
Bowen of Philosophy, Psychology and Theology, while Seeley was to be asked
to take charge of Classics and Philology. There were to be ten pages of Lite-
rature, three of Miscellanea, eight of Science, two of Art, and two of Music
and the Drama. Four thousand copies were to be printed at a weekly cost of
£110 including printing, paper, publication and office expenses. The returns
were modestly estimated at sales 2000 copies ,£25 and advertisements £65,
80 that an initial loss weekly of £20 was anticipated. It made a brave show
on paper — Tom Hughes' familiar legal blue 'opinion' paper — but the outcome
was a little different. Herbert Spencer wasted the time of the committee in
discussing 'first principles'; the powerful scientific support failed when it was
pressed for reviews and articles, the paid sub-editor, the only man with ' real
journalistic experience,' rather got on the nerves of the managing committee
through his methods of procuring advertisements. Learned but illegible con-
tributors sternly remonstrated with the editors about the inadequate and
imaginative efforts of the proof-readers. The reviewere knew in some cases more
of the subject than the authors of the books reviewed, and as a consequence the
latter wrote long and angry letters to TTie Header. Notably Burton, within a
few months of Speke's death, replying to a review of his own Nile Basin, pre-
sumably by Galton, sent a truculent letter carrying on j)ost-nioi'tevi hosiWitiea.
The critic, Burton tells us, ought to have known that his theory was one of the

' The author of Tom Broum't Schooldays.

Transit ion Stiulien flO

st iifliculi)iis ever |)ut forth by man and was cobblftl uji in tlieraap-ruom oi
the Koviil (Jeogruphical Society. It would have it« merit in the eyes of those
who collect "romantic geography." A friend of Sjxjke might wonder whether
publication or non-])nblicati()n wjik the wiser courKe. I'ooriJalton, endeavouring
to still the tight and i)e fair to hol/i men, had indeed his Seylla and ( 'harylKlis
to steer between ! The trials of an editor are manifold, but the trials of an
editorial committee must be computed by multiplication not by division.
The ship had too many first rank conunodores aljoard, and no one whose
livelihood depended on a successful voysige. It is small wonder that it never
reache<l port. J'eri'dt Lector, Natura rctitn/nt'.

Many yeai"8 later Galton was again an editor. In 1901 he consented to
be "Consulting Editor" of Hiometrika, a post, I think, he appreciated' though
t]»e acting e(htors did not trouble him much. The 'j»ink sheets' with resumes
of tlie conclusions reached in the papers of each part, which were features of
the earlier volumes, were undertaken at his suggestion'.

The contents of this chapter will probably lead the reader to think we
must have exhausted Galton's activities and labours during the twenty yeare
that followed his marriage; on the contrary we have hardly considered a
moiety of them, and those which remain to be discussed are of the greater
importance.

' The Reader expired in 1866 ; Nature with an almost identical science programme appeared
in November 1869, with Nonnan Ijockyer as sole editor. But the introduction was l>y Huxley
("half a century hence curious readers will prohalily look at our best, not witho\it a smile" i, and
Galton, Wallace, Darwin, G. H. Lewe.s, Sir William Thomson, Tylor, lialfour Stewart, Roscoe,
etc., all the crew of the old Reader manned the new vessel and helped to steer its course into
smooth waters.

■•' He inserts it as an it«'m in his list of memoirs {Memories, p. 330), and included it in a
privately printed list of "Biographical Events."

' Galton's journalistic suggestions were often of surprising originality when they were made,
but will now seem commonplaces. Thus his idea of weather charts in the daily press, unthought
of when he made it (1868); the idea that foreign and colonial books especially were not, but
ought to be, adequately noticed in the English press; that new maps ought to be reviewed
and criticisotl; that as to "Blue Books, no notices of them were published except in a list at
the beginning and end of the session or very rarely at other times although 50 volumes ap-
peared a year, but they ought to be continually reviewed"; that a list of uew publications
ought to be i.ssued weekly under a suitable classification (1864, I cite from Galton's suggestions
for The Reader) ; these ideas were practically novelties when Galton propounded them. Like
forks and brooms they are such commonplaces of our traditional culture to-day, that not one
person in a hundi-ed feels any gratitude to the unknown originator.

CHAPTER IX

EARLY ANTHROPOLOGICAL RESEARCHES

A. THE PASSAGE FROM GEOGRAPHY TO ANTHROPOLOGY
AND RACE-IMPROVEMENT

"Alwut the time of the appearance of Darwin's Origin of Species I had begun to interest
myself in the Human side of Geograpl)}-, and was in a way prepai-ed to appreciate his view.
I am sure I assimilated it with far more re^iness than most people, absorl)ing it almost at
once, and my afterthoughts were permanently tinged by it. Some ideas I had alx>ut Human
Heredity were si't fermenting and I wrote Hereditary Genius. In working this out I forced
myself to liecome faiiiiliiir witli the higher branches of Statistics, and, conscious of the power
they gave in dealing with populations as a whole, I availed myself of them largely."

Manuscript Note of Francis Galton in the hand-
writing of Mrs Galton found among his papers.

I HAVE indicated in the preceding chapter how Galton's interests were
turning from man's environment to man himself — not only to his physical but
to his psychical characters. One of the most conspicuously interesting facts
in Galton's development is that in 1865 he had readied, we might almost say
had planned out, the main conception of his work on Man. It is not possible
to say from the dates of issue which of Galton's anthropological papers of
this year, namely "The first steps towards the Domestication of Animals"'
or "Hereditary Talent and Character"', was the earlier, because the date
of publication is not necessarily that of writing the paper. Mrs Galton's
'Record,' however, show^s that both papers antedate 1865 :

1863. Retume<l by the Riviera road [from Switzerland] and home in November. Frank
appointed Secretary to the British Association. Wrote paper on Domestication. Visited the.
Norths, etc.

1864. Very cold beginning of year. Went to Leamington at Easter [to visit Galton's
mother]. ... Emma and Milly to us in May. Went abroad in July to Switzerland, Peiden,
Grindelwald, St Luc. Returned for British Association at Bath. I at Julian Hill meanwhile
[Mrs Galton's mother's house]. Visited Hadzor [home of the Howai-d Gallons] and Leamington.
...Went to the Norths in December. Frank writing Heretlitary Talent.... Frank busy editing
Murray's Handbook. Christmas at home and alone."

The " Domestication " paper is chiefly of value as showing the transition
of Galton's thoughts. Examining the accounts travellers give of savage
races and his own experiences, Galton propounds the view that wild animals
were tamed as pets or even kept for religious purposes' before they were

' Transactions of the Ethnological Society of London, Vol. Ml, pp. 122-38, 1865. I have no
record of when it waa read.

' Macmillan's Magazine, Ist Paper, June 1865, 2nd Paper, August 1865, Vol. .xii,
pp. 157-66, 318-27.

• Several of the ca8<!8 ciU-d by Galton, e.g. that of the kites from Shark's Bay, Australia,
and the serpenU at Whydah in Africa, suggest that totemisui even might be the ultimate
source of domestication.

I'

■

Earlij Aiif/iropoloffiral Rt'ttearvhcH 71

domesticated for food or transport. He cites many — but relatively few out
of the statements he had collected — of natives keeping animals as p<^t8 and
even of native women feeding the young of wild animals from their own
breasts, AuHtralian women pup{)ii'H, presumably young dingoes, New Guinea
women young pigs, and Indian women of North America bejir cuba Galton
considers that the value of domestication as a source of food was only found
out incidentally as a result of taming animals for pets'.

"Have," ho writes, "extrivortlinary geniu.sos arisen who wvendly taught their eontcniporarifw
to tamo and doinesticato the dog, the ox, the sheep, the hog, the fowl, the llama, the reindeer
and the rcHt) Or again: Is it posflihlo that the ordinary haliit^i of rude races, comhinod with
the ({ualitioH of the animals in (juestion, have Mutficed to originate every inxtance of extahlikhed
domestication? The conclusion to which I have arrive<l is entirely in favour of the last
hypothesis."

Because all savages maintain pet animals, because many tribes have
sacred ones, and because kings of ancient states had imparteit animals on
a vast scale from their Imrbanan neighbours, Galton holds that every animal
of any j^retension has been hekl in captivity over and over again and lijid
numerous chances of becoming domesticated. We have no more doujestiaited
animals than exist, because there are no others suited for domestication.
Suitability for domestication depends upon an animal (i) being hardy,
(ii) having an inborn likhig for man, (iii) being comfort-loving, (iv) being
useful to man, (v) breeding freely in captivity, (vi) being gregarious in its
nature. These conditions Galton illustrates and states the exceptions. He
gives due {)lace to continual selection after domestication.

"To conclude. I see no reason to suppose that the first domestication of any animal, except
the elephant, implies a high civilisation among the people who established it. I cannot liolieve
it to have lH«n the result of a preconceived intt-ntion, followed hy elalx)riito trials, to administer
to the comfort of man. Neither can I think it arose from one successful effort made by an
individual, who might therefore justly claim the title of Ixjnefactor to his race; but on the
contrary, that a vast number of half-unconsoious attempts have be<!n made throughout the
course of nges, and that ultimately, by slow degrees, after many i-elapses, and continue*! st-lection,
our several domestic breeds l)ecame firmly established." (p. 138.)

We know much more of the history of man now than was known in 1 863.
We realise the long history of man, and how he knew the elephant, the
reindeer and the horse as sources of food long before he tamed them. It is,
indeed, doubtful whether palaeolithic man ever domesticated any form of
animal. His art shows no trace of tiie pet, and there is only one and that a
very doubtful case of a possible bridle — the horse is merely 'game,' as the
reindeer or earlier the mammoth.

' There was probably some correspondence between (ralton and Darwin as to savages' pets
I am unable to date the following letter, but it prolwibly belonged to this period.

|)ows, Rromi.ky, Kent, July 1th.
Mv DEAU Galton, I return the enclosed signed with great pleasure. Many thanks for
information alwut Ur Earth's work, which L will rejul. I continue much interestfd aljout all
domestic animals of all savage nations, though I shall not take up cattle in detail. If on
reading I shall have anything to ask I will accept your kind offer and ask. Anything about
savages taking any the le^vst pains in breetling or crossing their domestic animals is of par-
ticular interest to me. With kind remembrances to Mrs Galton, Pray Iwlieve mc. Yours very
.sincerely, Ch. Darwin.

72 Life and Letters of Francis (w'alton

When we pass from the palaeolithic to the neolithic stage we are not,
unfortunatelv, able to trace the pet developing into the domesticated iinimal.
What tloes seem to loom throngli the mist of prehistory is a series of races
each with a more or leas completed culture breaking up an older culture, a
race which has domesticated cattle, a race which has domesticated horees, a
race living with dogs or with reindeer; they loom upon us from the unknown,
replacing less effective cultures. This does not exclude the domesticated
animal arising from the pet, but it does suggest that either environment or
religious belief led to pets of a certain type, and that only certain groups
had the inspiration to turn their pets to the service of the group. Galton
states that when he travelled in Damaraland the chiefs took pleasure in
their herds of cattle rather for their stateliness and colour tlian for their
beef — they were as the deer of an English squire.

"An Ox was almost a sacred beast in Damaraland, not to be killed except on momentous
ocoaaions, and then as a sort of sacrificial fwist, in which all V)ystander8 shared. The payment
of two oxen was hush money for the life of a man. I was considerably embarrassed by finding
that I ha<l the greatest troul)le in buying oxen for my own use, with the ordinary articles of
barter. The poesessors would hardly part with them for any remuneration ; they would never
sell their handsomest beasts." (p. 135.)

The possibility that the pet was a totem, or an animal of religious
character, might throw light on the association of special domestic animals
with definite races and their cultures.

A paper which may be considered in relation to that on "Domestication"
may be fitly referred to here, as it also arose from Galton's travel-experience.
It is entitled : " Gregariousness in Cattle and in Men." It was published in
Macmillans Magazine for 187-'. The theme of this article is a remarkable
one, namely that our remote ancestors lived in herds or packs and that this
gregarious or herd instinct is the source of many of nian's intellectual weak-
nesses in his advanced civilisation*. The same idea of the instinct of the
herd in man appears to have occurred to a number of writers recently, but
they do not seem to have known or at any rate do not acknowledge Galton's
priority of idea. The most interesting point of the article lies not only in
the fact that Galton here assumes that he ha« in the earlier memoirs, which
will shortly be discussed, proved the inheritance of the mental and moral
characters in man, but in the fact that he stands definitely on the Darwinian
platform and considers what heredity and selection have made of man. He
opens his paper with the following description of its aims :

"I propose, in these pages, to discuss a curious and apparently anomalous group of base
moral instincts and intellectual deficiencies, to trace their analogies in the world of brutes, and
to examine the conditions, through which they have lieen evolved. I speak of the slavish apti
tudes, from which the leaders of men, and the heroes and the prophets, are exempt, but which
are irrepressible elements in the disposition of average men. I refer to the natural tendency
of the vast majority of our race to shrink from the responsibility of standing and acting alone,
to their exaltation of the vox poptUi, even when they know it to be the utterance of a mob of
nobodies, into the vox Dei, to their willing servitude to tradition, authority and custom. Also,

' Vol. xxni, pp. 35.3-7.

' Gallon docs not say that it may also be the source of some of his higher altruistic
sympathies and social habits, but he had recognised this in his paper of 1865.

Karbj Aitthroixttoijiral ReMearrhrn 73

I refer to tlie intellectiml ilefit-iencieH corrtwpoiiding to ihenv. moral flawH, ihown by the i

with which men »r« endowed with the power of fruo and ori);iiml thoutfht, tv ~ •-->*! with

the abundance of their reHpective fm^ultieM and their aptitude for oultur)\ I hI< .our to

prove that tho HIavi^*h aptitudes, whosn expresmon in man I havi; fain'' ' •i.i..-'l.

are the direct con8e<nu'nce of liin grej^arious natum, which, IttM-lf, is a f ■ i. ■. i.

liarl)ariMin and of his Hulwetiuent forniH of civihsAtion. My arf(uiiii-iil v- .<ih

animals pos-sess a want of self-reliance in a iiiarkeii clej^rev, that tlie I'Oii' of

these animals have miule gregarious instincts a n(H,-es8ity to them, and th law of

natural selection, these instincts and their accomjuiiiying slavish aptitml' . iWy be-

come evolved. Then I shall argue, that our n-iuoto ani'cstors have live<l under parallel circum-
stances, and that we have inherited the gregarious instincts and slavish aptitudes which wcm
developed under those circumsUincos, although in our advanced civiliflation they are of more
harm than good to the race." (p. 353.)

Gnlton points out how in earlier lite he had <raiiied an intimate knowledge
of certain types of gregarious animals. First he had foinid the camel's need for
companionship a never e.xhausted topic of curiou.s admiration in his tedious
days of travel across North African deserts (see our Vol. i, pp. 1 99 -205V
Secondly and chiefly he had spent more than a year in close association witn
the semi-wild cattle of Damaraland. He had travelled an entire journey on
the back of one of them with others at his side either as wagon or pack
cattle for which nearly a hundred were broken in, or wholly unbroken and
serving the purpose of an itinerant larder. He had often spent the night
in their midst while tlie cries of prowling carnivora sounded around.

"These opportunities of studying the disposition of such peculiar cattle were not wasted
upon me. I had oidy too much leisure to think about them, and the habits of the animals
strongly attracted my curiosity. The Iwtter 1 understood them, the more complex and worthy
of study did their minds appear to me." (p. 354.)

Galton then gives us a very striking account of the psychology of the
herd.

One of the ditHculties in breaking in wild cattle is to obtain ' fore-oxen '
for the team ; these must be those who are of an exceptional disposition —
born pioneers and leaders.

"Men who break in wild cattle for harness watch assiduously for those who show a self-
reliant nature, by grazing apart or ahead of the rest, and these they bi-eak-in for fore-oxen. The
oth(>r cattle may lx> inditlerently devote<l to ordinary harness purposes, or to slaughtt-r; hut the
born leaders are far too rare to be used for any less distinguished service than that which they
alone are capable of fulfilling." (p. 354.)

Galton considers that the law of "deviation from an average" — aliout
which he had recently been writing (see our Chapter X) — would certainly
be applicable to independence of character in cattle. He found every degree
of it from the ox that could be ridden even at a trot apart from his fellows
down to the ox that exhibits every .sign of mental agony when segregated
from the herd. The herd, with its mutual defence, its 'fore-oxen' as material
for leaders, and its own leader, is the product of a country infested by large
carnivora. A crouching lion fears oxen who tiu-n Iwldly upon him, and does
so with reason. The ' fore-oxen,' who are self-reliant, tend to be destroye<l.

"Natui-al selection tends to give but one leader to a herd.... Looking at the matter in a
broad way we may justly assert that wild beasts trim and prune every heni into compactnuM,

run l^

74 Life and Letters of Francis iialton

and tend to reduce it into « closely united b<xly with a single wet I- protected leader. The do-
velopniput of in(lc|)endenc«* of character in cattle tH thus i*up|)n»J>.s«d far Ix'low its healthy
natural standard hy the inlluence of wild beasta, lui is shown by the greater display uf self-
reliance among cattle whose ancestry for some generations have not been exposed to such
danger." (p. 3.57.)

It would be impossible in a resume like this to cite all Galton's acute
observations on the cattle herds of Damaraland, but the paper is well worth
reading even to-day. He then jiroceeds to apply its lesson with certain
modifications to savage man, but he insists

"on a close resemblance in the particular circumstance that moat savages are so unamiable
and morose as to have hardly any object in ii.ssociating together besides that of mutual
support."

As in the case of cattle herds there is a definite size in a given environment
which is best suited to the human herd. A very large tribe is deficient in cen-
tralisiition or is straitened for food and falls to pieces; a small tribe is sure to
be overrun, slaughtered or driven into slavery. The law of natural selection

"must discourage every race of barbarians which supplies self-reliant individuals in such large
numbers as to cause their tribe to lose its blind de.sire of aggregation. It must equally dis-
courage a breed that is incomi>etent to supply such men, in a sufficiently abundant ratio to the
fMt of the population, to ensure the existence of trilies of not too large a size." (p. 357.)

Galton now proceeds to his ' moral' : All through primaeval times, the
steady influence of social condition summed up in the clan, the tribe, the
petty kingdom tended to exterminate a supei-fluity of self-reliant men.

"I hold that the blind instincts evolved under those long-con tinuetl conditions have
been deeply ingrained into our breed, and that they are a bar to our enjoying the freedom
which the forms of modern civilisation could otherwise give us. A really int<'lligent nation
might Ix; held together by far stronger forces than are derivetl from the purely gregarious
instincts. It would not l<e a mob of slaves, clinging together, incjipable of self-government,
and bi'gging to Ije le<l; but it would consist of vigorous, .self-reliant men, knit to one another
by innumerable attractions, into a strong, tense and elastic organisation. Our j)re8ent natural
dispositions make it simply impossible for us to attain this ideal standard, and therefore the
slavishness of the mass of men, in morals and intellect, must be an admitted fact in all schemes
of regenerative policy. The hereditary taint due to the ])rirnaeval barbarism of our race, and
maintained by later influences, will have to Ix; bred out of it Ixifore our descendants am rise to
the position of free members of a free and intelligent society; and I may add, that the most
likely nest, at the present time, for self-reliant natures, is to be found in the States founded
and maintained by emigrants." (p. 357.)

Wonderful, is it not, how Darwinism liad already gripped Galton? How
he thought in terms of heredity and natural selection and was ready to apply
them to the past history of man in order to explain its present and suggest
it« future ! The notion that it is nece.ssary for human j)rogre.ss to l)reed out
the men of slavi.sh morals and intelligence— tiie cssonti.-il foinuliition of
eugenics — is already a truth to him.

Democracy — moral and intellectual ])iogi-ess— is impcts-sildc wliilf man is
l)urdene<l with the heritage of his past history. It has bc^und mankind to a
few great leaders ; it has produced a mass of servile intelligences ; and oidy
mans insight — man breeding man as his domesticated animal — can free
mankind. This was Galton's view. Possibly the historian of man in the
dim future may grasp that man in the age of nations was as much a product

Earlt/ Anf/iropolof/iral lictu'arches 7i>

of natural selection as man in the age of tribes ; and that a nation wa« not
stable when it pro<liice(l too many self-reliant 'fore-oxen,' or, worse still,
when each ruininunt and stolid ox no longer oinaidered the common deter-
mination of the herd as binding on his conscience. If»' nii'/ht .v.., ,!t.. ,«
illustration the Ireland of the twentieth century 1

The world has seen numerous travellers, many men of nu-chanicui gt^niua,
and not a few students of nature who gnisped the ti volution of human
societies. Hut Cralton tiie Cambridi'e mathematician, Galt<^)n the ox-rider,

• • •

Ciidton of the wiive-machine, and (Jalton the eugenist, st^em at fii"st sight so
widely incongruous, and yet rightly estimated are necessary features of that
all-round individuality — observant, constructive, calculating, and enthusi-
astic— of Galton the anthropologist, using that term in its widest sense,
who by oiiginality of method, wide experience of men and ripe judgment
of atVairs inHuenced the development of many younger men in the last
quarter of the nineteenth century.

The paper just di.scussed was taken somewhat out of its proper order
because it springs so directly from Galton's travel-experience, and liecause it
indicates so clearly the growing tendencies of Galton's mind. But the reader
nuist rememln^r that Galton did not suddenly ru.sh to the conviction, that
from this time onward dominated his view of life, namely that the psychical
characters in man, and also in the lower animals, are hereditary. He had
been working on this subject for at least six or .seven years. The best evidence
of this is the paper written in 1864 on " Hereditary Talent and Character"
(see our p. 70). It is singular how this foundation stone of Galton's anthro-
pological work — the equal inheritance of the psychical and physical characters
— has been disregarded even by some of his professed fiillowers. As for the
psychologists by calling they at first left this fundamental problem to others,
and later, instead of observing and experimenting themselves, Wii-st^d energy
in futile criticisms. Few men are willintj to admit that their folly on the
one hapd is inbred, or that their talent \vluch has led to success is not a pro-
duct of their own free industry. Even men of quite rejisonable intelligence
daily confuse the possession of knowledge with mental endowment, and, as a
result of their confusion, assert that psychical characters are chiefly the result
of training. Another very common argument is of the following kind : A
dictionary of biography is appealed to and it is found that far more dis-
tinguished men are sons of mediocre parents than of distinguished parents.
It is then asserted that talent cannot Im; inlierited. The fallacy is fairly
flagi-ant, if examined, but is sufliciently plausible to be often reneated. Let
us suppose that one parent in a thousand is distinguished, ana, the rate of

reproduction being the same, one offspring in ten to distinguished parents
is distinguished, but only one oti'spring to the hundred in the case of non-
distinguished parents. Then in a community of 10 distinguished and 10,000

non-distinguished parents we shall have one distinguished individual l)orn of
distinguished parents and 100 distinguished individuals born of mediocrity.
The fallacy consists in emphasising the 100 against the unit, and over-
looking the fact that the distinguished parent produces distinction at ten

10— s

76 Life ami Letters of Ft'dnris (TaJtoii

times the rati' of the iiiediocre parent. (Jaltoii is very careJ'ul in this paper
to compare rates and not totals, and he realises that if we could increase the
fertility of the uhle and dieck that of mediocrity, we shonld effectually alter
the intellectual standard of our race. It is difficult lor the mind with even
a small modicum of statistical intelligence to appreciate how Galton's thesis
could possibly l)e upset by showing that a larger total of tiilented men
were born from mediocre than from able parents; that is only to proclaim Ihe
enormous prevalence of mediocrity I

"The power of man over animal life, in producing whatever varieties of form he pleases, is
enormously great. It would seem as though the physical structure of future generations was
almost as plastic as clay, under the control of the breeder's will. It is my desire to show, more
pointedly than— s<i far as I am aware — has been attempted before, that mental qualities are
equiilly undi-r control.

A remarkable mis-apprehension appears to be current as to the fact of the transmission of
talent by inheritance. It is commonly a-sserted that the children of eminent men art^ stupid;
that, where great power of intellect seems to have been inherited, it has descended through the
mother's side; and that one son commonly runs away with the tjilent of a whole family. My
own inquiries have led me to diametrically opposite conclusions. I find that talent is trans-
mitted by inheritance in a very remarkable degree; that the mother has by no means the
monopoly of its transmission ; and that whole families of persons of talent are more common
than those in which one member only is possessed of it. I justify my conclusions by the
statistics I now proceed to adduce, which I believe are amply sufficient to command conviction.
They arc only a part of much material I have collected, for a future volume on this subject';
all of which points in the same direction.'' (p. 157.)

Galton writing in 1864 points out that while we are perfectly certain of
the inheritance of qualities in the brute world and breeders have learnt
many empirical rules by experience, we have not advanced even to this
limited extent in the case of man. It appears to have been nobody's business
to study heredity in man, and the facts that oidy two generations are likely
to be born in the lifetime of any observer, and that each individual nirely
marries more than once, render the study harder in man than in the animals.
Still nobody hius doubted that the physical characters of man are equally
transmissible with those of brutes. Galton then notes that as far as he is
aware no one has bred animals for intelligence, but only for qualities which
are useful to man. He suggests that instead of breeding dogs for special
aptitudes and points we should try breeding them for intelligence :

"It would be a most interesting occupation for a country philosopher to pick up the cleverest
dogs he could lie»ir of, and mute them together, generation after generation — breeding purely
for intellectual power, and disregarding shape, size and every other quality." (p. 158.)

The reader would have to remember that the wise dog would not always
be most sympathetic to man; he might be a dexterous thief, a sad hypocrite
or show marked contempt for humanity. As no one has bred for intelligence
in animals, so no one has considered the possibility of breeding for intelli-
gence in man. Galton's aim is to show that it is feasible because talent and
character are inherited. His method is precisely that of his first great lx)ok
Hereditary Genius (1809), only therein it is more fully developed. He esti-
mates that of the men who receive a fair education about 1 in 3000 reach

' Uf-redilary Genhis, 1869.

Knvhj AnthropohKjiral lirnettrclw* 11

diHtinction; it would not Imve affected the validity of his argument had he
taken I in 1000. He then takes from biof^raphical dictionaries and other
Hourcea tlii! number of distiiij^iiislidd men whoiuvve luul distini^uiHlu'd fiitherH,
sons or other rehitiveH, and .shows that they have far more diNtinguished
sons than could possibly be anticipated in a like numlx^r of the general
population. For example, taking .'^1)1 painters from Bryan's Dictionary tiiere
are X\ cases of sons who have renown iis artists. Now supposing eiich {>ainter
had on an average 3 sons, we have 33 distinguished in a group of 1 173, or
about 1 in 36. Galton's statistics show something of this order — when al-
lowance is made for size of family — for the frequency of distinction of all
kinds in the sons of a population of fathers of distinction. But in the general
population of tiie educated ' distinction is only of the order 1 in 3000 — or
1 in 1000 if the rejider prefer. This rough method — ample enough for its
purpose — was (lalton's first application of statistics to the problem of heredity.
It is the way he convinced himself that the mental characters in man were
transmissible. But Galton was not content with merely reaching a truth.
His next step was to consider what its relation to race betterment might be,
and then — in 1864 — we suddenly find the whole doctrine of eugenics as the
salvation of mankind developed half-a-century too early!

" A.s we cniiiiot duubt tluit tlic traiismLssion of talent is as much through the side uf the
mother as through that of the father, liow vastly would the offspring be improved, suppoaing
distinguished women to be commonly married to distinguished men, generation after generation,
their ijualities being in harmony and not in contrast, according to rules, of which we are now
ignorant, but which a study of the subject would be sure to evolve!" (p. 163.)

Galton next meets the "great and common mistake" of supposing that
high intellectual powers are generally associated with puny frames and small
physical strength. He says that men of remarkable eminence are almost
always men of vast powers of work. He notes how even sedentary workers
astonish their friends when on vacation rambles, and how frecjuently men of
literary and scientific distinction have been the strongest and most daring of
alpine climbers.

"Most notabilities have been great witei-s and excellent digesters, on literally the same
principle tiiat tiie furnace that can raise more steam than is usual for one of ita size must bum
more freely and well than is common. Most great men are vigorous animals, with exuberant
powers and an extreme devotion t<i a cause. There is no reason to suppo.se that in breeding for
the highest order of intelligence, we should pro<iuce a sterile or a feeble race." (p. 164.)

Galton condemns the civilisation of the Middle Ages that enrolled so
many youths of genius in the ranks of a celibate clergy ; and he condenms
the costly tone of society to-day which also forces genius to be celibate during
the best period of manhood. He finds that very great men are not averse to
the other sex, for many have been noted for their illicit intercourses, and
in this respect he especially blames great lawyers. But science does not
esca})e his censure; he takes the commoners who have Ijeen Presidents of
the British Association as a fair list of leutlers in science of the present day,

' Galton limits his field because nf tli" hiin.li.-ap on the iinmlueftUvl. however talent«l they
may lie.

78 Life and Letters of FrancU Gallon

and finds that only one-third of them have been married and had children.
After drawing attention to the ages which thought it quite natural that the
strongest lance should win the tairest lady in tlie tournament, Galton con-
cludes the first part of his lecture half humorously, half earnestly as follows:

"I^t us, then, give reins to our fancy and imagine a Utopia -or a Laputa if you will — iu
which a syst^em of ooinpetitive examination for girls, as well as for youths, had In-en so developed
M U) emhrace every im|>ortant quiility of mind and Ixxly, and where a fon.siderable sum was
yearly allotteil to the endowment of such marriages a« promised to yield cliiUln'n who would
grow into eminent servants of the State. We may picture to ours«'lves an annual ceremony in
that Utopia or I^puta, in which the Senior Trusti'e of the Endowment Fund would address ton
deeplylilushing young men, all twenty-five years old, in the following t<'rms : 'Gentlemen, I have
to announce the results of a public examination, conducted on established principles; which
show that you occupy the foremost places in your year, in resj)ect to those qualities of talent,
character, and bodily vigour, which are proved, on the whole, to do most honour and best service
to our race. An examination has also been conduct«d on established principl(>s among all the
young ladice of this country who are now of the age of twenty-one, and I need hardly remind
you, that this examination t«ke8 note of grace, beauty, health, g<xxl temper, accomplishtkl house-
wifery and disengage*! aflfections, in addition to noble qualities of heart and brain. By a careful
investigation of the marks you have .severally obtained, and a con\parison of them, always on
establishtvl principle.s, with those obtiune<l by the most distingui.shed among the young ladies,
we have l>een able to st^lect ten of their names with special reference to your individual qualities.
It ap{>ears that marriages between you and these ten ladies, according to the list I hold in my
hand, would offer the prol)ability of unusual happiness to yourwlves, and what is of paramount
interest to the State, would prolwibly result in an extraordinarily talented issue. Under these
circumstances if any or all of these marriages shoidd be agreed upon the Sovereign herself will
give away the brides, at a high and solemn festival six months hence in Westminster Abbey.
We on our part are prepare<l, in each case, to assign 5,000L as a wedding present, and to defray
the cost of maintaining and educating your children, out of the ample funds entrusted to our
disfmBal by the State.'

If a twentieth part of the cost and pains were spent in measures for the improvement of the
human race that are sj>ent in the improvement of the breed of horses and cattle, what a galaxy
of genius might we not createl We might intixxluce prophets and high priests of civilisation
into the world, as surely as we can propagate idiots by mating crelitm. Men and women of the
present day are, to those w-e might ho]>e to bring into existence, what the pariah dogs of the
streets of an Eastern town are to our own highly-bred varieties.

Tlie feeble nations of the world are necessarily g[iving way before the nobler varieties of
mankind; and even the l>cst of these, so far as we know them, seem unequal to their work.
The average culture of mankind is become so much higher than it was, and the branches of
knowledge and history so various and extended, that few are capable even of comprehending
the exigencies of our modern civilisation; much less of fulfilling them. We are living in a sort
of intellectual anarchy, for the want of master-minds. The general intellectual caj)acity of our
leaders requires to be rai8e<l, and also to be differentiated. We want abler commanders, 8tat«s-
men, thinkers, inventors, and artists. The natural qualiKcations of our race are no greater than
they used to be in semi-barliai-ous times, though the conditions amid which we are born are
vastly more complex than of old. The foremost minds of the present day seem to stagger and
halt under an intellectual load too heavy for their powers." (pp. 165-6.)

Here was Galton fifty years ago calling out for the 'superman,' much as
the younger men of to-day are doing. But he differed from them in that he
saw a reasoned way of producing the superman, while they do not seem to
get further than devoutly hoping that either by a lucky 'sport' or an
adequate exercise of will power he will one day appear!

One point — possibly the tragedy of his own life — Galton overlooked :
you may l^e a man of wide intelligence, of a gifted stock with fertile parents,

I

Karhj Anllin>i>otoyirnl RrHairchtu 79

you may marry a woman of gifte<l stock and fertile parents also. an«l yi-X
nave no need to ask the 'Senior Trustee of the Kndowment Fund' to main-
tain and educate children, if they are denied you. There are not oidy the
phyaical and mental, hut the physioloj^ical harmonieH to l>o coimidcred and
of thesti the 'Senior Trustee' does not i^ive us a hint. In later years Cialtnn
inoditied his views; he would, I think, have heen content to grade physicallv
and mentally mankind, and have ur^ed that marriatje within your own grade
was a religious duty for those of high grade or cjuste.

In the second part of his paper (ialton adils a number of interesting con-
siderations and meets j)rohahle criticisms. Thus he starts with the statement
that out of a hundred sons of men highly distinguished in the open profes-
sions eight are found to have rivalled tlunr fathers in eminence'. But (ialton
considers that the mother has in most of these causes heen selected 'at hap-
hazard.' He Joints out that, where even both parents are of eminence, it
would ho absurd to expect their children to be on the average eoual to them
in natural endowment, because beyond the parents they would necessarily
have nuich 'mongrel' ancestry.

" No one, I think," lie writes, "can doubt, from the facts and analogies 1 have hruught forwartl,

[that if talented men were mated with tilented women of the same mental and pliysical characters

'as theniselve.t, generation after generation, we might pnxluce a highly-bre<l human race, with

no more tendency to revert to meaner ancestral typis than is shown by our long eiitahlishod

Ibreeds of race-horses and fox-hounds." (p. 319.)

In this pa.ssage we see Galton feeling towards the effect of (what I later
termed) 'as.sortative mating,' and pointmg to the 'mongrelism' of previous
ancestry as the true source of his own 'law of regression.'

(Jalton next indicates that while marriage within the like intellectual

grade would tend to differentiate society int.o two grades or ciustes objection

nay be raised that it would not tend to elevate society as a whole*. He

suggests that (what I have later termed) 'repro(hictive selection' woidd or

shouhl be culled into pluy. In the Hrst place natural selection, he considers,

would powerfidly assist in the substitution of the higher caste A for the

lower caste B by pressing heavily on the minority of weakly and inc]ipa})le

.^^^ men. He did not at that time seem to have recognised that, while in the

j^fc 'sixties the fertilities of the two castes were — what they no longer are — very

nearly e(jual, the whole coin-se of modern social evolution has been to

I ^^ suspend the action of natural selection. Galton did see, however, that a
^■dif!erential fertility has to be brought about, and he suggested that if
intermarriage between A and B be looked upon with strong di.ssipproval, so

I

the early marriage of A and the discouragement or postponement of that of
Ji would be "agencies amply sutticient to eliminate B in a few generations."

' I am not clear that Galton here accurately expresses the result deducible from his figures.
1 cannot find that he has allowed for size of adult family — at most say an average of 2J sonii.
If so, then we ought to say out of the 100 sons of distinguished men a little over three on the
average would Ih> distinguished, which statement would still 1h> ample to prove (lalton's jximt

' It would tend to produce more and sti-onger leaders for the nation which adopted it, w In. Ii

I after all may be more important than elevating society as a whole, especially if we lay atreM on
r

80 Lift atid Lettrnt of Fratwh (iaitou

I venture to think that Galton hardly gave due weight to such a primary
human instinct as that of mating, if" he really thought that the niatiiigs of
li could be effectively discouraged or retarded by any existing agencies
short of another primal force — such a« natural selection — of ecjual intensity.
The possibility of separating marriage from birth, better realised to-day than
in the 'sixties, is of course a factor of great in)portance, but the general
influence of birth-control so far hsis been little short of disjustious from the
eugenic standpoint; it has tended to decrease the fertility of the intelligent
relatively to that of the unintelligent caste in the comnnniity. That a wider
knowledge of birth-control will produce the de^jired 'reproductive selection,'
as some eugenists apparently hold, is to assume that Ciiste B is intelHgent
and social enough to adopt control, and Caste A is altruistic enough to discard
it, even at the cost of that social eminence which is the natural reward of its
superior intelligence. Galton held that the improvement of the breed of
mankind presents no insuperable difficulty.

"If ever}'body were to agree on the improvement of the race of man lieing a matter of the
very utmost importance, and if the theory of heretlitjiry transmission of qualities in men was
as thoroughly understood as it is in the case of our domestic animals, I see no absurdity in
supposing that, in some way or other, the improvement would Ije carried into effect" (p. 320.)

May we not answer to that proposition: Undoubtedly true, but how bring
every one, nay even a majority of Caste B, to agree? To think it possible is
to assume they belong to Caste A ! Galton himself when he returned to
Eugenics forty yejtrs later seems more fully to have recognised the.se diffi-
culties, to have appreciated that, important as the problem is, its solution
will be long and difficult. That we must be content to create a 'religious'
feeling on the subject, to endeavour legislatively to strengthen the economic
position of Caste A so that it may multiply, and legislatively to restrict the
propagation of the worst membei-s of Caste B, its minority, the mentally
defective, the deaf and dumb, the blind and the deformed, when, as is njostly
the case, these characters are of the hereditary type. Not one all-embracing
remedy — certainly not birth-control — is the solution of the eugenic problem,
but a stejidy examination of all social schemes, philanthropic and legislative,
from the eugenic standpoint, and the bringing of an enlightened public
opinion to bear upon them, so that the main idea of Galton, a differential
fertility in favour of Caste A, is little by little brought into existence'.

Galton in the paper under discussion emphasises the fact that he is not
dealing solely with ability; he is thinking of all "mental aptitudes" as well
jis of "genei-al intellectual power." He cites even mental and physical patho-
logicjd states as certainly hereditary ; cravings for drink, gambling, strong
sexual passion, proclivities to fraud, pauperism or crimes of violence, long-
evity and premature death go by descent; many forms of insanity, gout,
tendency to tuberculosis, heart disease, diseases of brain, liver and kidneys,
of ear and of eye, etc. In fact Galton outlines the vast field of hereditary

' I have here (as Ualton does) only spoken of two divisions. Castes A and li, to show his
argmnent. Actually society is made of an infinity of grades for any character, and this Galton
fully mcognised.

Eai-Uj AulliiinntUnjical Rescarcln-H Hi

research, which science is only slowly, if surely, investi^ting forty year«
later.

To illustrate what he means by "mental aptitudes" (lalton refers to those
of the American Indian and of the Negro; both have been reared under the
most different environments from the North to the South of the world, and
again uiuK-r the most diverse social and politictil institutions, yet in all their
essential mental characteristics they remain Ked Man and Negro. Nature,
as Galton later expressed it, is ever dominant over nurture. The Ilt-d Man
has everywhere great patience, great reticence, great dignity, yet he has the
minimum of affectionate and social (pialities compatible with the continuance
of his race.

"The Nogro liaH strong impulsive pos-sions, anil neither p.-ii n-mr, n-ii.<-iiii- im>i digniiy Ih-
is warmheHrted, loving towards his muster's children and idolised hy the children in return.
He is eminently gregarious, for ho is always jal)l)ering, quarrelling, tom-tr>m-ing and dancing.
He is remarkably domestic, and is endowed with such constitutional vigour, and is so prfiliftc
that his race is irrepressible." (p. 321.)

'Plie characterisjition Galton gives of Red Man and Negro — briefly ru-
sunied above — has been equalled, if scarcely bettered, by other anthropolo-
gists, but it remained for him to draw the e.ssential conclusions that if the
Negro is more unlike the Red Man in his mind than in iiis body, and this
holds for all the environments in which you find them, then a race is a race
because mental and moral characteristics are hereditary, and heredity will
maintain these features dominating the slight, we might almost say super-
ficial, effects of the most varied environment.

"Our bodies, minds and capabilities of development have been derived from them [our foro-
fathers]. Everything we possess at our birth is a heritage from our ancestors." (p. 321.)

CJalton next turns to the question whether habits acquired by the
parents can be inherited by their offspring, and tliscu.sses it at length.

"I cannot liscertain that the son of an old soldier learns his drill more quickly than the son
of an arti/jiii. T am a.ssured that the sons of fishermen, whose ancestors have pursued the same
calling time out of mind, are just as .seasick a.s the sons of landsmen when tliey first go to sea."

Galton rejects the inheritance of acquired charactei-s whether mental or
physical. Then, if in vague language, he propoiuids a doctrine probably for
the first time in the history of science, which anioinits to the theory of the
continuity of the germ plasm. He boldly asserts that there is nothing iu
the embryo of an individual that wa.s not in the embryos of its parents; that
all the parental life from embryo to adult age, and from that to senility, has
contributed nothing to the offspring embryo.

"We shall therefore take an approximately correct view of the origin of our life, if wc con-
sider our own embryos to have sprung inime<liatcly from those embrj-os whence our parents
were tleveloped, and tlie.se from the embryos of their parents, and so on for ever. We should
in this way look on the nature of mankind, and perhaps on that of the whole animat- ii,

lus one continuous system, ever pushing out new branches in all directions, that van r-

lace, and that bud into separate lives at every point of interlacement."

"This simile does not at all express the popular notion of life. Most persons seein to have
a vague iilea that a new element, specially fivshioned in heaven ami not tiiinsmitte«l by simple
de.scent, is introduced into the body nf iv,i\- tuwK Ih.ih infant Smli .1 iiotinii is imfittr<I to

r 0 II 11

82 Life ami Letters of FraneiM Galtoii

aUuid upon any Hcientific basis with which wo arc acquainted. It is impossible it should be true
unless there exixts »onie projierty or quality in man that is not traiisuiisHible by descent. But
the terms talent and rharaeirr an- exhaustive; tiiey include the wliulo of man's spiritual nature
so far as we are able to understand it. No other clasM of qualities is known to exist, that we
might suppose to have Ix-en interpolated from on high. Moreover the idea is improlwble from
A f>riori cut; ms, Ufausc there is no other instance in which creative power oj)enite8

under our o" \ ation at the present day, except it may be in the frwdom in action of our

own wills. Wherever else we turn our eyes, we see nothing but law and order, and effect following
cause." (pp. 322-3.)

The reader will now grasp how necessary it is to appreciate that the
inheritance of mental and moral characters in man was the fundamental
concept in Galton's life and work. It led him to all his later quantitative
investigations on heredity ; it led him to liis conception of the ' stirp,' or as
it was later termed the principle of the continuity of the germ plasm, but it
led him also to his rejection of the doctrine of an implanted 'soul' —
" talent and character are exhaustive ; they include the whole of man's
spiritual nature so far as we are able to understand it." Galton's free thought
was the pro<luct of his views on heredity, and Darwin's Ongin of Sjtecies
had led Galton directly to the study of heredity in man. This is very
obvious in the present paper. He admits variation between the embryos
due to the same parents, although we know not the how of that variation.
He applies selection directly to man. It is Nature's

"fiat that the natural tendencies of animals should never disaccord long and widely with the
conditions under which they are placed. Every animal before it is of an age to bear offspring
has to undergo frequent stem examination before the board of Nature, under the law of natural
■election; where to be 'plucketi' is not necessarily disgrace, but is certainly death." (p. 323.)

Then Galton proceeds to question whether the moral character is not
also selected in words which Hu.xley wotdd liave done well to ponder on
before he gave many years later his niucii lui.sguided — for so I must venture
to characterise it — ^Romanes Lecture.

"In strength, iigilitv, and other physical qualitii-s, Darwin's law of natural selection acts
with iminij)a.s.sione«l merciless .severity, the weakly die in the battle; for life; the stronger and
more capable individuals are alone permitU'd to survive, and to lH'(|ueHth their constitutional
vigour to futurt! generations. Is there any corresponding rule in respect lo moral characterl
I Ijelieve there is, and I have alreatly hinted at it when speaking of the American Indians. I
am prepared to maintain that its action, by insuring a certain fundamental unity in the quality
of the affections, enables men and the higher order of animals to .sympathise in some degree with
each other, and also that this law forms the brotid basis of our religious sentiments'." (p. 323.)

Galton then goes on to point out that animal hfe in all but the lowest
classes depends on at least one and more commonly on all of the following
types of affection : sexual, parentid, filial and social.

"The al>sence of any one would l>e a serious hindrance if not a bar to the continuance of
any race. Those who possess all of them, in the strongest measure, wouUl. s]>euking generally,
have an a<lvaiitage in the struggh; for existence. Without sexual affection, there would Ixj no
marriages, and no children; without |)arental affection, the childn^n wouhl IxuilMindoned; with-
out filial affection, they would stray and perish; and without social, each individual would be

' I think Oalton is here applying the word 'religious' in its corre<-t philological sense to the
sentimental which unite society or bind men together; the theistic sentiment (p. 324) is hardly
known to sarages; religion in the earliest development is a social or tribal bond.

Early Anthroj/ofoyirdI ReMcarchen 83

singlit-handMl u^iiiiiRt rivalH who with cjipahli* uf liaiidiiig tlu-mM^lvoii into tribca. AfTectioii for

othcrH OH woll lis fur wlf, jh tlier(!f(»rti i\ lu'fOKsary juirt of Hniiiinl cliartic-tor. Diiiiiit i. ..!..,.„,

is as luuientJAl to ii hriitii'H wt!lM)einf{ lUi MclfiHlincHM. No nniiiinl lirc-fl for itwif Klnr 'i,

at ItttiMt occasionally, for its parent, its mate, iu olFsprinK ami itH follow. ('■ ,~

fr(H|u<!ntly inon- ){'°'kt*'f"l ^" <^" aiiiiiial than aliun<laiil ftxMl Hut iliHint^'n •■

niorf noit'Nsary Ui man than to any other animal, liucauHO of tli< ' ' ,^1^

cliildliiNHl, anil also liccaiisn uf his great KiM-ial noe<lH, line to his |<i /a

law of natural seleetion woiilil therefore Ih< ex|M'el<Kl to develop iIk-.m- mhIiiiiiiiI.-, .hhmh^^ mm-ii,
ov(>n aTiiiing the lowest harliarians, to a i;reat«'r degrw* than ainotig animals. I Ix-lieM' timt uur
religious .siMitiments spring priiimrdy from the.su four houixm'm." (pp. ;}'J3-|.)

"In the same way as 1 sliowisi in my previous pa|M-r that hy selecting men and women for
rare and similar talent, and mating them together, generation afttT generation, an extranriliiiarily
gifl4)d race might Im> developed; so a yet more rigid .selection, having regard to thoir nionil nature,
would, I l>elieve, result in a no less niarke<) improvement of their natural diHptwition'." (p. 325.)

In short (Jalton puts forth as his faith, that morality and the reHgious
sfutinients ho far from being inexplicable on the luisis of natural selection,
as Huxley thought them, are its direct products. He thought tliat until a
society has developed under natural selection a morality, religiotis sentinients
and an instinct of continiious steady labour it would never be stable, and
these thoughts suggested his later researches into social stal/ihty^ Inde<'<l
power of continuous steady work, prolonged or late development and taine-
ness^ of di.spo.sition are tlit^ three features which dilFerentiate for CJalton
civilised man from the savage. }Ie goes on to consider some of the effects of
civilisation in diminishing the rigour of natural selection. It preserves
weakly lives that would perish in bjxrbarous lands. Above all he emphasises
the ill-ertects of inherited wealth.

'"The sickly children of a wealthy family have a lietter chance of living and rearing offspring
than the stalwart children of a poor one.' 'Poverty is more adverse to early marriages than is
natural bad temper or inferiority of intellect.' 'Scrofula and mailness are naturalised among
us hy wealth ; 8hort-sighte<lne.ss is becoming .so.' 'There seems no limit to the morbific tendencies
of hotly or mind that might accumulate in a land where primogeniture was general, and where
riches were more esteemed than personal qualities.'"

Such are a few of Galton's aphorisms. He again and again points out
how little value there is in a 'noble' descent, for generally the 'nobility' of
a family is represented by a few slender rills amid a superfluity of non-noble
sources. Nor is there, he holds, any limit

"to the intellectual and moral grandeur of nature that might lx> introdueetl into aristocratic
families, if their representiitives, who have such rare privilege in winning wives that pleaao
them best, should invariably, generation after generation, marry with a view of transmitting
these noble qualities to their descendants." (p. 326.)

' (Jalton cites as an illustration of the alteration of natural <li ' ition of

the North American people, the seleetion of the emigrants from the n. ive and

rebellious classes of Europe. "If we estimate the moral character of Aiiiericiius from their
present social .state we shall find it to be just what we might ex|K!ct from such a jmrentage!"
I do not cite Galton's estimate because I think it truer when he wrote than tOHlay, jHirtly owing
to the change in the nature of emigrants, and partly owing to the same sort of natural selection
within that nation itself.

° His schedule on this subject will bo referre<l to in a later chapter.

' By 'lameness of disposition' Galton denotes the opposite to wild and irregular disposition,
the untAmeable restlessness which is innate in the savage and to some extent iii the gypsy.

11— i

84 fjije ami Lcttrm of Fraurh fttiffon

And then follows Galton's first onunciatioii of tlu' Law of Ancestral
Heredity. He writes :

"The sharu a man rvtains in the constitution of his remote (lesciMuiiiiits is inconceivably
snudL The father transmits, on an average, one-hHif of liis nature, the grandfather one-fourth,
the great-grandfather one-eighth ; tlie share decreasing step by step in a geometrical ratio, with
great rapidity." (p. 32G.)

Galton is clearly on the right track, but the nunibei-s he gives would
only be correct if he used mrentnl generation, gmnduarent-al generation,
gi-eat-gi"andj)areiital generation, instead of father, grandfather, great-gmnd-
father. He lias overlooked the* mother, and overlooked the multiplicity of
the ancestral individuals. The numbers as he gives them in a lateV j)ul)lica-
tion are one-fourtii for the parent, one-sixteenth for the gran<l))arent and
one-sixty-fourth for the great-grandparent, etc. (ialton's view was that this
rule held for either blended or alternative inheritance^ Thus in 1865
Galton had already in mind this law of ancestral heredity, although by an
obvious oversight he gave the wrong proportions. It has been suggested
by certain over-confident geneticists that Mendelism has for ever done away
with Galton's Law. I doubt the validity of this conclusion, as I doubt
whether hybridisation will explain variation, or mutation account for the
origin of species. The subject is, however, too controversial and technical
to be discussed here, although it must lie referred to as long as the tendency
is to belittle Galton's contributions to heredity*.

Galton draws from his law the conclusion that there is nothing much to
be proud of in descent in a single line from a Norman baron for it would
contribute on the average only (;|:)**, if 26 generations intervened, to the
individual's natural aptitudes,

"an amount ludicrously disproportioned to the value popularly ascribed to ancient descent. As
a stroke of policy, I question if the head of a great faii\ily, or a prince, would not give more
strength to his position, by marrying a wife who would bear him talented sons, than one who
would merely bring him the support of high family connections." (p. 327.)

' See his Natural Itifieritance (pp. 138 and 151) where he applies it both to stature and to
eye colour; in the one case to deduce the average stature of the offspring, and in the other case
to deduce the distribution of eye colour in the offspring.

' If Galton in 186.5 had applied his law to the following scheme of the crossing of two pure
races (Z)ZJ) and (Rli) to produce the liybrid (Z>^)— to u.se iMendclian notation — let us see what
it would have given hiui for the offspring of {DR) mated with (DR). The two parents are
{DR) and {DR), the four grandparents are (DD), (KR), (OD), {RR), the eight great-grandparents
are four {DD) and (our (HR) and so on. Hence according to Galton's Law applied to alternative
inheritance, the constitution of the offspring would be for a family of 4/"

4/{J(2>^) + J(^*) + A[2(^^) + 2(^/?)] + A[* (DD) + i(RR)] + ,U [»{DD) + 8 (^^)]+ ••}
= /{2(DR) + (i + i + i+...)[{DI)) + (RR)]]

=/{{DD) + 2{DR) + {JiR)).

Or, this simple application of his law would have led Galton to the fundamentjil equation of
Mendelian hybridisation. On the other hand had Galton applied it to (DD) niatcsd with (DR) —
or to a pun? race mated with a hybrid — he would have obtained different results according to the
origin of the hybrid, i.e. whether it was an immediate result of crossing pure races or the product
of two hybrids, or the product of hybrid and pure race, i.e. whether it was not or was an
'extracted ' hybrid. And who shall say that he would not have been right? My own experience
certainly leads me to doubt whether all hybrids, 'extracted' or not, are of e<iual germinal valency.

i

Edrlfi Aiifhro/io/itffi'ral PtucorrhfM

ftS

(ralton was an ardent democrat, if hucIi ineanH to reftiHe birth any privi-
lege if liirtli he not accompaii!e<l l»y mental siiperinrity; he wfw a thor< • '
{foing ariHtocrat, if such Ix) involverl in a denial of the wiuaHty of all im ;. ,
le would have graded mankind by their natural aptitudeH, and have done
his best to check the reproduction of the lower j^radfs. The last jtaniLfrapliH
of the pajier deal in a very novel manner with th(^ theological problem of
the sense of original sin. We have already noted that Galton held that
conscience and with it the religious sentiments were develoj>ed in man by
natural selection, they were the highest form of the herd instinct, and the
tribe in which they were developed h.ad greater social stability than any
group that did not j)ossess them. But man was barbarous but yesterday,
and many of Ids native (jualities are not yet moulded into harmony with
his recent advance. Even our Anglo-Sa.xon civilisation is but skin deep,
and the majority of English were the merest boora at a much later date
than the Nornjan con(juest. We are still barbarians in a large part of our
nature ; our no very distant ancestry grubbed with their hands for food, and
dug out pitfalls for their game, and hoKjs for their hut-poles and palisades
with their fingers as tools. We see it all in the pleasure which the most
delicately reared children take in dabbling and digging in the dirt, an ir»-
heritance from barbarian forefathers, akin to that of the pet dog who runs
away from its mistress to sniti' at any roadside refuse in the instinct to find
the lost pack. The whole moral nature of man is tainted with 'sin,' which
prevents him following his conscience, his social sense. From the Darwinian
view the development of our religious sentiment has advanced — at any rate
in certain members of the community — more rapidly than the elimination
of the savage instincts of past stages of culture. The more recent the
barbarism the more conscious the race is of the iuadetjuacy of its nature to
its moral needs.

"The conscience of n negro is aghast at his own wild, impulsive nature, and is easily stirred
by a proAcher, but it is scarcely possible to ruffle the self-complacency of a steady-going China-
man." (p. 327.)

The revivalist meets with the greater success, the more degraded and
less cultured is the population he works on.

"The sense of original sin would show according to ray theory, not that man was fallon fn>ra
a high estate, hut that ho was rapidly rising from a low one^ It would therefore confirm the
conclusion that has been arrived at by every iiulejH^ndent line of ethnological research — that
our forefathers were utter savages from the beginning, and that after myriad years of barWrism,
our race has but very recently grown to be civilised and religious.'' (p. 327.)

Thus on the basis of Darwin's law of natural selection, and on the
theory that natural aptitudes are not at the same time harmoniously de-
veloped, or eradicated, Galton accounts for the conflict in human nature
summed up in the doctrine of ' original sin.' It will not be cleared away
by any atonement, but solely by breeding out the unenulicated and
hereditary savagery of human nature still dominating civilised man. WHiat
an illustration of his views Galton might have drawn from the events of the
decade which followed his death !

86 Life and Letters of Francis Gallon

I have given what the reader may consider undue space to this one
magazine article, until he comes to see its relation to Galton's later views.
It is really an epitome of the gi-eut hulk of Galton's work for the rest of his
life ; iji fact all his lahoui-s on heredity, anthropometry, psychology and
statistical method seem to t^ike their roots in the ideas of this paper. It
might ahnost have l)een written iis a r^sum^ of his lalx)Ui-s after tlu>v were
com})leted, rather than jus a prologue to the yet to be accomplished. It is
not only that Galton here gives us clearly his religious creed — religion has
ceased for him to have a supernatural and taken on a purely anthroj)ological
value — hut he formulates the work he intends to do, and actually did do in
the remaining forty-five years of his life. Few realise that Galton was
already in 18()4 a thorough -going eugenist, that here in the prime of his
life — in his 42nd yeai- — he stood free of all the old l)eliefs which he implicitly
accepted ten years earlier^. He acknowledges that his freedom was due to
Darwin. But he does not hint that he had stept out beyond Darwin. For
Darwin wrote :

"You imk wlif^thor I shftll discusH 'man.' I think 1 Miall avoid the subject, as s<>8urroundo<l
with prejudiws, though 1 fully admit it is tlio highest and most interesting pnthloni for the
naturalist'."

and Galt^)n said :

"I shall treat of man and see what the theory of heredity of variations and tiie principle of
natural selection mean when applied to man."

8o he came to sketch out his future work and whither he thought it would
lead him in the coui-se of years. Reading this article we see that his re-
searches in heredity, in anthi'opometry, in psychometry and statistics were
not independent studies, they were all auxiliary to his main object — the
improvement in the race of man. Those who, ignoring what Galton and
others have done, would cast doubt on the inheritance of the mental and
moral characters, at once withdraw the foundation stone of Galton's life-
work. That j>rinciple was essential to his views on the past evolution of
man, was the mainstay of his religious l>elief, and the rock on which he built
his scheme for man's future progress. For him the chief difference l)etween
barbarous and civilised man lay not in their physical qualities but in their
mental or moral aptitudes, and all recent progress has been made by the
action of natural selection on these hereditary clianicteristics.

It wjis by furthering this work of .selection, by, in a broad sense, the
further domestication of man, that Galton hopea to produce supermen.
And, however desirable later writers, ignoring Galton, have proclaimed this
end to be, they have provided no rational and scientific means, such as he
did, of attaining it. Natural, albeit idle curiosity would like to know how
Galton's orthodox friends and clerical relations met this Ix^lt from the blue.
The oidy letter, however, that hjis reached me from 18G5 is one of May 31st

' .See my account of his Art of Travel, p. 4.

» iMIer of Dnrwin to Wallace, 18.'^i7. Between 1857 and 1871 Dur win's views of these
prejudice* cbangurl. I venture to think Galton's voice crying in the wilderness ha<l aided in
the preparation of public opinion.

I

Earhj Aut/iropolofficul Itrxfarcliex 87

from Frank Buckland, to whom, I think, Galton must have sent an advanced
copy of his piipor, for Tiurkland says that lie cannot thank Galton wifticiently
for the copy of MncmiUan's Mdynzine.

"Your theory is most fxi'ollt'tit. and I shall endeavour to collect fact* for vmi with a view
its elucidation."

And sonic facts IJiickluiid does t(ive, especially with regartl to hi« experi-
ence of soldiers, but they are scarcely scientific observations. One point may
be noted, because it carries us back into the age in which Galton was working.

"I have heard," Hucklnnd writes, "that when a fino-loolcing Englixhinan travelii in the
S»nithern States the slaveowners offer him the Ijcst-lookiiig girls, as n cn»w bt'twccn a tall
strong iMiglishnian anil a fine nuulo Black girl produces a good useful slave worth money."

The son of the Dean makes no comment, however, on the originality and
heterodoxy of Gallon's standpoint; it is probable that he had not yet sft-ii
the second half of the paper'. While Galton always dated his letters fully.
Darwin rarely, if ever, did ; and it has taken a good deal of consideration
and labour to pljice these letters in approximate order. I cannot, however,
hnd out that Galton sent a copy of this paper to Uarwin, although he sent
tmost of his publications. It would, indeed, be of interest to have seen
r)ar\vin's connnents upon it, if he made any. What Galton himself wrote in
iyU8 is indeed the best general comment :

"I published my views as long ago as 186.'), in two articles written in Macmillnn't Miujasine
while preparing materials for my book, Hfredilaiij GeniiiK. But I did not then realise, an now,
the powerful intluenee of Small Causes upon statistical results. I was t*X) niuch dispose<l to
think of marriage under some regulation, and not enough of the effects of self-interest and of
social and religious sentiment. Popular feeling was not then ri|ie to accept even the elementary
truths of hereditary tjilent and character, upon which the |)Ossibility of Race Improvement
depend.s. Still less was it prepired to consider dispossicmately any propo-sals for practical
action. So I laid the subject wholly to one side for many ywirs. Now I see my way U-tter, and
an appreciative audience is at last to lie hiwl, though it be small'."

(Jalton laid it aside as propagantla, but a.s I have said it is the key to
nearly the whole of his work lor twenty years.

B. IlKRKUITARY GENIUS, 1869 (Second Edn. 1892)

We now turn to the first step Galton took in the scientific demonstration
of his creed — -the study of the heredity of the mental and moral diameters as
a basis for Race Improvement. It was the first of four fundamental treatises
in whole or great part devoted to the inheritance of the mentnl aptitudes in
man. The other three are: English Men of Science, their Nature and Xur-
tvre, 1874; Human Faculty, 1883 and Natural Inheritance, 1889, and round
these four greater works a whole swarm of memoirs and minor researches
group themselves like flotillas of destroyers about a battle-fleet. A bio-

' Of some intei-est for the history of journalism is Buckland's statement that "in order
to give the public numerous facta connected with Natural History I propose to start a new
paper of my own to he. cidleil Tlie Land and the Water."

* Memories, p. 310.

88 Life and Lelten of Franch GuUou

erapher indeed needs courage, when he starts upon the tjvsk of conveying to
his reivders even a moiety of the original ideas — hotli as to methods and
conclusions — oflered by this mass of material. It would need undoubtedly a
robust conscience to i-ealise that not for many yeiirs, possibly never again,
will one individual reiid through j)ractically the whole of Cialton's published
and unpublished writings, and then Ix? confident that no idea of ripe sug-
gestiveness, which might have develnjjed in the minds of others into a noble
scientific or social growth, has escaped his record ! And yet the biography of
a man of such a productive mentality and of such a lengthy activity as Galton
should not only describe the many-sidedness of its subject, but enaole readers
of many tastes to find out what is of special interest to them in his writings.
Galton s biogi-apher has to provide an index to a veritable encyclopaedia,
as well as trace the evolution of an original mind. The general scheme of
Hereditary Genixis was outlined in the first part of "Hereditary Talent and
Character," but Galton's more complete demonstration of the heredity of
mental aptitudes took five further years of work'.

Galton's book is written with more gravity and less suggestiveness than
his preliminary magazine article, and this is fitting.

"1 propose to show in this book that a man's natural abilities are derived by iiili<.'rit;iiici',
under exactly the same limitations as are the form and physiail featui-es of the wliole orj^aiiic
world. Consequently, as it is easy, notwithstanding these limitations, to obtain b_v careful
selection a permanent breed of dogs or horses gifU'd with pwuliar powers of running, or of
doing anything else, so it would be quite practicable to produce n highly-gifted nice of men by
judicious marriages during several consecutive generations. I shall show that social agencies of
an ordinary character, whose influences are little suspected, are at this moment working towards
the degradation of human nature, and that others are working towards its improvement.
I conclude that each generation has enormous power over the natunil gifts of those that follow,
and maintain that it is a duty that we owe to humanity to investigate the range of that power,
and to exercise it in u way that, without being unwise towards ourselves, shall Ihj most advan-
tageous to future inhabitants of the earth." (p. 1.)

In his preface Galton tells us that he was drawn to the subject of heredi-
tary genius in the course of a purely ethnological inquiry into the mental
pecuhariti&s of different races.

As the quotation at the head of this chapter indicates, (laltou had been
led from Geography to Man, but when he came to examine the peculiar
characteristics of human races, he found their psychical characteristics as
marked and as permanent as their physical characteristics. Such a result

' In L. (J.'n Jiecord these years are reprcsiMited by continual fMnir he^ilth in l)<)th llusl>and
and Wife. They are also years of long continental travels and many home visitK. We read
under 1S69 for example: "My health very troublesome till June and a gre^t hindrance to my
doing much. Frank in good health and able to dine out again. Went to Bertie Terrace
[Francis Galton's mother's] at Easter and was not the l)etter for it. Emma ['Sister Emma 'J
came to us in March and June. Lucy Wheler [Mrs Studdy] in May. Started in July for the
Tyrol an<l Havana, Venice and home by the Spriigen, returned Oct. 4. .Met the R. Gurneys
and Mrs ]iathcr at Baslo. Went to Julian Hill [Mrs Galton's mother's] and Bertie Terrace
before settling down. Dear Mr North died October 26 at Hastings. Frank's l)ook 'Hereditary
Genius' published in November, but not well ix^ceivj-d, but likc<l by Darwin and men of note.
He iM'gan his ex]>erimentM in Transfusion and iHtcame a meniltcr of the Zoological and Iloyal
Institution. I att4-nil«l Tyndall's Ixsctures after Easter. Spent Christmas at home and alone."

PLATK X

Mrs Fiatiois Ciiiltim, fioin ii portrait in tlic (Iiiltmi Ijilioriitory.

Earhj AnthropnhnjivAtl Remarch

89

mental and moral »pti-

d when I

If

I'.

to

could only be reached by iidniittin^ the ljere<lity
tudes. Such was the evDJution ot Galton's tiiwuy un
apply it to Ills own conteniponu'ieH at school, at collegt
realised the truth that ability goes by descent.

"The tlioory uf hennlittiry Kciius, thoii;j;li ii.suully .H(M>ut«(J, has \)vmx\ advocated liy a few
writoni in past lus in muderii tiiiivH. Bui I may claim to bo the first to treat tho Hultjo-t in a
statistical manner, to arrive at numerical reHultn, and to introduce the 'law of ilevintion from
M\ avemge' into diHcussionB on heredity." (p. vi.)

We have here Galton's first direct appeal to statistical method and the
text itself shows that Downes' translation of the Letters on Prohahilitiea by
Quetelet (London, 1849) was (Jalton's first introduction to the Laplace-
Gaussian or normal curve of deviations, which was later to play such a large
part in (ialton's anthropometric work.

Galton's general plan is first to justify, in the case of men of great ability,
the measurement of their ability by their reputation. Men reputed as en-
dowed by natiue with extraordinary genius are taken in the default of
better evidence to be of surpassing abdity, and the correlation is probably
so high that little en'or in the highest gnules of intellect will be introducwl
by this identification. Prol)ably the identification is somewhat loo.ser in
Galton's second and third grades though the correlation must be something
considerable here. Galton runs through various methotls of appreciating
'eminence,' and comes to the conclusion tliat they indicate very approximately
the same result :

"When I speak of an eminent man I mean one who lias achieve<l a position that is attained
by only 250 persons in each million of men, or by one person in each 4000. ...The ma.ss of thoae
with whom T dejil are far more rigidly selected — many are as one in a million, ond not a few
as one of many millions. I use the term 'illustrious' when speaking of the.se. They are men
whom the whole intelligent part of the nation mourns when they die; who have, or deserve to
have, a public funeral; and who rank in future ages as historical characters." (p. 11.)

It was at this time that Galton, I think, first realised the great principle
that while between men of moderate ability there is scarcely any difference,
between 'illustrious' and even 'eminent' men there are extraordmary differ-
ences, (ialton (p. I !)) illustrates this on the marks of the men in two years of
the Mathematical Tripos at Cambridge, the total marks l)eing 17,000.

Number of
Marks

Number of \
Candidates )

34

74

r- I r-

0 ' 0

900

Here the difference between the first and second man is upwards of
2000 marks, but 157 of the mediocre men fall within the .sjime range of
2000 marks. This difference between the extreme i>"'". "liether on the able

12

r u n

90 Lifr mul Lcften* of Franrin (w'afton

or the stupid side, liatl great interest for Galton iiiul he recurred to the
problem many years afterwards, as I shall indicate later in this work.

Having reached series like this Galton considered how he should represent
them theoretically, and he came to the conclusion that the proper method
would be to use the normal curve, or curve of errors of the astronomers.
Thi.s had alrejidy been used by Quetelet for jifu/siad niea-suremcnts and he
cites as illustrations the distributions of measurements of 5738 Scottish soldiers
for chest size and of 100,000 French soldiers for stature. These results from
Quetelet are from our present standpoint not very convincing; but sui>

11
ily rejvl evidence (Jalton gives (p. 33)
on this point is to show the marks obtained by 72 Civil Service Candidates
in fact and in theory. Tested by modern methods the theory fits the facts
to the extent that if the theory were true one sample in six would give
results more divergent from the theory than the observed facts are. It can-
not therefore be said that Galton demonstrates that intellectual ability is
distributed according to the normal law of deviations. We are not even
certain of that to-day. But demonstration was not really needful for Galton's
purpose; he could legitimately classify human intelligence by applying a
'normal scale' to it, and he would still have his eight classes A, B, ... F, G
and A' above and a, b, ...f, y and .r below the average, l)ut he could not claim
that these grades were separated by equal "amounts of intelligence," altiioiigh
more recent experience — i.e. with (juantitative mental-tests— suggests that it
is approximately con-ect.

Galton's classes: F, 1 in 4300, G, 1 in 79,000 and X, 1 in 1,000,000, cor-
respond roughly to his three highest grades of intelligence. Galton then
gives the following more popular description of his classification :

"It will be seen that more than half of e^ich million is contained in the two nu^diocre classes
a and A ; the four nie<liocre ela.sses a, b, A, li more than four-fifths an<l the six mediocre classes
nion- than nineteentwentieths of the entire population. Thus the rarity of commanding ability,
and the vast abundance of mediocrity is no accident, but follows of necessity, from the very
nature of these things.

The meaning of the word 'mediocrity' admits of no doubt. It defines the standard of
intellectual power found in most provincial gatherings, because the attractions of a more
stirring lif<! in the metropolis and elsewhere are apt to draw away the abler classes of men,
and the silly and the imljecile do not take a part in the gatherings. Hence, the residuum that
forms the hulk of the general society of small provincial places, is commonly very pure in its
n)c<liocrity. The cla.s8 C possesses abilities a trifle higher than those commonly pas-sessed by
the foreman of an ordinary jury. D includes the muss of men who obtain the ordinary prizes
of life. E is the stage higher. Then we reach F the lowest of those yet superior classes of
intellect, with which this volume is chiefly concerned.

On descending the scali-, we find hy the time wo have reached ./J that we are already among
the idiots and imlx:ciles. We have seen. ..that there are 400 idiots and imlwciles, to every
million of persons living in this country; but that 30 per cent, of their nunilxjr appear to bo
light cases, to whom the name of idiot is inappropriate. There will remain 280 true idiots and
imijeciles to every million of our population. This ratio coincides very closely with the require-
ments of classy.

Hence we arrive at the undeniable, but unexj>ected conclusion, that eminently gifted men
are raised aa much above mediocrity as idiots are depressed below it; a fact that is calculated

Earhj Anthropohujical Re»earclie»

91

to conHiderably enlarffe our iiieoN of the eiiorinouH (iifleroiiomi of intelUH!tual f^iftJi twtwfmii ntan
unci man.'

(pp. 35-6).

'I'liial (liM-

Tlie "iin(leiiiiil)le conclu.sion is n-ully liiusrd on .lssu
tributioii of iiiU-llij^ence. In the light of more recent ii. i we may

say that such a distrihution is at utiy rate a rough approximatioti tt> the
state of jitt'airs, ami (Jalton's conchision witliiii bn)a<i limits is correct. This
and, in a mure proven, if e.xperimental way, the evidene*' from Tri|M>H murks
convinced Cialton that men. lik(> races of men, are not of equal natuml
ability.

"T hiivc no putii'nco with tlic hyjKitliosis octyutionally pxpri'-t-st"*], and often implied, (^specially
in talcs writton to teach <-liiliir<Mi to be good, that bahiuH art; l>orn pretty much aliki-, an<l that
thi! solo agencii'.s in crtwiting diffi'i*eucos Ix'tweon lH)y and boy, and man and man, »r« Hteody
application and moral clioi't. It is in the nxmt uiit|ualitit>d manner that \ objitct to prcU'n.sionn
of natural t'(|uality. The cxjK'rienoes of the nursery, the schixil, the \ii\\\- ns-

sioiial curwrs, are u chain of proofs to the contrary. I acknowhnlp' fre. uf

education and social influences in developing the active p>wers of the mind, ju.tl ob 1 acknow-
ledge the effect of use in developing the mu.scles of a blacksmith's arm, and no further. I^et the
blacksmith labour as hu will, he will tind there are certain feats Ix-yond his (lower that are well
within the strength of a Ihmii of lieriMili'im m.iWi', evin .iltliiiiii;!! tlie latter imiv luive li-<l n

sedentary life'." (p. 14.)

In his chapter on "The Comparison of the Two Cla-ssiHcations," in which
Galton treats of how far a man's success and reputation is a ineasure of his
natural power of intellect, he exj)lains the method of his selection; he did
not regard high social or official position — but "reputation in the opinion of
contemporaries, revised by posterity."

"I sp<>ak of the reputation of a leader of opinion, of an originator, of a man to whom the
world delil)erately acknowledges itself largely indebted." (p. 37.)

Galton analyses the qualities, which lead a man to eminence, into capacity,
zeal and ade<iuate power of doing a great deal of very laborious work. He holds
that men who achieve eminence and those who are naturally capable are to
a large extent identical. By genius Galton understands the

"nature, which, when left to itself, will, urged by an inherent stimulus, climb that path
that leads to eniinenco, and has strength to reach the summit — one which, if hinden-d or
thwartetl, will fret and strive until the hindrance is overcome, and it is again freo to follow its
labour-loving instinct. It is almost a contradiction in f.^rnis, to doulit that such men will
genei-ally become eminent " (p. 38)

and there are few men who reach eminence who do not possess this com-
bination of powers. A boy who is carefully educated learns little useful
information at school, he is taught the art of learning; the man who over-
comes hindrances learns the same art in adversity. If the hindrances due

' Galton illustrates this by a ca,se in which trained Highlanders clmllengitl all England to
compete with them in their games of strength. They wei-e beat4?n in the fot)i-rat-e by a youth, a
pure Cockney, and clerk to a London banker. Perhaps I may be permitted to cite another
illusti-ation, from an occurrence at 'varsity sport* over 40 years agi). The high jump ha<l been
won by a highly trained athlete, and the rod had been replaced at the last half inch he had
failed to surmount ; a non-conilmt«nt, a somewhat scilentary niatliematicion in every day costume,
.steppwl from among the spectJitors, leapt the ixxl to the astonishment of the onlookers, and di«-
appetu-ed again into the crowd.

IS— 8

92 Life and Letter* of Francis Gal fan

to humble rank were so severe as they are sometimes described, then all those
who surmount them would be prodigies of genius; on the contrary we find
many who have risen from the ranks have no claim to 'eminence.' Hmdrances
of rank only repress mediocre men, and perliaps some men of pretty fair
powers — men of classes below D. Many of D and a great many of E abilitjr
rise from the ranks, and Galton holds the very large majority of the intelli-
gences above E '.

"If « man is gift«d with vast intellectual ability, eagerness to work, and power of working,
I cannot comprehend how such a man should l>e repressed. The world is always tormented with
difiiculties waiting to be solved — struggling with idoius and ftwlings to which it can give no
adequate expression. If, then, there exists a man capable of solving those diHicullies, or of
giving voice to those pent up feelings, he is sure to \>e welcomed with universal acclamation."
(p. 39.)

Galton undoubtedly did not believe in any large frequency of "mute
inglorious Miltons" ": he felt convinced

"that no man can achieve a very high reputation without Ixjing gifted with very high abilities;
and I trust I have shown rea.son to believe, that few who jwssess these very high abilities can
fail in achieving eminence." (p. 49.)

Having made these postulates Galton then proceeds to discuss his ma-
terial. His method is precisely that of the paper on "Hereditary Talent and
Character"; that is to say he makes no attempt to measure in any way the
intensity of heredity. He takes the high grades of ability and measures the
frequency of their appearance; he then measures the frequency of the ap-
pearance in the limited population of kinsmen of the eminent in some .special
degree, and finding this much greater than in the general population he
argues that it can only be because the special talent runs in families. The
whole argument is drawn on statistical lines, but, perhaps, it is not more
convincing than the pedigrees themselves of illustrious men, many of which
Galton gives in part, and which might easily be amplified and brought u])
to date.

One of the difficulties of Galton's task is the discovery or appreciation of
the number of relatives in each grade of important individuals, and his values,
or rather appreciations, are open at times to question. Thus he credits the
judges on an average with only one son each, .say with a family of two, i.e.
one son and one daughter. But he makes the judge to have on an average
\i brothers and 2^ sisters, or to spring from a family of five. In Iwth cases

' Galt<m cites America as a country of more widely spread culture and eflucation than
Great Britain, where the hindrances to rising from the ranks are smaller, and yet their men
eminent in science and literature are fewer than ours. Hence lie argues that if our hindrances
were les-sened we should not become materially richer in highly eminent men. The footnote
which follows seems to justify this ojiinion stated in 1869.

* A great e<lucationalist recently put to the writer this question : Wt- have had millions of
children in London alone through our primarj' schools, we select the Ix-st annually and send
them to the secondary schools and the best of these again go to the univei-sities, why have we
not yet found a single Darwin, Newton or Milton? The failure is, I think, explicable by the
fact that a selection of Galton's F, G and X stocks had Ijeen going on for centuries before the
County Councils took the net in hand to fish, possibly a tiifh? crudely, in nearly exhausted
waters.

Karhj Aiithntpolofi'ical /frurtirrhfM

93

the son or brother is 8Ui)j)ose<l to reach an age of 50 l)efore he can be tested
for eniiiieiK'c. Now it ih ratlier difficuh to nrfej)t tlio si ' that the

averageurt'springof a judge is two and of his father five'; noi .:... landing the
discredit (ialton casts elsewhere on the moral conduct of lawyers'. I believe
that owing to tli<> difficulty of gettiiig accurate information, although Galton
did not go beyond the ordinary sources — for example to herald's visiUitions,
etc. — it would have been best to take average values from jjedigrees of the
period. For example Galton gives 36 °/^ of eminent sons to the judges on
the basis of one son apiec«\ but 14 4 "/, on the biisis of U'5 sons would have
been equally eftective for his purpose, which wius to show that a judge being
one barrister in a hundred, or, since as he remarks hamsters are highly
selected, one man possibly in 4000, the chances are enormously against
judges having 144 /^ of legally eminent sons on the assumption of a pure
chance occurrence.

Galton's chapter on the judges — his most complete and detailed section —
18 a very fine piece of work, and might l)e used an the starting-point for
still more complete pedigree work on the heredity of legal ability*.

The next chapter deals with 'Statesmen,' and Galton admits the diffi-
culty of steering between first the acce|)tance of mere official position or
notoriety as equivalent to a more discriminative reputation, and secondly
a selection with an unconscious bias towards facts favourable to inheritance.
Thus lie writes:

"It would not bo a judicious plan to take for our select list the nameM of privy counaellora,
or even of Cabinet ministers; for though some of them are illustriously gifted, and many are
eminently so, yet others btilong to a decidedly lower natural grade. For instance, it strmed in
late yejirs to have l)ecome a more incident to the position of a great tcrritt)rial duke to have a
seat in the Cabinet as a minister of the Crown. No doubt some few of the dukes are highly
gifted, but it may l)e affirmed, with e<(ual a.ssurance, that the abilities of the large majority are
very far indeed from justifying such an appointment," (p. 104.)

Galton is indeed a democrat in his views on the nobility:

" A man who has no able ance.«tor nearer in blood to him than a great-grandjwirent, is un-
appreciably better off' in the chance of being himself gifted with ability, than if he had l>een
taken out of tlie general mass of men. An old peerage is a valueless title to natural gifts,
except SI) far as it may have been furbishe<l up by a succession of wise intermarriag«!s. When,
however, as is often the case, the direct line has iR'como extinct and the title has passed to s
distant relative, who had not been reared in the family tnwlitions, the sentiment that is
attached to its possession is utterly unreasonable. I cannot think of any claim to r«'8p«>ct, put
forward in modern days, that is so entirely an imposture, a.s that made by a peer on the ground
of descent, who has neither been nol)ly educated, nor has any eminent kinsman, within three
degrees." (p. 87.)

What would Galton have said had he wiitten fifty years later when
peerages appear to be given away, not for noble education, eminent kinsmen,
or distinguished public service, but apparently on the ground of men being

' Of coui-se the judge may have no offspring and his father must have had <>««• at least
' "Hereditary Talent and Character" (p. 164). "Great lawyers are especially to be blamed

iathis [illicit intercourse followed by a corresponding amount of illegitimate issue], even more

than poets, artists or great commanders."

^ There is a considerable correspondence with E. B. Denison in the Galtoniana letters for

1869 about the ability and fertility of judges and peers.

M Lift aiid Letters of Francin Galtuu

anooMsiul tradesmen ! And yet Galton is above all an aristocrat. When we
read his 'Jiulfjes' and his 'Statesmen' we see him almost swept ofl" his
feet when he discovei-s for the fii-st time from liis own reading the character-
istic ahility of the Montjii^us and Nortlis, or of the Temples and Wyiidhams.
There was almost a simplicity about his adoration of ability and he positively
gloated over it, if it t(X)k an nniisiial and individual turn. Many very able
men scarcely appreciate higl» ability in others, l>ecause, as in the matter of
wealth, a man is apt to judge relatively to his own holding. Not so Galton ;
had he u.sed himself as a standard measure, 1 fear his modesty would have
led him to revise more than one of his estimates.

"A collection of living magnates in variouH branches of intellectual achievement is always
« feast to my eyes; being as they generally are such massive, vigorous, capable-looking
uumals'". (p. 332.)

Galton had an immense veneration for genius as he defines it; not only
like Carlyle would he have made his heroes rulers of the mediocre, but
unlike Carlyle he would have had his heroes steadily and surely replace the
latter. That men of genius are unhealthy puny beings — all l)iain and no
muscle — weaksighted, and generally of poor constitutions, Galton will not
accept for a moment.

"I think most of my readers would be 8urptis(>tl at ihe .stjiturcs iiiid i>iiy.sieal frames of the
heroes of hibtory, who fill my pago-S if they emild be assembled together in a hall. I would
undertake to pick out of any group of them, even out of that of the Divines, an 'eleven' who
should compete in any physical feats whatever, against similar selections from groups of twice
or thrice their numbers, taken at luipliazard from equally well-fed classes." (p. 331.)

Perhaps Galton laid too great stress on the higli wranglers and classics
of his own day who had been ''varsity blues'; or again on the big-headed
men on the front benches at the Royal Society meetings in tfie early
'seventies'.

One chamcteristic, but an all-important one. Galton admits both his
'Judges' and 'Statesmen' did not possess; the power of being prolific. It
will be obvious that if men of ability are unprolific, as they are often sup-
posed to be, then the families of great men will l)e apt to die out, and
Galton's project for creating a race of 'supermen' must be defeated. This
point — whether or no a breed of men gifted above the average could main-
tain itself during an indefinite number of generations — is so miportant that
Gralton devotes a special chapter to the subject. Turning to the 'Judges ' he
first cites Lord Campbell's statement that when he first became acquainted
with the English Bar, one-half of the Judges had married theii- mistresses,

* "One comfort is that Great Men taken up in any way are profitable company. We
caauot look, however imperfectly, upon a Great Man, without gaining something by him.
He is the living light-fountain, which it is good and pleasant to be near." Lectures on
Htrot;*, p. 2.

* He was very unhappy about the low cori-elations I found lietwetui int<?lligeiice and size of
llMd, and would cite against mc thotte 'front benches'; it wa.s one of the few iustaiices 1 noticed
when impreMions seeme<l to have more weight with him than me^isuremenls. It is possible, how-
erer, that Ijetween his day and mine science changed its recruiting fields, and 'eminence ' became
leu common.

Earhj Aiif/ir<i/tofoffir<i/ Rtxrarchtx

96

I

I

"the understanding being that when a barrister was elevated t« the Bench,
he should marry his mistress, or put her away." (lalton descrilies this state-
ment as 'extraordinary,' but no effort of memory is neede<l to recall ■• '• st
one illustratio!i of it in the case of those as old as the present bi. r.

The advanced period of their lives, if Lord Campl^ll's statement be correct,
at which they would marry, might account for a rtnhiced number of children,
but even under this disadvantage (Jalton asserts that the Ju<lge« were by
no means an unfertile race (p. 131). Still it may Ije that their families die
out. He finds that out of 'M judges who became peers before the close of
George IV's reign, 12 are no longer represented in the peerage. (Jalton then
inquired into the particulars of the marriages of these law-lords, their children
and grandchildren.

"1 found a very simple, adequate, and novel explanation, of tlii- cuiiiiikhi fxtwiction of
peerages, stare nie in the face. It appeared, in the tirst instance, that a considerable (xirtion of
the new pe<»i-8 and of their sons had married heiresses.... But my statistical li.sts showed, with
unmistakaiile emphasis, that these niarriages are peculiarly unprolific. We mi^ht, indee«l, have
ex{)ected that an lu'ires.M, who is the sole issue of a marriage, would not l)e ho fertile as a woiiuui
who has ninny brothers and sisters. Comparative infertility must Ix- here<liLiiry in tlie same
way as other physical attributes, and 1 am assured it is so in the cjuw of domestic animals.
Consequently the is.sue of a peer's marriage with an heiress frefjuently fails, and his title is
brought to an end." (p. 13*2.)

This generali-sation of Galton's, most brilliant in its suggestiveness, he
e.xtends to the 'Statesmen' and to a considerable portion of the peerage.
Everywhere with the same result, that in a large })roportion of the cases in
which peerages become e.xtinct there have been marriages with heiresses. Is
Galton's conclusion, however, that heire.s.ses come of sterile families the cor-
rect explanation? I venture to think it is not. In the fir.st place there is
in man some, but no very important, correlation between fertility in mother
and dauifhter, and this result has been confirmed for mice and horses. The
iniieritanee of grades of fertility seems hardly ade(juate to account for such
rapid extinction as Galton records. I think explanation may be found in
two other directions. The son of a peer starting with an a.Hsured jx>sition
s])ends si life of ease and pleasure, which is often synonymous with a life
which ruins health and squanders wealth. The fortune of the family has
then to he retrieved, and the solution is marriage with an heire.ss. And here
the words of Dr Erasmus Darwin are appropriate and he also wiis a keen
'< observer :

"As many families become gradually extinct by hereditary diseases, as by scrofula, con-
I sumption, epilepsy, mania, it is often hazardous to marry an heiress, as .she is frequently the
last of a diseased family ' ".

The fertility of a libertine and a woman of decjident stock is likely to
[be much lielow the normal lx)th in quantity and survival value. Onlva very
L detailed investigation of a long series of cases would allow us to detennine
[whether i^rasmus Darwin or his grandson has taken the more correct view ;

' Temple of ^a lure (Additional notes), p. 45, 1803, cited by O»lton on the interleaf of hi*
Icopy of Hereditary Genius, 1869.

96 Life ami Letters of Franch Galtoit

and the investigation would be well worth making. Galton himself naliscd
that there might be other points than the sterility of heiresses:

"The reason I have gone so far w simply to show that, iilthough iimiiy men of eminent
ability (I do not speak of illustrious or prodigious geniuH) have not left deHcendants behind
them, it is by no means always because they arc sterile, but liecause they are apt t^) marry
sterile women, in order to support the peenv>;es with which their Ujerits iiave l)een rewarded.
I look upon the peerage as a (lisa.str<ms institution, owing to it-s destructive efft-cts on our
valuable rac»«. The most highly gifted men arc ennobled; their elder sons are U'nipte<l to
marry heiresses, and their j'ounger sons not to marry at all, for these have not enough fortune
to 8up|X)rt lK>th a family and an aristocratical position. 80 the si<le-,shoots of the genealogical
tree are hack*>d off, and the leading shoot is blighted, and the l)ree<l is lo.st for ever. It is with
much .satisfaction that I have traced and, I hope finally disposed of, an important cause why
families are apt to become extinct in projR)rtion to their dignity — chiefly so, on account of my
desire to show that able races are not neces,sarily sterile, and secondarily because it may put an
end to the wild and ludicrous hypotheses that are fre<iuently started to account for their
destruction." (pp. 139-40.)

The following chapters on 'Commanders,' 'Literary Men,' 'Men of Science,'
'Poets,' 'Painters,' 'Musicians' and 'Divines' and 'Senior Classics' we must
pass over more briefly ; they follow the ssime general lines fis those on 'Judges'
and 'Statesmen,' and the same general criticisms apply. Perhaps the most
important of these is that, up to and including 'Men of Science,' Galton still
ap[)ears to consider that 100 eminent men have only 100 sons who reach
adult life. If the wickedness of Judges and the heiress-hunting of Statesmen
could justify such a fertility, it certainly does not seem reasonable in the
case of other clas-ses; although as I have pointed out it does not really aflfect
Galton's main argument, it still seems to render the column C of his Tables
unsatisfactory.

In the case of 'Commanders' Galton points out the early age at which
they generally achieved greatness. He also points out that they have not a
long life, and that as their relative chance of being shot varies as the square
root of the product of their height and weight, the man who lives to be a
great commander will prolmbly be small.

"Had Nelson been a large man, instead of a mere feather-weight, the probability is that he
would not have survived so long." (p. 145.)

Galton does not draw the obvious moral that it is good policy not to face
your foe, but to approach him edgewise !

"The enemy's bullets are least dangerous to the smallest men, and therefore small men an-
more likely to achieve fame as commanders than their equally gifted contemporaries -.1.,,...
physical frames are larger." (p. 146).

Under 'Men of Science,' a subject which Galton was to take up again
later, there are many topics of interest raised. Galton notes that in the
case of science the mother appears to play a greater part than the father.
There is a long passage here — one of the finest Galton ever wrote — and one,
notwithstanding its length, I feel lx)und to cite. It runs:

" It therefore appears to be very important to success in science that a man should have
an able mother. I lielieve the reason to \n\ that a child so circumstance<l has the goo<i fortune
to be delivered fnim the ordinary narrowing, partisan influences of home education. Our race
is emntially slavish ; it is the nature of all of us to lx;licvc blindly in what we love, rather

Earlji Atit/tro/tofot/ical Renearchen 07

thun ill tlint which wu think moot witnt. W'l- atv iiicIiiiMl to Kiok upon an honmt, uniihrinkin({
pursuit of truth an Miiiiipthing irreverent. Wo arc iiKli^^iuint wh««ii others pry into our idols, anri
criticiKO tlipni with impunity, just as a Hnvugp IlieH to urniH wh)-n ii uiiNNionHry picks his fi-tish
to pipco«. WonwMi iirt) fur inoro stronxly inHuencetl hy theiw^ fw'lii ' ' ire

blinder paitiHnns and more servile followers of custom. Hivppy are tl it

int<'nsify their naturully sliivish dis(>o8itions in childhixxl, hy the freijuciit u.sc of | -h

ii.s, "I)o not ask (|ueslionK iilKiut thi.s or that, for it is wrong to douht"; Imt who mIi m,

hy practice and teaching;, that inijuiry may Ih! absolutely iree without Ixjint' ', that

reverenct) for truth is the parent of free incjuiry, and that indifl'erenw) or in in the

search after truth is one of the most degrading of sins. It is clear that a child brought up
under the influences I have descrilit>d is far more likely to succeed as a scientific man than one
who was rejinxl under the curl> of <logmatic authority. Of two men of («<|ual abilities, the one
who has a truth-loving mother would Ixi the more likely to follow the career of scienc<!; while
the other, if bred up under extremely narrowing circumstances, would Injcome as the gifted
children in (,'hiiHi, nothing better than a student and profes-sor of some dejid literature.

It is, I U'lieve, owing to the favourable conditions of their early training that an unusually
large proportion of the sons of th<^ most gifU-d men of science l)ecom« distinguishe*! in the same
career. They have been nurtured in an atmosphere of free in<[uiry, and observing as thev grow
older that myriads of problems lie on every side of them, simply waiting for some ■ Iv

capable person t4i take the trouble of engjiging in their .solution, they throw then. iili

ardour into a field of labour so jieenliarly tempting. It is and liius Is-en, in truth, .strangely
neglected. There are hundreds of students oi books for one student of nature; hundreds of
eonnnentators for one original ini|uirer. The field of real science is in sore want of laltourera.
The mass of mankind plods on, with eyes fixetl on the footsteps of the generations that went
before, too inditferent or too fearful to raise their glances to judge for themselves whether the
path on which they are travelling is the Ijest, or to learn the conditions by which they are
surrounded and affected." (pp. 19()-7.)

Such was Gralton's view of the relation of the higher freethought to sciencse,
and those who know his writings closely and knew the man him.self will
recognise how much of his own course in life thevse sentences depict; he threw
himself with ardour into almost every field of inquiry, ahsolutely free of cus-
tomary opinion, regardless, perhaps occasionally too regardless, of the foot-
steps of the generations that went before; he was essentially a student of
phenomena and not of hooks.

In mathematicians among the men of science he seems somewhat dis^ip-
j)ointed, for

"when we consider how many among them have been j)o.ssesse<l of enormous natural gifts it
might have been expecte<l that the lists of their eminent kinsmen would have b«H;n richer than
they are." (p. 198.)

Galton reali.sed fully the Bernoiillis and the Gregorys, Ijiit wrotv loo early
to have realised the Darwins, who combine mathematics and natural science.
For his criticism is that while he knows senior wranglers related to other

I mathematicians, he does not think they have enough kinsmen eminent in

t other ways.

"I account for the rarity of such relationship in the following manner. A man given to
abstract idea-s is not likely to succeed in the world, unless he is particularly eminent in his
peculiar line of intellectual eflbrt. If the more moderately gifted relative of a great mathe-
matician can discover laws, well and go<xl ; but if he spends his days in puzzling over problenw
too insignificant to be of practical or theoretical import, or else too hard for him to solve, or if
he simply reads what other i>eople have written, he niakes no way at all, and le.ives no name
l)ehiml him. There are fewer of the numerous intermwHate stages between eminence and

i> u II 13

98 Life ami Lettet's of FiiinciH (ialtim

mediocrity adapted for the occupation of men, who are devoted to pure abstractions, than for
thooe whuM inten«t is of a Kocial kind." (p. 198.)

1 think tliere is also anotlier point which appHes to all men of science
but particuhirly to the niatheniatician. Two factors or qualities are needful
for a great man of science, namely accurate power of analysis, and an intense
power of imagination which equals, if it does not transcend, that of poet or
painter. Imagination and analytical power do not seem correlated characters;
thev may be most fortunately combined in some individual but separated in
his kinsmen. There are many matliematicians who are brilliant algebraists,
but lack the imagination which finds problems worth solving and .suggests
the solution to be attempted analytically. That is why so many mathema-
ticians are dull socially, they are inclined to spend their leisure playing chess
or solving mathematical puzzles propounded by their fellows in educational
journals — a pursuit akin to solving conundrums.

The really eminent man of science does, however, }X)s.ses8 imagination;
in fact, it is probably the most marked characteristic of all forms of genius,
and with it comes the width that counteracts the dangers of specialisation.
Galton saw this as fully as Huxley, and would smile in his quiet way when
a committee of mediocrities turned down the proposal of a man of great
imagination on the ground that it was not 'practical [tolitics.'

"People lay," he writes, "too much stress on apparent specialities, thinking overrashly that,
because a man is devoted to some particular pursuit, he could not p<is.sil>ly hiive succeeded in
anything else. They might just as well say that, liecause n youth hiul fallen desperately in love
with a brunette, he could not possibly have fallen in love with a blonde. He may or may not
have more natural liking for the former type of boiuty than the latter, but it is as prolwble as
not that the affair was mainly or wholly due to a general amonjusness of disposition. It is just
the same with special pursuits. A gifted man is often capricious or fickle before he selects his
occupation, but when it has been chosen he devotes himself to it with a truly passionate ardour.
After a man of genius has seUnrted his hobby, and so adapted him.self to it as t<j seem unfitted
for any other occu|>ation in life, and to be possessed of but one special aptitude, I often notice
with admiration how well he l)ears himself when circumstances suddenly thrust him into a
strange position. He will display an insight into new couditions, and a power of dealing with
them, with which even his most intimate friends were unprepare<l to accredit hiiu. Many a
presumptuous fool has mistaken indifference and neglect for incapacity; and in trying to throw
a man of genius on ground where he was unpre|iared for attjick, has himstMf receive*! a most
severe and unexpected fall. I am sure that no one who has had the privilege of mixing in the
society of the abler men of any great uapital, or who is acquainted with the biographies of the
heroes of history, can doubt the existence of gnuui human animals, of natures preeminently
noble, of individuals born to be kings of men. I have been conscious of no slight misgiving that
I was committing a kind of sacrilege whenever, in the preparation of the materials of this book,
I hud occasion to take the measurement of modern intellects vastly superior to my own, or to
criticise the genius of the most magnificent historical specimens of our race. It was a process
that constantly recalled to me a once familiar sentiment in l)ygone days of African travel, when
I U8e«l to take altitude^s of the huge cliffs that dominwre*! above me as I travelled along their
bases, or to map the mountainous landmarks of unvtsite<l tribes, that IuouiihI in faint grandeur
beyond my actual horizon." (pp. 24-5.)

As I have tried to impress on the reader, if Galton wiis a freethinker, he
still worshipped as one of simpler faith at his own peculiar shrine — a shrine
dedicated to the genius of his race. Those, who have not recognised that the
inheritance of mental ability is the essential doctrine of Galton's faith — the

PLATK XI

Fniiicis (iiillDil, Jigcil 00.

From the |>ainting made in 1882 by Professor Graef, now in the possession of Mr Cameron Gnlton.

It was (luiing tlie |>ainting of this picture that Galton counted the strokes of the artist's brush.

fJarlji Anf/iro/wloffi'ral Rfine.arche» 99

keystone of the arch by aid of which mankind shall jtass to a higher future —
those. I say, have never properly understood his niesHage to his generation ;
it is hard to Ixjlieve that they have read, even 8U|)<'r(icially, his writinjjH.

With 'Poets,' 'Musicians' and 'Painters' Galton is more brief than he
luis been in the case of men of action and of reason.

"Thn PiwU and Artists noncrally iiro iiioii of \\\n\\ lixpiratioiiH, Imt, for all tlmt, tlicy ure »

''•Wisuous, orotic ruco oxcce'dinj^ly irromiliir in their way of lifo. Kv«mi »Ii« mMtti ninl virtu*-

prnacliiiig l)iiMt<> in s|>okf>i> of liy Hocoiircio in niiwt Nevi'r»» tt-rniH'. '1' lin-

pliiyoi curly in youth, when thoy are first Hhukon liy the t(*ni}>vHtuoU' , -'.">.)

Almost all the able kindred of poets are in the first dej,'rf'c.

"Poets are not the founders of fanulies. The reason is, I think, simple and it app!i«a to
artists generally. To bo a great arti.st requires a rare and so to siieak unnatural correlation of
({ualitius. A poet, besides hia genius, must have the severity, and stedfaMt unrncntnejut of th<Me
whose dispositions affonl few ti'niptationa to plejisure, and he must, at tli' me, have the

utmost delight in the exerci.so of his senses and affections. This is a rari- c, only to be

formal by some happy accident, and is therefore uii.stable in itdieritunce. I -ii \..-. ["-.ii. who
have strong sensuous tastes go utterly a.stray and fail in life, and this tt-ndem y I- . 1. .n .\ -Ihiwn
by numerous instances mentioned in the following apjiendix, who have inherited the dani^iiout
part of a poet's character and not his other (|ualities that redeem and control it." (p. 2-7.)

Uante having been put aside, and recent revelations having rather dis-
credited Wordsworth, must we look on Goethe alone as the one poet who
with fitedfa.st eanie.stness took the utmost delight in the exerci.se of his
senses? Or, shall we pin our faith solely to Milton, with perhaps Samuel
Rogers lurking in the background? Galton was writing in his 47th year,
and as we all know 20 and GO are the dangerous ages for men. Would he
have written forty years later with less condemnation, with a grejiter sense
of the impenetrable mist which screens from our gaze the links between
creative genius and sex ? One of the most brilliant women of our day once
said to tlie present writer : " I am most creative, when my senses dominate

Tl '

lal

Galton could sit to an artist and count the numl^r of his bnush- or
mallet-strokes', while to another the fascination is to watch the features of
the man o.scillating lietween gratification and despair us he strives to impart
his ideal version of a crude reality to a refractory medium. I do not think
Galton had a very clear appreciation of the artistic nature — I do not say of art.

But if he had less feeling for men of poetry than for men of science,
he had almost no sympathy at all for ' Divines.' This is not to say that his
accounts in the " Appendix to Divines" (pp. 283-98) are not fair, I believe
they are, and, I think, he even exaggerates the importance of some of his
selected men of piety. In order to be impartial he selects the 19G names

' " Amid 80 much virtue, amid so much knowle<lge as have been alwve shown existing in
this wondrous poet, lustfulness found mo-st ample place, and not only in his youthful, but ia
his mature yoai-s ; which vice, although it is natural, and common and almost of necessity, of
a truth cannot be rightly excusetl, much less commended. But who among mortals shall be
the just judge to condemn him? Not I." Thus Boccaccio, and these tiie words 0*ItOD had in
mind.

" Letter of February C, 1907. 'See NiMmn, June 29, 1906.

me most. " The wise man strives
will echo Gal ton's Boccaccio-lik

s to hold the bridle firmly, but in his old aire
e cry : " But who am I to piiss judgment ? '

1(M» Life and Lvtter» of Fninnx Culdnt

contained in Middleton's Bioyruphut Ex^angeUca, 1786, and confines his
attention to these. In this way he excUides in the first place practically all
the founders of great religious movements. In the next place he excludes
all Roman Catholic (livine.s, and this on the ground of their celibacy; but
still we might question whether i-e.search into their ancestry and coUatends
would not nave l)een of great interest, even if no descendants are available.
But again, l)efore the Reformation and for two centuries after, to a lesser
extent however, churchmen of genius reached eminence largely because they
were politicians, or the more illustrious because they were statesmen. On
the other hand .some information would surely be available as to the stirps of
St Augustine, St Thomas Aquinas, St Francis, Meister Eckhardt, Johannes
Tauler, (ieorge Fox. Swedeimorg, John Wesley and many others who have
left their inqjiess on religiou.s thought, and are excluded from the selection
of Middleton. If I may say so, that selection seems to me to contain names
of persons who in then day may have been eminent for piety, but did not
|X>S8ess intellectual ability amounting to genius. Yet Galton himself says
that after reading Middleton's work he gained a much greater respect for the
body of Divines than he had Ijefore :

"One is so frequently scandalised by the priiiiii'>s^, airiMmnv ami tiinaticiRm shown in
theologicnl disputes, that an inelination to these failings may reasonably \m suspected in men
of large religious profes.sion. But 1 am a-ssure my rejulers, that Mi<ldleton's biographies appear,
to the best of my judgment, to refer, in by the far grtmter part, to excoe<lingly noble characters.
There are certainly a few personages of very doubtful reputation, especially in the earlier part

of the work, which covers the turbid period of the Iltjformation Nevertheless, I am sure

that Middleton's collection, on the whole, is eminently fair and trustwortliy." (p. 2.59.)

Now you may think a bishop an excellent fellow and find a boon
companion in a dean ; but even friend ' Punch ' will smile at the gravity of
the one, and venture to laugh out-loud at the seriousness with which
the other takes himself To make merry over the Divines is not to mock
the Divinity — but I fear many of Galton's readers thought so in 1869, and
his book for this and other reasons was by some strongly condemned.
Yet, perhaps, Galton's chapter on the ' Divin&s ' with all the irony and
genial ridicule which make it such good reading is perhaps the subtlfv^^) in
its analysis.

"I am now alx>ut to push my stiktistical survey into regions where precise in(|uiries seldom
penetrate, and are not very genemlly welcomed. There is commonly so much vaguenes.s of
expression on the part of religious writers that I am unable to determine what they really mean
when they speak of topics that directly bear on my present inquiry. I cannot gues.s how far
tlu'ir exjjressions are intended to 1x3 understood met«pliorically, or in some other way to b«
cluthi-d with a different meaning to what is im|>osed by the grammatical rules and plain meaning
of language. The expressions t« which F refer are those which assert the fertility of marriages
and the establishment of families to Ix- largely dei)endt'nt on go<llines8. 1 may even take a much
wider range and include tlios<! other expressions which assert that material well-being generally

is influence<l by the same cause What I undertake is sinijily to investigate whether or no

the assertions they contain, according to their privid facie interpretation, are or are not in
accordance with statistical deductions'. If an exceptional providence protects the families of
godly men, it is a fact that we must take into account. Natural gifts would then have to be
conceived as due, in a high and probably measurable degree to anccstnil piety, and in a much

' We trace here the germ of Galton's later work on "The Efficacy of Prayer."

KavUj Aiitliropolniiinil /frucdirfii'H I0|

lower degnH) than F might otlierwiHu liavo been inelinotl to suppoau Ui ancostnU natural fMtcu-
liaritics. All of us nro fiiiniiiar with miutlipr hikI an oxa^-tly npi iiion. It i 'X

Haid that thu childrfii of roiigiotiH |iui'fntM fre<|ucntly turn nut i I ntiriDT" ••<i

arc (|uot<<(l to support IIiIh aM.siTtioii. If a wiilcr induction and u cai
the correctness of tliin view, it might apjH«r to stn>ngly oppost* thti i;

On l)oth tliese accounts, it is alisolut«!ly necessary, to the just treatment of m .

inquire into the history of religious ptiople, and learn the extirnt of their hercdit«r)' p- i. .:. -,

and whether or no their lives are attended by exceptionally goo<l fortune." (pp. 257-8.)

Galton then starts on his analysis and finds that :

"As a general rule, the men in Middleton's collection had considerable intellectual capacity
and natural cagorniMs fur study, both of which ({ualities were commonly manifest in iMiyhtxMl.
Most of them wrote voluminously, and were continually engagi-d in preachings and religious
services. They ha<l evidently n strong need of utterance. They were generally, but by no means
universally, of religious parentage There is no case in which either or lx)th |>arent« are dis-
tinctly descrilied iis having been sinful, though there are two cases of ineAnness and one of

over-spending The Divines, as a whole, have had hnnlly any appreciable inlluencc in founding

the governing families of England, or in producing our judges, stAtesmen, commandera, men of
littM-ature and science, poets or artists. The Divines are but moderately prolific." (pp. 260-2.)

Those who many often marry several times; tliiis out of Galton's 100,
three married four tunes, two three times, and twelve had two wives apiece.
Galton accounts for the early deaths of the wives of Divines hy the
hypothe.sis tliat their constitutions were on the whole weak. They were
usually women of great piety, and

"there is a frequent correlation between an unusually devout disposition and a weak constitu-
tion." (p. 204.)

Galton finds the median age at death of Divines to be 62 to 63, which is
rather A'cS.s than that of eminent men dealt with in other parts of his volume.

"As regards health, the constitutions of most of the divines were remarkably bad." (p. 265.)

Studying young scholars or students he finds that they either die young,
or strengthening as they grow retain their .scholarly tastes and indidge them
with sustained energy", or lastly live on in a sickly way. The Divines arc
largely recruited from the last class.

"There is an air of invalidism about most religious biographies It is curious how lai^

a part of religious biographies is comnumly given up to the occurrences of the sick room'

I can add other rea-sons to corroborate my very strong impression that the Divines are, on the
whole, an ailing body of men." (pp. 265-74.)

Those who were of vigorous constitution had too frequently been wiKl in
their youth. Galton generally concludes that a pious disposition is decide<lly
hereditary, but there are also frequent cases of the sons of pious {mrents
turning out badly.

' Thus Rivet's biography is cited. He died after twelve days' suffering of stranguhttion of
the intestines, the remedies attempted, each successive pang and each corresponding religious
ejaculation is recordetl ; the history of his bowel attack being protnictwl through forty five pagM
or as much space as is allotted to the entire biographies of four average divines. Where the
piety of the divine is not witnessed by his martyrdom by men, it must be illustrated by his
martyrdom by disease.

102 Life and Letters of Frauci'n Gaftnn

"I therefore see no reason to believe that the Divines are an exceptionally favoured race
in any reepect; but rather, that they are less fortunate tlmn other men." (p. 274.)

Gallon's .statistical table indicates that the influence of the female line
has an unusually large effect in qualifying a man for eminence in the religious
world.

"The only other group in which the influence of the fenmle line is even conijMiralilo in its
nia^itude is that of scientiKc men; and I believe the reasons laid down when speaking of them
will apply, mulaii* inHtaitdis, to the Divines. It requires unusual qualitications and some of
theui of a feminine oust, tu become a leading theologian. A man must not only have appropriate
abilities, and zeal, and power of work, but the pustulate.s »f the cn'ed that he professes must
be BO 6rndy ingrained into his mind, as to be the equivalents of axioms. The diversities of
creeds held by earnest, good and conscientious men, show to a candid UK>ker-on, that there can
be no certainty as to any point on which many of such men think ditVerently '. But a. divine
must not accept this view; he must be convinced of the absolute security of the groundwork
of his peculiar faith, — a blind conviction which can best be obtained through maternal teachings
in the years of childhood." (p. 1276.)

The chapter concludes with a discussion which, whether it be correct or
incorrect, is certainly subtle, of the relative views of the pious man and the
sceptic. The contented sceptic having no faith in an external power tends
to have confidence in himself and is therefore more stable.

"The sceptic, equally with the religious man, would feel disgust and shame at his miserable
weakness in having done yesterday, in the heat of some impulse, things which to-day, in his
calm moments, he disapproves. He is sensible that if another person had done the same thing,
he would have shunneil him; so he similarly shuns the contemplation of his own self. He feels
he has done that which makes him unworthy of the society of pure-minde<l men; tiiat he is u
disguised pariah, who would deserve to be driven out with indignation, if his recent acts and
resl character were suddenly di.sclosed. The Christian feels all this and scmiething n\orc. He
feeln he has committ^nl his faults in the full .sight of a pure God; that he acts ungnitefully and
cruelly to a Being full of love and compassion, who died for sins like tho«e he has just committed.
Tliese considerations add great poignancy to the sense of sin

The result of all these considerations is to show that the chief peculiarity in the moral nature
of the pious man is it-s conscious instability. He is liable to extremes — now swinging forward
into regions of enthusiasm, adoration and self-sacrifice; now backwards into those of sensuality
and selfishness. Very devout people are apt to call themselves the most miserable of sinners, and
I think they must be taken to a considerable extent at their woiti. It would appear that their
dis|)osition is to sin more frequently and to repent more fervently than those whose constitutions
are stoical, and therefore of a more symmetrical and orderly character. The amplitude of the
moral oscillations of religious men is greater than that of others whose average moral position
is the same." (pp. 280-2.)

On this hypothesis Galton explains the apparent anomaly why children
of extremely pious parents occasionally turn out very badly.

' The agnostic standpoint has rarely been lietter put ; yet while Spencer, Huxley and Clifford
have been acknowledged as protagonists in the mid-Victorian contest of science and theology,
Galton 8 attitude, in many itjspects more logical, and which caused much opprobrium at the
time, has been largely forgotten or overlooked. And yet Galton 's view of n-ligion iti 1869 was
that of the Oalton of 1894 and of 1907. He thought that a religion required no ultra-rational
sanctions for conduct, and that a passionate aspiration to improve the heritable powers of man
would suffice as the basis of a national religion, when the old religious notions and so<:ial practices
had avowedly failed. See "llie Part of lleligion in Human Evolution," National Revieii; 1894,
pp. 755 «< leq.

F'LATK XII

Letter of Francis Ualton to Charles Darwin's son Fnincis, indicating
tin- ri'liijioua views of l>oiIi (!:iliim ami Daiwln

^M|^M|^^^MMM|*^~- ■• — '- , .11 I" J»J."-'|

(yr f-ft . > A,

/l^'

/

./^

I ^i.

^^

/

c -<-

■I

\tCJ^l

r^^i

(4v K.^^-''-

' A

I

Kttrlij AnHirojtuluyical Ktseardw)< ion

"Tlie imii-iiis im- imlurally gifU-tl with hi^li moral charmotera conilmifu wmi n
diiipoMition, hut tht^M^ puc'iilinrilipH arc in no way corrnlaUxl. It iiiuiit, themfonj, i<i
that till! chilli will inherit the (iiir iind not tlip other. If his heii' ' ' a jjitta

without the jjrcat instahility, ho will not feel tho need of exti > , great

inHtubility without morality, he will Im) very likely to disgrace hiM uuniu." (p. M'l.)

As T have said it is a very siibtle hypotliesis and to lx> convinced of its
adequacy one would nt^ed to examine the facts of the instability with atiitisti-
cal ctitegories. Galton had read more than 200 lives of Divines, which is
immensely more than his biographer can lay claim to, and Galton had a very
shrewd appreciation of character. Still he has not graded his Divines by
instability of disposition and compared his graduation with that of other
groups in the community, and until that is done his suggestion must remain
hypothetical.

But there is a far more valuable idea at the root of the matter than its
application to Divines, and that is where the subtlety arises. We are ac-
customed to speak of the (juality or faculty of an individual for a given
characteristic and measure it quantitatively if we can on a single occasion,
or by a given test. We speak of a man's intellectual power and consider it
as exhibited in his actions. But in all his actions he does not necessarily
e.\hibit the same degree of wisdom ; his intelligence fluctuates alx)ut a mean,
and if we examine a man's life as a whole, it is this mean intelligence that
we roughly appreciate. The same applies to all psychical characters, and
indeed to many physical. Now Galton asserts that two individuals who
have the same mean character will or may have widely different fluctuations
from the mean. I tliink no man who has to deal with sttidents or measure
them anthropometrically would disj)ute this view. Pereonal equations fluctu-
ate round an average and the intensity of the fluctuation or the stability of
judgment varies from individual to individual. So far so good, but now
comes Galton's subtle suggestion. It is that the magnitude of a character
and its stability are independent units and may be inlierited independently.
As far as I am aware no attempt has been made to con-elate the magnitude
and the stability of any characters, psychical or j)hysical, still less to test
their independence in heredity. It should not be a hard piece of investiga-
tion and might lead to very valuable results, especially in economic breeding.
It is peculiar to Galton's suggestions that they lead one so far afleld. One
pjisses almost unconsciously from the moral character of Divines to problems
of root-growing and cattle-breeding'!

Of the chapter on 'Senior Classics' there is little to be said; it marks
the grip of our Alma Mater, no less powerful on Galton, than on less con-
siderable sons. The final chapters on 'Oarsmen' and 'Wrestlers' show that
Galton gave rather a wide meaning to the term 'geniu.s.' The material is
interesting for two reasons. The inquiry for it brought Galton, the descendant
of Quakers, into touch with that fine old Friend, Dr Kobert Spence Watson,

' The seed from two turnip plants gives daughter-plants, .say, of the same av«rag« weight,
but in one case the fluctuations from the mean are large and in the other small. The st«ble crop
would probably be more valuable. Is this stability an indei>endent uniti

104 Life and Letters of Franeix (iulton

and 1 know from the personal accounts of botli, how these two men, in many
respects of kindretl mind, appreciated each other. And secondly, l)ecau8e
Galton endeavoured to destroy dogmas about muscle, so similar to those held
by many about bniin.

"No one doubts that muscle is hcrtKlitary in horses and dogs, but humankind are so blind
to faoU and so governed by prt-cdnceptions, tlmt I \\i\vv heiinl it fr»'(|u<'ntly iisscrted that muscle
is not herwlitary in men. (Jarsmen and wrestlers have miiintained that their lieriK's spring up
capriciously, so I have thought it advisable to make inquiries into the matt«r. The results I
have obtained will beat down another place of refuge for those who insist that each man is an
independent creation, and not a mere function, physically, morally and intellectuaJly, of ancestral
qualities, and external influences." (p. 305.)

We must now turn to Galton's final summarising chapters. I must con-
fess frankly that while I consider that Galton has demonstrated the hereditary
character of ability as judged by eminence, I Hud it very hard to fit in
his statistical results with our present knowledge of the inheritance of
ability.

One thing of course follows certainly and cojiclusively from the data,
namely the farther removed, either directly or collaterally, a kinsman is from
his eminent relative the smaller is his chance of being eminent. A son has
the best chance of all and then comes the brother, and the probability tails
away as we come to more distant relatives. This is reasonable because the
ability has been usually diluted by what Galton would term 'mongrel'
marriages, i.e. marriages with the intellectually mediocre. But there are two
great difficidties in my mind about the analysis. The first is that of his
grade of ability. On pp. 33-34, he defines his conception of eminence to be
250 men per million or one man in 4000. He also assumes a normal distri-
bution for intelligence. Now, I think, that the student of Hereditary Genius,
who considers the men, whether Judges, or Statesmen, or Men of Science,
and still more the Divines, in Galton s lists, will hardly credit them with
this degree of rarity. I confess that limiting the selection to the class of
men educated professionally or by class tradition to aim at distinctions of
this kind, I felt in my recent re-perusal that 1 in 500 was an adequate
measure of the eminence, and before I came to the end of the book, I doubted
whether it was more than 1 in 100. That is to say that while some of
Galton's lists indicated men with a grade of 1 in 10,000 or even more, there
was a very considerable tail, some of whom had not a greater ability than
you would find in one in a hundred or even fewer.

1 now started to test this on Galton's hypothesis that the distribution
of capacity is normal, and on the result of mucl» recent work that in a
stable population the son will on the average inherit half his father's devia-
tion from mediocrity', the mothers not being seleeted. In this manner I was
able to form the following tables which indicate in a population of a inillion
the probable number of eminent sons of eminent fathers for each standard of
eminence.

' Id technical language, if the standard deviations of the |.<i|,iil.itiiiii in tin' iivi. L'eiwnitunis
arc equal, the co^'tficietit of a>rrelatiou will be Q-T>.

Earl If AnlhropohKjical Rfitearrhea

105

But Gnlton found 48

h

already referred
le nuniljer of relativeH to
He was perliapH hltuied by

sons per 100 fathers! N
(p. 96) to my douhts as to Ciulton's estimate of t
be attributed in (^acli gi-ade to an eminent man.

the wickedness of Judges and the misogyny of Statesmen ! Anyhow I feel
certain that tlie cuhimns C of his tables and consequently the columns D
are incorrect'. Had he attributed 200 or 250 sons to 100 eminent fatheiu
or families, say, of 4 to 5, he would have found 19 to 24 eminent sons to 100
eminent fathers — still far too many — but approaching nearer our 13 with a

II

Eminence 1 in lOOO F.inimnce 1 in &00

Futbcr Katlier

jl

Eroini-iice 1 In 100
Father

Non-
eminent

I
Eminent TolaU

Non-
eminent

Eminent

Total*

1

em^rent ^-'»'°'

Tot«la

fNon-eminent
Son „ .
[Eminent

998,064
946

946
S4

099,000
1,000

996,189
1,861

1,861
139

998,000
2,000

961.998 8,709
8,7(13 1,898

9904100
10,000

TotaU ...

999,000

1000

1,000,000

998,000

2,000

1,000,000

1
990,000' 10.000

1,000.000

No. of oniinent
sonnpt-rlOOemi-}-
nent falliers )

.■5-5

7

13'

much lower degi*ee, however, of eminence. An explanation of the remaining
discrepancy may, liowever, be found in the hint' thrown out by Galton in
this chapter, that "a large number of eminent men marry eminent women'."
He had already emphasised this point of view when discussing Men of Science
and Divines. But such a mating of 'like with like' raises the con-elation
between ofispring and parents slightly under 50 ''l\ Forming a table under
these conditions we find for 1 in 100 degree of eminence:

' Loc. cil. p. 317 for general tjible, and coinjwvre tables iit end of each sectinn.

' This is much of the order one finds for number of insane sons of insane fathers.

" Loc. cit. p. 325.

■* "The large number of eminent descendants from illustrious men must not be looked u|)on
as expressing the results of their marriage with mecliocrc women, for the average ability of the
wives of such men is above mediocrity. This is my .strong conviction, aft<>r reading very many
biographies, althougli it cla-shes with a commonly expressed opinion that clever men marry silly
women. It is not easy to prove my point without a considerable mass of i]\u)t»tions to show
the estimation in which the wives of a large btnly of illustrious men were held by their intiniat<"
friends, but the following two arguments are not without weight Fii-st, the lady whom a man
marries is very commonly one whom he has often met in the so<'iety of his own friends, and
therefore not likely to be a silly woman. She is also usually related to some of them, and there-
fore has a probability of being hereditarily gifted." (p. 324.)

• The multiple correlation c<xiffioient lietwiMJu parentage and offspring is n"" -ToTi

!• II u 14

106

Life niul Lettrrx tnj' Fruiii!.^ CulUni
Vari'idiujv

Non-eiuiuunl

Non-piuinent . . 982,675
Son

lEniiiient ... 7,.tJ)

Eminent ToUls

7,;!l'5
•-',675

990,000
10,000

ToUh 990,000

10,000

1,000,000

No. of eminent sons p«r 1001 .,-
eminent parentages j

This result is well within Galton's limits if we suppose the nunilnT ol' sons
born to an eminent father to average 18. With more sons, we could afford to
give somewhat less credit to the mothere or increase the standard of emi-
nence in the fathers, or take partly lx)th these steps. I believe that the points
just referred to: ( 1 ) under-estmiate of the number of sons of men of eminence ;
(2) over-estimate of the rarity of the ability of many men, which flowed from
Galton's intense admiration for all forms of intellectual power and all grades of
originality; and (3) due appreciation of the extent to which sissortative mating,
or marriage within the caste, alr«idy exists among men of ability, suffice to
bring the statistical results of Galton's book into line with more recent work.
Let it be rememljered that what Galton's researches really show is not that
talent is under-inherited, but, if his treatment were correct, that it is markedly
over-inherited as compared with other characters we know of. Genius must
in that case be a sport and inherited in a peculiar and intense fashion.
Galton felt considerable doubts as to his data of the number of relatives of
a man (pp. 318-19), and many years later the Biometric Laboratory provided
him with more ample material. He recognised (3), but at that time was not
able adequately to measure its effect. While as to (2) I know from personal
experience that he was apt to exaggerate the intellectual ability of men, who
by a certain brilliancy of expression and adequate self-assertion, obtained
temporary notoriety'.

Galton's next chapter on "The Comparative Worth of Different Races"
is, at the same time, more sketchy and more suggestive than the last. He
compares the intellectual ability of various races; he places a difference of
three grades between Anglo-Saxon and Negro, one being due to relative
demerits of native education and two to natural ability. He j)uts the Aus-
tralian native one grade below the African negro, and North of^ England and
Lowland Scottish a fraction of a grade above the ordinary English.

' I do not mean that Galton could not discriminate a charlatan, but where there was
»omf orij^itiality, ho wan apt to pxaggerate it into nil originality ; it seenuHl a natural conwH|uence
of his own tiiudeiity, of his gi^niulity and alxive all of tlie wt-iglit he laid on any originality.

Early Anthropoloyiail Jti'Mearches 107

"The iieafunt women uf Nurtliuinberlaiid work nil day in the fields and arv not broken down
by the work ; on tlio contrary, they take h prido in their e(lt>ctive labour hh ({iriii, and whon
niHrri(HJ, thoy iitt4>ii(l well to tht) comfort of tlicir hoin<>N. It is jK-rfttrtiv diHtn-iuiiiia t4i mii to
witrifHH tho drHj{gl('<l, drudgefl, inoiii !<M)k of t\w mass of individuals, c-i n-n,

that one meets in the streets of London, and olhei- pun^ly Knglish ti>wnH. I lujr

life seem too hard for their constitutions, and to be crushing them into degeiierai^y." (p. 340.)

Giiltoii then turns to (ireece, and having muated Fhito and Bacon, hy
what must hugely be the unpressionism of individual personal judgment, con-
cludes that the Athenian race from 530 B.C. to 430 B.c. was very nearly two
grades above our own,

"that is, alx)ut as much a« our race is alKjve tiiat of the African negro. Tliis estimate, which may
seem prodigious to some, is confirme<l by tiie quick intelligence and high culture of the Athenian
commonalty, Ixfforo whom liUM'ary works were recited, and works of art exhibited, of a far
more severe character than could possibly be apprecia(e<l by the average of our race, the calibre
of whose intellect is easily gauged by a glance at the contents of a railway bookstalL" (p. 342.)

I do not think (Jalton's comparison is justified, for he leaves out in the
one case the labouring and artizan pofuilation of 400,000 slaves, and includes
such a population in the other when reckoning liLs percentages of extreme
ability. Again he writes :

"We have no men to put by the side of Socrates and Phidias, Iwcause the millions of all
Europe, breeding as they have done for the 8ubse(|uent 2000 years, have never produc«>d their
equals." (p. 342.)

Without belittling Phidias we may re;isonably (piestion whether his genius
was really greater than that of the designer of any one of the great meilieval
Gothic cathedrals. Who can determine whether lljiphivel or Phidias was the
gi-eater artist? As for Socrates we see him through the mists; we do not
know the man himself, but still only perceive liim amid the glamour of his
contemporaries and the veneration of renascent humanists'. If we judge
him by the Socrates of the Platonic dialogues, his subtlety is not always deep
and his wisdom does not invariably apjiear very fundamental to the modern
cultured mind. If we require a fair test of relative fineness of intellect, in
two ages, surely we may ask this: Would the ablest minds of Age A have
gnusped the subtlest thought of Age B, and would the genius of B have
uiiled to appreciate the intellectual product of A's most eminent minds?
Judged by this test, I think both Kant and Einstein could fully gni-sp and
duly a])preciate what the Platonic Socrates had to s«iy, but I gravely doubt
whethei- the ideas of both Kant and Einstein would not have transcende*!
Socrates' mental capacity, even ius the nuxlern geometrician himself fully
understands Euclid, but Euclid would have failed to understand him. And
this is not a matter of the accunuilated knowlnfyc of the intervening cen-
turies, it is a result of the able.st intellects l>eing more subtle, more capable
of forming generalised conceptions than the most capable of ancient Greeks.

Again, it is trui' that 1) /, of the Athenian population' did enjoy the

' 'Sancte Stx-rates, ora pro nobis.'

' llather 2 to 3°/^, if we take no account of the women and children, who did not of courae
witness the plays.

14— S

108 Life and Letters of Franc'ix GaUon

ti-agetliea of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides; but it is certain that those
tragedies appealen to the primal passions of mankind, stronger and leas
hridliHl the closer rivilistnl man is to the primitive savaije ; and it is not
certain that nine-tenths of that audience did not prefer tlie hutibonery scenes
from "The Birds," just as the 5 7„ niore highly educated class of to-day
professes interest in problem plays but attends the 'revues.'

Galton uses the Greeks as an illustration of a race two to three 'grades'
higher in intelligence than our own, and hence as an argument that what
man has been man can be. Its failui-e wtvs due, he holds, to lax morality.
But surely that want of moral stability indicated an inferiority in certani
aspects of the psychical side, a lack which permitted the shadow of the
doctrines of Paul to dim the brilliance of Greelc culture. Galton traces with
emphasis how tlie more intellectual rather than the physically stronger
nations have dominated the world, the survival of the titter meaning rather
the mentally than the physically fitter. In this evolution of fairly consist-ent
trend, the collapse of the Attic race appears as a most disturbing factor.
Galton distinctly felt this, but I Ijelieve he t(X)k too nmch on faith. Our
confidence in the superiority of the Greek intellect has been too largely
based on the judgment of men, the classical scholai-s, who have devoted a
disproportionately large period of their lives to the study of a single, if
undoubtedly important, phase of human culture. You cannot judge the
relative value of a human culture — especially if you approach it from a
literary side oidy — unless you have a fairly comprehensive knowledge of the
achievements of other cultures, and it is needful to study them not from one
but from many sides. Our judgment of Greek culture has, I venture to think,
not been mjule with a due appreciation of other cultures even up to our own ;
it has not been in the highest sense an anthropological judgment — we have
taken at second-hand the opinion of men whose lives have oeen devoted to
the .study of an isolated, if brilliant incident in the hundreds of thousands of
years of human evolution, and we have accepted their justifiable enthusiasm,
as if it must be the whole truth as seen from a more distant but wider point
of view.

It is a strange illustration of human love of dogmas that Galton's appraisal
of the Greek intellect has, perhaps, been the most frenuently remembered
and cited passage of a Ixwk remarkable for its novel and reasoned opinions.
Of course its citation is generally associated with the suggestion that the
history of man is not one of advancing mental develoj)ment ; whereas Galton
used it to point out that races could by judicious organi.satioii raise their intel-
lectual grade.

"And we too, the foremost labourers in creating this civilisation, are Ijeginning to show
omrselvcs incapable of keeping pace with our own work. The needs of centralisation, connnuni-
CAtion, and culture, call for more brains and mental stamina than the average of our race possess.
We are in crying want of a greater fund of ability in all stations of life ; for neither the classes
of statesmen, philosophers, artizans, nor labourers are up to the modern complexity of their
•everal professions. An extended civili.sation like ours comprises more interests than the ordinary
statesmen or philosophers of our present race are ai{ukble of dealing with, and it exacts more
intelligent work than our ordinary artizans and laljourers are capable of {xtrforming. Our race
is overweighted, and apiiears likely to be drudged into degeneracy by demands that exceed

I

Earlt/ Anthnt/whgiatl Rcttearchts 109

itH piwiM'N. If itM uvfriiffo nliility worn raiHe<l it xradi* <>r two, our now cI«mh<s F KnA O would
t-oixlui't tliu coinplcx iin'iiirH «i tli*- .stat4> iil lioini! ami nbrotid iix eAnily •• our prraenl F and O,
wIk'ii ill the |H)sitiiiii of country H<|iiii'pH, aro »I>1(' t<i iiiaimK>' the afTsini of their Mt«bliahment«
iiiul tttiiiiiitry. All otIiiT claNscH of tint i-ointnutiity would Im* siinilurlv pn>iiioi<><l to the level o(

the work ro<]iiiri'<I l.v tin' niin't iili century, if ''>" iiv..iM.r,. ^tiM..|iii,l ,,f tlw m. ■. w..r.. nuaed."

(p. 346.)

Tlie Greek Htatesinaii or commander liad to deal with huiidredH or
thousjinds of men, where onra have to deal with miUion.s in a society where
the rehitions ure of immensely increiused com|)loxity ; thut must be iKtrne in
mind wlien we compare the intellectual ahility of the two cultures. Foch
coiild lijivi' (lone the work of ThemiHtoclea, but the latter would have
broken down under the complexity of the work of ii nuxlern commander.
He would, as Ualton df^es, have certairdy called for a superman. One
wondei-H if the anceMtry of Mr Bernard Shaw's 'superman' otnnot Ije tnice<l
to ({alton ; for Mi' Shaw took him from Niet/.sclif. and tlie latttr knew of
Galton's work'.

Cialton's peiiultinuite i-iiapter "Influences that afl'ect the Natural Ability
of Nations" contains results almost conunonplaces now, but in 18(»'J they
were original suggestions of the highest value, because lie was practically
the first to apply the Darwinian doctrines to man and his communities. He
notes how careless Nature is of the lives of individuals, she is equally
careless of the lives of eminent families, they arise, flourish and decay ; and
the same may be said of races and of nations, they have aristMi in the past,
reached grandeur and then perished, often leaving but the slenderest shrtnls
of their culture to be preserved among the mental traditions of humanity
as a whole. Nay it is possible that such may be the story of our earth
itself relative to other possible scenes of existence in the cosmos around us.

"We are exceedinjj;ly ignorant of the reason.s why we exist, confident only that individual
life is a |x)rtion of some va.ster system that struggles arduously onwards towards ends that are
dimly sit'ii or wholly unknown to us, by means of the various attinitics' -the sentiments, the
tjustes, the appetites — of innumerable personalities who ceaselessly succeed one another on the

stage of existence." (p. 351.)

But such an outlook produced by the growing physical and historical
knowledge of man, while it depressed many of lesser mental calibre, who
found themselves torn from their old supernatural moorings and carried
helplessly along on the overwhelming tide of new thought, such an outlook
only led Galton to proclaim that Man — if at last he would stand on his own
feet, and discard his ages-old crutches -could to a large extent make his
own future. Confidence in himself, and in his own knowledge — faith in his
own intellectual leaders and not in any supernatural kindliness of cosmic
purpose — were for Galton the thorny but certain path towards man's
salvation.

"Our world appears hitherto to have developed itself, mainly under the in6aeoce of un-
reasoning affinities; hut of late, man slowly growing to lie intelligent, humane, and capftble,
has appeared on the scene of life and prt>foundly modified its conditions. He has already

' Frau Forster Nietwche in The Loitely Nietzsch* gives (p. 191) a letter of Dr Panneth
(15/12/1883) and the latter reports a talk" with Nietzsche at Nice, when "the conversation
turned on Galton," but there are unfortunately no particulars.

1 10 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

become able to look after hiti own iiit«'re))t<< in nn incomparably more fur-siKhtod manner, than
in the old prehistoric days of barliarism and flint knives ; he is already able to act on the ex-
periences of the pH8t> to coinbim* closely with distant allies, and to prepare for future wants,
known only through the intcllif^i-nce, long Iwfore their pressure has iK-coiiie felt. He has intro-
duced a va.st deal of civilisation and hygiene which intluence, in an immense degree, his own
well-being and that of his children; it remains for him to bring other jtolicius into action
that shall tell on the natural gift-s of his race,'' (p. 352.)

"How consonant it is t«> all analogj- and experience to expect that the control of the nature
of future generations should Ik* as much within the power of the living, us the health and
well-being of the individual is in the power of the guardians of his youth." (p. 351.)

Galton puts on one side such social arrangements as existed in Sparta
"as alien and repulsive to modern feelings"' and confines his discussion to

"agencies that are actually at work, and upon which there can be no hesitation in speaking."
(p. 352.)

He now takes in succession a series of factors which aifect the natural
ability of nations. He first stre.sses differential fertility and says that the
wisest policy is that which retards marriage among tlie weak and ha«tens it
among the vigorous classes. He was the first, I believe, to draw attention
to the fact that many social agencies have l)een " strongly and banefuUy
exerted in the precisely opposite direction." He points out how a very slight
difference in fertility of two classes of the community will in one or two
centuries enormously change the constituents of a jxjpulation. He indicates
that early marriage not only increases fertility, but by causing more over-
lapping of generations largely increases population apart from increased
fertility. After referring to the rapidly waning influence of any subsection
of a race which postpones marriage, Galton continues :

"It is a maxim of Malthus that the |>eriod of marriage ought to be delayed in order that
the earth may not lie overcrowded by a. ])opulution for whom there is no place at the great
table of nature. If this decline influenced all cla8.se8 alike, I should have nothing to say about
it here, one way or another, for it would hardly affect the discu.ssions in this book ; but as it is
put forward as a rule of conduct for the prudent part of mankind to follow, whilst the im-
prudent are necessarily left free to disregard it, I have no hesitation in saying that it is a most
pernicious rule of conduct in its bearing U|K)n race. Its efliect would Ix; such as to cause the
race of the prudent to fall, after a few centuries, into an almost incredible inferiority of numbers
to that of the imprudent, and it is therefore calculated to bring utter ruin on the breed of any
country where the d(x;trine prevailed. I protest against the abler races being encouraged to
withdraw in this way from the struggle for existence. It may seem monstrous that the weak
should be crowded out by the strong, but it is still more monstrous that the races licst fitted
to play their part on the stage of life should be crowded out by the incompetent, the ailing,
ami the desponding.

The time may hereafter arrive, in far distant years, when the population of the earth .shall
be kept as strictly within the bounds of numl>er and suitability of race, as the sheep on a well-
ordered moor or the plants in an orchard-hou.se ; in the meantime, let us do what we can to
enconrage the multiplication of the races lK>.st fitted to invent and conform to a high and
generous civilisation, and not, out of a mistaken instinct of giving support to the weak, prevent
the incoming of strong and hearty individuals." (pp. 356-7.)

' This point is very im|X)rtant, for superficial critics of eugenics liav(? inserted that (ialton
advoe«t«l 'Spartan' metho<is of mating. The creation of a suptTior intellectual caste, with a
rel: 'ing against mating outside it, and a national encouragement of its early marriage

aim ility formed Galton 's policy. The adequate endowment of superior motherlio<xl so

that women of mark('<l intelligence shall have greater freedom in the choice of the father of
their children is possibly the only considcrnlile additimi which ha-s Ihh-ii miule since liy cautious
eugenists to Ualton's positive policy.

•S

I

h\irlif Aiif/iro/»n/nifira/ HeHearrheH 1 1 I

The alM)ve is one of the most noteworthy puswigeH in wliich CJalton con-
(lemiiH the teaching of unrestricted birth-control'. And its wisdom upiH'arH
conviiiciiij^ to iiny hut Neo-Malthusian fanatics! The injj»ni<hnit, tlic fec'KU'SK,
and tho fcebloniiiKlt'd by their very nature will not control their liirths, and
the higher intelligences will and do. Birth-control is poison to a race which
has not IpgiHJatively orgaiii.srd a differential fertility of its castes; it is death
to a race which has not regarded its own fertility in relation to that of its
neighbours and possible enemies. The fear France exhibits l)efore (lennany
to-day, even after a successful war, is largely the outcome of her neglect of
the.se Galtonian axioms'.

(Jalton's condemnation of unthinking birth-control is followed by a still
troiiger condemnation of the te{u;bing of the Catholic Church, which chose
to preach and e.xact celibacy fi'om its most earnest devotees.

"The long p«irio(l of the dark ages under wliich Euro|)e haa lain is due, I believe to a very
considerable degree, to the celibacy enjoined by the religious ortlers on their votaries. Whenever
a nmn or woman was possessod of a gentle nature that fitted him or her to deeds of charity, to
meditation, to literature or to art, the social condition of the time was such that they had no
refuge elsewhere than in the h<.>son) of the Church. But the Church chase to preach and exact
celibacy. The con-sequeiico was that these gentle nature.s had no continuance, and thus by a
policy so singularly unwise and suicidal that I am hardlj* able to speak of it without im|>atienc«,
the Church brutjilised the breed of our forefathers. She acte<l precisely as if she uiniMl at
selecting the rudest portion of the coiumunity to be, alone, the parents of future generations.
She practised the arts which bree<lers would use, who aimed at creating fei-ocious, currish and
stupid natures. No wonder that club law prevailed for centuries over Europe; the wonder
rather is that enough good remained in the veins of Europeans to unable their race to rise to
its present, very moderate level of natural morality." (p. 358'.)

But the destruction of moral gentleness was not the only or perhaps the
most culpable result of Catholic policy. Galton cites the effects of the
Int^uisition, of the martyrdom and imprisonment of original thinkers in
Spain, Italy and France.

"The Sj>anish nation was ilrsined of free-thinkers at the rate of 1000 persons annually for
the three centuries between 1471 and 1781."

In Italy

"in the diocese of Como alone more than 1000 were tried annually by the inquisitors for many
years, and 300 burnt in the single year of 1416."

In France during the seventeenth century three to four hundred thousand

' Darwin strongly supported Gallon's opinion; see More Letters of Charles Darwin, Vol. It,
p. 60.

' It would be amusing, were it not sad, to note how large and influential a section of Galton's
creation, the English Eugenics Education Society, has recently been satisfying its thirst for
education at Xeo-Midthusiiin rather than (taltonian springs.

' Gakon refers to a relic of this monastic spirit which in his day gave an able young man a
fellowship at the University, not in order that ho might marry, but on condition that he did
not. That is now abolished, but the lay councils of academic institutions are still imbue<l with
the ignorance of the Catholic Church, they just as ertectually check the fertility of the able by
allowing only celibate pittances to the young men and women whose instinct impels them to
make research and learning their calling in life. Such a la3rman recently pointing to the list of
the ill-paid st^ff of the Galton Laboratory wanted to know why it should be maintained, if there
were so few students to be tauarht!

112 Life and Letters of Franc! a Galion

Huguenots perislied in prison, at the galleys, on the Kciitlold or in attempting
to escape, and an equal number emigrated. The Huguenots

"were able men, and profodndly influenced for good both our breed and our history."
This cruel policy degraded future generations, for it brought

"thooMtnds of the foremost thinkers and men of political aptitudes to the aciiflbid, or imprisoned
them during a large part of their manhood or drove them as eniigmnts to other lands."

Thus it came about that the Church,

"having first captunxl all the gentle natures and eondemne<l them to celibacy, made another
sweep of her huge nets, this time fishing in stirring waters, to cnt<;h those who were the most
feftrless, truth-seeking and intelligent in their modes of thought, and therefore the most suitable
parents of a high civilisation, and put a strong check, if not a direct stop, to their progeny.
Those she reserved on these occasions, to breed the generations of the future, were the servile,
the indifferent and again the stupid. Thus as she — to repeat my expression — brutalised human
nature by her system of celibacy applie<l to the gentle, she demoralised it by her system of per-
secution of the intelligent, the sincere, and the free. It is enough to make the blood lx)il to
think of the blind folly that has causeil the foremost nations of struggling humanity to Ix) the
heirs of such hateful ancestry, and that has so bre<l our instincts as to keep them in an un-
neceasarily long-continued antagonism with the essential requirements of a steadily advancing
civilisation." (pp. 358-9.)

Such is Galton's terrible indictment of the effect of the Roman ecclesi-
auticul policy. It has not been refuted, and it cannot be, except either by
denying the value of original thinking to mankind, or demonstrating that
originality of mind is not an hereditary characteristic. It is little wonder
that eugenics has met with small appreciation from Catholic writers. Yet
the charge has no longer other than historic value ; the will to persecute
may still exist in the ecclesiastically minded, but there is little force liehind
it ; the old religions, except in savage races, have lost their hold on tribal
imiigination ; we are seeking new religious ideals. And, as for the Roman
Catholic celibacy, it may now, with a few if notable exceptions, be looked
upon as a eugenic rather than a dysgenic factor.

Gralton finally points out how in a young colony

"the strong arm and enterprising brain are the most appropriate fortunes for a marrying man,"

but in an old civilisation the factors at work are far more complex.

"Among the active ambitious classes, none but the inheritors of fortune are likely to marry
young."

Men of moderate but more than average ability will not do so because
"their future is not assured except through a good deal of self-denial and effort."

Men of great tibility, even if they marry young, think of social position
and desire to foui»d families and are attracted by wealth in the first place.
Thus Galton holds that in an old civilisation there is a steady check on the
fertility of the abler classes, so that the race gradually deteriorates, until

"the whole political and social fabric caves in, and a greater or less relapse to barbarism takes
place, during the reign of which the race is ]>crliaps able to recover its tone." (p. .362.)

"The best form of civilisation in respect to the improvement of the race would l>e one in
which society was not costly; where incomcH were cliietly derived from professional sources,
and not much through inheritance; where every lad had a chance of showing his abilities, and,
if highly-gifted, was enabled to achieve a first-class education and entrance into professional

I

^^^p Karbj Anthnnmlogical Reaearckes 113

life by the liberal help of the cxIiibitionH nnd HcholarahipN which he hnH (jninH in hii «irly
yuulli : where niiiri-iu<,'f wiis licid in >i.m high honour on in an' ,>• pride

of moo wiiH pncoiir(if{''<l ("^ courup I do not refer to the ri' inscnt

(lny thnt f^ooN under thiit mime); where the weak could Knd a welionio and ii .' ite

monoMtericH or sixterhoods, and liuitly, where the better sort of eini){ranta uiu. ..:..„.... .;um
other landfi were invited and welcomed, and their descendanta naturalined." (p. 362.)

Such was the gospel of national welfare that Galton taught in 18C9 —
more llwm halfa century ago — then ns now indicating a funrlainental truth.
What progress have we made towarfls his ideal in the Hfty intervening
years ? Well, we have the educational ladder, and men can and actually do
to some extent mount it. But wealth, especially in these last years, ha«
grown a still more destructive factor of social stability, and the relatively
low fertility of the abler families has been emphasised, not reduced. Yet,
if the need for race-betterment has become greater, the recognition of that
need has undoubtedly become more widespread ; and that recognition we
owe, not a little, to the labours of Galton in the last ten years of liis life.

The last chapter of Galton's work reads somewhat (puiintly now, partly
in the light of later researches by others, and partly l>ecause of the progress
Galton himself made later in hereditary theory. He adopts Darwin's theory
of Pangenesis which was clearly much exercising his mind at this time. He
speaks twice of the " gemmules "—i.e. the germs thrown off by each cell
and carrying its hereditary qualities — as "circulating in the blood" (pp. 363
and '.^(il) and even propagjiting there*. Darwin did not at this time correct
the error, if error it was, in Galton's interpretation, although he wrote very
enthusiastically about the book, (ialton illustrates what he considers would
be the results of the theory of Pangenesis by a series of rather (juaint
analogies in the midst of which we find his theory of stability — later more
fully developed — illustrated by the oscillations of a rockiug-stone stable
until violent movement throws it over into a new position of equilibrium.
In a footnote, pp. 371-2, we find Galton, on the basis of Pangenesis, feeling
his way towards the T.rfiw of Ancestral Heredity — namely that the influence
of an individual ancestor in the nth generation diminishes in geometrical

? regression. He states that the treatment of heredity on the basis of
'angenesis

"seems well within the grasp of analysis, but we want a collection of facttf, such as the
breeders of animals could well supply, to guide us for a few steps out of the region of pure

hypothesis." (ftn. p. 372.)

Herein lies the germ of the quantitative or statistical theory of heredity.
Again Galton points out that the artificial breeder of fish by taking milt
from the male and allowing it to fall on the ovunj deposited by the female
can produce a new individual life, and that the characteristics of this
individual are largely under his control, if he has studied the parents. But

' "Mr Darwin maint«ins, in the theory of Pangenesis, that the geminules of innumerable
qualities, derived from ancestral source.s, circulate in the blood, and propagate themaalvn,
generation after generation, still in the sUte of gemmules, but fail in developing theinaelvet
into cells; because other antagonistic gemmules are prei>otent and ovenwaster them, in the
struggle for poiut-s of attachment, etc."' (p. 307.)

p u II >•

1 1 4 Lift' and Lrthm of Fninritt (,'ol(on

''«ll K^-iifratioii is pliysi<iliii;icAlly the saiiio, luul thon-forv the reflections ntiaud liy what has been
st*t4<d of tish are e«|ually applicable t<> the life of man." (p. 37^.)

"Nature teonis with lat-ent life, which man has larjje powers of evoking under the forms
*nd to the extt-nt which lie desires. We must not permit ourselves U> consider each human or
other pers^niality as something supernaturaliy a<ided to the stock of nature, but rather as a
s^p^egation of what already existed, under a new sha)>e, and as a regular con8e<juence of
previous conditions. Neither must we l)c misled by the woiil 'individuality,' liecause it
apfHvirs fn>m many facta and arguments in this book that our jH>rsoniilities are not so inde-
pendent as otir seifconsciousne-ss loads us to l>elieve. We may look upon each individual as
■omething not wholly detached from its parent source — as a wave that has Ikvu lifted and
8ha()ed by the normal c<inditions of an unknown, illimitable ocwin. There is di>cide<lly a soli-
darity as well as a se|>arat«ness in all human, and prolmbly in all lives whatsoever,

It pointjs to the wmclusion that all life i.s single in it« es-sence, but various, ever varying and
interactive in its manifestation.s, and that men and all other animals are active workers and
sharers in a vastly more extende<l system of casmic action than any of oursehes, much less of
them, can possibly comprehend. It also .suggests that they may contriliute, more or less con-
sciously, to the manifestation of a far higher life than our own, somewhat as — I do not propose
to push the metAphor too far — the individual cells of one of the more complex animals con-
tribute to the manifestation of it* higher onler of personality." (p. 376.)

This wonderful final passage of Galton's work foreshadows the doctrine
of the continuity of the germ-plasm, the one eternal, amid transitory
individual bearers of the life-giver. But it goes further, it reminds us that
on the theory of evolution all present forms of germ-plasm are ancestnilly
related, are all descended from a single primary form of plasma to which
we can give the name Life. This is the solidarity of all living forms which
Galton refers to, and which leads him to look upon the living Universe as
a pure theism — if indeed lie did not mean a pure pantheism. It needed the
imagination of a great scientist to give such a turn to the inspiration of the
poet:

Was war' ein Gott, der nur von aussen stiesse,

Im Kreis das All am Finger laufen liesse,

Ihm ziemt's, die Welt im Innern zu bewegen,

Natur in sich, sich in Natur zu hegen,

So dass, was in Ihm lebt und webt und ist,

Nie Seine Kraft, nie Seinen Geist vermisst'.

How many men have talked glibly of the continuity of the germ-phism
without realising the solidarity of all life which flows from it ! How few
residing CJalton's views on the ?r/i</i'o»s nature of eugenic belief have grasped
how closely his doctrine of race-betterment was associated with the pan-
theism, to which his view of the germ-plasm had led him. For Galton the
Deity was synonymous with Life in its entirety and he asked us to aid Life
struggling to fuller e.xpression by elevating the race of man. Georgians
may term this idea the sentimentality of a mid-Victorian ; but after all it
is less of a dogma than that of some of their number, who tell us that the
Deity is limited in his powers and ask us to come — in some unexplained
manner — to his assistance.

Hereditary Genitis is one of the great books of the world, not so nuich
by what it j>rove8, as by what it suggests. Detailed proof wivs to come
afterwards, step by step. Its publicition formed the cetitral epoch of (Jalton's
life and nearly all his later work may be seen therein to take its origin. If

■ Goethe, GoU und Wdt. Ptoemioti.

Earhj AnthrojK)Unjlnil /fr/nan'/ien 1 I.'.

it mot with ii cool n-coptiini, it wa.s l>ecuu.so tlui world woh not hjhj tor it.
Tw\) men, liowever, j)tireiv»Hl its viilue; Darwin wrote: "1 congmtuhite you
on prcxlucing what 1 am convinced will prove a memorable work" (see our
Plate I, Vol. i): and Alfred R. Wallace said of it in the just-born Nature^:
"Turiiinf; now to the ooneluiliiig chii|>terM of the IkjoIc, we iiii>et with suiiie of the most
startling iintl HUggottivf ideas to U^ found in any mo<loni work.... Theao concluding chapters
stamp Mr Oalton as an original thinker, as well aa a forcible and elo<juent writt-r, and his book
will trtke rank aa an iniiM>rtant and valuable addition to the science of human nature."

Those judgments, not contemporary newspaper opinions, have stood the
test of time.

C. PAPERS CLOSELY ASSOCIATED WITH THE THEME
OF IIEKEDITARY GENIUS

Two further popular papers are closely related to Galton's Hereditary
Genius a.\u\ may be con.sidered here. The first is entitled: "Statistical IiKpiiries
into the Etttcacy of Prayer"; it appeared in the Fortniyhtly for August
1 872*. It led to a cei-tain amount of controversy in the pages of The Spectator
in which Galton took part, but it also so paine^ — I think unrea.sonably — many
worthy folk that Galton was treated for a time Jis a very flippant freethinker.
His opponents asserted first that the desire to pray is intuitive in man, and
secondly that the cofjency of intuition is greater than that of observation.
If the word 'intuitive' be interpreted to mean 'instinctive' and the words
*to pray' be interpreted 'to cry out in despair or in agony,' then the terrible
cry of the young rabbit when the stoat springs upon him — a cry which is
made to no one in particular — is an intuitive i>rayer. But if prayer means an
appeal for temporal aid to a supernatural power, then the savage does not
pray until the missionary teaches him. As Galton points out, obedience to
dreams, belief in incantations, fear of witchcraft, fetish worship and tabu
are intuitive, for they occur in uncivilised peoples all the world over. In
modern civilisation the mother replaces the missionary and the child is taught
with caressing earnestness to pray for temporal blessings, and in distress
to appeal for aid to an all-seeing and all-loving deity. What wonder that
this nursery-theology pervades human life, and being associated with a child's
earliest and deepest feelings, should come to be looked on ;\s intuitive! The
habit of prayer, until its source has been analysed, is held to be of primeval
origin. The theologians who accept the objective efficacy of prayer — i.e. not
merely its subjective value to certain natures, but its power to produce
temporal blessings — are the descendants of those who only a few centuries
ago believed in the efficacy of auguries, of ordeals, of ecclesiastical blessings
and cursings, in the existence of demoniacal possession and the value of
exorcisms, in the possibility of witchcraft and of miraculous cures. All these
the English Church has now suppressed as of 'superstitious' origin. But it
wjis the more or less unconscious use of statistics which demonstrated the
idle character of these 'intuitive' beliefs. Observation proved greater than
' March 17, 1870, Vol. i, p. 501. ' Vol. xn, N.S. pp. 125-35.

1&— a

116 Lift' and Letterx of Francin Galton

the eogwncy of intuition in these cases; then wliy should the theoIogianH of
to-dav, if Hummoned on the grounds ol" ohservation or statistics to give ui)
a belief which has far less chiim to be considered an intuition, start with
naive indignation, as at a previously unheard-of and most unreasonable
interference'?

I do not think Galton propounded his thesis of the statistical inefficacy
of prayer — as Clifford in other like niattei-s stated he did — with the view of
"draw'ing" The Spectator. He came to his topic naturally and unexpectedly.
In his study of the ' Divines' for his Heredifari/ Genius, he had been struck
by "their wretched constitutions" (see our p. 101). To obtain a measure of
this Galton investigated their age at death, and compared it with that of other
classes. Using Chalmers's Biography and The Annual Jtegistcr, Galton found

A 1*11818

64-741

Men of Literatuii> and ticiwici'

C5-22

Clergy

G6-42

Mean age at death

lawyers

66 51

Medical Men

67 07

Galton holds that the clergy are a far more 'prayerful class' than lawyers
or doctors, and yet, although the numerous publisned collections of family
prayers are full of petitions for temporal benefits, and the prayei-s of the clergy
are for protection against the perils and dangers of the night and of the day
and for recovery from sickness, such prayers appear to be futile in result'. The
alx>ve statistics are for eminent men, and therefore may be supposed to be in
the case of ' Divines' for tho.se of marked piety. Galton also cites Guy's data"
which provide the following figures:

Menibcra of Royal Houses 6404

Artists 6.5-96

Medical Men 67-31

Men of Literature and Science 67-55

Lawyers 68*14

Clergy 69 49

Gentry 7(1-2-2

Mean age at deitth.

The members of the Royal Houses are the persons whose longevity is
most widely and continuously prayed for, and they have the least average
length of life! But the mass of clergy — as distinct from eminent divines —
have a longer life than the mass of lawyers or medical men. Galton attri-
butes this to the easy country life, family repose, and sanitary conditions, but
his critics might well have attributed the result to the greater prayerfulness
of the lesser clergy. The greater length of life of the clergy iis a whole is
now a well-established actuarial fact, but probably to-day no one aasociates
it with prayerfulness. Galton gives a good many illustrations of the want of
efficacy in prayer, e.g. the relatively short lives of missionaries, the distribu-
tion of still-births as between clergy and laymen being wholly unaffected by

' Letter of Galton to The Spectator, 1872, August 24. In editorials and correspondence the
discuiMion lastod from the issue of August 3 until that of .September 7.

' Fortnightly (loc. eil.), p. 129. ' Jounud of R. Statitt. Society, Vol. xxn, p. 355.

Early Anthrojjological Jtenean-fi'x 117

the fact that tlie nobility are neculiarly subject lo iii>iauuy notwith-
staruling that our Liturgy pmys that they may Ik; eiuhied "with grace, wisdom
and uniferstamhng," the fact tliat insurance otHces make no differences in the
insumnces of pious and profanepersons, or ofships Htte<l out for pious or profane
purposes, altliougii they are for ever measuring sliglit chHerences of risk, etc.
In his last paragraphs Galton turns to the subjective vahie of prayer:

"Notliiiij,' that I linve Hjiid imgiitivcH tlio fact that the niitid may Im) relieved by the utt4Tanoe
of priiyiT. The itiipulso to pour out thu fwliiigK in houiuI is not peculiar to man. Any mother
that ha.s lost her young, and wan<lcrs alMtut moaning; and l(K>kin^ piteuusly fur Hympatiiy, poweMM
much of that wliich prompLs men to pniy in articulate words. There i.s a yearning of tlie heart,
a cniving for help, it knows not where, certainly from no source it sees." (p. IS.').)

The paper conchides with a fine statement which at lejist emphasises the
rehgious comfort tialton found in his own pantiieistic views and from which
freethinkers without those views may still draw consolation:

"A confident sonso of communion with God must neceesarilj' rejoice and strengthen the
heart, and divert it from petty cartas; and it is equally certain that similar benefits are not
excluded from those who on conscientious grounds are sceptical as to the reality of a power of
communion. These can dwell on tlit^ undoubted fact, that there exists a solidarity between them-
selves and what surrounds them, through the endless reactions of physical laws, among which
the hereditary intluences are to Ik; included. They know that they are descended from an
endless past, that they have a brotherhood with all that is, and have each his own share of
responsibility iji the parentage of an endless future. The effort to familiari.se the imagination
with this great idea lias much in common with the effort of communing with a God, and its
reaction on the mind of the thinker is in many res[)ects the same. It may not equally rejoice
the heart, but it is quite as powerful in ennobling the resolves, and it is found to jn^" «er..nity
during the trials of life and in the shadow of approaching death." (p. 135.)

I now turn to the last popular appeal which Galton made for conscious
race-betterment for more than 30 years. As he himself has said, the time was
not ripe for such a progi'amme as he had in mind, and he did not recur to
the topic until 1901. The paper appeared in Fraser's Mayazine in January
1873', under the title: "Hereditary Improvement." It opens as follows:

"It is freely allowed by most authorities on herixlity, that men are just as subject to its l*wa,
l)oth in body and mind, as are any other nnimal-s, but it is almost universally doubted, if not
denie<l, that an establishment of this fact could ever be of large practical Ixsnefit to humanity.
It is objected that, philosophise as you will, men and women will continue to marry, as they
have hitherto done, according to their personal likings; that any prospect of improving the raoe
of man is absurd and chimerical, and that though iii<|uiries into the laws of human heredity
may hv. pursued for the satisfaction of a curious disposition, they can he of no real importance.
In opposition to these objections, I maintain, in the present e.ssay, that it is fea.sible to improve
the race of man by a system which shall be perfectly in accordance with the moral sense of the
present time." (p. IIG.)

Galton holds that conscious race-betterment must arise as soon as the

' Vol. VII, New Series, pp. 116-30. I may, perha|>8, be permitted to interpolate here a
remark, which is true if pessimistic. The impression which has remained to me from younger days
of the relatively high intellectual standard of mid- Victorian magazines has been confirmed by my
re-exaniination of them for the purposes of this biography. These old magazines — many of them
now dead — are full of gotxl work by the best minds of that age, both literary and scientific; the
magazines of to-day-^from big to small — are almost entirely written by profe.ssional journalists
to amuse an uncultured public. The writ«n"s bear as a rule names which have made no perma-
nent mark on literature, science or politics, and their readers leave these productions to litter
the railway carriage or the sea-beach.

118 Life uml Letters of Fraitris Galton

mass of educated men shall have learnt to appreciate the truth of the ordi-
nary (ItKJtrines of lu're<lity. In this paper he begins his long inquiry a.s to the
relative influence of nature, or as he here calls it 'race,' and nurture.

"There is nothing in what I am about to say that shall underrate the sterling value of
nurture, including all kinds of sanitary improvenient«; nay I wish to claim thoin as powerful
auxiliaries to my cause; nevertlielojis, I look upon race as far more importimt than nurture.
Race h«a a doulilo effect, it createji better and nion^ intelligent individuals, and these become
more competent than their predecessors to make laws and customs, who.se effects shall favourably

react on their own health and on the nurture of their childi-en' Constitutional stamina,

■trength, intelligence, and moral qualities cling to a breed, say of dogs, notwithstanding many
generations of careless nurture, while can-ful nurture, unaide<l by selection, can do little more
to an inferior breed than eradicate disease and make it good of its kind." (pp. 1 16-7.)

Galton points out that the mass of the population is never likely to enjoy
sanitary conditions as good as are now enjoyed by the wealthy classes, but in
these classes we frequently find narrow-chested men, delicate women and
sickly children; they are very far from possessing those high physical and
mental qualities which are the birthright of a good race. Their physical and
mental failures are nuich more frequent than the sickly and misshapen con-
tingent which is found in the stock of any of our breeds of domestic animals.
The best environment will not free mankind from weaklings, they can only
be 'bred out.' Galton considers that the forms of civilisation at present pre-
vailing tend to spoil a race, and two of their chief factors are the following:

"The first is, the free power of bequeathing wealth, which interferes with the salutary action
of natural selection, by preserving the wealthy, and bj' encouraging marriage on grounds (juite
independent of personal qualities ; and the second is the centralising tendcncj* of our civilisation,
which attracts the abler men to towns, where the discouragement to marry is great, and where
marriage is comparatively unproductive of descendants who reach adult life." (p. 117.)

Galton at this time believed strongly in the evil influences of town-life,
and we shall shortly discuss a paper by him on the subject. He thought
town-life selected those who are able to withstand best zymotic diseases and
impure and insufficient food, but such a population is not necessarily fore-
most in the qualities which make a nation great. But to this it may be
replied that if town-life does attract some abler men, it also attracts the
men who can stand behind a counter, or operate a machine, but whose
physique is quite inadequate to plough a straight furrow or to collect the
sheep from the high moor. The problem cannot really l)e answered by a com-
parison of existing factory operatives and rural labourers, unless we know the
nature of the town-immigrants at the time of their migration. Galton appears
to me on safer grotnid when he turns to the mental charact*!rs and empha.sises
his earlier conclusions that the intelligence of men to-day has not kept pace
with the growing complexity in trade and profession, nor with the increasingly
difficult duties of the citizens of modern large nations.

"Great nations, instead of being highly organised bodies, are little more than aggregations
of men severally intent on self-advancement, who must be cemented into a mass by blind
feelings of gregariousness and reverence to mere rank, mere authority, and mere tradition, or
they will assuredly fall asunder But the case would be very different in those higher forms of

' The 'hard cratlle' may be a distinct advantage, us the biognipher has ob.served in visiting
the kenncla of wealthy breeders of pet dogs.

I

Karl 11 Aiif/ifnjjo/of/inil /{imarr/uti 110

civiliHiitinn, vainly tritxi uh yet. "f wliich th«> notion of p<TH<>nal pro|K)rty in not the foun' •••■■•• '"it
w)iich nro, in honent truth, ropuhlifiin iind c(M>pcriitive, the g<io<l of thecuniuiunity Ix 'ly

a more vivid dcHirtt thiin that of sflfaj{j{™"'l>'*«'"'«-i>t or any otli<>r niotivo whntx'Vrr. i m^ m a
Btaguwliiclithx luitnun rncv iHundouhttHllydcMtini-tl Nooncror liitorto rttnc-h, hut which thiMh-ticient
moral ;;ift.s of cxiHtinff niccs rcmh-r thorn iricaj)ahlo of attaining- It iM the ol)viouH oourm* of
int«'liij,'fnt men — and I venture to say it should \>e their reli({ious duty- — to advance in the
dire(^tion whither Nature Ih di4ermined they shall go; that is towards the improveniont of their
nice. Thither she will assure<lly goad them with a ruthless arm if they lumg liaok, and it is of

no avail to kiek against the pricks For my part, I cling to the idea of a conscious soliilarity

in Nature, and of its lal)orious advance under many restrictions, the Whole lieing conscious of
us ttMiiporarily detache<l individuals, hut wo being very iu)pci-fectly and darkly conscious of the
Whole. Ho this as it may, it becomes our Injunden duty to conform our steps t« the |>aths which
we recognise to Iw detined, as those in which sooner or later we have to go. We must, thert'fore,
try to render our individual aims sul>onlinato to those which lead to the improvement of the
race. The enthusiasm of humanity, strange as the doctrine may sound, has to Ije directed
primarily to the future of our race, and only sticondarily to the well-lxnng of our ii-u.

The ants who, when their nest is disturlnxl, hurry away each with an uninf' iig

egg, pickinl up at hazard, not oven its own, but none the less precious to it, ha\c their in.stincts
curiously in accordanct* with the real requirements of Nature. So far as we can interpret her,
we read in the clearest letters that our desire for improvement of our race ought to rise to the
force of a [wi-ssion ; and if othei-s interpret Nature in the same way, we may expect that at some
future time, perhi»j)s not very remote, it may come to be looked ujM)n as one of the chief religious
obligations. It is no absurdity to expect, that it may hereafter bo pre»iche<l, that while helpfulness
to the weak, and sympathy with the suffering, is the natural form of outpouring of a merciful and
kindly heart, yet that the highest action of all is to provide a vigorous, national life', and that
one practical and effective way in which individuals of feeble constitution can show mercy to
their kind is by celilmcy, lest they should bring Ijoings into existence whose race is predoomed to
destruction by the laws of Nature. It may come to be avowed as a paramount duty, to anticipate
the slow and stublKjrn processes of natural selection, by endeavouring to breed out feeble consti-
tutions, and petty and ignoble instincts, and to brei^d in thase which are vigorous and noble and
social." (pp. 118-20.)

I have given nearly the whole of this lengthy passage hectiu.se it contains
the whole gospel of eugenics — then termed by Galton (p. 119) ' viriculture.'
The world, in a crude sort of way, looks upon Galton as a 'eugenist,' but
hardly knows what the word means, still less recognises why it was a re-
ligious faith to him. Of his pantheism, based upon tlie solidarity of nature
as evidenced by the continuity of the germ-plasm, it realises nothing; that
he wanted race-improvement in order that men might l>e good socialists in the
highest sense — which their lack of intelligence at present denies them — has
scarcely been whispered. Even now if I characterised Galton as a freethink-
ing pantheist, who desired to reach a socialistic state by breeding supennen
for intellect — and every word of this characteristic is a literal fact — I should
be accused by the bulk of his acquaintances of misrepresentation, and by
many of his friends of sensationalism, the explanation being, that Galton
wrote far more than he spoke of his philosophy of life, while the majority of
men talk more of their heroes than they read of their written thougnts;

' And again p. 123: "Wo shall come to think it no hardhearteilness to favour the perpetua-
tion of the stronger, wi.ser and more moral races, but shall conceive ourselves to be carrying out
the obvious intentions of Nature by making our social arrangements conducive to the improve-
ment of their race." I cannot but believe that Nietische took his doctrine of scorn and contempt
for the feeble — with the cynicism (I should like to write the 'sardony') of a social invert — from
Qalton.

120 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

whence we can easily explain why the popular oonceptiou of a great leader
of thought is nearly always vacuous, for it lacks that t«rse characterisation of
individuality which can spring only frouj first-hand study of a niiin's mind.

Galton 's thesis is that artificial selection in our race is lowering its type;
the 'typical condition' of a nice is that in which there is a moderate amount
of healthy natural selection and fair conditions of nurture. He illustrates
the lowest quarter of a race by statistics of French conscripts in which
30% were rejected in 1859. He estimates that some 5 7o of these may
have been rejected owing to injury or accident, but holds that one-quarter of
the French youths are naturally and hereditarily unfitted for active life. To
illustrate the uppermost quarter he cites the lads of the St Vincent training-
ship for seamen of the Royal Navy, where about one boy in four applicants is
admitted, and he cites the conditions physical, mental and moral for admission.

"When I stood among the 750 boys who coiiii)osed the crew, it was clear to nie that they
were decidedly superior to the moss of their countrymen. They showed their inborn superiority
by the heartiness of their manner, their self-respect, their heathy looks, their musculitr build,

the interest they took in what was taught them, and the ease with which they learnt it If

the average English youth of the future could be raisetl by an inipniveiiient in our race to the
average of those on IxNird the .St Viticent, which is no preposterous hope, England would become

far more noble and i)owerful than she now is The present army of inetl'ective.s which clog

progroBS would disappear, and the deviations of individual gifts towards genius would h*'. no less
wide or numerous than they now are; but by starting from a higln^r vantage ground they would
reach proportionately farther." (p. 123.)

I think many of us would now admit not only the advantage but the
possibility of such a degree of betterment of our race. But it may he per-
missible to doubt whether Galton's solution of 1873 was a feasible one.

"My object ia to build up, by the mere process of extensive inquiry and publication of
reaulta, a sentiment of caste among those who are naturally gifted, and to procure for them,
before the system has fairly taken root, such moderate social favour and preference, no more
and no less, as would seem reasonable to those who were justly informed of the precise measure
of their importance to the nation." (p. 123.)

The "extensive inquiry and publication of results" were to be undertaken
by the organisation of a widely extended "Eugenics liecoids Society," with
branches all over the country, which was to collect and digest information
as to the physique, mentality and ancestry of individuals.

"My proposition certainly is not to begin by breaking up old feelings of social status, but
to build up a caste xvilhin e^ich of the groups into which rank, wealth and pursuits already
divide society, mankind Ijeing quite numerous enough to admit of this sub-classiiication."
(p 123.)

It is abundantly clear that in 1873 Galton had not fully realised how un-
prepared the nation was for such a scheme. In the first place had such a
society or institution been created, it would have met with an impenetrable
barrier of real, if mistaken, opposition to what would have Ijeen looked upon
as prying in(juiries. But still more important factors of failure would have
been the absence of any properly trained mental, medical and physical anthro-
pometricians who could have carried out adetjuate researches of this kind.
The work cannot be done by untrained, however enthusiastic, volunteers.

I

Earhj Anthrtqxdoyical Reaearches 121

but only under tJie direction of tirst-class scientists, and tlie very sciences
these men were to be udepts in — experimental psychology, medical histo-
giaphy and physical anthropometry — were either unborn or in the moat
infantile staj^es at that date. Had the sciences existed, and the scientists
been turthcomiug in ade(|uate numbere, the cost of CJalton's network of
Eugenics Record Offices would have been prohibitive! All this Galton very
soon realised, and it forms the key to his later labours — he set about creating,
or at any rate building up from feeble beginnings, the requisite branches of
science. He later ditferentiated the science of eugenics from eugenics pro-
pagandism, and realised how the latter, if not adequately btised on the former,
might easily, if not discreet, delay rather than accelerate the spread of
fundamental truths.

We are, fitly years later, scarcely yet ripe fur the registration of the
fitter and abler members of our society. Indeed, while the youth of our
professional classes is now far more open to an appreciation of the funda-
mental importance of sex-questions on the future of the race, the main
conception of eugenics htus scarcely reached the artizan class&s, and many of
the fundamental ideas of trades-unionism are retrogressive from the racial
standpoint'. Galton's belief that racial improvement must depend on the
creation of a caste in each social class, a caste which will seek intermarriage,
and to which social recognition will give differential opportunities for starting
a home and founding families, will long outlive the scheme by which he pro-
posed in 1873 to attain it. We may, however, learn .something still from
Galton's proposed national register. For example, that he did not think it
would be immediately adequate and successful :

"A vast deal of work would be, no doubt, thrown away in collecting niat-enats about persons
who afterward.s proved not to be the parents of gifted children. Also many would be registore*]
on grounds which our future knowledge will pronounce inade<]uate. Hut gradually, notwith-
Htanding many niistako.s at first, much ridicule and mi:>understunding, and not a little blind
hostility, people will confess that the scheme is very reasonable, and works well of its own
accord. An immen.se deal of investigation and criticism will l)ear its proper fruit, and the
cardinal rules for its successful procedure will become understootl and laid down Such, for
example, as the physical, moral and intellectual qualifications for entry on the n-gister, and
especially as to the incre^wed importance of those which are not isolate<l, but common to many
members of the same family. It will be neces-sary also to have a clear idea of the average order
of gifts to aim for, in the race of the imme<liate future, t>earing in mind that sudden and
ambitious attempts are sure to lead to di.sappointment. And again, the degree of rigour of
selection netx^ssary among the parents to insure that their children should, on the average,
inherit gifts of the oitler aimed at. Lastly, we should learn particulars concerning specific
types, how far they clash together or are mutually helpful." (p. rj6.)

And again, referring to voluntary marriage within the caste:

"So a man of good race would feel that marriage out of his caste would taniish his blood,
and his sentiments would be sympathi.swl with by all. As regards the democratic feeling, its
assertion of equality is deserving of the highest admiration so far as it demands e<]ual con-
sideration for the feelings of all, just iii the same way as their rights are equally maintained
by the law. But it goes further than this, for it asserts that men are of equal value as socIaI

' Wages as a standard of craft-ability, and as a rough measure of capacity for founding a
home and family, have been not entirely, but very largely interfere<l with by Trade Union
action.

16

VI"! Lift' nml LeUertf of Fninrix GalUni

uniU, equally cspable of voting, and the rest. This feeling ih undeniably wrong and cannot
last. I therefort" do not hesitate in believing that if the persons on the nsgister were obviously
better and finer pieces of manhood in everj- respect tlmn other men, democracy notwithstanding,
their superiority would Ix^ recognised lus just what it amounted to, without envy, but very
possibly with some feeling of hoetility on the part of beaten competitors." (p. 127.)

Thus Gallon ploughed his lonely furrow, or rather Odys-seus-like ploughed
that track of the restless sea which cjin-ied him between the Charybdis of
Democracy and the Scylla of an Hereditary Peerage; and the iinwoiited
path giive him few social or political comrades. Men do not trouble when
a bnind-new halo is affixed to their old sanctities, but to suggest even that
the old halo woidd befit better a new sanctity than a worn-out fetish is sacrilege
indeed.

There is still a law in France, due to Colbert in 1669, touching the wide-
spread oak forests ; it runs :

"in none of the forests of the State shall oaks be felled until they are ripe, that is, are unable
to prosper for more than thirty years longer."

Thus France legislated for the parquet-floors and wine-casks of to-day, for
she did not repeal the ordinance when oak l^came of little service for shipping.

"Is not man," asks Galton, "worthy of more consideration than timber? If a nation readily
consents to lay costly plans for result-s not to be attained until five generations of men shall
liave passed away, for a good supply of oak, could it not lx> [)ersuade<l to do at least as much
for a good supply of Man? Marvellous effects might lie produce<l in five generations (or in
166 years; allowing three generations to a century). I Iwlieve when the truth of here<lity as
respects man shall have become firml}' establishe<l and be clearly understood, that instead of a
sluggish regard Ix'ing shown towartis a practical application of this knowledge, it is much more
likely that a perfect enthusiasm for improving the race might develop itself among the educated
dsMes'." (p. 120.)

Thus testifies Francis Galton, nnich as George Fox had testified two
centuries earlier. Both were men with a strong religious enthusiasm behind
their doctrines. But the former, who combined knowledge with intense convic-
tion, has so far failed relatively to the latter, who combmed forcible ignorance
with intense conviction. Are we to attribute the difterence to the 'atmo-
sphere' peculiar to their ages, to market-place methods, or to the fact that
while Fox appealed to the individual's dubiety as to his own future, Galton
Jisked the individual to consider the welfare, not of bim.self, but of his off-
spring? The sanctions behind past religious beliefs will be found in the
great mass of men to have a selfish origin, welfare now or in the future.

It is conceivable that Galton's teaching, depending largely on the inten-
sification of the herd-instinct, may need another ice-age, or defeat in a war
greater even than the 'Great War,' to impress itself upon our race. The
immediate future social history of German}' may not be uninstructive from
this standpoint to the philosophical onlooker.

We have seen that Galton in his last paper laid stress on the ill-efl'ects
on race of town-life, and that in an earlier pajier he had fully recognised the
importance of measuring the relative influence of nurture and of nature.

' Let as remember that the passion to breed animals and to breed them for points is almost
instinctive in the Briton, and we see why our race ought to be foremost in the study and
practice of eugenics.

^^^^^^^^^^^^an^i nth nnnnngwanfeSmren^^^^^^^^^^i^l^

We now turn to certain papwrs (ItMiling with these ix>int8. The first paper
we have to notice is entitle<l : "The Ilelative SuppHes from Town and Country
Families to the Popuhition of Future CienerationH"; it wa« the first paj)er
Galton reaJ Ixsfbre tlie Statistical Society of London'.

"This is an iiu|uiry into the relative fertility of the labouring classen of urban and rural
populatioHN, not lui regards the number of children brought into the world, but an regards that
portion of them who are destined to live and become the parents of the next generation. It la
well known that the jKipulution of towns decays, and has to be recruitwl by immigrants from
the country, but I am not aware that statistical measurement has yet lieen attempted of its
rate of decay. Thi.s inquiry is part of a larger one, on the projKtrtionate supply to the popu-
lation from the various soi-ial clivsses, and which has an obvious bearing on invc-stigations into
the intluonces that tt^nd to dctcM'iorate or to improve our race If the poorer diuw*-*, that is to
say, those who contuiti an undue projx)rtioii of the weak, tfie idle, and the improvident, con-
tribute an undue .supply of population to the next generation, we are justifietl in ex|XH'ting that
our race will stetuiily (li'teriorat»>, so far as that influence is concerned. The particular branch
of the (|ucstion to which 1 address myself in this memoir is very important, lx.'cauHe the niore
energetic of our race, and therefore those whose breed is the most valuable to our nation, are
attracted from the country to our towns. If, then, residence in towns seriously interferes with
the maintenance of their race, we should expect the breed of Englishmen, so far as that in-
fluence is concerned, to steadily deteriorate." (p. 19.)

It will be seen that Galton makes two great assumptions: (o) that the
population of the town decays, and {h) that the most energetic of our race
are attracted to the towns. Now there is no doubt that a considerable number
of energetic men do come from the country into the towns, but also many
weaklings and the general human refuse ahso migrate, and it is not at all
clear where the balance of gain may lie. If there be a large contingent of the
loafing, })auper and even criminal sections of the community who liave come
from country to town, the want of fertility in the town may be in part due
to this selection.

Captain John Graunt in his "Observations on the Bills of Mortality,"
166'2, was perhaps the first to assert that the town was recruited from the
country, but he had the marked experience of London being rapidly refilled
after great plague.s. Galton got Dr Farr to provide him with the size of
family of 1000 mothers between ages 23 and 40 from Coventry, and the
same series of mothers from the rural di.stricts of Warwickshire; the former
were the wives of factory hands, and the latter of agricultural labourers.
He does not say, however, whether the wives of the factory hands were
employed or not, and he does not know whether the ages at marriage of the
town wives were differentiated from those of the rural wives. Now the town
rettu'ns show 510 wives under 32 and the rural returns only 466. It follows
therefore that the town wives were younger in the selection made than
the rural wives; or (juite apart from the possibility of an evil iiiHuence of
town-life on fertility, we might well anticipate that the 1000 town wives
would .show fewer children. Accordinijlv, I reconstructed Galton's table,
by consiilering the ages of the wives and reducing the town and country

' Journal, March 1873, Vol. .\xxvi, pp. 19-26. Galton was elected to the ikxnety in
1860 and s.rve<l on the Council from 1869 to 1879.

le— 8

124

Lift ami Letterx of Francin G<ilt<in

populations to a staDdard population (the average of the two) of wives.
The following resulted :

MoUmt's

Number of ]

wiTM

NuinlMrof '
children

Average number

of ohildren

per wife

Standard
Population

1

Standard popu-
lation. ToUl
children

Faclur;

Kural

1
Faotoijr

Boral

Fmetorj

1-28

Buiml

Faetory

Kaial

24 and 25

107

91

137

130

1-43

99

127

142

26 Mid 27

122

104

209

190

1-71

1-83

113

193

207

28 Mid 29

132

119

304

279

2-30

2 34

125 5

289

294

SO and 31

120

119

299

368

2-49

3-09

119-5

298

369

32 and 33

128

124

S71

40S

2-90

3-26

126

365

410

34 and 35

132

120

430

401

3-26

3-34

120

411

421

36 and 37

100

117

369

395

3-69

3-38

108 r,

400

367

38 and 39

100

128

354

469

3-54

3-66

114

404

417

40

59

78

208

276

3-52
2-68

3-54
2-91

68-5

.241

242

Totols

1000

1000

2681

2911

1000

2728

2869

From this table we see that Galton overlooked the fact that his Coventry
sample consisted of younger women than hi.s rural Warwickshire mothers,
and therefore would naturally have fewer children. The average difference
on the standard popidation is only "14 of a child, or if we take the awrage
interval between births to be 2*5 years, it follows that a |X)stponement of
marriage on the average for four months would explain this difference'. Thus
far Galton's paper would not justify any statement as to deterioration arising
from town-life. The lesser apparent fertility would be fully accounted for by
emigration of the younger women into the towns and a slight po.stponement
of marriage. Galton next proceeds to take the influence of mortality on the
town and rural populations. Failing other data he applies to Coventry the
mortality table of^ Manchester and to the rural districts of Warwickshire
that of the 'Healthy Districts.' I do not think either of these .steps is ju.sti-
fiable, nor again the method by which he applies these life-tables. He draws
the conclusion that :

"the rate of supply in towns to the next adult generation is only 77 per cent., or say, three-
quarters of that in the country. In two generations the proportion falls to .'i9 per cent., that is
the adult grandcliildren of artisan townsfolk are little more than half as numerous as those of
labouring people who live in healthy country districts." (p. 23.)

This conclusion has been often cited as if it were rigorous, whereas it is
rather an illustration of the grave difficulty of inquiries of this nature, even

' This suggestion is siipjK)rtcd by the fact that as the women get older there is a less dif-
lereBoe between their number of children, e.g. Mothers 36-40, Factory 3-59 and Rural 3-52,
or the town is in excess.

Karlfi A tit/nofio/dt/icaf JitMt-arc/itM 125

whi'ii undertaken by a man of keen inHi^ht'. If the social conditionR be
such that young mothers with a sUghtly postponed age at marriage are
collected in one district and old mothers with no such postponement in a
second, it is clear that the fertility of the first would appear very nitioh
larger than the second, and need not in any way \ie due to differenoes in
environment. The (juestion of whetiier a town population is decadent is
really not touched by this paper; that the gross fertility was less in Galton's
instance he demonstrated, but gross fertility means very little without a
knowledge of the distribution of the ages and durations of marriage in the
population. The main value of the paper lies in Galton's recognition of the
problem as of first-class importance.

The idea of the above paper — comparison of the efiect of town and
country life — was the basis of another paper by Galt-on at a somewhat
later date. It is entitled " On the Height and Weight of Boys aged 14 in
Town and Country Public Schools"''. Galton's conclusion in this paper is as
follows :

"It appears that the boys of the above-mentioned ages in the country group are 1| inch
taller than those in the town group, and Tibs, heavier; also tliat this difference of height is
due, in alwut equal degrees, to rctaniation and to total suppression of growth ; and lastly, tliat
the distribution of heights in both cases conforms well to the results of the 'Law of Error'."
(p. 174».)

Galton appears to have been inclined to ascribe the difi'erentiation as not

"altogether due to bad effects of nurture on the individual boys" but "much of it to the town-
life of their parents, and probably of other ancestors." (p. 181.)

Galton's tlata for country schools consist in the measurement of '296 boys
aged 14 at Clifton, Eton, Haileybur}', Marlborough and Wellington, i.e.
essentially of boys of the Upper Middle, professional and administrative
classes. His town boys are from Christ's Hospital, City of London School,
King Edward's School at Birmingham and Livei"pool College ; these schools
in 1871 drew boys largely from the Lower Middle, shopkeeping, clerking
and similar classes. Galton's conclusion that the boys of the former series of
schools were of better physi(jue woukl, I feel sure, be confinned to-day, but,
1 think, it is a class and not an environmental distinction. He did not reoord
the categories of town and country origin in the boys at these schools, but
only says that it is fair to assume their origins in bulk to be country and
town respectively. Again, I think, although Tie made some, he did not make
adequate allowance for the fact, that while in the first grade public schools
the most numerous boys were those aged 15, in the lower grade public
schools, the town schools, the boys of 14 and in the case of Birmingham
the boys of 13 are most numerous. In other words, at 14 the boys are

' The President of the Royal Statistical Society cited it on February 16, 1922 at the
Galton Centenary Celebration of the London Eugenics Education Society, witboat a word of
comment or of caution in his speech. Eugenics Refieu\ Vol. xiv, p. 4.

• JonriMl of the Rot/al Anthropological Institute, Vol. v, 1876, pp. 174-80.

' We have in this paper an earlj- practical application of Galton's method of percentilee ;
the 'median' and the 'quartiles' are provided.

126 Lijf and Letters of Francis Galton

already leaving the 'town' schools, while they appear to be still coming to
the ' country ' schools. The former ure doubtless going out into business
and other occupations, and the boys that leave earliest will, as a rule, be
those most fully developed. Galton has clubbed together his .schools so that
we cannot separate them out, but one would anticipate that Liverpool
College, if it draws from Lancashire, would racially have a low stature.
Here again Galton reachetl a right conclusion, if tlie data on which he bases
it are open to criticism. If we take, as the Galton Laboratory has done,
adjacent rural and urban districts in Worcestershire or Staffordshire and com-
pare the children of like Jiges in the jiriinary schools, then the balance of
physique is in favour of the rural. In doing this we work within the same
social class, we attempt to get the same local race, but we caimot Ije certain
that the town occupations have not attracted the less physically fit jwirenta.

D. HEHEDITY IX TWINS

It seems best to consider here two papers on the subject of twins, because
although they to some extent were associated with Galton's ideas on heredity,
yet they sprung, I think, from his work on the influence of environment.
The first paper is entitled "The History of Twins, as a Criterion of the
Relative Powers of Nature and Nurture'." Among the claims which twins
have to attention, Galton tells us, is the fact that :

"their history affords means of distinguishing between the effects of tendencies received at
birth, and of those that were imposed by the circumstancc-K of their after livtw; in other words,
between the effect* of nature and of nurture. This is a subjeet of especial iriiptjrtance in its
bearings on invc ■ into m<-^ ility, and I, for my part, have keenly felt the

difficulty of dra« i .n-oessary o; n whenever I attempted to eHtiinate the degree in

wliicli mental ability was, on the average, inherit*?*]. The objection to statistical evidence in
proof of its inheritance has always been: 'The jierBons whom j'ou compare may have lived
under similar social conditions and have had similar advantages of education, but such pro>
minent conditions are only a small ]iart of those that determine the future of each man's life.
It is to trifling accidental circumstances that the bent of his disposition and his success are
mainly due, and these you leave wholly out of account — in fact they do not admit of being
tabulated, and therefore your .statistics, however plausible at first sight, are really of verj* little
use,' No method of inquiry which I have Jjeen able to carry out — and I have tried very many
methods — is wholly free from this objection." (p. 391'.)

Accordingly Galton turns to try and appreciate what relative effect
nature and nurture have. Galton's scheme was to consider twins who were
closely alike in youth and whether after l>eing separated they grew unlike,
and again whetner twins who being unlike in childhood were subjected to
the same nurture grew more alike. Galton collected his material by circu-

.' Frtuer'i Magazin*;, Nov. 1875, issued with revision and additions in Jcmnud of the Royal
Anthropoloifical InttituO- (\»lt>), Vol. v, pp. .391-406, 1H76.

* The passage is clearly written before the idea of correlation had reached Galton's mind.
The (rue test is whether the degree of association in mental characters lietweeu relatives is the
suae as that between physical characters. If it be, then it is exceedingly imjirobable that
nurture on the ooe hand should have produced exactly the same quantitative association as
nature on the other, for we can always select physical characters which are not materially
influenced by nurture.

I

Enrlif A itth ro/mlnf/ira! ffntfarrfim 127

laming twins or rnlativeN ut' twiiiH, unci ' snowbulled ' by asking them fur
tilt) ii(lun'H.s<^H of other twiuH, \vhi(;li ho n-inarks led to a continuallv widening
circle of correspondence. Kiuully Galton ithtained information concerning
94 8etn of twins (hpo his statement in second paper). He considers their
resenihlanceH in the case of .'i5 twin-sets — each of like sex — in which there
was detailed «!videnco of close Himilarity. He finds that this likeness —
mental, physical and pathological — is maintained even when life has carrie<l
the twins into dilferent environments ; they appeiir to have the same
illnesses at the same times. The answers showed that in the hulk of crises
the resemblance of botly and mind continued unaltere<l up to old age and
under very different conditions of life ; in other cases dissimilarity was
attributed wholly to some form of illness or Jiccident which had Ijefallen
one twin and not the other. Galton then turns to the 20 sets of twins he
had detailed accounts of imlikeness between. He luis not a single case in
which his conespondents speak of originally di.ssimilar characters having
liecome assimilated through identity of nurture.

"The iniprMution that all this uvidence leaves on the mind in one of some wonder whether
mirturo can do anything at all Imyond x>vin(? instruction and professional training. It ••m-
phatically corroUiraU's and g<H'« far Ix-yond tlie oonclusions to which wi- liad alri-ady lieon driven
by the cases of siiiiiiarity. In these the cau.ses of divergence Ix'gan to act alxiut the [s-riod of
adult life, when the characters had Is^conie somewhat fixed; but here the causes conducive to
assimilation Ix^gaii to act from the earliest moment of the existence of the twins, when the
di.s]xjsition was most pliant, and tliey were continuous until the pt-riod of adult life." (p. 404.)

And then follows the passage cited on p. 8 of our first volume.
There is another passage also which is of great suggestiveness and may
be cited here:

"Much stress is laid on the persistence of moral impressions made in childhood, and the
conclusion is drawn, that the effects of early teaching generally must Ixj inifKjrtant in a corre-
sponding degree. I acknowledge the fact, but doubt the deduction. The child is usually taught
by its parents, and their teachings are of an exceptional character for the following reason.
There is commonly a strong resemblance, owing to inheritance, Vietween the dispositions of the
child and its parents. They are able to understand the ways of one another more intimately
than is possible to persons not of the samt! IiKkkI, and the child instinctively assimilates the
habits and ways of thought of its parents. Its disposition is educat^nl by them, in the true sense of
the word ; that is to say, it is evokwl earlier than it would otherwi.so have l)een. On these grounds
I ascrilsj the persistence of habits that date from the early periods of home education, t<j the
pei'uliarities of the instructors, rather than to the period when the instruction was given. The
marks left on the memory by the instructions of a foster-mother are soon spungod clean away."
(p. 405.)

Consider, says Galton, the history of the cuckoo, which is reared exclu-
sively by foster-parents! — Neither its note, nor its habits, nor its svm[)athie8
are influenced by those of its foster- parent.s. Galt<jn concludes generally that
j with reasonable care in the collection of our data, we may ignore the many
I small differences in nurttire which characterise individual cases.

The reader of Galton's first paper may p<:)ssibly hold that he ought to

[have given more of his data, but it nmst be remembered that his pajxr was

written originally as a {x^pular article for Fvisi-rs MngaziHt', and Gallon was

not yet a practised statistician. His innteri.il is worthv of a fresh .'inalvsis,

128 L\f€ and Letters of Francis Gait on

and we hope that this may be forthcoming. At the same time his general
coaclusion that the differential effects of nurture within the range of exist-
ing social or possible political conditions are extremely small has oeen amply
confirmed by other methotis ot'approivching the problem.

Galton lelt that this conclusion was very essential in its bearing on his
theory of the heredity of the mental charactei-s. The two principles to-
gether— i.e. inheritiince of ability, and the relatively small influence of nurture
as compared to nature — form the basis of his scheme for racial betterment.
While Galton always acknowledged the importance of a good pliysicjue, and
suggested that marks should be allotted to it in competitive examinations,
he was deeply impressed with the fact that the future lies rather with the
man of brains than with the man of muscles ; he repeatedly asserted, however,
that the man of ability was very often of good physique, and the stock
wherein the two were combined was the ideal stock for race-betterment.

In his second paper on twins, entitled "Short Notes on Heredity, etc.,
in Twins'," Galton turns somewhat more to the numerical and physiological
sides of the subject.

"The word 'twin' covers different classes of events — those in which each twin is derived
from a separate ovum, and those in which they come from two germinal spots in the same ovum.
In the former case the_v are enveloped, previously to their birth, in separate membranes; and
in the latter in the siime membrane. Now it appears that twins enveloped in the same raenibrHne
are invariably of the same sex, and these according to the cases of Spaeth, who has evidently
taken great pains to secure reliable data', are 24 per cent, of the whole numlier." (p. 329.)

Galton finds great variation in the .stati.stics a.s to twins of various types,
but concludes that about twice as many twins are born of the same sex as
of opposite sex'. This would mean that Spaeth's percentage should have
been 33°/^ instead of 24°/^,. It seems probable that the divergence arises
from CJalton's "twice" being a rough approximation. He considers that
twins do not marry as often as other people and are less fertile. He con-
tradicts, however, tne popular belief that both twins whether of the same or
opposite sexes never have children, for he had many instances to the contrary.
He says that as far as he is aware nothing corresponding to the 'free-martin'
of cattle occurs with the human twin. Still the infertility of twins Galton
considers to be so great that it renders the question of direct inheritance
of twinning difficult. He accordingly asks whether the number of twins
among the uncles and aunts of twins is in excess of the probable on the
basis of the non-inheritsince of the twinning tendency. Galton shows from
Ansell's Statistics of Families that there is 1 twin born to every 100 births,

• Journal of the Royal Anihropologieal ItislUute (187.5), Vol v, pp. 324-29, 1876.

' "Studien flber Zwillingen," Zeitschrifl der Wiener Gesdlgchaft der Aerzle, I860, No8. 15
aod 16.

* Let x = number of single membrane or 'like' twins, y = number of double membrane or
'unlike' (Le. only as like as normal siblings). Then according to Spaeth, x-\(x ^ y), nearly.
Now in X all twins are of the same sex, and in y only half will be of the same sex; hence total
number of all twins of same sex = a; -t- J y and of different sexes = \y, but x=^y, and accordingly

'•^ly

J, or there are 1*7 times as many twins of same sex as of unlike sex.

Early Anthntpoliujical RotearcJu-nt

r2»

or say 2 personfi twins in 101 persons. Now in his own data for 94 sets of
twins he found that they had 1065 uncles and aunts, and amonpj the.s*- were
27 sets of twins or 54 twins in 10<!5 persons, or, say, 1 person a twin in 20.
Galton accordingly concludes that twins are far more I'recjuent among the
relatives of twins than in the general population or twinning must be an
hereditary character. Galton further noted that on the father's side there
were 538 luicles and aunts with 28 twins among them, and on the mother's
side 527 uncles and aunts with 2(5 twins among them. Hence he concluded
that the hereditary tendency to twinnirit,-- was the same in the male and
female lines'.

Two other interesting points are given in this j)aper: (n) the ca.se of a
woman in a family remarkable for twins, who.se single children were poly-
dactyle, but not the twins, and (6) a pedigree — unfortunately omitting
single births — in which the intermarriages of three twinning stocks show
eight sets of twins, one triplet, and one (piadruplet'^

I have endeavoured in this chapter to trace one strand of Galton's labours,
that which shows him jiassing from the human side of geography to anthro-
pology, and so to heredity and race-betterment. The reader, who has had
the patience to follow my analysis of Galton's papers, will have observed that
Galton was becoming more and more conscious that a statistical treatment
of both anthropology and heredity was necessary, and he steadily set himself
to understand the then existing statistical processes and to develop them
where necessary. I have not hesitated to indicate the statistical weakness
displayed in some of the papers discussed in this chapter, because it was
Galton's growing consciousness in this matter that largely led to his later
contributions to statistical theory.

In 1872 Mrs Galton's mother had died and in 1874 Galton's mother

' Aswuiuiiig one person in tifty to lj« a twin, Galtou'8 94 .set« of twins lead us to a table of
the following character:

Uncle or Aunt

Twin

Not-twin Total!

Nephew 1 Twin
or NioceJ Not-twin

108
2,022

2,130

2,022
102,348

2,130
104,370

Totals

104,370

106,600

If we assume for a moment that twinning is the result of some practically contiDuous variable
exceeding a certain value, the correlation for uncle and nephew would be -1817, rather low for
this relationship (-2 to -3), although such a value has occurred for pliysical characters occasionally.
It is possible that Ansell's value fi)r the frequency of twin births is somewhat exaggerated.

' A niimber of peiligrees of twinning stocks were presented some years ago to the Galton
Laboratory, and will ultimately be publishiMl, but having been collected because of the twinning
frequency, it is not ea.sy to use theni for measuring the intensity of here<lity in twinning.

p o n 17

130 Lift' mul IaUcih of Vrnuch Callon

(Violetta Darwin) alwo passed away. We may conclude this chapter with an
extract from L. G.'s Record, for it indiaites that the hirge amount of work
which Galton published in 1874 must have been done amid much stress.

"1874. Uneasy from the very begiiiniiiji; alwut dear Mrs (ialt<in. Frank went to sen lier
early in Februarj-, and siie diet! February Titli a>;ed 90. This coming so soon after my dwir
mother inadea sad blank; Iwth homes gone. We wcnttode^r Emma ['Sister Emmy'] at Easter
for « week and then nia«le a few days visit to Winchester, Salisbury an<l Lyndhurst, tlie weather
not good. At Whitsuntide we visited the Jenkinsons and greatly enjoye<l their lovely country.
George and Josephine [Canon Butler and his still well-remembered wife, Mrs Jost^pliine Butler']
came to us at the end of June. We were prevented going away by domestic l)others, wliicli have

made the whole of this year sadly trying We jwid miiiiy visits during July and at the end

went down to Cornwall spending a fortnight witii Adfile and Milly ['Sister Delly ' Mrs Bunlmry
and her daughter, afterwards Mrs Ix-thbridge] and visited Boscastle and Tintagel. After this
we went to N. Devon till September, when we visited the (irovrs at Cheetle near lilandford.
On the 14th I broke a blood vessel and was very near dying, but thro' God's mercy 1 came
back to life and felt so peaceful and happy in my quiet sickroom, that it was not a time of misery.
And all were so kind and gootl to nie, and Frank especially, that I felt sustained by love. We
moved to Bournemouth as soon as I was able and then in November to dear Eunna, and found
her well in her newly arranged house. We came home November 18th. Very severe weather
soon set in and lasted to the end of the year. Frank was ill in Decenil>er and hatl Dr A. Clarke'.
We had a quiet dull Xmas, no going out, and Frank had to give up his promised lectures at
Newcastle'. His book on the Nature and Nurture of Scientific Men came out in December;
occupied on inquiry about Twins. On the whole a year of sad memories."

And yet Galton publislied one fundamental book, Enylish Mtni of Science,
and three memoii-s in this year and wrote at letist four others! He depended
singularly little upon a stable environment ; yet it must be rememberetl that
years were not needed then for the collection of data and its numerical
reduction, as in the case of modern biometric studies.

' One of the protagonists for social purity. I remember many years ago, one evening in
Orindelwald, being struck by a very commanding personality, one of the most 'regal' women I
had yet met; it was Mrs Josephine Butler, .Mrs G;ilton's sister-in-law.

• "What a pleasant man Dr Andrew Clarke is. He examined me most thoroughly, pro-
nounced it a concurrence of irregular gout with influenza and that my heart was weak. I mend,
but not overfast." Letter of Galton to George Darwin, Xmas Day 1874. Strange to say Sir
Andrew Clarke's directions for treatment, principally diet, have survived almost the half-century.
Perhaps the wiaest was: "W^alk at least half-an-hour twice a day, and do the most important
bead work after break fa.st, nol after dinner."

' The manuscript draft of these lectures has survived.

PLATE XIII

P'rancis Galum wlieii alxjut fifty yi-iirs i>f ngi-.

THAPTER X

I

THE EARLY STUYD OF HEREDITY: CORRESPONDENCE WITH
ALFHONSE DE CANDOLLE AND CHARLES DARWIN

"Tlit>ro is a vast difference between an intellectual belief in any subject and a living belief
which Ix'conies ingrained, sometimes quite suddenly, into the character."

Francis CIalton, llrreditnry Improvement, p. 123.

A. DE CANDOLLE AND KNOLISU MEX OF SCIENCE

Ah [ have already indicated, Galton's writings of 1865-1875 on social
topics met with a very mixed reception. The paper on the " Efficacy of
Prayer" had l)een refused by Grove and Knowles for their re.'i|>ective journals
before it found a place in the FortiiujhtlyK His views on race-betterment
met with a variety of remonstrances from the mediocrity which Galton
would efface, and which is still the blindest opponent of his ideas. Mrs
Grundy- -whom Galton desired to i-aise two 'grades' in intelligence — was
naturally outrageously shocked. She is still shocked but, while dumb her-
self has a capacious petticoat pocket whence she extracts ample sweetmeats
for her e.xpostulatory and rilial scribes. Galton throughout his life rarely
permitted himself to be drawn into controversy, and, as Mrs Galton records,
his work was approved by men of note. We may add by some women of
note too, although they took a line of their own, with which I am lar from
certain Francis Galton fully sympathised. While advanced in many ways
far beyond his contemporaries, he never struck me as fully recognising the
need for the oncoming change in the status of women. He invariably treated
them with an old-fashioned courtesy, which had an irresistible and unde-
finable charm ; but the gradual entry of highly trained women, even into
his own statistical studies, seemed to some extent to find him unprepared
and puzzle him. He woidd accept the ability, but hardly appreciated it
fully, if it were not accompanied oy personal presence and a recipnwating
charm. He could rejoice in the able woman of the salon, but I am less certain
that he sympathised tus fully with the etpially able, but more highly trained
modern academic woman. But the men who did in 1870 could \)v almost
counted on the fingers of one hand ! I caimot refrain from citing (by j)er-
mission) the following fine letters from Miss Emily Shirreff, a woman of much

' "I am afraid," wroU^ Knowles, "that after all my courage is not greater than Grove's,
You will think that editors are a 'feeble folk,' and so perhaps they are, but it is cerUin that
our constituents (who are largely clergymen) must not be tried much further just now by
proposals following Tyndall's friend's on prayer— and of a similar Md, — or as you yourself say
'audacious character'.''

132 Life and Letters of Franc'i» Galton

distinctiou', because they indicate the impression Galton's work made on tlie
best minds of that moiety of hiunanity, to which I do not think even later he
ever made the great appeal — the uttei-ance of the few words which would
have shown he realised their problems'.
The letters referred to run as follows :

TuK CoLLEOR, HiTCHiN. March 7th '70

Sib, Having just reiwl your remarkalile book on Hereditary (inniim, I ho|)e I may Ix* ex-
cused for oiUln-ssing tliuw f»^w lines to say with what extreme interest I liave followed your
speculations and how valuable seem to me many of the suggestions you throw out. But what
practicid result can we hope from any such theories addressed to a societj' not yet civilised
enough to refrain from marriajies and intermarriages in families known to bear the taint of
consumption and of ma<lm«s? Money and position are the only influences that we have yet
seen powerful enough to counteract the pa«sion of the liour.

Your Tery able and original remarks on sonic of the causes which tcnde<l under the sway
of the church to deteriorate the race of men, especially in Spain and Italy, seem to me to bear
with great force upon some things going on around us now in this counti-y, and still more I
believe in America. 1 mean the various causes which are combining to turn a large numl)er of
the ablest and most active women away from marriage. The luxury of modern life jiernicious
in so many ways has made marriage more ditlicult, and at the same time nmde the condition
of single women more precarious by making it harder for parents to provide for them. Wider
freedom of action and opinion make the conditions of married life with its fearful [wssibilities
of legal oppression more revolting to many women, while the just claim they put forward for
freedom to work their own way, and the resistance that claim meets with from the majority
create a painful and mischievous sense of antagonism against men. No one would hail more
gladly than I should a rebellion against the miserable system which has driven women to
marry for subsistence or position, but unfortunately the feeble will still be content to do so.
Fathers may still reckon on the larger number of their daughters willingly enough living in
idleness till a husl>and takes them olf their hands, and saves them the necessity of providing
for their respectable independence — while the abler, the more energetic, the most fit to be
the mothers of a better generation will revolt against the injustice of our social arrangements,
and struggle singly for an independent position ; thereby sacrificing at once the interests of
society and some of the highest cravings of their own nature. I hold the individuals to be
blameless, but it seems strange that those who watch the workings of society see apparently
without an eflbrt at resistance that fatal tide of luxury rise, and rise aided by much that is
really refined and by all that is base and coarse in our present civili.sation; and take no heed
of the probable effects upon another generation of this 'woman movement,' which judiciously
met might be mode productive of almost unmixed good.

I have written at greater length than 1 at all intended and can only hope you will excuse
my following the train of thought rou.sed by your speculations.

Believe me, Yours sincerely, Emily Shirrkff.

In a postscript the writer gives a number of corrections for a later
edition of the IlereJitai-y Genius. It is a misfortune that we have not
Francis Galton's reply, but clearly he asked the writer for information on
what was to him a novel point. If he hoped for statistical information, it
certainly was not forthcoming in 1870.

' She was on the first Oirton College Conmiittee and for a short time took charge of the
original college at Hitchin.

* The modern 'master' is bound to disappoint the critical mind of the modem disciple in
some one or other aspect, and such an occasion came to the present writer on hearing a lecture
by Francis Galton many years later on eugenic propagandism. The only special appeal he made
to the modern woman — to whom eugenics is a vital interest — was to throw open her house
for drawing-room meetings. The suggestion seemed to bo out of touch with the modern centre
of gravity of women's activities and opinions.

Corrtntpoiidtnct with Emily Shirrtff

133

Tub Collkob, Hitchih. March 16tb 70

Dkar SiK, I hiivp l>een thinking very much aliout (Ik; opinion I r lU ooa-

iin){ tlio (liHinclinalion to mnrriago nriiong woiiicn of a i'«>rt«iii stjn ;i(l and

AiniM-ica, imd wishing vory much that I could K've you evidence of whut to me ih eertninly a
fact, hut which hiw gi-own into that through a multitude of channulH, minute olwcrvation,
Bcatterud opinion in IkmiIch and xome axpects of opinion upon nocial queationii. Aa regKrda
America I know I gatliered much from Mr H. Dixon'H two worki*, alao I remeinlwr Bome
papers of Mr F. Newman which left mo the same impression. Oenerally, the tone of what
Komo call the most advanced (and which appear t'l me the most exagi{erate<l) views of the
'wonum question' tnmts marriage and the hoiix" fKwition of the wife and mother with a sort of
half contempt which indicates the feeling I speak of. Mr Mill has expn»<s<Nl what women have
been feeling more and more for years past concerning the injustice of the irresponsihle despotiam
under which they live; it may be and often is a In^nevolent deafK)tism, liut absolute; govern-
mnnts are not in fashion and the reaction of lilMjral politics has di)ul)tless a(rect<'<l the views of
home life. Women have little hop«> of any change that law can make in their destiny, — lietter
therefore they say to Ije independent of men. All that foolish talk alx)ut njuaJily (foolish
because it never can be proved one way or the other and has very little bearing upon the
practical question) has stirred up feelings of antagonism and these are most unfavourable to
marriage. I believe men do not realist" to what a miserable extent women h»ve married for
position or independence, and degrading as the system has t)een it must lie owned tluit to the
larger nund>er there was no other resource, — they hatl no openings for employment and their
families did not provide for them. Now therefore that there is so much stir alx)ut occupation
for women and that they see for tlie first time a vision of independence to be earned by their
own work, it is, jwrliaps, a necessary — at any rate a natural — result that they should look with
some dislike to what se<>ms the refuge for weaker minds. I believe that the feeble intluence of
piission over women — educatefl women at any rate — as compai-e<l with affection aids this state
of things. If they do not meet with the individual who calls forth the strong affection, and for
whom any sacrifice is light, a single life has nothing from which they shrink. If they can live
without hardship they fit-l that they have much in the sense of freedom to comjien.sate for any
advantages marriage might have given. In France they will not bear the social discredit of
old maidism, but the same struggle for independence is going on and is more ea.sy to carry on
within the limits of married life than in England. I think that the frequency with which we
see women of |)ro|)erty remain single is a corroboration of what I have said. But I feel tliat
all I have written is most vague and can only show you the nature and dirt'ction of the evidence
that has produced this conviction on my mind — one to which I give no welcome — for with all
its ignorant shortcomings in practice, I am sure the old theory of life is that which is true to
Nature, and that the existence of nmn or woman is abortive without the other. I say this
only to let you know that my belief is not born of my own prepossession. iShould I oome acroas
any facts or views I thiuk luight be interesting to you on this point, T shall have great pleasure
in sending them to you. Yours truly, Emily Siiikrekf.

I do not think Galton fully heard this knocking of the younger g^ene-
ration on the door. He had assumed that the ahler men could nave the
abler women for the asking, l)ut what if the social evolution were to be such
that the latter tended to stand idoof from marriage altogether? The writer
of these letters may have put the matter vaguely in 1870 — she was only at
the beginning of the great movement of tiie last fifty years, and must fail
to foresee all its phases. Yet she grasped a danger to the race, that the
author of Hereditaiy Genitis had not hinted at — the danger that the abler
woman, when she has once realised her powers, may prefer to remain un-
married'. You may press upon her the religious duty of race-betterment,

' I think this 'fear' of the 'seventies has largely materialised into a statistically demonstrable
fact in the last thirty years. The abler men, either by choice or necessity, do not mate with
the abler women, and the latter either by choice or necessity remain to a very lar^ge extent
unmarried.

1 2^-4 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

and she may put you to confusion by distinguishing between the social and
honoumble duty of parentage, and the individuaHstic and onerous duties of
marriage. We may nmch desire, I fear now in vain, to see Galton's replies
to these letters ; but I do not think he saw how the emancipation of women
must change the aspect of his proposals for race-betterment'. Had he done
so, he must surely have given us some light on one of the most difficult

f)roblems of our present day civilisation. 1 cannot find trace of it in Galton's
ater writings on eugenics, and the present legislative pittance to lying-in
mothers of the artizan classes is only a travesty of what the eugenist under-
stands by the endowment of the physically and p.sychically abler mothers in
each caste of our modern highly differentiated social organisjition.

We have further evidence, however, of the manner m which Hereditary
Genius stirred up men by its suggestions, if not to new investigations, at
any rate to the publication of work they had in mind. Noteworthy in this
respect is Alphonse de Candolle's book : Histoire des Sciences et des Savants
depuis deux Siecles, publi.shed in 1872. It shows undoubted signs of
Galton's influence, if only as an irritant, and one may reasonably question
how and when it would have been issued, but for the Hereditary Genius of
1869. De Candolle, son of the still more distinguished bottmist, wa.s, as befits
a botanist, more impreased than Galton with the influence of environment,
and he quite possibly gave too little weight to the selective immigration
into Switzerland, which has gone on at various periods to the great advantage
of the intellectual life of that little country. Certainly some of his criticisms
of Galton appear to me hasty and unjustified, and counter-criticisms against
his own work could be easily raised, were it worth doing. The main jioint
is that after a certain amount of friction these two able men became friends
and mutually inspired each other's ideas and work. Just as we may consider
De Candolle's work as brought to birth — perhaps prematurely — by Galton's
Hereditai'y (renius, so Galton's Erajlisli Men of Science, their Nature and
Nurture of 1874, while an extension of the corresponding chapter in the
Hereditary Genius, was prompted by De Candolle's Histoire des Sciences'.

The correspondence between these two men gives a greater insight into
Galton's manner of thought at this period than any other record — except his
writings — which has been preserved from that date. Conununications with
English scientific friends — Darwin excepted — were largely verbal. They are
lost in the after-dinner talks of the Athenaeum and of the Royal Society clubs.

' He was not oppostHl to the academic education of women — witness the following letter of
CbarleH Darwin to his 8on George of Feb. 27 [1881]:

"You will have heard of the triumph of the Indies at Cambridge [Grace of Senate admitting
women to University examinations carried by 398 to 32]. The majority was so enormous that
many men on both sides did not think it worth vnting. The minority was received with jeers.
Horace was sent to the Ladies College to communicate the success and was receivwl with
enthusiasm. Frank and F. Gallon went up to vote. We had F. Galton to Down last Sunday.
He was splendid fun and told us no end of odd things." A VeiUury of Family Letters, 1904,
Vol. II, p. 315.

But Gallon naturally did not realise all that would flow from the movement.

< "I thought that a somewhat similar investigation might be made with advantage into the
hiatory of English men of 8cien«»." MemorUs, p. 291.

I'LATK XIV

Down (licokonlmiii, Kent), the home of Charles Darwin from 1842 to his death in 1882.
Fi-oin 11 ]>li<)t<)gnti)h liy Dr- David Hi^ron.

I

Correxponflf'Hft' in't/i AljihniiMf ile CandoUr 135

42, UUTLAND (lATK, I^XDOX. Dte. 37/72.

Dkar Sik, I tliiiiik v<jii tiuK'li tor yniir voluino which I r<)c<'ivc<| about a fortniKlit lince and
which I hiivc inid iiiul rc-rciul witli can* hikI with t»rnjit in.Htrucli<in Ut iiiyielf. Allow me to con-
griituiiiti- you OH th<' hajipy idfii of iiccHptiiij{ tli« noniiiiatioii»of tlitf PVench Acji^l 'iir

IxkHos a.H r(>lial)l<i diploiiiiiH of scientific cniinRnc(>, uiid on tliUH obtaining a hoI: iir

l-eAHuning. I must liowevcr express no Kniali surprise at the contrast l)etwe<>n youi iit

on my theories and your own conclusionii. You iMiy and imply that my views on iry

genius are wrong and tliat you are going to correct them ; well, I read on, and tin<l to my
aatonishnient that so fur from correcting them you re-enunciatu them. I am perfectly unable
to discover on what particulars, speaking broadly, your conclusions have invalidated mine.
They have largely supplemoiit«d theui, by thoroughly working out a bmncii of the inquiry into
which I never professed to enter, but I literally cannot ««■<) that your conclusions, so far as
heredity is concerne<l, differ in any niarke<l way from mine. You say that race is Hll-im|M)rtant
(p. "253 etc.) — that families of the same race differ from each other more widely than the races
tliemselves (p. 'J')H) — that physicnl form is certainly hereditary and that intellect is depeixlent
on structure and must therefore be inheritwl (p 32()) that for success, an individual must
both "vouloir et/«>iM'()Jr" (p. 92) — that the natural facultii-s must bo above mi'<liocrily (p. 106)
and very many other similar remarks. I never sjiid, nor thought, that H|>ecial aptitudes were
inherited so strongly as to bo irresistible, which s«!ems to Ije a dogma you are plea»e<l to ascribe
to me ami then to repudiate. My whole book, including the geneJilogical tables, shows that
ability — the ''pouvoir" — may manifest itself in many ways. I feel the injustice you have done to
me strongly, and one reason that I did not write earlier was that I might first hear the inde-
pendent verdict of some scientific man who had read both Iwoks. This I have nowdone, having seen
Mr Darwin whose opinion confirms mine in every particular. Let me, before proceeding to more
agreeable subjects, complain of yet another misrt^presentation. You say (p. 3H0) that I deny or
doubt (contester) the gixnl tendencies of children reart'<l in the families of clergymen — I never
said anj'thing of the sort. What I did .siiy was against the "pious," that is the ovrr-re/it/iottt.
My genealogies are full of clergymen: — in the list you give, p. 3S1, I doubt if any of the parents
are known to have been "pious". — though you might have (juott'd llnlUr in your favour. Let
me en passant remark alnmt the last paragraph of your fo'jtnote to p. 383, the sons of English
clergy are or were hardly ever sent into the army, becau.se their partMits could not afford it,
and therefore their sons could not lH'com(> (ienerals. Sometimes, but very rarely, they toerr put
into the Navij, which is a less costly pr<jfe.ssion, and Admiral I»rd Nelson was one of such.

I regret very much that you did not succeed in working out the genealogies of the scientific
discoverers, on whom you rely, and on both sides. However there is no denying the fact, that
as a whole they are specialists, rather than illustrious men, and are therefore stmiewhat obscure
to fame. Man against man, they would l)e nowhere in compi-tition with a great statesman —
but they have owed more to concentration and the narrowing of their faculties than to a general
prodigality of their nature. Such men are more easily afilnited by circumstances than the bom
geniuses alx)ut whom T chiefly busied myself, and an« therefore all the more suitable subjects
for an inquiry like yours, into the effects of different circumstances.

t)ne of the most striking things to me in your lKK)k is the chilling influence on scientific
curiosity you prove to i-esult from religious authority. The figun« you give seem to me of the
highest importance. I am also greatly impresse<l with the conditions of fortune (funds not land)
and the desire for an Eurojwan rather than a local reputation which you ascrilw to religious
and other refugees. — Switzerland's reputation seems made by the Huguenots, Eulerand Halter
being the only two in your list of purely native birth. I wish you had given the genealogies
of the rest in full.— Have you not made some slip of the jx-n in p. 125 — at the bottom! If you
cut off the sons of pasteurs I do not find that equality is re-establishtfl, nearly. — Then see p. 40
where out of 20 fathers of associates only 4 were jwsteurs and of all these associates only one
wivs Catholic. — There remain 14 non-clergy and 2 Quakers as parents of 16 Protestants to that
1 Catholic. Is not 'Protestant' a deceptive word? I fear most of the scientific men would be
more truly described as 'infidel' or 'agnostic'

I How remarkable are your conclusions al>out teaching. I suppose .severe t' es

many original minds but raises the level. We in England are in the thro< ual

reform, wanting to know how l)est to teach "How to observe.''
In your table XI of the scientific value of a mill'''" "f ,Iin"..r..iir i ...•.•« T note, what appears fo
I

136 Life and Letter* of Franci» O'alton

me, tk serious statUticAl error. You disregard the fact that some piipulations increase faster
than others and have therefor*- alwajTj a plethora of children and of persons to<i young to be
aoadeiuicians. Take as sample and not very incorrect figures, that Ainericu U.S. doubles in 25
years, Kngland in 50 and that France remains stationary. Then your calculation would do
about A/our-Md injustice to America, and a double injustice to England as compared to France,
because it is at the age of 50 or thereabouts that people become academicians. The true com-
pMiaon would Ije with the number of jH-rsons in the nations nbot-e the age of 50. This would
avoid anothei- great source of error arising from the very differtmt chances of life of a child in
different countries.

I fear the English physiologists will exclaim at your "etat moinentane lors de la c<mception."
Am I doing you «n injustice in supposing that you argue on the hypothesis that conception and
copulation an- simultaneous? I certainly understand you do (pp. 311-2) but how can the argu-
ment standi The s|)erniatozoa do not get at the ovum for hours, perhaps many days, after
copulation, and the ovum itself, when fecundated, has long been detached from the ovary.

I feel, now that I have come to the end of this letter, that I have done little else than find
fault, but I beg you to be assured that my general impression of the book is of another kind.
I feel the great service you have done in writing it, and I shall do what I can to make it known,
as it ought to be, in England. Can you get any facts out of Foundling Hospitals about heredity t
The people here who administer ours are not scientific.

I have written an audacious article for Fraser's Magazine in Jan./73 of which I will send
you a copy. Believe me, faithfully yours, Francis Galton.

To M. Alphonse de Candolle.

GBNi:vR. 2. Janvier 1873.

MoNSiBCR ET HONOK^ coLLteuE, Le volume que j'ai public vous a caus^ un melange d'impres-
sions agreablcs et d^sag^^bles. Je puis en dire autant de votre lettre du 27 Difeembre mais avant
de discuter certains points, je d^^sire vous faire une declaration generale. S'il mV'chnp|)e, duns
les 482 f>ages de mon livre, une phrase, un mot pouvant faire douterde mon res[>ect pour votre
im|>artialit^, votre caract^re et votre talent d'investigation, cc ne pent etre absolument que par
erreur et oontrairement k mes intentiotis. Vous avez toujours clierche la verite. J'ai appreci6
beaucoup votre travail et s'il n'etait jmvs inusit^ de transcrire de nombreux articles d'un auteur
je vous aurais cit4 encore plus souveiit.

L'id^ de consulter les nominations |)ar les Academies m'est venue il y a 40an8l J'avais
pri* un de mes amis de prendre au s^retariat de I'lnstitut les listes des Associes strangers et
Correspondants de 1750 en 1789. Ix's noms modernes stmt aises a trouver ailleurs. J'avais
redig^ en 1833 un memoire sur ces listes de Paris et sur cellos de la Societe Hoyale. Si je ne
I'ai pas publio alors c'est qu'il me semblait un peu presomptueux chez un jeune homme de
mesurer ainsi la valeur de savants illustres, parmi lesquels ee trouvait son pi-re et quelques
bommes distingues k c6t6 de lui. Une fois moi-menie sur certaines listes, il me repugnait d'en
parler. Entin, k 66 ans, apres une s^rie de travaux spdciaux propres k justifier ma position, le
courage m'est venu et j'ai pens^ pouvoir m'elever au dessus des considerations personnelles de
toute nature.

Ma reaction 6tait fort avancee quand j'ai connu votre ouvrage. Je I'ai lu avec infiniment
de plaisir, comme je viens d'en relire les chapitres les plus im|>ortant8.

Nous sommes admirablement d'accord sur les faits. Nous avons les memes id6es sur les
noea. Vous avez envisage un plus grand nombre de categories d'hommes, mais celle des savants
que j'ai €tudite d'une mani^re plus speciale, avec une methode diflerente, m'a donne de r^sultats
exti^mement semblables aux vOtres quant aux faits.

Je persiste k croire qu'il y a, non pas une opposition mais une difference assez sensible dans
I'appr^'iation des causes qui ont intlue sur les faits.

Vous faites habituellement ressortir, comme cause principale, I'h^r^it*. Quand vous parlez
des autres causes elles sont indiqutei accessoirement et sans chcrcher k demeler ce qui tient
particuli«>rement 4 elles ou a chacune d'entre elles. De loin en loin vous mentionnez ces autres
cause*. Ainsi on i>eut lire bicn des pages oQ vous d6montrez I'influence de I'heredit*^ avant de
renoontrer une ligne comme au haut de la page 88 sur les social injliiettceg. Le titre m6me de
I'ouvrage implique I'idee de rechercher uniquement sur I'h^r^dite, ses lois et see consequences,
•atreiBeot vous auriez dit : On the effect of heredity and othtr circumnlanret as to genus. As8ur<'-

I

Cori'('itptnulnu;e with Aljthuiii*<t <lr t'limlollf I'.lT

merit vouh nvez rendu uii vrui iiervico ^ la science, niais votre point <iu vuu ^tait enMntiellement

l.^uiiiit il nioi j'tii vm I'livantage dc vcnir iipW'H vuim. II ne m'u juim L-t«- difficile (U< contirnier
par dti nouvoHUX faitH I'influence dc rhcn'-tiitti, niaiH je n'lii janiaiH |>enlti (l<- vue !•"■ int',.. cauH^M,
et la Muite (le iiioa recherclies m'a convaiucu qu'uileH ont en i{<'ii<'-ral jiIiim d'impoi - I'hur**-

ditc, (lu nioins piirini Ich hoinniex do ni^^iiio race. Si I'un cuiii|>are deti nrgreo a\<'< n- 1 iManCH,oa
mAnie dcM bianoi asiatiqueN avec rles biancs europeeiiH, I'effot do la race oot pri-«toniinant, niaiH
paniii los lionimeH dp noa ]iayH civilians I'effet des traditionx, (fxempleH el oonm-ilH danH I'int^'Tieur
d(« fiiinillcs iii'a paru cxeroer plus d'inlluencu que l'ln'rt''ditt'' iiropn-iiit-nt dite. Vient enxuiUt
I'l'ducut ion cxtt'Tieuro, I'opinion publiijuf, les institutions etc. Jo nie Kuis appi' ler

la part (i'intlucnce de tout<^s (;e« causes, part qui varie suivant les |>ays ct li |ui

favoris(> ou contrarie les eH'cts de rhcrt'ditc. Le but de mea recherches t-tait done tlitlWrent du
vfltre et les ri'sultats en ont etc Uiff^rfutM sans 6tre oppos<S8. Cost ce que j'ai dit ik la p. 93.

J'eii viens aux obsorvations de di'tail.

Au bas de la p. 27.3 vous parlez de faita et d'une ccrtaine opinion courante d^favorable«
aux enfiints de personnes religieuses (religious). Dans mon id<5e rininienso majorite des clergy-
men est religieuse, et conmie J'ai reuiarqu^ cepeiidant nioi-mime des cas dans lesquels leurs
enfants avaient nial tourne, j'ai exaniind les faits, et J'ai trouvd (^ ma grande surprise) qu'ane
forte proportion de savants celt'^bres avaient etc fils de pa.steurs ou ministres. J'en ai tir^ un
argument en faveur de rimp)rtance d'l'-ilucation simple et morale.

Jo n'ai pas coinpris votro observation sur une erreur de chiffre a la p. 40. Kn compUmt do
nouveau sur la deniicre colonne des pp. .'56-40, je trouvc 13 fils de pasteui-s ou ministres comnic
je I'avais dit. Pur parentlif'se, J'ai 80up<;onnd quelquefois que Sir David Brewster •'•tail un
14'*"". II etait tils d'un Rector of the Grammar sch<K)l of Je<lburgli, ce qui d'apn-s le i>ay8
peut faire croire qu'il etait peut-§tre ministre. Une notice dans un journal religicux m'a appris
que Sir David avait etc eleve dans une atmosplit'^re tris pieust'.

Je n'ai pus pu savoir I'origine de famille de Mr Owen, de nidnie que j'ignore celle de Mr Airy,
que I'Aeademie de Paris a nomme depuis 1869, associ*^ «5tranger. Agassiz, nomnie ^galement
dopuis raon t^ibleiiu, est fils d'un pasttiur Suisse (de famille indigiine).

Si Ton retranchait du nombre des savants suis.ses ceux qui descendent de families ^trangires,
il resttM-ait encore un nombre as.sez respectable qui placerait notre ptstit pays ii c6t«5 des Etata
scandinave-s et de la Hollande, selon les epoques. Ce ne .serait pius juste en soi, jiarce que noe
.sjvvants d'origine etrangt-re ctaicnt tons nes en Suisse, et m6me petil-fils ou arriere-petit-fils de
rt5fugies ncs en Suisse. Pour eux I'influence d'h^r^ite avait d^ji ete attonu^i 6norm6raent par
la loi gdometriquo des degres.

Assurenient I'lirbre <iue Calvin et ses amis avaient plant<! ii Geneve avec ses rameaux de
Hollaude, d'Ecosse, des puritains anglais et d'Amcrique, etait doue d'une grande vigueur. Notre
souclie i Gen«>ve s'est nKxlifiik! dans un sens libt'ral en 1720 (pp. 127 et 205), conmie plus tard
k Boston et meme un peu en Uollande et un Ecosse. niais il est reste dans tons ces pays un
esprit d'ind($pendance et une pei-sistance de volont«5 qui ont ^te favorables aux sciences loraqa'il
a convenue aux individus de s'en occuper. Je n'ai pas voulu ra'^tendre davantagu sur un aussi
petit pays que Genfeve, mais voici quelques faits qui peuvent vous iuteresser. A I'dpoquo de la
Reformation beaucoup de families nobles quitterent Geneve pour demeurer catholii|ue8. II
vint k la place une foule de gentilhonnnes et bourgeois instruits de France et d'ltalie, qui
(^taient z«51es [wiur la nouvelle religion, lirace A li'urs antecedents et leur ttlucation, ils entrerent
dans In classo di>8 families not!d)les du piys, qu'ils dominerent et ils devinrent le fond d'une
aristocratic locale qui a subsiste de fait, sans titre ni privilege Wgal, jusqu'en 1841. Cettesortc
de patriciat ne visait pas seulenient aux places du gouvemement et de.s Conseils: elle occupait
k I'origine les charges de pasteurs et dans le XVIII" sit\;le et jusqu'en 1841 celles de profes-seurs
de I'Aeademie (avec ou sans enseignenient) qui donnait la surveillance de I'instruction publique
et un mng honontble dans I'opinion. Grace k ces nioeurs, un jeune homme studicux, d'une famille
notable, pouvait ,se contenter d'une fortune m6<liocre. II avait d'ailleurs une bonne chance pour
se marier richement. Vous voyez quels encouragements existaient en favour des sciences, pr^
cisement dans les families d'anciens refugies.

J'auniis pu donner plus d'inforniatioiis sur les m^res et autrea ascendants des savants suisaes,
surtout gen^vois, mais vous avez deniontre tjue passe les premiers degres Ther^litii intlue fort
peu. A vrai dire toute.s uos families un peu ancieunes k Genfive ont du sang de huguenot (si Ton
p G II 18

138 Life aiu/ Lttterti of Fronr'm (iaUov

OM employer oette vieille locution apr^s votre curieux travail sur la transfuitiun), seuloinent co
■ang *«t tout k fait diluo. C«' soiit Ics iuKtitutions et le« iiui'urs iinplantwii par iios anofitroH
rtfngi^ qui out {luHse liicn plus loitf^teinps <|uo Dior^ditv Mainteimnl unc aftluciice (rouvi-iers
oatholi<|U(>K ill's I MIS »'t uno si'rie (K- ri^voliitiims nous out dotine uii nouvi-l t'-tat social.

Nous (k'Vfiuiiis.a -. DcsorniaiH la distiiictiim pn'squ<> uniipic entrc li's fainilleM sera la

fortune. Co ni- m-ih y.ia au profit lU- la soienci'. D'autn-s cantons ile la Suisse (Zurii'h, VamI,
Neuchatel) «• pri'jwin'iit k nous siiccislt-r, les bonnes conditions I'Umt niieux rOunios clit'z inix.

DanK li's pn>[K)rtions de savants a I'ej^ard dps populations <lf (uiys il aurait niii-ux vulu j>ouvoir
calculur sur les honimes d'un certain age, soil oelui auquol on cxt ordiimiruniont clu aux
Aoadtoiiofs soit celui auquel on commence k travaillnr utilement. Mallipureuseiiient c'ctait im-
pocsible pour ies ann^ps 1750 et 1789, dont je nie suia occupe, et fort difticilt- ptur 1829 et m6me
1 869. La Huinie est le soul pays qui ait eu un dunombrement par hki's dans le si^le dernier.
Pour II' ro8t<^? de {'Europe j'ai £'te for«5 de recourir h dcs o.stimations nienie pour la ]>opulation
totale. On ne jmuvait jnus avoir la division jMir i'lj^es, en 1S29 et ISGO, dans los piiys coninie
rAlleuia^fne et I'ltalie oft cliaque Ktat fiiisait ses ncrnsenients sur la liase qu'il iiiiu^'inait, a des
^poques ditleivntes ot .sou vent n'en faisait jmis ou ne publiiiit pas Ies details. Heniarque/. d'ailleurs
que la prop<)rlion des ill-el's d'enfants est d'autant j)lus forU? qu'il y a plus d'enfants a soigner,
ti'oii il resulte un nombre d'iulult<'s nioins ditrerent qu'on ne croiriiit d'un pays a I'autiv.

II y aurait \ine correction inijiortantt' a faire— eelle de defalquer de eliaque pays Ies individus
nes k I'etranger et d'ajouter las nationaux qui so sont etablis ailleui-s. On oU'rait de cotte
maniere aux Etats Unis, en 1869, environ 5.J millions, qu'il faudrait ropartir sur Ies Il4)yaunies
britanniques et rAllemagne principalenient. La correction serait equitable, car s'il y avait eu
dans Ies Strangers etablis en Amerique dcs titulaires d'Acad^niie je Ies aurais imputes k leurs
pays de naissance. Cela ne sortii-ait jxiurtant pas Ies Etats Unis do la region inferieure de mes
tableaux. Et comment savoir la quantiti^ de sujets britanniques etablis sur le Continent ou
ailleurs qu'en Ameriipie? Celle des Allemands etablis en Hus.sie, en France etc.1 Le sujet
heureuseinent n'exige pas une si gninde precision. Je I'ai dit plusieurs fois, Ies chifl'res de
population ne sont pas en corp.'lation avec Ies groupes exceptionnels d'lioinmes s'occupant do
science. On est |>ri«^' d'englolx-r dans cliaque ]>ays des parties considerables de jxipulntion qui
jouent ui\ rfile scientifique insignitiant, conime I'Autriche en AUemagne, le royaume des Deux
8iciles en Italie, Tlrlande dans le Itoyaunie Uni, Ies cantons catholiques en Suisse. I^es calculs
sur Ies populations ne peuvent done pas avoir une veritable valeur statistique, mais ils sont
utiles pour pouvoir apprecier Ies causes qui ont influt' en divers pays, k divers ^poques, en
t«iiant compte des details accessoires propres k modifier I'impression d6terminee par Ies chififrns.

Sur la f<k.'ondation, distincte de la copulation, je ne vois pas bien la valeur des objections.
II y a dans ce que j'ai dit 1" des faits, 2" des conjectures. Les faits sont que des honimes en
^tat d'ivresse (afiFection tenqioraire du cerveau) out engendre souvent des idiots, i^'pileptiques,
etc., et qu'une chienne fortenient blessee sur I'arriere parlio du dos pendant I'accouplement a
donne naissance a des petits defectueux du train du derriere (Luisas 2, p. 250). Done choz
rhomine les spermatozoaires peuvent f-tre modifies par I'etat niomentane nialadif du systi^ine
nerveux, et cliez Tespt^'ce canine les ovules peuvent etre mo<lifi»is par un accident survenu au
moment m6me de la copulation. Voila des faits. Maint<>nant il ne me parait pas hasard^ de
croire que d'autres affections teniporaires pourraient aussi influer comme ralcoolisme ou comme
une 16iion. Dans Tesp^'-ce humaine une terreur, une idee doniinante ou exclusive (espfece de mono-
manie) peuvent durer plusieurs jours et intlueraient non seulement sur les sfiermatozoaires mais
aassi sur les ovules au moment oil ils vont sfy detacher. Je nic souviens qu'a I'epiMjue du siege
de S^bastopol il y avait des pcrsonnes qui avaient perxlu le soinnieil de I'eirroi et de la eoinmisera-
tion des sftufTrances racont^es par le-s joumaux. \a.-h eveneinents de 1870-7 1 ont cause beaucoup
d'alienations nientale.s et sfirement ont troubK; a un moindre degre Ix'aucoup d'esprits. Je ne
■erais pas t^tonne que ce n'ait eti' une caust- d'augmentation de folio ou d'idiotisme chez les
enfants n^ en 1871 dans une partio de TEuhjih;. Duns les pays oi'i les fortunes doivent C*tre
p»rtag^ egalement entre les enfant« vous ne pouvez pss vous figurer la t<!rreur plus ou moins
McrHe de plusieurs femmes k Tidt'-e d'une nouvelle grossesse. Uepresentez vous aussi I'^tat
nerveux de certaines femmes quand ellos ont etc infideles k leurs maris et celui d'un mari qui
d^teste aa femme sans vouloir lo lui montrer, du Due de Praslin, par exemple, qui maintenait
aea rapports conjugaux avec I'intention arr^t^ d'assassincr la duchesse.

Je ne oonnais rien de fait su k faire ici sur les enfants trouves. Ces enfants provienuent

I

Con't'upoiKlcnn' irttli A/j>/min<r ilr Cant/of If 139

de pai'KiitH inconmm <it trits vnrioH. .It) iiv Mim o<> iiu'oii pourrait cDiiclure <lo Icuni u|itilu(lnt.
Uous8eau ivviiit huh soh enfants a I'li^iiitul. On nvhI dcmnndi- h'jIh ■'■tiiifiit livvonufi <|n>'1'ii>''i I>'>hc>.
Je croiH qu'ils sunt mortti jeune vu les coiiditiimH d)-trHtii))Ii-H d«H ancii'iis hApitaiix ■

Jc vous ticrai fort obli^d do tn'envoycr I'articlu du Krascr'H Muf^azine dunt von.-, hm- |>.>ii<>z,
do iiioino quu do toutn ri-dactiuii avoc ou saiiH critique de iiion travail quo voiis auricz la Ixint^
do publicr. Kn attendant je voiis prie de me croiro, Monsieur, votrc tn'-H d6vou<' collogue,

Alpii. UK Caxoolle.

P.H. J'ai fiiit achever |>ar le libraire un exemplaire de men livre k la Hooi^tif I^jyaie.

J '<'spi'''rc (|n'il est parvenu.

42, Rutland Oatk, London. Mai/ 7/73

Mr DBAR 8iK, It gave me much pleasure to receive your letter. I atisure you I feel like
yoUfNelf, that the Huhjocts on which we diflfcr are altogether sii))or(linate to the common interest
we have in arriving at the truth on the same line of imjuiry. My article in the FortnujhUy
was much .shorter than I should have liked to have made it, but there was a difficulty about
space and I crammt^d all I couM in what wiu< given to my dis|x>sitl.

Of the many topics in your work left unnoticed I regretted much not Wing able to speak
of your most just criticism of the misuse of the word 'Nature.' For my part, I will never
offend iigiiin unle.ss through a slip of t\\» pen. Your work luus Ix-en reati by many of ray
scientific friends here, and a passage in it prompted one of the most effective part.H of by far
the most effective speech, — that of Dr Lyon Playfair, — in the recent Parliamentary debate
upon Irish University Education. The debate, as perhaps you may have seen, was one of
extronie importance to the future of science in Ireland, and the question was how far it should
be submitted to or emancipatetl from Catholic control. Lyon Playfair quoted the effect of
Calvinism in Geneva on science, during the time of its ascendancy in wholly suppn-ssing it,
which wa,s shown by the innne<iiiite start made by science as soon as the strict dogmatic
influence liegan to wane. He spoke with e.xcelleut effect and succe.s.s, and I know that he
derive<l at Ica.st that part of his argmnent from you, Ix-cau.se I hatl myself directe<i his attention
to your work previously iis having a direct l)eariiig on his then pro|K)sed spe«'cli.

Thank you for your interesting fact ab<:)ut impregnation under the effect of alcoholism. One
of cour.se nt^ctls many such facts and it occui-s to me that pt^rliaps some direct experiment might
l)e made, say with white mice, which brt«d very frequently and largely, are easily reared and
cheap to ket-j). The he-mouse might be fetl on some suitable narcotic stimulant before being put
in with the femal(>. I have no idea what stimulant wouhl be suitable, one would have to try
cannabis sativa, belladonna, opium, etc. A strong instance (if accurately recorded) of alcohol-
ism combine*! lioth with the evil influences of clase interbreeding and of old age on the part
of one of the parents, in producing no bad effect on the offspring, is that of Lot and his
daughters ((n-nesis xix. 31).

You are giKwl enough to remark on my views alnnit improving the human bn>ed, showing
the ditliciilty of detecting and of discovering defects whii-h families scrupulously conceal. But
then on the other hand, it must l>e lioriie in mind thai my primary t>bject is not to deter the
biul from, but to encourage th<' good breeds in, making early marriages. Tho.s«» who arc con-
scious of being of a gwxl stock would court inquiry, for by having a warranty they would l»e
advantaged. Pt-oplc take such extnw)rdinary l>ains to found families that they could easily Ik;
taught the importanc«> of marrying their sons and daughters to persons likely to cooperate in
U'getting children cajMihle of supporting the dignity of the family. Heiii-e youths having
warranties would Ik- sought after far more than the same |)ersf)ns are sought after now. After
many generations, the absence of a warranty wo<il(l l(K»k suspicious. — Kncouragement of the
l)est is the surest and safest way of discouraging the inferior. We are such a set of mongrels
that except in extreme cases we should not In- justified in 'Iwnning' any marriage. All we can
say is, that .sonu- marriages are more hop-ful than others. I therefore go no further at pre.s«'nt,
than urging that lioiH>fid marriage should Xie encourage*!.

If an autunni's tour should take me to Geneva, T trust 3'ou will not think it a liberty if I
do myself the plen.sure of seeking your [H^rsonal He(|uaintance, with a view to some conversation
on the many sulijects in which we have a strong conunon interest.

Believe rae very faithfully yours, Francis Oalton.

To M. .Vm'iionsk de C.\ni)Olle.

18—8

140 Lift and Letters of Francis Galton

QiNfeTE. ]QJmH 1873.

MoN CHER M0S8IKUR, Vous 1110 faitcH esjit-riT uiie vUiU; duns Ic ooiiraiit de raut<iniiie et
comiue ji" serais bicii (Actu' de vmi« iiiaii({uer, |)eriiiette/.-rii()i de vous dire que je serai sans doute
a Gen^ve depuis le milieu ou au plus tarti la 6n de septenibre. J'ai rintentioii de iii'absenter
pendant le niois d'auut, inais il ost bien douteux que inon excursion so prolonge au del& de
5 ou C semainee.

Si vous pasaez dans notre ville vous n'avcz qu'k me demander four St Pierre 3 (au 2'*"*
^tage). C'est 14 qu'est mon herbier et iiussi niu bibliotli^ue. J'y vieiis tous les jours de 1 1 4 2 h.,
ezoepte le dimanche.

Dans la soinie et les dimanches vous me trouveriez au VaUon, pr^ Ch6ne et de Ch6ne h ma
maison de campagno il y a 8 minutes.

Votre idw dVxj>erimenter sur les souris serait excellente k suivrc. II faudrait voir d'abord
quelle sultstance toxique ces animaux niangent voiontiei-s et quelle dose on peut leur en donner
sans lour faire trop de mal et en pnxluisant tvp'ndant dcs diets si>nsible8. Le Cannabis a raoins
de mati^re inebriante dans la graine que dans les feuilU^, mais il doit pourtant y en avoir. Une
p&tee alcooliste serait peut-Ctre plus commode, parce qu'on saurait bien la dose d'alcool
administr^.

Des pigeons qui s'accoupleraient sous I'empire de I'alcool donncraicnt pieut-Ctre des
petita tumblersl Mr Darwin pourrait I'cssayer niieux que personn& Mais il dirait peut-etre
que la ft'-oondation des a'ufs dans les oi.seaux est entouree de trop d'incertitude. On ne
saurait pcut-C>tre pas exactenicnt quels ocufs auraient ete fecondes k tel moment par le m4le
alooolis^.

B«oevei, mon cher Monsieur, I'assurance de mes salutations empress^es.

Alpb. db Candolle.

42, Rutland Gate, London. Oct. \%lli

My dear Sir, Thank you very much for j-our kind lett<'r this morning telling me of your
whereabouts this autumn. I heartily wish I could liave managcl to meet you in Paris or else-
where, for I have much in liand at this moment concerning the topic which interests Ixjth of
us so much, and which I hope to publish in 3 or 4 months.

My wife and myself passed our summer in the heart of Germany, in the Thiiringer Wald,
and I there continually consoled myself with your prophecy that that tiresome German language
is doomed to extinction, as one of the dominant tongues. That, and our atrocious English
spelling! for which I, not being a cla-ssical scholar, entertain no respect whatever!

Believe me very faithfully yours, Francis Galton.

I have just left the house of a friend, where I had paid a short visit at the same time as
our mutual friend Dr Hooker, — who very shortly will occupy the most distinguished of English
.scientific posts, namely the Presidency of the Royal Society. He will lie a most ai-ccptable
President over us.

To M. Ali'iionse de Candolle.

42, Rutland Gate, London. May 5/74

My dear Sir, A few weeks back I gave a lecture at our Royal Institution on the subject
that iiiterc«ts both of us, and only delayed sending you a printed account of it in the hopes of
■ending at the same time anotlier and different memoir, which however will not be in print for
aome time.

My lecture will reach you by book iK)st, and I hasten to send it because I see that the
Henie Scx^ntijiquf has Ijeen so good as to publish a translation in French, which however does
not render some phra.s(!S quit<' exactly and j^ives a small but decided uiodilication to their
meaning. When the book will be conij)lete, to which this Iwiure is a prelude, I cannot say; —
but as soon as it is out, I will semi you a copy for acceptance.

It seemed tf> be well worth while to select, as I have done, a group of men of the same
nationality, similar education, race, n'ligion, and period, in order to eliminate the disturbing
influences of a» many large variable causes as possible, and to bring out \nU) stronger relief the
effect of the residuum. 1 think you will be interested, when all the results are before you, in

I

Correnpoiidence with A/p/ioiute tie CaiiduUt 1 H

trucin^ tU<> difffn-nccs Ix-twocn Ihom and vour con ' I'rived from the study of » selection

of much iiKiio iililc mull hut uiuler iii')r« variwl cii • ■ >•«.

My Hoiontifii" men, for oxampio, are iiumtly horn in townn. Out of t'very T) of these men, I is
born in London, 1 in other very large towiiH, 1 in niiKleralely sizwl towns, and 2 in villages or
in country hou»ea The Heredity comet out very markc<liy and followM unex)>ected and peculiar
"Iawh" (if T may ho allowed, for want of a better, tu uxe so grand an exprcHsion). I have not
touched on these in the li>cture, there was no tiiiia

The other memoir alluded to at the o|K'ning of this letter, is a |iartially Huccessful attempt
to solve that ivri/ ditKcult mathematical nuestion to which you drew attention in your book
and alK)ut which I had plagutnl my not very brilliant mathematical head, at intervals, for
many years, namely the extincti(m of families by the ordinary laws of chance. I contrived to
utalf the problem, in a not unreasonable form that was at the same time fitt«.'d for ii; al

investigation and did my best to persuade friends to work it out. At length oin i.is

got the thing into a sha|)e that admits of some general conclusions Ixiing drawn but it is by no
means a 'solution' of the |iroblem in the ordinary wiise of that word. When it is printt-d I will
send you copies. Perhaps you may {Hjrsuade Swiss mathematicians to investigate further. It
really ought to be solved if posiQ>le, but it is only too probable that a direct solution is an
improlwibility.

Our mutual friend Mr Bentham is, I am glad to say, abroad on a holiday with the Hookers.
His domestic griefs due to the long-continuetl mental ill-health of his wife seem to have pn-yed
much u[Km his spirits.

Fearing lest I have wearied you by this long and somewhat egotistic letter, I will new
conclude and beg you to believe me, Faithfully yours, Frakcis Qalton.
To M. Alphonse de Candolle.

GENfevE. 11 Sept. 1874.

MoN CHKR Monsieur, Plusieurs absences et une indisposition de quelques semaines ro'ont
empechti de vons ecrire au sujet de votre stance de la lloyal lustitution : On mm o/»cienee etc.
J'ai |)ourtant lu deux fois votre opuscule avec beaucoup de plaisir. La Uise sur loquelle tous
vous app\iyez est originale. Je doute qu'on put obtenir ailleurs qu'en Angleterre un aussi grand
nombre de repoiises faites franchement et consciencieusement. En partant de la liste de la
Societe royale je crains un peu que le nombre des Ecos.sais n'ait pas etc assez eleve. Comme
leur t-ducation 6tait nagucre trfes diffiSrente de celle des Anglais ce serait regrettable.
Sans doute vous parlorez de cette difference dans votre ouvrage quo je me r^jouis . beaucoup
de lire.

Plusieurs des conditions reputees favorables par vos correspondants se retrouveraient
certttiiieineiit hors des pays anglo-saxons, mais h des degr«>s autres, et quelques unes se retrou-
veraient pnibablement pas du tout.

Etiergle — Ce doit ttre g<^nei-al, seulement la perseverance en tient bien quehjuefois.

Santi — J'ai connu bien des savants d'une mauvaise santi. Ixyrsqu'il en resulte, chei nous,
la dispense du service au.viliaire, et que neanmoins la t6te est bonne, la mauvai.''e sant6 est une
chance do succf-.s. Quand j'etudiais le droit mon mcilleur professeur, un tres habile juriconsulte,
Otttit esti-opie des jambes et des bra.s. Dans ce moment, i\ Genfive, un des horomes les plus
habiles, comme horticulteur et iiaturaliste, e.st un ancien posteur chez lequel la vie s'est retir^
peu a peu des extremites a la tete depuis 25 ans. II ne i)eut plus porter sa nourriture ft la
bouelie, mais il continue A lire des ouvrages scientitiques en 3 langues et dicte des traductions.
II fait porter son trotiij-on sup^rieur (le seul vivant) dans son jardin ptiur vt^rifier la suite d'ex-
periences qu'il a onlonnees. Ix* premier de ces deux estropies remarquables avait une grone
t^te et ressemblait A Napoleon T"'"^: le second, egalement energique, en a une petite. J'ai vu
souvent les exercices de corps diHourner des etudes ou detruirc I'habitudc d'observer soigneuse-
ment. Sans doute ils doivent etre proportionnes, au degre de force «le chacun, mais pas au deli.

Practical btisiiiesa — Ceci est bien anglais ! Sur le Continent \ ous trouveriez une foule de
savants qui n'entendent rien aux affaires, qui s'en moquent, et dont la fortune diniinue plutflt
que d'augmeuter. La negligence dtrs affaires est plus commune encore chez les hommes de lettres,
Je crois bien qu'un savant reussit rnrement s'il n'a j>as de I'ordrc dans ses papiers, ses travaus
et m£me dans les habitudes ordinaires de la vie, mais ce n'e.st pas ce que vous appelez practical
business (aptitude aux affaires couiincrciales, industrielles etc).

14- fji/i null Lctttm (}/' Fnincix (itt/foii

Vos Kcllexiuns p. 0 AH tftnU to...divini; Hunt extreinciiipnt justfs, Burtout lo caructura

anti-fi'miiiin. .!<• ne dirai |h18 pourquui iv sernit otTKii.scr la plus Ih-IIc iiioilie de noti-o eHpoce.

Jen tlirai autnnt de I'avantage d'line instruction tviriV'-. Contrairoiuent k I'opinion doji
pedants de coUcj^es, j'estiine avec vous que c'est une grande source de curiosite et d'autrca
•vantages, qui tut rt'trnuvent ensuit^* <laiitt la spt-cialitt- d'uuo carrii're. ISeulenient il ne peut
pas oontinuLT son education vari^ indi-finiment. II faut savoir devcnir spt-cial.

Dans I'espoir de lire bient6t le volume projett^ de vos recherches iuU-ressantes, je suis
toujoutK, men cher monsieur, votre tri-s devout- coll^gue Alph. de Oandolle.

GKNfeVK. 11 Janinur 1875.

MoN CHKR MoNsiKUR, Si j'ai tard^ k vous remercier de I'envoi de votre volume Ktigltsh
Men of Science, ce n'est pas que je I'aie n«''glij?4. Au contraire je I'ai lu deux fois avec l)eiiuc<)up
d'int<5r6t et me propose de le citer souvent si je fais une seconde edition de mon ouvrage sur
rUittoire de» Science». Pour le moment je pn^pare une autre seconde (Edition, celle de ma
Giograpkie botanique raisonnie, mais j'esperc revenir ensuite k I'objet qui nous a tous deux
oocup^

Nous avons employ^ deux m^thodes bien diffdrentt-s, qui nous out souvent con<luits aux
m^mea d^uctions. C'est une preuve en faveur de toutes les deux. Ivorsque les rt'-sultats dif-
ferent c'est probablement que les conditions spdciales aux Anglais ne .sont pas ceiles de la
plupart des pays, et je crois bien, en effet, que si Ton posait aillcurs les nicines questions, on
aurait de rt^-ponses assez souvent (linV-rcnte.s. II ne serait pas faute d'obtenir ces rcponses.
Peut-6tre les individus seraient-ils moius vrais dans les reponsis, tantjt le voulaiit, et tanUJt
sans le vouloir. En Angleterre mC-me, oil Ton est plus v^ridique, certaines personnes se font
des illusions. Je n'ai pas pu m'emp^her de sourire en lisant que quelques uns de vus eccl6-
siastiques prdtendent n'avoir nidlemetU M contrari^ par leurs opinions dans les recherches
scientitiques. Je I'ai entcndu dire, avec la mfme Ixinne foi, k quelqucs uns des nfltres, mais
quand on leur parle de certatins fuit«, ils les nient ou les <^ludent, et souvent ils ('•vitent certaines
sciences <iu certaines rechiTche.s. Comine I'cxpose trt-s V)ien Herlh^rt Spencer, dans sa Social
Science rhoiniiie est naturellenient iiicoiisdquent. Vos ecclesiiustiques jmraissent plus dloigni'-s
que les notre.s des tendances scientifiqut-s, except*'* les unitairiens. De mcme, cliez nous les
trinitairiens sont souvent enneniis de la science et non les unitniriens (protestants lilx-raux).

L'origine gi-ographique de vos lioinmes de science (p. 20) tieiit peut-etre k la prepondi'rance
des villes dans la partie ombrfe I>a proportion favorable k I'Ecosse et dcfavorable k I'lrlatide,
dont vous parlez ailleurs, resultait aussi tris clairenient de mes listes, et vous expli(juez, Je crois,
avec rai«<in que les (^cossais re<,'oivent une education meilleure. Genfeve, la Hollande, I'Ecosse et
la Nouvelle Angleterre sont ou etaient des branches d'un arbre intellectuel vigoureux planum
par Calvin.

La quantity de savants 'fils uniques ou lers n^ (p. 33) ra'a ^tonnt^, mais avec nn peu de
reflexion cela se comprend.

Vous aimez les recherches statistiques, entre autres sur la feconditt-. EUes peuvent se faire
en Angleterrt! mieux que sur le Continent, niicux surtout qu'en la France, parce que I'absenc*?
d'enfants y est moins souvent volontaire. Je n'avais pas d'idi'-e de lY-Umdue de cette cause dans
les provinces franijaises avant d'avoir lu uii ouvrage S(f'rieux, mais \mu decent, d'un vieux
mMecin qui pratique dans la jH'tite ville d'Arlwis: Jierr/erel — /Jen /raiu/eH dans racromp/in-
gemftit (Im fonction» generatrices, leurs Catues, Dangers etc. 1 vol. 8", Paris 1S73, chez J. B.
Baillicres, piix 2 fr. 50 c. L'auteur exagfere je crois beaucoup les inconv^nients des alms <|iril
signale. Comme tous les nuklecins il ne voit que ceux qui soutTrent de certaines praticjuos et ne
peut pas k tons ceux qui n'en ont pas ('•prouvr d'inconvdnient. Mais le lilx^rtinage qu'il signale
dans de trJs petites villes et nieme dans les communes rurales de la France explique bien le
nombre tres failile des naissaiu-es et fait naitrc de singulieres rcflc^xions. l^e partage ^gal entre
les enfants est i-videmment une caus(! d'immonilite chez les parents et <le paresse chez les
enfants. C'est au.ssi, il est vrai, une cause d'economie dans les families et ile riclies.se totale.
En Angleterre les accroissements de capitaux 8<' <ltvisent entre <les individus toujours plus
nombreux; en France ils restent accumuh'-s dans une pipulation sUitionnaire.

Je ne juge i>as la condition de la saiUe tout-4-fait comme vous. II est possible que les fils de
parents robustes le nient moins' loraqu'ils devienneut des hommes de science, vivant dans les

' Wording appears wrong, but I cannot correct it.

Corn tij tout finer icUli Alftlnnmr <lr ('(tntluUr 143

villeH, inaiK ild nVn sunt \mh nioiiis mlnptvH A lour iniliou «t cVhI I'ciuw'ntiol. A Vht\h j'»i
roinnntri- souvriit dt-.s CiIh ot |M>tit IiIn cI*i PariHiciiH qui n'avaiptit puN Tair mStivt'-. tiiaiH (|ui
Huppor't^iivnt Miicux (|U<' I)>h i-niii|Mi>;ii»i'(ls Ich fati^u<4< (If la vii< urliainn. I' •■tnictit

reiiiai'(|UHl>U>s pir Icur iiitcllif^eiuT ct lnur aclivilo. Kii hh tenant a i'aliri ili. •>■ MiU-

tenant par uiio Ixinno nourritiire cch citmlins, minH avoir <lo Ikmih iiiukoIm, vivmit I ^ et

font un travail oxcolloiit. lis uoiit naturuiixt^ — mai.s pour cela il faut doux gii »u

iiioins. L«>H tils (1(1 canipagnards lu'ont paru HoufTrir fr^quemment de r<klu(»tion k la ville de
nu'ine qu(- \vi» tilH d'ouvricrs dans la carnpagnn.

Vos idt'os Hur I'tMlucalion ri'-sulteiit (Iph faits. Eiles sont excellenteM et je leur souhaite du
HUcci'N. Ia- journal Ndlure dit uouvont Ips ni«'nii« choscs, inais il Ich melange d'afisertidna en
in6nii3M choses, ot (Us prpvcnlions <|ue je ne jmis pa« toujours approuver. II a I'air de croin? que
leH j((Mitlenion sont naturi'llcnicnt inferieurs aux ouvricrs. Noun avons prouve I'un ct I'autre
(|ii« 1(-K claHHt's supi'-ricurcs donnent pnrtout une pro|M>rti<>n considi'-raltK* (I'lionimcM <'-ininent«.
II wrait done iitiU- de fiivoriser c-cux de cettc classji qui niontrcnt <|U(-i(|ue Kout |K)ur ien siennes
ct cp Hprait plus prolitalth^ (juo dVlcver artiticifllcincnt (iu(>I<hi{)k inilividus do la ciiiMse inf(''rioure,
iiu niiiyon d(! suhvcntions |H'i-uniair(}« dillicilos i\ bicn plat'or.

Votre dornior volume cotnpitNto adniirableinent h; premier. J(; vous en f(ilicit« et vous prie
d'agrtW, mon cher MonHieur, rasMuran(}e de tout men d^vouement. Alph. db Candolle.

42, Rutland Gate, Ix)Nuon. March 5/75

Mv DEAR Sir I have left your welcome letter unanswered for two nionths, being desirous
of sending, which T now do, a daily expecttxl copy of a paper read at the Anthropilogical
Society, on a subject to which you directed attention in the " Histoire des Sciences et des
Savants." It is on the probability of the decay of families by purely accidental cau-st-s. If you
could persuade any of your Swiss mathematicians to pursue the subject, it would Ik* very ad-
vantageous. What seems to be wanted now, is some simple function which approximately
represents the distribution of children in families, and to work this with Watson's general
formulae. You will see how complicated the problem is. I send the memoir by book post.

Thanks greatly for your helpful criticism on my 'Men of Science.' I greatlj' value j-our hints.
T got Horgeret's strange book and read it with no little alarm; but after all, even supposing he
does not exaggerate, it seems to me that his own observations go to prove that strict Malthusian
restraint may generally coexist with a pure life, l>ecau.se he states that he never found those
uterine maladies in nunneries, which he seems to think so frei|uent in oitiiniiry social life, in
France. But he certainly reveals a strange state of things, unknown in England generally.

Your remarks on the (|uality of health of townsfolk, — of their being acclimatised to town
conditions and of being able under these conditions to do gcxKl work, — are very instructive.
Still, if their race dies out rapidly, it shows, does it not? that their health has sufl'ered. It
would be instructive to learn the social statistics of the numerous small Italian towns,
where the same families have resided for centuries and whose population appears to vary
but little.

Trusting that your la)x>urs in the 2nd Edition of the 'Ofographie botanique' are happily
concluded, Helieve me very faithfully yours, Francis Galton.

To M. Alpiionsk UK Candollk.

(English address) 42, KrTi.ANi) (iATE, London.

Grano Hotel, Thun. July '2211^

Dear Sir, Thank you much for the pamphlets on "offets differents d'une m£me temp, etc."
in which the very interesting remarks about the struggle for existence among the buds, and the
persistence of character in the produce of ditTerent Iwugh.s, are mo.st instructive.

I am not acijuainttHl with the memoir of Carl Lins(>er, who very proltably has anticipates!
much of what 1 am alwut to saj", namely that one might, |H'rhaj>s with protit, compare "les

lines de temperature" not only "au-dessus de zt'i-o" but alK)ve other fixed points of de-
■^^•rture. Thus if the broken line represent the well-known "thermogram" matle by a .self-
recording instrument, or protracted frtnn eye ob-servations, the ratios of the areas alx)ve the
lines B and C would have no reltUian to the ratios of AH to AC. Therefore some general

8

-" TT-

c

144. Xi/c rt/jd Letters of Francis Gal ton

Uw might exist for plants, which would be clear enough when a correct base line was taken,
but which would l>e wholly obsciire<l when any other base line wiis employed.

No doubt this has been thought of, but
what I would point out, is the tjreat facility
of obtaining these sums of temperature, irotn
different bow lines, by the use of that most
ingenious little instrument of Swiss invention yi^uL^
and manufacture, "Amsler's Planimeter."' I _

have had it largely tested and employed at the /^ P | g ?""?""?" T"

Met«>orol«gical Otfice of Eii;;land (i>f which I Jf 85 '

am one of the managing Committee) with per- J^ *-*^ ^

feet success, A full de^scription of its eniploj'- ^

ment will Ix- found in our Meteor. OflSee
'Quarterly Weather Reports' of last year which ai-e in the Geneva Observatory.

If the desire be, to try sums of the nquares of excess of temperature, or of any other function,
the same meth(Ml of summation is of course equally applicable.

Pray excuse my prolixity ; I write on the chance that our meteorological experience of rapid
methods for avoiding twlious computati<m may prove of service in your further inquiries.

I am writing from .Switzerland, from Than, whither my wife and I are shortly going
towards the Lake of Geneva; I had your pamphlet sent to me here. Should I be in the
neighbourhood of Geneva, I will certainly do myself the pleasure of calling at your house in
the hope (I fear a faint one at this season) of finding you at home.

Yours very faithfully, Francis Galton.
To M. Alhuonbe ok Candolle.

GKNfevB. 24 mat 1876.

MoK CHER Monsieur Je vons envoie (sous bandcs) un article sur votre int<;ressant opus-
cule relatif aux jumeaux. II vient de parattre dans les ArcJiitvg den Sciences p/it/siquex et
NaturelUji de mai 1876 qui se public ici. J'ai ajoute (^ et Xk quel<iues reflexions pour montrer
mieux I'interSt de vos recherches. Je regrette tjue voire depart de la Suisse ait coincide avec
mon excursion dans I'Engadine, oil ma santd m'oblige h, aller pendant les grandus chaleurs.
Agrees, je vous prie, I'assurance de mes salutations empress^es. Alph. de Candolle.

It is not necessary now to settle whether the emphasis placed by Galton
on heredity or by De Candolle on environment was the more scientific;
they both in fact cited individual cases, and discussed, where at present we
should set about measuring and statistically analysing. Nor ought we to
judge a man by hastily written letters, but there is much in De Candolle's
book and letters, such as liLs belief — for it amounts to little more — that it
was the conditions of Geneva and not the hereditary ability of the pro-
testant immigrants, which produced a scientific revival, or his faith in tales
of mental or physical state during sexual union producing marked results
on offspring, that will not be accepted as proven by the calmer judgment
of mooern science. That science would sympathise far more with Galton's
suggestion that one needs "many such facts'," and that it would be better
to experiment with white mice, giving the male an intoxicant before ad-
mitting him to the female. This reference to appeals to experiment is of
interest, for it indicates the change that had been taking place in Galton's
own procedure.

' The assertion of De Candolle that men intoxicated at the time of coition have often pro-
duced idiots. Galton's humorous citation of Lot as evidence to the contrary was equally valid.
For a modem discussion see Bugenic» Laboratory Memoirt, No. xiii, pp. 19-25, Cambridge
University Press.

CoiTexpoiiflrnci- irlth A/p/ionm' ih Camlolli- 145

It is not possible to say now what form De CandoUe's I/intoiif des
Sciences et des Savants would have taken, had he not seen Galton's chapter
on men of science in the Hereditary (ienins, but I doubt wlu-ther I)e Can-
dolle WDuld iiave empha«is»>d, even as much jvs he did, the hereditary factor
as a "pre-etKcient of eminent men'." At any rate only crass ignorance could
allow a man to do what a German does, namely speak of l)e Candoile as
the pioneer and Ualton as a later, but indej)endent, worker' I When Galton
started his investigation of Kmjlish Men of Science, it really was on very
different lines to I)e Candoile; the latter tcnik as his field the foreign members
of scientific academies and sought what facts he could tuscertain al)out them.
Galton issued a questionnaire to the Fellows of the Royal Society, and lie did
this because he had studied De CandoUe's work,

"finding in it many new ideas and much confirmation of my own opimoiiH; also not a little
criticism (supportwl, as I conceive, hy very imperfect bioj;raphical evidence) of my puldished
views on heredity. I thou;;ht it Ix'st to test the valuta of this dissent at once, by limiting my
first publication to the same field as that on which M. de Candoile had worked — namely to the
history of men of science, and to investigate their sociologj' from wholly new, ample, and trust-
worthy materials." (Preface, p. vi.)

Galton had been leisurely working on an extended investigation as regards
men of ability of all descriptions, to supplement his Hereditary Genius, when
De Candoile s work appeared, and it was the latter's criticism of Galton's
prior work that produced Entj/ish Men of Science', a book which Galton
held justified the utmost claims lie had ever made for the recognition of the
importance of hereditary influence. Galton's work was thus a defence of
his own pioneer writings, and cannot possibly l)e regarded by any careful
historian jis a later and mdependent product in De CandoUe's original field.

As a matter of fact the influence w;is essentially the other way roinid.
In the 1873 first edition the title of De CandoUe's book is: Histoire des
Sciences et des Savants depuis deux siecles, with the additional words : " Suivie
d'autres Etudes sur des sujets scientifiques en particulier srR l.v selection
DANS l'esi'kck UUMAINK." But iu the edition of 1885 the additional words are
changed to "Pr^cedee et suivie d'autres Etudes sur des sujets scientifiques,
en particulier sur L' HPUiflDITf: ET LA SfJLECTIOX. pans l'f^^pkce
nuMAiNE," the words "L'lleredite et la Selection" now standing out in the
manner of a sub-title. In fact, while De Candoile minimi.sed the effect of
heredity in his first edition, he had not, as (Jalton very properly observes,

' A term introduced by Galton to denote anything "which has gone to the making of": see
Etujlish Men of Science, Preface, p. vi

■' Ostwald in the preface to his German edition of De Candollo's book writes: " Um das was
Alphouse de Candoile niit so grossom Ei-folge lx>gonnen hatte und was seitdem namentlich von
Francis Galton in England unabhiingig geleistet worden ist u.aw." Preface, S. vi, Edition
1911. If Ostwald hatl known the relative dates of Hereditary Grtiins and the Histoire des
Sciences, he could hardly have said 'seitdem'; if he had opene<l A'ny/wA Men of Science he
surely would have avoided the woixl 'unabhiingig.' If "the Gennans in Greek, are sadly to
seek," then in history their searchings ait- deserving of birchingsl

' As early as Feb. 27, 1874 Galton gave a Friday evening lecture at the Royal Institution
"On Men of Science, their Nature and their Nurture."

V 11 II 19

I4«> Lift' anil Letterx of Fraiicix (ialton

collected the data on wliicli an answer jus to tin* valm- i)f f Iw hereditary factor
could really 'hi given.

That Giilton \va.s somewhat moved by the attitude ut" De Caiidolle to
his own work is provetl not only by the letters cited above, but by an in-
teresting jmjier he contributed to the Fortnightly Ifcview entitled: "On
the causes which operate to create Scientific Men'." Galton begins by
referring to his difficult paper "Blootl Relationship" of the previous year
which we shall consider later. In that paper he distinguishes clearly, if in
now unusual language, Iwtween somatic and genetic characters, and in the
Fartniyhthf he refers to the "parado.xical conclusion" — as it cerfciinly wfis in
1 872 — that the child nnist not bo looked upon as directly descended from
his own parents. The bearing of this statement lies in the explanation it
art'ords of the rea.st)n why children differ freqiiently in mental character from
their parents' — an observation which had Ix^en raised as an argument against
Galton's theory of the inheritance of ability. Ability in an individual marks
as a rule ability in the ancestry, not necessarily in the immediate parents.
Galton then turns to

"a volume written by M. de Candolle in which my name is frequently referred to and used

as a foil to set off his own conclusions. The author maintains that minute intellectual pecu-
liarities do not go by descent, and that I have overstated the influence of heredity, since social
causen, which he analyst<s in a most instructive manner, are much more important. This may
or may not be the case but I am anxious to point out that the author contradicts hiiiiHclf, and that
cxpres-sions continually («cape from his pen at variance with his general conclusions. Thus he
allows (p. 1'.)')) that in the pnxhiction of men of the highest scientific rank tlie influence of race
i8 8up<*rior toall others; that (p. 2GS) there its ayetgreat«^rdifferen<-e Ijetwetii families of the same
race than U'tween the nicos themselves; and that (p. .'520) since most, and prohiiljly all, mental
qualities are connected with structure, and as the latter is certainly inherited, the former must
Ijc so as well. Consequently I propose to consider M. de Candolle as having been my ally
against his will, notwithstanding all he may have said to the contrary. The most valuable part
of his inve.stigation is this: What are the social conditions most likely to produce scientific
investigation.s, irrespective of natural ability, and a fortiori irrespective of theories of heredity?

This is necessarily a, on(vside<i inquiry But it admits of In-ing complete in itself, because

it is based on statistics which atTord well-known means of disentangling the eflect of one out
of many groups of contemporaneous influences. The author, however, continually trespasses on
hereditary questions, without, as it appears to me, any adequate basis of fact, since he haa
collected next to nothing aljout the relatives of the i)eople up<m whom all his statistics are founded.

The book is also deficient in method but it is full of orii;iiial and sut,'i;('stive i(l(«as."

(pp. 346-7.)

As an exam J lie of deficiency of method, Galton cites De Candolle's sta-
tistical treatment:

"The author's tables of the scientific productiveness per million of different nations at

' Forlnightly Revieio, Vol. xni. New Series, pp. 345-610. No copy of this exists among
Oalton's collected pajK-rs and no reference to it in any of the manuscript or printt-d bibliographies.

' Even De Candolle (p. 2H2) admits that "Une aptitude naturelle est toujours prolMvlileinent
h^rit«k!, puisque les j>areiits sont la cause qui k precwle ot determine I'existence de I'individu.
Lea exceptions s'expli(|uent par la <livi'rsite des parents, leur etat momentane lors de la concep-
tion " to which latter source of divergence Galton in his much annotated copy puts the note

"Stuff!!" I cite this to indicate how strongly he held that the environment could not inmie-
diately affect the gametic characters, and how fully Galton rejec!te><l factors like 'maternal
impressions' and 'momentary states at conception' as influencing the mental character of
offspring.

Con'e)*jnnuh-iice until Afjt/ionufi tie Candolle

147

(lilfcr(mt tinien are afTecUHl by a Heriotis statistical error. Ml< Hliould have reckoned pt^r million
of moil iilkjvo fifty iiiHUiml of tlui ]M>{)ulati(>n f,'<Mi(!rally. In a rapidly ii utry like

England, tbn pri)|><irti(>n iif the youtlil'ul |)<i|iulation to thoNu of an ag<> hu! .!(• them

to bocomo diHtin;{ui.sliod i« doublo what it m in Frano»\ whore population in , and an

injuHtice may bit dono i>y thetu^ tablex to England in Honiuthin^' iiko that | n. They

require entire reconstruction." (p. 347.)

Ill this essay Galtoii discii8.ses the cjises of apparent inherit^uice of ac(juired
cliaracters, antl he gives expression to views which I doubt whetlier he held
at a hiter date. In the first ca.se he refers to De Candolle's instance of tame
birds on a de.solate ishiiid acquiring a fear of man, and tranxmittimj thnt fear
(IS an instinctive habit to their descendants. There is no evidence of a con-
genital transmission in such cases; the flock may acquire a habit which may
be handed down from living member to living memljer, or the tamer memljers
may be killed by their tameness, and so the species grow wilder. In the
same way traditional habit of mind or emigration can adequately explain
why "a population reared for many generations under a dogmatic creed"
becomes indisposed to look truth in the face, and is timid in intellectual
inquiry. We need not suppose the indisposition congenital, and if it be,
Galton has in h'\s Hereditary Genius already given a better explanation in the
extermination and expatriation of the freethinking and inquiring members.
We need not, as De Candolle and apparently Galton in this passfige do,
appeal to the inheritance of acquired characters, (p. 349.)

From tlie timidity in intellectual inquiry which results from rearing in a
dogmatic creed, Galton turns to tiie relation between religion and science.
"Can then religion and science march in iiarmony?" heaaks; and his answer
is of the followuig kind :

"The religious man and the scientific man have one great point in common, the devotion to
an idea as distinct from a pursuit of wealth or social advancement. It is true that their methods
are very different; the religious man is attached by his heart to his religion, and cannot endure
tt) hcjir its truth discussed, and he fears scientific discoveries, which might in .some slight way
discredit what he holds more important than all the rest. The scientific man seeks truth n'gard-
less of conse«iut'nces; he balances prol>abilities, and inclines tenijwrarily to that opinion which
has most probabilities in its favour, ready to abandon it the moment the balance shifts, and
the evidence in favour of a new hypothesis may prevail. These, indi«<l, are radical dilTerencea,
but the two characters have one powerful element in conmion. Neither the n>ligiou8 nor the
scientific man will consent to sacrifice his opinions to material gain, to political ends nor to
pleasure. Hotli agret? in the love of intellectual pui-suits, and in the practice of a simple, regular
and laljorious life, and Ixjth work in a disintercsttni way for the public good." (p. 349.)

Assuredly for Galton the ideal wiis the real! On p. 351 Galton again
turns to this subject of aajuired habits l)eing transmitted heretlitarily. He
states that some ixcquired habits in dogs are certainly transmitted, but the
number he tells us is small and "we have no idea of the cause of their limita-
tion." Unfortunately he does not tell us what these habits are. It is not
to be wondeied at that Galton did not realise at Hrst the full bearing of
his theory of the continuity of the germ-plasm. Darwin like Ljimarck had
a Ijelief in the transmission of some acquired characters, and Galton's close
friend Herbert Spencer was a firm believer in the doctrine. Galton was at
this time only feeling his way towards the conclusions that flowed from his

19—8

\4^ Life amf Lcttfrx of Fro tin's (Jaltnit

hypothesis; he was beginning to l>e doubtful of tlie transmission of amuiied
cnaractei-s, but he hud yet to take the 8t«p of a full and complete denial.
Thus aft^er admitting that a few charactere are iic(juired and transmitted by
dogs', he writes:

"With iiu'ii tlioy nri' fowcr still: iriilcc<i it is (titUcult to p>imt out any one tt) thi' noccptjvnce
of which srtiiie objection nmy not b«" ofliTttl. lioth M. de Candolle and Ur Carponter liavo spoken
of the i<H<»cy and other forms of norvoua disortlers which beyond all doubt afflict the children
of tlrunkanlis. Here thon appears an instJince iMised on thousands of observations at lunatic
asylums and t-lsowliert' in which an aoijuirtvl habit of drunkenness, which ruins the will and
nerves of the parent, appears to l)e transmitted hereditarily to the child. For my own part I
hesitate in drawing this conclusion, because there is a simpler rcasou." (p. 351.)

The 'simpler reason' given by Galton is the toxic action of fluids satu-
rated with alcohol on the reproductive elements of both se.xes, and in the
case of the mother on the unborn child. Perhaps the 'simplest reason' goes
beyond Gal ton's! Now-a-days only asylum officers return 'Alcoholism' as a
causal category of insanity. Those who have studied the pedigrees of the
alcoholic know that nervous disorders are relatively as frequent in the as-
cendants as in the descendants; and the true explanation was given by
De Quincey. when he said; "My friends thought drink drove me to insanity,
but I knew that insanity drove me to drink." If we start with the drunkard,
we find only too frequently mentally defective offspring. But if we start
with complete pedigrees, we find stocks, whose members tend to nervous
disorders, alcoholism, insanity and suicide. However, tialton's conclusion
was a right one:

"We must not rely on the above-mentioned facts [alcoholism in parent and nervous
disorder in o&pring] as evidence of a once acquired habit being hereditarily traosmitted."

The passage is, however, of great historical interest as it shows how
Galton's theory of the distinction between the reproductive and the body
cells was forcing him steadily to the conclusion that to modify heredity you
must modify the germ cells, or at least an early stage of the embryo. Men
like De Candolle, Spencer and Carpenter, nay, even Darwin himself, believed
in the transmission of acquired characters; Galton, as far as I am aware, was
the first to doubt it, and to assert that in the embryo of the oftspring there is
nothing represented that was not in the embryos of its parents. However crude
now-a-days we may consider that statement to be, it really covers the con-
tinuity of the germ-plasm and the denial of the transmission of acquired
characters. On the main j)oint of difference lietween De Candolle and Galton,
the present writer also finds Galton's criticism, as abstracted above, wholly
justified. De Candolle's work, as he himself tells us, had been planned
when he was a young man. His main idea seems to have then been to trace
scientific fichievement as arising from environmental causes — educiitional,

' I am not sure that Galton wius mil influenced by the aversion of Huggins' dog 'Kepler' to
butchers' shops, an av<;rsion shared by his relatives, and which some may assume to have
originally been 'ac<|uire<l.' There is a letter from Galton t<j Huggins on the snhject of 'Kepler'
dated Feb. 15, 187.3, i.e- just before the ForlnighUy paper. See our p. C6, sewjnd footnote.

Corn'H/Ktmlnn'f irlth AlphiniKf ilv ('tintlo/t*- 149

religious, jK>liticjil institutions, family and national traditions, etc. Before
his work wa« issued Darwin first and then TJalton flared up on his horizon
and tlie wholf aspect of tlic country ho was investigating app«'ared rjinrrent.
His hook wlien it was written l)ecanie a coniproinist> In'twcen the old aspect
and the new. It is, as Galton says, "deficient in method" -markedly sc, I
may add, from the statistical stan<l[)oint, — but neverthele.s8 full of suggestion
even to-day for more eflective iiKpiiry.

This somewhat lengthy digression oi» De Candolle is needful, not only
because it ctusts light on both men's letters, but also on the influence Galton
exercised over De Candolle, as well as the incentive the latter'a book gave
Galton's own closer inquiry, not only in English Men of Science, but also in
the much later attemi)ts he made to consider ability more generally in the
material collected in this century, and partly published \n Notable Families\
In this, however, Galton was merely extending, by aid of distributing
questionuftires, the ideas and methods of his IlereiUtnry (renins. Galton in
the case of English Men of Science circularised a select list of 180 men of
science — not all the members of the Royal Society. His schedule was a
very lengthy one, and dealt not only with ancestry and education, but with
many physical and mental charactei"s classed in broad categories. As a rule
he had about 90 — 100 cases with reliable information under each character
heading. Perhaps the modern reader is most struck by the comparative
paucity of datti, or of statistical theory, which Galton thought needful for
drawing conclusions. But actual investigation by more elaborate methods
a|)pears to confirm most of his results. He reached very often a con-
clusion, since proven, by what we may term a sound statistical instinct.
I will illustrate this in two instances. He is considering whether in marriage
"the love of contrast" do&s or does not "prevail over that of harmony'."
He has only 62 cases of the statures of lx)th parents, and he concludes
by a very rough process that there is no sexual preference for contrast in
height (pp. 31-32). I have worked out the con-elation in stature between
husband and wife for his data, and find it +'19 ± "08, which shows that there
probably existed a slight preference for harmony and this is well in jiccord
with more recent determinations of the intensity of assortative mating. Again
in 99 ciises he had measures of the horizontal circumference of the head of
men of science and 40 of these were men of great energy. From the data
that of 13 men of 22" or less circumference there were 10 of these energetic
men, and that of 8 men of 24" or more circumference there was only one
of these very energetic men, Galton concludes that "although the average
circumference of head among the scientific men is great'," there is a "cor-

' Iswued in conjunction with Edgar Schuster, nnd re-issued recently in the Galton Labora-
tory Ftiblicaturtis, l^anibriilgc University Press.

" Galton's book contains the first tables for assortative mating in t«niperaine«t, hair colour,
figure and statui-e, although liased on small nunilx^rs, and only rinluced by considering per-
centages of 'harmonies' and 'contnusts.'

' This conclusion seems to lie founded on the statement "that the average circumference of an
English gentleman's head is 22^ to 22i inches" (p. 99). If this be taken as 22-3«", Galton's value

150

Life and Letters of Francia Galton

relation'" between smallness of head and energy. Now if we distribute
40 cases uniforndy among Galton's 99 individuals, we Hud :

Heada 23" or leu

Heada between
as" and 24"

Heads 24" or more

Number

Energetic men : obflerved ...

,. uniformly 1
distributed/

IS

10

5-25

78
29

31-5

8 (A)
1 {B)

3-25 (C)

A modern statistician would not be quite happy in asserting without
further investigation that the owners of large heads were the less energetic.
But actually the odds against {li) l)eing a sample of (C) are about 50 to 1 and
Galton's conclusion is reasonably justified. I have cited these results be-
cause, I think, Galton's statistical method does raise doubts in the minds of
some readei-s as to its axlequacy to support the superstructure'. I have
been surprised myself on testing his data to find what a reasonable prob-
ability there is for the validity of his conclusions. After all the higher
statistics are oidy common-sense reduced to numerical ap])reciation, and
their deductions are what "les esprits justes sentent par une sorte d'instinct,
sans qu'ils puissent souvent s'en rendre compte." Galton's judgments in liis

for the scientists wh-s 22-"5" + 050, whicli is not a sifjnificant diffi-ronce,
Galton's })ocket-book. The following are perhaps worth extracting:

1 deduce these from

Snbject

Head circumference
in inches

Stature in |
feet and inches

Cayley

Darwin

23

22|

211
24 0

23A

2l|

23

23

231

23

23

22J
22|

6 71
6 0

5 10
r> 9

6 0

r> 7

5 lOJ
5 10*
5 5>
5 4|

5 11

6 2
6 10
6 111

Sir John Evans

Grove

Sir Rowland Hill

Hooker

Huxley

JevoiiH

Clerk Maxwell

Owen

Marquis of Salisbury ...

Herlx'rt Spencer

Spottiswoode

Sylvest4*r

' This is the first occasion on which I have noticed Galton using this word, of course not
yet with reference to the 'coefficient of correlation'.

* I feel considerable doubts myself as to the validity of the map of the distribution of
birthplaces of 100 English men of science on p. 20. It may moan nothing more than a rough
density of population map. The local distribution of each typo of ability in the British Isles
with reference to density of |)opulation would be well worth undertaking.

Corre^jtomfinn' with Afp/ioimr de CandoUe 151

pre-8tHtiHticul and early statiHtical days were t'SHoiitially tIjoHe of I^aplace's
'esprit juste.'

Althoiij^h rjalton doalsOnly with 1 80 selected iiiuin^, In- idtisidcrH xwm liie
Britisli Isles contain l)etwec'n the ajjes of 50 and (55 almost ."500 men of this first
clafls scientific status, and taking tlie male popidation between the same ages,
he concludes that their frequency is ahout 1 in 10,000. He then pnK-eeds to
consider whether scientific distinction is more fiwjuent than this among the
relatives of scientific men. (Jf the al)ove mtio, however, little use is miule,
In'cause it includes men who lack the sjime etlucation and opporf unity. What
(Jalton actually does is to tiike two groups of relatives of the scientific men,
naniely (1) grandparents and uncles, ahout 660, and (2) brothers and male
cousins, ahout I4.")0, and iiKiuire the nundK>r of distinguislie<l individuals
anutng the.se; and he finds tlieir number much greater than in the case of men
with like education and o])portunity in the community at large, the latter ratio
l)eing derived from school and university data. The method, though rough,
is probably ade(|uate for (xalton's purpose. It should Ije observed, however,
that his environment l)eing taken as approximately constant, Galton is really
attet'nptingto measure a 'partial'ti-ssociation, which is probably les« intense than
the total association '. However both the pedigrees provided and the stsitistics
suffice to show that men of marked scientific ability come from able families.

Galton next jn'oceeds to analyse thecpialities on which his correspondents
consitlered their success to have depended. In each cjise he points out how
often these (pialities were present in the parents, or relatives of the scienti.sts.
The chief (pialities are (I ) Ener;/i/ much above the average — lK)th physical and
mental ; (li) Health — "it is positively startling." Galton remarks, "to observe
in these returns the strongly hereditary character of good and indifferent
constitutions"; (3) /Vr.srt'cra«ce— also frequently reported in the parents;
(4) Pvactiad business habits — fully a lialf of those who possess these accredit
one or both parents with the same faculty; (5) (ilood Memoi'y — "heredity
abundantly illustrated," about 30 cases of esjiecial good memory, and 13 of
poor memory; (6) Independence of Character — 50 corres[)ondents possess it
in excess^ — strong evidence of its presence in the families of these scientists;
(7) Mechanical Aptitude — found to exist largely in chemists, geologists,
biologists and statisticians as well as in physicists and engineers. Galton then
turns to religion and religious bias, having previously pointed out that the
clergy are badly represented among men of science (pp. 25-26) or among their
parents (p. 24). On this point it seems to me that such a question: "Has
the religion taught in your youth had any deterrent effect on the freedom of
your researches?" can scarcely be accurately answered by the subject him-
self. If he has cast off the religion of his youth, he may believe that he
thinks freely; on the other hand if he is still a devout believer he would Ije
unlikely to admit that his religious views hampered his scientific research.
The scientific authors of the Bridgewater Treatises no doubt would have
said their science was not the poorer for their religious bias, but we, who

For exiimple, if we endeavourerl to measure the resemblance between brothers by taking
I jions of 6 foot fathers only, we should reach a value 40 °/, too small.

152 Life ami Letter* of Francis Galton

examine those treatises now, see that it most certiiinly was', ll does not
seem to me therefore that mucii can he learnt from this section, except that a
good many scientists of that day had discarded the reHji;iou8 faith of their
youth, and more had lost all faith in any doy;uiatic theology.

Galton's third chapter is entitled "The Origin of Taste for Science," and
here the bulk of the answere attrihuted the origin to inborn tendency. Out
of 91 available answera, 50 said the tiuste was innate, only 11 said it was
not innate and 24 were doubtful. On the other hand Galton does not dog-
matically assert that innate taste of .science is necessarily inherited. It is
conceivable that the innate taste for science may arise from a combination of
mental characters providetl by otherwise unlike stocks '. Whatever the origin

"a special taste for science seems frequently to be so ingrained in the constitution of scientific
men, that it asserts itself throughout their whole existence." (p. 193.)

Other factore — fortunate accident, indirect opportunities, professional
duties, encouragement of home or teacher, travel — are discussed by Cial ton, but
are found to be rather auxiliary than primary sources of a love of science.

Of the advantages of travel there is a paraCTaph, which may be cited
because, to a certain extent, it is autobiographical:

"Men are too apt to accept as an axiomatic law, not capable of further explanation, what-
ever thej' see recurring day after day without fail. So the dog in the yard I<x)ks on the daily
arrival of the postman, butcher and baker a-s so many elementJiry phenomena, not to Ikj Iwirkod
at or wondereti about. Travel in distant countries, by unsettling tliese qua-si-axiomatic ideas,
restores to the educjited man the fre.shnes-s of childhood in observing new things and seeking
reasons for all he sees. I believe that a hand.sonie endowment of travelling fellowships,
thoroughly well paid with extra allowance for any special work all<)tte<l to their holders, given
only to young men of high qualifications, and la.sting for at least five years, would be money well
bestowed in the furtherance of science*." (p. 219.)

Pp. 222-34 are some of the most interesting in the book, nay among
the wisest that Galton ever wrote. They point out clearly some of our
national difficulties, and the way that some have now l)een .solved, and that
others still seek solution. One is tempted to cite more than one has space
for, especially when one remembers that the book can no longer be purchased!

"If we take a general survey of our national st<K'k of capabilities and their produce, we see
that the larger part is directed to gain daily bread and nece».sary luxuries, and to keep the

' Stokes stat«d that he had a strong religious bias and Huxley that he had a "profound
religious tendency capable of fanaticism." Neither would admit that these characteristics
interfered with their scientific work. Yet Stokes wrot<! his Burnett Lectures to demonstrate
the evidence of design in the l)eneficial effects of light and Huxley wasted precious days that
should have been given to science in pounding Gladstone and Semitic myths as to the creation!

' The author may, perhaps, claim an innatt^ taste for science as he felt impelled to give up
a proftwsion to return to it; but ho knows of no imme<liate ancestor or collateral with any
scientific U'lit. On the other hand the names of some of his constituent stocks, Peiirson, IJeilby,
Wharton, are not unfamiliar in science and distant links might l)e made if better data for tosting
the origin of innato scientific taste were not so e«.sily acceKsii)le.

' The Cambridge and Oxford prize-fellowships are used, but not enough used, for travel.
London is sadly wanting in anything of the kind, the only available travelling fellowships are
the Albert Kahn. Five years work abroad is probably too long for all but young men of fortune
or great posh. Tlie more mfKlest are apt to be forgotton after a five years' absence — a common
experience of young men who accept colonial or Indian scientific appointments!

Coi'rexpofuh'ucc imth A Ijthoii^f, de Candolle 1 53

great social mnchine in Hteady work. The Hurplus ia considerable, nnd may be tiiiipoited of in
various wiiys. I>'t u.s now put ourNcIvi-s in thu poHition of lulvocnt** of s. ' ' ' ' .in-

sider from that point of view how the surplus capabilitit's of tlic nation i to

its furth«ran(-('. Mow can the t^ustoH of men Ikj ntost powerfully acted u|jun, to utlccl them
towards scionct! I

The iarfjo wilegory of innate tastes is practically In-yond our iminc<liate influence, but though
we cannot incn>ns(> the national store, we ntn-il not waste it, as we do now. Kvory instance in
which a man having an aptitude to succe<'d in science is t^-niptcfl by circumstances which might
be controlle<l to (K'cupy himself with subjectw of less national value is a public calamity.
Aptitudes and tastes for occupations which enrich the thoughts and productive powers of roan
are as much articles of national wealth a.s coal and iron, and their waste is as reprehensible.
Educational inonoiwlies, which offer numerous and great prizes for work of other descriptions,
have caused enormous waste of scientific; ability, by inducing those who might have succe«lefl
in science to spend their energies with small effect on uncongenial occupations When a pursuit
is instinctive and the will is unt^ixed, an immense amount of work may lie accomplished with
ease." (pp. 222 3.)

" It is clear to all who have knowledge of the scope of modern science, that there exists an
inimenKC deal of national work which has to Ije performe<l, and which none hut men of scientific
culture ar<^ (|ualitied to undertake. Scientific superintendence is ri-quired for all kiiuls of tech-
nical education, for statistical investigations of innumerable kinds, and deductions fnini them;
for sanitrtry administration in the hnxwlest sense ; for agriculture, mining, industrial occupations,
war, engineering. There is everywhere a demand for scientific asses.sors, who shall di.seover how
to economise effort and find out new processes and fruitful principle.s. Professional duties
genendly ought to he more closely bound up with strictly scientific work than they are at
present; and this requirement would tend to foster scientific ta.stes in minds which had little
inl)orn tendency that way." (pp. 224-5.)

Tlie reader, who remembers that this was written about 1873, before
the foundation of most of our technical scliools and engineering laboratories,
and academic agricultural schools — to say nothing of the public health ser-
vice— will gnusp Galton's foresight. 'War' and 'statistical investigations of
innumerable kinds' — both illustrations of the important future tasks of
science — were chosen with surpassing aptness in 1873!

And again :

"It seems to mo that the interpretation to Iw put on the replies we have now been con-
sidering, is that a love of science might be largely exU-nded by fostering, not thwarting, innate
tendencies, by the extension of scientific jirofcssional appointments and professorships, by
tissimilating in some ca.s<'s the English system of teaching to that of the Sootch, and by creating
travelling and other fellowships which shall enable their holders to view nature in various
aspects, and to work with foreigners, whose habits of thought are fruitful in tlieinseUes but of
a different kind to our own." (pp. 225-6.)

Among such fellowships Galton then demands the establishment of
medical research fellowships.

"1 appeal to capiUilists, who know not what use, free from abust", t4) make of their surplus
wealth, to consider this want. They might greatly improve the practical skill of the English
medical profession by affording opportunities of pnilonge<l study. They might perhaps themselves
reap some part of the Ijenefit of it. A young medical man has now to waste the most vigorous
years of his life in misenible mutine work simjily to obtain bread, until he has been able to
establish his reputation. He has no breathing-time allowetl him ; the cares of mature life press
too closely upon his student days to give him the opportunities of prolonged study that are
necessary to ot-complish him for his future profession." (pp. 226-7.)

How long after 1874 was the seed of that idea to l'-

P Q II

1"iried, before the
ao

154 Life and Lettern of Franch Gal ton

capitalist was forthcoming to fructify it by a valuable, if far from fully
atleuuate, endowment?

There is one last citation which I must make from this chapter, beaiuse
it has as much bearing on our nation to-day as it had fifty years ago; also it
conveys Galton's views on those "social duties" which not a little fell to his lot :

"Tlie inHuences which we have been considering are those wliicli urge men to pursue science
rmther than lit<»ratiirf, poHtics, or other cAreers; but we must not forget that there are deep
and oUiourc inovements of national life, which may ()uicki'n or depress the effective ability of
the nation as a whole, I have not considered tlie reasons why one jx'rio<l is more priKluctive
of great men than anotlier, my inquiry Ix'ing limited, for the reasons statetl in the first pages
of tliin lHK)k, to one p«'riod and nation. But it may Ije remarked, that the national condition
mo«t favourable to general efficiency is one of self-confidence and eager l)elief of great works
capable of accomplishment. The opposite attitude is indifferentism, founded on sheer un-
certainty of what is best to do, or on despair of being strong enough to achieve useful nwults;
a feeling such as that which has generally existed in i-ecent ye^rs among wealthy men in
respect to pauperism and charitable gifts. A common effect of indifferentism is to dissipate the
energy of the nation upon trifles; and this tendency seems to ixi a crying evil of the present
day in our own country. In illustration of this view, I will ijuote the following extract from
a letter of one of my correspondents, who I should add is singularly well ijualified to form a
just opinion on the matter to which he so forcibly calls attention: — 'The principal hindrance
to inquiry and all otlier intellectual progress in the peojile of whom I see much, is the elalxirate
machinery for wasting time which has tieen invent«-d and recommended under the name of
"social duties." Considering the mental and nmterial capital of which the richer clas.ses have
the dis|iosal, I ))elieve that much more than half the progressive force of the nation runs to
waste from this cause'." (pp. 227-8.)

The evils pointed out by Galton have intensified rather than diminished
since 1874, and especially since the Great War. Scientists have become
more and more profe8.sional, that is there are fewer and fewer men of means,
who pursue science lor the pleasure of it. Science is now almost entirely one
of the professional roads to a living. An examination of the testamentary
dispositions published from day to day in the newspapers shows how little
the meaning of science for national welfare, how little the social value of
knowledge, nave i)enetrated the minds of the wealthy. 'Conscience money'
is amply provided for a variety of charities, many of which are with high

1)robaoility anti-social in their effects. There Ls small doubt that salvation
)y 'good works' is still dominant in the minds of many, and 'good works'
are still identified with charity by the majority of testators. A wealthy man
will breed pheasants for sport, or dogs and jiigs for j)rize points', but he
would not spend a fraction of the money in striving to discover the laws of
heredity, which might, if we had knowledge of them, aid not only national
agriculture, but what Galton termed viriculture. The ' social duties '
demand flowere, vegetables and fruit, and these a large establishment of
gardenei-s and their underlings. Hut it is left to the florists to discover and
make new varieties, and horticulture is part of the menial service of the
esUiblishment, not an intellectual pursuit of the proprietor; while his dog-
and cattle-breeding follow narrow conventional lines, and their success is
measured by the number of silver cups on a sideboard.

' Usually settletl by liie ignorant with a total disreganl of the usefulness of the animal and
in complete ignorance of it.s natural history.

Corratpomlence with Aljthouse de Candolle

166

The last chapter in (lalton's Ixxik deals with education and endeavours
from the replies of iiis coirespondents to construct a scheme which wouhJ
have favoured scientific development.

"As n';{nr(Is the |ir<'cis<r Hul)j(<cts for rifjonm.s iiiMtructioii, the t'ollnwin;; s«mmii to nic in itrict
acconlii.ni'('. with wlml would Imvc Ik'sI picnHod tliosi- of the scictitific men, wlio hnvi> wiif m«>
returns: - I. Matht'niaticH |inMhc<l oh fur iis the ciijMicity of the h'urner nilniitN, und i' <i<«t

utiliwd lis fur iis poHsihle for interest inj{ ends and pnii-tieiil a|>|iiicutioM. '.'. !,•■: ilm

jKrounds iilrejuly stilted, Imt on tlio.se only). ■'<. Ol>s<>rviition, theory and ex|MTiinent, in at leiuit
one branoh of Hcience; some Iniys taking one hraneli and some anotlier, to ensun) variety of
int<Tests in the seliool. \. Accurate drawing; of obji'cts conneeted with the branch of science
pursued'. 5. Mechanical manipulation, for the reasons alreiuly given, ami also hecauito me-
chanical skill is occusionally of great use to nenrly all scientific men in their investigations.
These five subjects must Ik; rU/oroiisI i/ taught. They are anything but an exct^ssive programme,
and there woidd remnin plenty of time for that variety of work which is so highly pri/e«l, lui —
ready access to iMMjks; much reading of intt^resting literature, history and p<K'try; languagos
learnt prolmbly Ir-sI during vacations, in the easiest and swiftest manner, with the .sole object
of enabling the Itiarners to read ordinary l>ooks in them. This set>ms sufficient, iH-cause my
returns show that men of science are not made by much teaching, but nither by awakening
their interests, eiicouniging their pursuits when at home, and leaving them to teach themselves
continuously throughout life. Much teaching tills a youth with knowle<lge, Imt t<'iids prema-
turely to satiate his apjietite for more. I am surprise<J at the metliocri- degrees which the
leading .scientific men who were at the universities have usually taken, always excepting the
niatheinaticians. Being original they are naturally less receptive; they prefer to fix of their
own accord on certain subjects, and seem averse to learn what is put before them as a task.
Their independence of spirit and coldness of disposition are not conducive to success in compe-
tition ; they doggedly go their own way and refuse to run races." (p 257.)

It is in reafling sucli a statement that one realises how much Galton
gained by staiuliiig outside science as a profession, and one feels that science
as a pursuit must always stand higher than science as a profession.

"If we class energy, int<»llect and the like, under the general name of ability, it follow*
that, other circumstances In-ing the same, thase able men who have vigour to spare for extra
professional pursuits, will U; mainly governed in the choice of them by the instinctive tiistes of
their manhood. The majority will address them.sclves to topics nearly connected with human
interests; a few only will turn to science. This tendency to almndon the colder attractions of
science for thi>ae of political and social life, must always be powerfully reinforce«l by the very
general inclination of women to exert their influence in the latter direction. Again those who
select some branch of scienct5 as a profession, must do so in spite of the fact that it is more
unreniunerative than any other pursuit. A great and salutary change has undoubt«<lly come
over the feeling of the nation since the time when the hvuling men of science were boys, for
education was at that time conducted in the interests of the clergy, an<i was strongly opposed
to science. It crusheil the inquiring spirit, the love of ol)8ervation, the pursuit of inductive
studies, the habit of independent thought, ami it protected classics and mathematics by giving

them the nionop)ly of all prizes for intellectual work This gigantic monopoly is yielding,

but obstinately and slowly, and it is unlikely that the friends of science will Iw able, for many
years to come, to relax their efforts in e<iucational reform". As regards the future provision

' There is a passage bearing on drawing on p. 142 worth citing: "There is an exact parallel
between truthfulness of expression in sj)eech and that of delineation in drawing. In the earliest
sketch it is far better to Ix^ hard in outline than inaccurate. Sub.se<iucnt touching up can
smooth away the hardness; but there exists no proper material to work upon when there was
carelessness in the first design."

' It is painful to read how little of their success many Victorian scientist's attribut«><l to
their eiiucation. Darwin's etiucation omittetl mathematics, modern languages ami all training
in habits of observation and reasoning. He considered that all he had learnt of any value had

80—2

156 Life and Letters of Francin Galton

for 8ucoi«iiful followers of science, it ih to be hoped thnt in nddition to the many new openings
in industrial pursuitK, the gradual but Hure development of sanitary administration anci statis-
tical inquiry may in time afford the nee<Ied profession. These and a<lequately paid professor-
ships may, as I sineen-ly hope they will, even in our day, give rise to the esUiblisliinent of a
sort of s<'ientific priesthixnl throughout the kingdom, whose high duties would have reference
to the hejkllh and well-being of the nation in its broadest sense, and whose emoluments and
social position would be made commensurate with the im]>ortance and variety of their functions."
(pp. 258-60.)

Much of what Galton wished in 1874 to see achieved has since been
done, although plenty remains to occuj^y fully the attention of educational
reformers. It is singular, however, to note now little Galton 's services to
educational refonn have been recognised, and yet in this book he is voicing
the opinions of a very large section of the scientific men of that day ; and
these views filtered down through the press until they ultimately reached
the politician. The la.st sentence but one appealing for development of
sanitary adnjinistration and statistical inquiry finds Galton on common
ground with Florence Nightingale — a link to which we shall return later.
But alas! their dreams are still far from realisation; it is still held laughable
to suggest that the statistician is a fundamental need, if we are to under-
stand what makes for or mars the health and well-being of our nation in its
broadest sense.

B. DARWIN AND THE PANGENESIS EXPERIMENTS

As Gralton's views on heredity brought him to a certain extent into
conflict with De Candolle, so also they brought hini at an even earlier date
into a disagreement with Charles Darwin. At the end of 1 8()9 as a result
of his discussion of pangenesis in the Chapter entitled 'General Considera-
tions' of Hereditary O'enius, Galton determined to test experimentally
Darwin's 'provisional' hypothesis. In that discussion Galton directly speaks
of gemmules circulating in the blood (see our p. 113). Although Darwin read
this book, I can find no trace of a letter at that date repuuiating the idea
of circulation in the blood being the essential method of transfer of gemmules.
From December 1869 to June 1870 I find twelve letters of Galton to Darwin
about the experiments on transfusion of blood. That Darwin answered some,
perhaps all, of these letters is clear, but I have not succeeded in finding any
replies. It is possible that after the letters to Nature of 1871, Galton de-
stroyed them. At any rate in the list of Darwin letters prepared in 1890 by
Galton himself none of these letters are referred to. All the Darwin nibbit
letters that have survived are those which followed the publication of
Galton's paper "Experiments in Pangenesis by Breeding from Babbits of
a pure variety, into whose circulation blood taken from other varieties had
previously been largely transfused." Tliis was read at the Iloyal Society on
March 30, 1871^ These letters refer to a continuation of the experiments,

been aelf-taught and was due to his following up of an innate taste for science, and Gallon
expressed himself in much the same language: see our Vol. I, p. 12.
' hoyal Soc. I'roe. Vol. XIX, pp. ."SIH-JKt, 1871.

I

I

I

CnrrexpoiKlence in'tfi C/i<trlcn Darwin 157

also with negative conclusions, which results confirmatory of the thesis of
his memoir (Jalton never to my knowledge piiMished in aetail. Those who
rend the letters l)el()W cannot donht that Darwin knew the nature of the
experiments, and knew that CJallon Wiis asMuming that the 'gemmules'
circulated in the blood. The whole point was to determine wriether the
hereditary units of a breed A could lie transferred by transfusion of blood
to members of a breed Ji and would 'mungrelise' the ofispring conceived later
by B. Was the ' blood ' indeed as supposed in folk-language all over the
world a true bearer of hereditary characters? That question is itself of
importance, even apart from the question of Darwin's theory of heredity.
But the publication of these letters has in this particular instance a deeper
significance. It is a biographer's duty to illustrate the real strength of his
sul)ject's character, not merely to cjill it great. I know of no case in which
a disciple's reverence for his master has exceeded that shown by Galton for
Darwin in this matter. I doubt if any natures the least smaller than those
of Darwin and (Jalton would have sustained their friendship unbroken, even
for a day, after April 24th, 1871. I feel that the self-eflTacement of Galton
in this instance is one of the most chaiacteristic actions of his life ; but it is
not one that a biographer can disregard, however great his reverence for
Darwin. Here are the letters extending from the start of the pangenesis
experiments to nearly the time when Galton began to write his paper.

(1) 42, Rutland Gate, S.W. Dec. 11, 69.

My dkau Darwin, I wonder if you coulil help me. I want to make some peculiar experi-
ments that have occurred to me in breeding animals and want to procure a few couples of
rabbits of marked and assurinl breeds, viz: Lop-ear with an little tendency to Albinism aA
possible. Comtiwn KiMiln, ditto. Amjora albinos. And I find myself wholly unable to get
them, though I have asked many people. Do you know anylxxly who has such things? I write
. without your biH)k in reach, but you there especially mention a breeder of Angonus. Also you
quote with approbation from Delaney's little b<x)k. Are either or both of those men aca-ssible
and likely to help] Pray e-xcuse my troubling you; the interest of the pn)pose«l exj)eriment —
for it is really a curious one — must be my justitication. Very sincerely yours, Francis Galton.

(2) 42, Rutland Gate, S.W. March 15, 70.

My dear Darwin, Very many thanks for the information and Ixxjks. When I have got
up the subject, I will write again, and will in the meantime take all care of the Ixwks.

I .shall ho|)e in a week from now to give you some news and by Saturday week definite facts
about the rabbits. One litter [tdoe] hiks littered to-<lay and all looks well with her. Two others
towards the end of the week, viz : We<lnesday and Saturday. I grieve to say that niv most
lioiH'ful one was confined prematurely b}' .3 days having made no nest and all we knewof the
matter was finding bl<x)d aUmt the cage and the head of one of the litter. She was transfused
from yellow and the buck also from yellow. Well the liead was certainly much lighter than
the head of another abortion I had seen, and was certaiidy irregularly coioure<l, being es|XH;i-
ally darker about the muzzle, but I did not and do not car«! to build anything about such
vague facts and have not even kept the head. As soon as I know any/hing 1 will write
instantly and lirst to you. For my part, I am quite sick with expected hope and doubt.

Ever very sincerely, F. Galton.

It will be seen from Letters (I) and (2) that between Dec. 11, 1869 and
March 15, 1870, Galton must by letter or verbally have communicated the
purpose of his experiments to Darwin. He now speaks quite openly of the
transfusion and its possible effect on the nature of the offspring.

158

Lift atul Letters of Fnmciti (roltoii

(3) 42 Rutland Gate, S.W. March 17, 1870.

Mt dear Darwin, No good news. Bartlett a8sure<l me this morning that it was a popular
prejudice that j'oung rabbits might not be lookc<l at, reasonable cjire IxjinR taken, so we optnunl
2 Ixixea and exaniineil the littt>rs. The first contained four dead young ones all true silver greys.
One, however, has a largish light foloure<l patt-h on its nose, but Hartlett tells me that this is
not unusual with silver greys as the very tips of their noses ari^ often whit*-. However this
patoh is gomewliat larger and there are faint li<)|)es, I think, that it may pi-ove more consiiler-
able than Bartlett Ix-lieves. 1 have one more litter yet to come and lioj)e to send you the ivsult
by Monday evening [)ost. I have coupled a new pair and n* coupled the 2 doe-s whoso litters
have failed, one of them with a more suitable mat«;, and expect tlie following results:

Date of expected
Uttw

Buck traDsfusod from
rabbit coloured as below

Doe transfused from

April 14

April 16

April 16

Hare-eolounxl

Yellow

Black and white

Hare-coloured

Yellow

Black and whitt;

The quaiititj' of bloofl transfu.sc*! wius only 1*25 per cent, of the weight of the rabliits wliioh
ia only the same thing a.s .'iUoz. of bliKxl to an ordituiry man. I know this is a very small pro-
portion of the whole amount of blood, but hope by a second oj)enition on the old bucks and by
improved operations on all the young ones to get a great deal more of alien qualities into their
veins. Very sincerely yours, Francis Galton.

In a letter of Mi-s Darwin's to her daughter Henrietta dated Down, Sat.,
Mar. 19 [1870] we read:

"F. [Father] is wonderfully set up by London, but so abfiorbed about work, etc. and all sorts
of things that I sliall force him oft' somewhere before very long. F. Galt^m's experiments about
rabbits (viz. inje<'ting black rabbit's bltxxl into grey and ric* r<»r»a) arc failing, which is a dreadful
disap[K>intnient to tliem both. F. GalUm said he was quite sick with anxiety till the rabbits
accoiichemeiiU were over, and now one naughty creature ate up Ler infants and the other has
perfectly commonplace ones. He wishes this exper* to be kept quite secret as he means to

go on, and he thinks he shall be so laughed at, so don't mention " A Century of Letttrg,

Vol. II, p. 230.

(4) 42, Rutland Gate, S.W. March 22, 1870,
Mt dear Darwin. Another litter — this time of 4 — and all of them are true silver greys. —

Also, one of the does (mentioned in my last letter as transfuKe<l from a black and white) is
dead.

My stud now stands as overleaf '. I call each silver grey by the name of the colour of the
rabbit froui which it has been infused. I also give the particulars of my fii"st liatcli. You will
see that there was much less variety in my pairs then, than there is now. I hope to try a new
mode of tran.sfusion upon a wholly new stock, taking j'ounger rabbits and putting much more
alien blood into thera. Ever very sincerely yours, F. Galton.

[There follows a list of transfusions into bucks and does of first and second
Imtches.]

(5) 42, Rutland Gate, S.W. March 31, 1870.

My dear Darwin, Better news— decidedly better. I opeiu>d the hutches where the young
rabbits are, this morning, and found now that the white patch on the nose of which T spoke
had become markedly conspicuous and larger, but also that a white vertical bar had begun to

' I have not thought it needful to reproduce this table, as the details of the experiments are
given in the paper as finally published.

CorrcHjiondcnre in'th Charft'jt Dnnriii IfiO

iipjM'iir ill thii foreh«>a<l'. On going to the othnr littt-r, which I had never before got » proper
vi('w of, I found imothor young one with pn liliir nmrkH. (The iiialo pnrent wiui »he

Hiiiiu- in lM)th ciUMW ) i hiive Hpent a most iin il niornin<; with new ap|iamtui trying to

inject iiioi-c ('i>iiiplnt<-ly ; hut I have yet ho|>08 of succesH by nmicing Home alterations.

1 will return to yoti Naudin and the 2 puinphletM by to-morrow't ImmjIc pOHt. Very many
thanks for tluMii and for all the reft'rencc!8. With great reluctance, I feel it would be too much for
me to undertake the ex|K«rimentH. I am too ignorant of gardening, and, living in I»ndon with
a suniiiier tour in proHpect, I don't see my way to a succeHsful insue; but I hojie to pnictiiie my
eye and get some experience this year which may bo of service next year or hereaft«T. I con-
gratulaU' you al)i>ut tlie t^uagga taint. Once more alxiut the rabbits, very many tliankn for
your liiiitH, I will try more grey bloo<l. Hartlett take.s great int^-rcHt and gives much care.
Muric's assistant li><>ks after the rabbits. Murie himself Icwks in now and then,

Very sincerely, F. Galtom.

Owing to tlui tiiilure of Darwin's jKirallel letU'is we have no knowledge
of what his hints were. Tlie nature of the proposed plant-rearing exj)eri-
inent8 is equally unknown to us, but the suggestion may have reniaine<l in
Galton's nund and have borne fruit in the sweet-pea experiments (jf a few
years later. The Quagga taint' has close bearing on the pre.sent subject, for
if a mother of breed A bore a child to a father of breed Ji, it seems likely that
the 'genunules' in the 'circulation' of the unlxnii child might pass into the
mother's circulation and possibly affect a child born later to a father of her
own breed A. The Quagga case, as indeed all instances up-to-date, of
so-called telegony can now \ye dismis.sed from consideration. They dejiend
essentially on (i) observation of variation within the pure breed not being
sufficiently wide, or (ii) the assertions of kennel-men and others endeavouring
to screen their responsibility for unplanned matings.

It is clear from this fifth letter that Galton was still hoping against the
weight of accumulating facts for evidence that foreign 'genmiules' had been
transfu.sed with the blood.

(6) 5, Bertie Teukack, Leaminctoi*. April s, 1870.

My dkak Darwin, The white nose and vertical bjir is, I find, of no importance. Bartlett
was not accessible the day I found them out, but he has since told me they are common varieties,
and I hear the same from Mr Itoyds, the rabViit-fancier and judge of poultry shows, from whom
I Ixnight them, liefore leaving I^ondon last week I succetnlwl in infusing 2 (K-r cent, of the
rabbit's weight in alien bl(«K;l, before 1 had only achieved 1-2.') or l/,'<tltli jwrt which (on the
supposition of Huxley that bhxxl constitutes 1 10th of the whole weight of the IkkIv) is only
l/8th of the l>loo<l. In other words my transfusion, hitherto, has given only 1 great-grandj^rent
of mongrel IiKkmI to the otherwi.se pure silver greys, and this is a very small mutter. I do not
like to risk another operation on the other jugular of my rabbits till after the forthcoming
.3 litters, not till aft<'r I have had more success in the system of more abundant transfusion.
I can do nothing with the blood in its natural state, it coagulates .so quickly, so I detibrinise it.
If I cannot ever succeed in transfusing ivs much into the rabbits a.s is necessary to make a fair
experiment, I must go to larger animals, and try cross-circulation with big dogs.

' Pencil note against this word: 'white star'; Ualtondoes nut use the now common word'Hare.'
' See Animals and PlnnU tinder Doinfulu-nlion, Vol. I, pp. 403-4, 1st Edn. Vol. l, p. .*?45,
Va\. 1875. Darwin liclieved absolutely in telegony and attributes it to the "ditru,sion, retention
and action of the geiiiimiles includecl within the spermatozoa of the previous male."' AniiiuUt
and Plnnln, 1st Kdn. Vol. ii, p. .388. Darwin's words seem to indicate that mere coition as apart
from l)earing olFspring might piinluce telegony. The theory of telegony suggests that later
lK>rn offspring should \>c more like the father than earlier born, but 1 have found no trace of
this; see B. S. Proe. Vol. l.x, pp. 273-83, 1896.

160 LiJ*' niul lA'ttcrtt of Fnntciis (i alt on

You «re very kind in giving me so much valuable advice and so much encouragement.

Miss Gihbe's review is very characteristic. She has not, however, quite ciiuKht what 1 am
driving at in religious matters and which —if the book shall be enough rea<i to make it reason-
able for me to do so— I shall express more clearly. Very sincerely yours, Fuancis Ualton.

The religious views are probably those of the Hereditary (renius : see
our p. 114. The review, entitled: 'Hereditary Piety',' by F'rances Power
CJobbe, will be found in the Theological lievieic, April, 1870. I do not know
whether she was at this time a correspondent of Galton's, but she wa« so
iu 1877.

(7) "), Uehtik Tekiuik, Lkaminiiton. April 'IfijlO.
My dkab Dakwin, Two more litters and no happy results, the young being all true silver

greys. There ought to have been a third litter but the iI(h» had not kindled. I shall next give
a fresh infusion to every one of my old st<K'k and hojx' to raise the proportion of alien bUxxJ in
their bodies to at least 3 per cent of their entire weight, or, say 30 per cent, of their entire
blood.

I am obliged to defer all this for a w(H?k or two longer for my mother haw In-eii lying iit the
verge of death for a fortnight and I am wante<l by her. She is now a tritie better and her
illness — the result of bronchitis — may l>e less acute for a while and I may be able to get l>ack
to London. We have no reasonable hope that she will ever recover even a more moderate
d^^ree of health. Very sincerely yours, Francis Oalton.

(8) 42, Rutland Gatk, S.W. May 12, 1870 (written at the Athenaeum).

My deak Darwiv, Good rabbit news! One of the latest litters has a white forefoot It
was bom April 23rd, but as we did not disturb the young, the forefoot was not olwervod till
to-day. The little things had huddled together showing only their backs and liejids, and the
foot was never suspecte<l. The mother was injected from a grey and white and the father from
a black and white. Thi.s, recollect, is from a transfusion of only l/8th part of alien blood in
each parent; now, after many unsuccessful experiments, 1 have greatly improved the method
of operation and am beginning on the other jugulars of my stock. Yesterday I operated on 2
who are doing well to-tlay, and who now have l/3nl alien blood in tlxiir veins. On Saturday I
hope for still greater success, and shall go on. ..until I get at least one-half alien blood. Tlie
experiment is not fair to Pangenesis until I do.

We are for the time relieved from anxiety about my p<M>r dear Mother, who suffered the
agonies of death over and over again, but has strangely pulled through, and is now comfortable
though very weak and seriously shaken. Very sincerely yours, Francis Galton.

"The appearance of an 'orphan foot,' or even two, in normally whole-
coloured animals purely-bred is a common event; but it i.s inteni.sting to note
how Galton seized any feature he could that supported inungrelisation, and
thus the demonstration of the truth of 'pangenesis.' He discusses this white
foot, pp. 402-3 of his pai>er, but, I think, might have dismissed it as he did
the white noses and flare of some of his first bat<;h of litters.

(9) 42, Rutland Gate, S.W. June 1st, 1870 (written at the Athenaeum).

Mv DEAR Darwin, Though I have no new litter to report, and shall have only one l)efore
the end of the month, I do not like to let more time go by, without heartily thanking j-ou for
your helpful and encouraging letter. I will not trouble you with details now, but simply say
that I feel sure, unless some unexpected disaster to my stock should arise, that I shall have a
very complete set of experiments finished before August My bucks have been heavily re- trans-
fused and I have a doe in the same state. Also 1 shall have all the combinations, extreme and
intermediate, of pure and transfused bucks with pure and tran8fuse<l doe.s.

I find 1 cannot manage pigeons for want of a dove-cot, and dare not try dogs lest the
2jOological Gardens should Ix; alarmed by the noise and 1 should lie extruded. But notwith-

' Reprinted in Dartcinimn in Morals, and other Eit»ay», 1872.

I

Correnpondi-Hce laith Charles Darwin 161

standing thix, I can awure you that I have the matter firmly in hand, and will be guided by
the reHults, iih to the extent of futiiro work. Dt'fihriniwHl hlixxl in my iialvation. I lit4;rHlly put
into my silver greys during one operation lui much liloo<l as I can get from two rahhitJt each of
the sanie »ize im the [mtieiit, and I have thre«i bucks who have undergone two operations (but
unluckily the earlier ones were fur loss .successful). Very sincerely yours, FRANCia Oaltok.

(10) 43, Rutland Gatk, S.W. J,nu 2ftth, 1870.

My dear Darwin, A curious and, it may \>e, very interesting result delays my transfusion
experiments. It is that 2, and 1 think all 3, of the does that had been couplwl with the largely
tninfiLsed Imeks prove alrrih'. Of course the sterility maj' Ik) due "to constitutioiukl shock,
or other minor matt^'fs, but, it mtgi/r^tn the iilea that the ivproductive elements are in the
portion of the bl<M><l which I diil not transfu.st^; —to wit tlw Jlbrim-. In my earlier experiments,
the blood WHS only partially dc('il)rini,se<l,— hence I wits able to get a white leg; but in those
later ones it wius wholly defibriiiised. It seems reasonable that the part of the bhxxl which
d(M's most in the i-epanition of injuries should also be most rich in the repro<luctive elementa.
Of course I go on with the experiments with modifications of procedure....! wish I ha<l more
to tell you. I have transfused into 32 rabbits, in six cases twice over....

Very sincerely yours, Francis Oalton.

The letters now break off, uiid the Galtons went to Paris on July 15th,
intending to go to Switzerland ; they did go to Grindelwald, but the neclani-
tion of war between France and Prussia led them to return. Here, after a
stay at Folkestone, they paid visits to the Gurneys, at Julian Hill, at
Leamington and at the Groves, reaching London only on October 17th
(L. (j.'s Record). On Septemlier 27th, George Darwin, however, wrote that
his father sent his thanks for Galton's rabbit message and said that he was
deeply interested in the success of the experiment. The nature of that
experiment is clear, although Galton's letter detailing it appeJirs to have
perished; it is provided by Galton's pai)er itself; it wsis to cea.se defibrini-
sation, and it was done by establishing cro.s.s-circulation between the carotids,
the great arteries of the neck.

"If the results were affirmative to the truth of Pangenesis, then my first experiments would
not be thrown away; for (supposing them to 1x3 contirnied by larger exp«>rience) they would
prove that the reproductive elements lay in the tibrine. But if cross-circulation gave a negative
reply, it would 1r> clear that the white ioot was an accident of no importance to the thtx)ry of
Pangenesis, and that the sterility need not be ascribed to the loss of here<litary gemmules,
but to abnormal health, due to detihrinisation and, perhaps, to other cau.ses also.

My operations of crovss-circulation (which I call x) put me in posse-ssion of threi- excellent

silver-grey bucks, and four excellent silver-grey does There were al.so three common rabbits,

bucks, which were blood niat'es of silver-gi-eys, and four common rabbits, does, also blood mates
of silver-greys. From this large stock I have bretl eighty-eight rabbits in thirteen Iitt<'r8, and
in no single case has thei'e Ixmm> any evidence of alteration of breed. There has been one
instance of a sandy Himalaya ; but the owner of this breed assures me they are liable to throw
them, and lus a matter of fact, as I have alitsady stated, one of the does he sent me did litter
and throw one a few days after she reaclunl me. The conclusion from this large series of ex-
periments is not to be avoided, that the doctrine of Pangenesis, pure and simple, as I have
interpreted it, is incorrect." (p. 404, loe. cit.)

Galton concludes that the gemmulea are not independent re-sitients in
the blood; they either reside in the sexual gland itself, the blmxl merely
forming nutriment to the growth, or they are merely temporary inhabitants
of the blood and rapidly perish, so that the transfu-sed gemmules |)erished
before the period elapsed when the animals had recovered from their opera-
tions. Galton suggests that an experiment might be made — as the animals

i> a II SI

162 Life ami Ltittrs of Francix (wultini

released from the opeiatinji; table seeinwl little dashed in spirits, play, snitt'
and are ready to fight^to mate them at once.

"It would be exceedingly instructive, suppoRing the experiment to give affirmative results,
to notice the gradually waning powers of producing mongrel ofl'spring."

Galton clearly intended to continue the experiments; for a week after
his paper was read he write** to George Darwin thanking him for a letter in
which he had stated that his father was willing to take charge of eight of
the rabbits'. Galton gives particulai-s about these eight young rabbits, how
they should be mateil and wluu the young should be returned to London for
further operations.

"My paper will come out in the next number of the R. Society Proceedings and T will send
your Father a copy with their pedigree marked." The hxtis for experimenting has, however,
changed. "Though I .shall not have my old excellent assistant Fraser, who sails this day week for
Calcutta, I shall have the run of the University College Pliysiologiail Ijiiboratory an<l .shall
he able, I believe, to conduct all the openitions there with convenience greater than hitherto."

Again Darwin's letter is missing, but on April 25 Galton writes:

(11) 42, Rutland Gate, April 25, '71.

My dear Dakwin, T am grieved l)eyond measure to learn that I liave misrepresented your
doctrine, and the only consolation I can feel is that your letter to 'Nature' may place that
doctrine in a clearer light and attract more attention to it. I write hurriedly, as time is impor-
tant t<> Nive the morning's post, in order to point out two passages which, I hope, in your letter
to 'Nature' you will explain at length, so as to remove the false impression of Pangenesis under

which I and probably others lalxmr. In "Domestication of Aniuialsctc." p. 374" throw off

minute granules or atoms, which circulate fi-eely throughout the system......" And p. 379"

the granules must be thoroughly diffused ; nor does this seem improbable considering the

steady circulation of fluids throughout the Inxly." (Is there not also a p{M.sage in which the words
"circulating fluid" an; use<n I cannot hurriedly lay my hand on it, but Ijelieve it to exist.)
Believe me — ni-cessarily in great haste— Very sincerely yours, Fkancis Galton.

(12) 42, Rutland Gatb, May 2/71.

M V DEAn Darwin, I send a copy of the rabbit paper, in which I have marked the genealogy
of the 6 little ones (p. 401).

You will see my repl}' in next we<'k's 'Nature'. I justify my misunderstanding as well as
I can and, I think, reasonably. The half plaintive end to the letter will amuse you. Very
sincerely yours, Francis Galton.

I begin an entirely new and different series of experiments to-morrow.

One letter more before we come to the Nature coirespondence. Darwin's
and Galton's letters in Nature opened a general correspondence, in part of
which Darwin was roughly handled and Galton wrote to him as follows:

(13) 42, RuTL.\ND Gatk, May 1-2/71.

My ubar Dakwin, I have just seen 's not nicely conceivetl letter in 'Nature' on Pan-
genesis, and write at once to you, lest you should imagine that T in any way share the animus
of the letter. I dt) not know liim ; at least, I have, perha[m twice only, hiwl occasion to converse
with him, — and what he says, certainly does not express my own opinion as expressed elsewhere
and to others. I should not fec-l easy, if I did not disavow all share in it to you. Ever very
sincerely, P'rascik Galton.

My new experiments are not hopeful — alas! I hope Pangenesis will get well discussed now.

' A jxwtcard datwl April 14th Down : — "Tlie rabbits arrived safe last night and are lively
tad pretty this morning C. D," — seems to belong to this dat«.

Correftpondnice tinth C/iorfen IJaririti 103

Before we turn to the Nature letters, we must notr ..lu- ..i i».. i...iiii^,
iiaiiu'ly:

{(i) Galtoii kept Darwin fully informed of the traiiHfusion of blood ex-
perinuMits, and furtiier statexl their In'arin^ on Pangenesis.

(M Darwin clearly made throughout the experiments hints for their
niodihcation and extension even to otrier sj)ecie8.

((■) CJalton's letters and paper are not conipatil)le with Dar\Mn ri;i\iii^ ;iL
any time warned him that the circulation oftlie hiood was not a necessary
factor in his own theory.

{(I) Oalton's words on p. 3!)5 of his memoir cited hy Darwin were too
sweeping, l)ut at the same time they were actually (pialitied hy what he
wrote on p. 404 that "the doctrine of Pangenesis, pure and simple, <«.>i / hnve.
intcrjiri'ted it', is incorrect."

Letter of Cliarlos Dnrwiii in Nuturi', April 21, lt<71.

"Panj^enesis." Tn a pnpor, reiid March 30, 1871, Ix-forn fho Royal Society, and just
pulilish(><l in the Proceeilings, Mr (taltoii gives the results of liia interesting ex|)erinients on the
inter-transfusion of the bliKxl of distinct varietit« of rabbits. These exjierinientfl were (indertaken
to test whether there was any truth in my provisional hypothesis of Pangenesis. Mr Oalton, in
recapitulating "the cartiinal points," sjiys that the gemniules are supp<«e<l "to swann in the
blood." Me enlarges on this head, and remarks, "Under Mr Darwin's theory, the gemniules in
oaeii individual must, therefore, l)e looked upon as entozoa of iiis blood," etc. Now, in the
chnpter on Pangenesis in my "Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication," I have
not said one word about tlie blood, or about any fluid proper to any eirculatii l It is,

indeed, obvious that the presence of gemniules in the blood can form no neei- • i of my

hy()othesis; for I refer in illustration of it to the lowest animals, such as the Protozoa, which
do not possess blood or any vessels; and I refer to plants in which the fluid, when present in
the vessels, cannot be considered as true blood'. The fundamental laws of growth, repnxluction,
inheritance, etc., are so closely similar throughout the whole organic kingdom, that the nicAns
by which the geninmles (assuming for the moment their existence) are ditFusetl thmugh the body,
would prolwbly Ih' the same in all beings; therefore the means can hartlly be diffusion through
the bloo<l. Nevertheless, when I first heard of Mr fJalton's expi>riinents, I did not sufliciently
n'fli-ct on the subject, and saw not the diHiculty of believing in the presence of geninmles in the
bloiKl. I have said (Variation, etc., vol. ii, p. 379) that "the gemmide.s in each organism must
be thoroughly diffused; nor does this seem improbable, considering their rainutenes.s, and the
steady circulation of fluids throughout the Ixidy.'' Hut when I used these latter words and other
similar one.s, I presume that I wa,s thinking of the diffusion ot' the gemniules thmugh the tissues,
or from cell to cell, independently of the prt'sence of ve.ssels, — as in the remarkaMe exjierimentd
by Dr Bence Jones, in whicli chemical elements absorbed by the stomach were <lete<-te<l in the
course of .some minutes in the crystalline lens of the eye; or again as in the r<'peAt4'd loss of
colour and it« recovery after a few days by the hair, in the singular case of a neuralgic lady
recorded by Mr Pagt^t. Nor can it be objecte<l that the gemrfiules could not pa.ss thmugh tissues
or cell-walls, for the contents of each jMiUen grain have to pass thi-ough the coats, lH)th of the
pollen tul)e and embryonic sack. 1 may add, with resp(>ct to the pa.ssage of fluids thmugh mem-
brane, that they pa,ss from cell to cell in the absorbing hairs of the roots of living plants at a
rate, as I have myself observed under the microscope, which is truly surf)rising.

When, therefore, Mr (ialton concludes from the fact that rabbits of one variety, with a
large proportion of the blcMxl of another variety in their veins, do not produce niongreli.sed off-
spring, that the hypothesis of Pangenesis is false, it seems to me that his conclusion is a little

' I have itnlicise<l these woi-ds to emphasise Oalton's attitude.

' Note by the biographer. It would seem feasible to test the theory of pangenesis in the
case of plants by considering the results obtained from the seeds of grafted and non-grafted
plants of the same species.

21— a

164 Life ami Letters of Francis (ialton

hastv. His words are, "I Imvi- now mn<li' exp<!riiiiontn of traiiKfusioii and cros8-cin;ulation on
a large scale in rabbits, and have arrive<l at delinite rexuiu, ncgativinji;, in my opinion, beyond
all doubt the truth of the doctrine of Pangenesis." If Mr Gallon could have proved that the
reproductive elements were contained in the blood of the higher aninmls, and were merely
separated or collectetl by the reproductive glands, he would have miwle a most important
physiological discovery. As it is, 1 think every one will admit tiiat his i'X|K'riuients are extremely
curious, and that lie deserves the highe.st credit for his ingenuity and p'rseverance. Ct it does
not appear to me that Pangenesis has, as yet, received its death blow ; though, from presenting
80 many vulnerable points, its life is always in jeopardy; and this is my excuse for having said
• few words in its defence. Charles Darwin.

Letter of Francis Galton in Nature, May 4th, 1871.

"Pangenesis." It appears from Mr Darwin's letter to you in last week's Naturt, that the
views contradicted by my experiments, published in the recent numl)er of the "Proceedings of
the Royal Sixjiet}'," differ from those he entertained. Nevertheless, 1 think they are what his
publishe<l account of Pangenesis (Animals, etc., under Domestication, ii, 374, 379) are most
likely to convey to the mind of a rea<ler. The ambiguity is due to an inappropriate use of three
separate words in the only two sentences wiiich imply (for there are none which tell us anything
definite about) the habitat of the Pangenetic gennnules; the woids are "circulate," "freely," and
"diffused." The proper meaning of circulation is evident enough — it is a re-entering movement.
Nothing can justly be .said Ui circulate which does not return, after a while, to a former position.
In a circulating library, books return and are re-issu(xl. Coin is said to circulate, because it
comes back into the same hands in the interchange of business. A story circulates, when a
person hears it repeated over and over again in society. Blood has an undoubted claim to be
called a circulating fluid, and when that phrase is used, bItKxi is always meant. I understood
Mr Darwin to speak of blood when he usetl the ])hra.se.s "circulating fr<K>ly," and "the steady
circulation of fluids," especially as the other words "freely" and "diffusion" encounigwl the idea.
But it now seems that by circulation he nicAnt "dispersion," which is a totally difFerent concep-
tion. Probably he used the word with some allusion to the fact of the dispersion having Ix'en
carried on by eddying, not necessarily circulating, currents. Next, as to the word "fn-ely."
Mr Darwin says in his letter that he supposes the gemmules Ui pass through the solid walls of
the tissues and cells, this is incompatible with the phra.se "circulate freely." Freely means
"without retardation"; as we might sjiy that small fish can swim freely through the larger
meshes of a net; now, it is impossible to suppose gemmules to pass through solid tissue without
any retardation. "Freely" would be strictly applicable to gemmules drifting along with the
stream of the blood, and it was in that sense I interpreted it. I^astly, I find fault with the use
of the word "diffused" which applies to movement in or with fluid.s, and is inappi-opriate to the
action I have just descril>e<l of solid Iwring it« way through solid. If Mr Darwin had given in
his work an additional i)ariigrapli or two to a description of the whei-ealxjuts of the gennnules
which, 1 must remark, is a cardinal point of his theory, my nii.sappreheiision of his meaning
could haixlly have occurred without more hesitancy than I experienced, but I certainly felt and
endeavoured to express in my memoir some shade of doubt; as in the phrase, p. 404, "that the
doctrine of Pangenesis, pure and simple, as I Imve interpreted it, is incorrect."

As I now understanil Mr Darwin's meaning, the first passage (ii, 374), which misled me,

and which stands: " minute ^anules which circulate freely throughout the system"

should be understood as "minute granules which arc di.sf>ersed thoroughly and are in

continual movement throughout the system"; and the second pas.sage (ii, 379), which now stands:
"The gemmules in each organism must l>e thoroughly diffused; nor does this seem improbable,

considering the st<yuly circulation of fluids throughout the Innly," should l)c understood as

follows: "The gemmules in each organism must l)ediN(>er8edall over it, in thorough intermixture';

' In later editions of his book, Darwin replaced "circulate freely" by "are dispersed through-
out the whole system" and he cancelled the words that this diffusion was not "improljable
considering the steady circulation of fluids throughout the Ixxly." But elements "dispersed
throughout the whole system" surely should have appeared in the blood. In a footnote to his
later editions (1H75, ii, p. 350) Darwin admits that he should have expected to find gemmules
in the blood "but this is no neceasary jxirt of the hypothesis."

Com'K/toiuh'itn' irith Clmrh'n Dtinrt'ii

165

nor d(x»* thin necin iinprulxililo, cmiHidering the steady circulation of tli« bluo«i, thu ctintiiiiiuuH

iiiovuinuiit, mid tlut riiiuly diiruaion of otlier fluids, and thu fact thnt the conli'iLi U |>ollen

grain have U.i piuM throu^li tho coats, Ixith of thi- [xilhtn U\\tv and of the rinl> k." (I

extract thesti latter addt'iuia fnmi Mr Darwin's letter.)

I do not much coiu|>laiu of having lM;cn sunt on a falso qut^st liy ainliiguoua langnni^^. for I
know how conscientious Mr Darwin is in all ho writes, how dilhcult it in to put tli ito

accuratt" sptNx^h, and, again, how words have convcytxl falst! irn|ir(»i.sionH on the sirnji •■n

from the earliest times. Nay, uvon in that idyllic sceno which Mr Darwin has sketchMl of the
first inventicm of language, awkwani hlunders must of necessity have oft^ui occurred. I refer
to the passage in which he HUppusoa some unusually wise apu-liku animal to have first thought
of imitating the growl of a beast of prey so as to indicate to his fellow-monkuys the nature of
expected ilanger. For my [lart, I feel an if I had just been assisting at such a scene. Am if,
having heanl my trusted leiuler utter a cry, not particularly well articulated, but to my ears
more like that of a hyena than any other animal, and .s(>eing none of my com|Minion8 stir a step,
I had, like a loyal memlH^r of thu Hock, daMhed down a path of which I had happily caught
sight, into the jilain Imlow, followed by the approving nods and kindly grunts of my wise and
most res|>uct<Ml chief. And I now feel, aft«'r returning from my iiard expedition, full of infor-
mation that the suspected danger was a mistake, for there was no sign of a hyena anywhere in
the neighbourhotHl. I am given to understand for the first time that my leader's cry had no
reference to a hyena down in the plain, but to a leo|)ard somewhere up in the trees; his throat
had botMi a little out of order— that was all. Well, my labour has not been in vain; it is some-
thing to have established thu fact that there are no hyenas in the plain, and I think I see my
way to a good position for a look out for leopards among the branches of the trees. In the
meantime, Vive Pangenesis! Francis Galton.

Ill view of the previous correspondence lasting for nearly two years —
referred to only in words which Darwin alone could appreciate: "followed
by the appioving nods and kindly grunts of my wise and most respected
chief"^ — 1 tliink this letter of Galton's to Nature is one of the finest things
he ever wrote in his life ; it is few men who have such a great opportunity
and use it so bravely. Vive Pangenesis!

Darwin may have saved his theory — for a time, but Galton saved by
his restraint his own peace of mind. It suggests the spirit of the old Quaker
David Barclay, his ancestor':

Yet with calm and stately mien.
Up the streets of Aberdeen
Came he slowly riding...

It is certain tliat those who reverence (ialton will aj)|>reoiaU' what lie
did, and those who reverence both (Jalton and Darwin will rejoice that their
friendship remained unbroken. Nay, not only seemed intensified, but mira-
hifc (lirtii Darwin now took even an empluusised part in the bloo<l trans-
fusion e.Kperiments, which went on for another three years at least! The
rabbits now passed to and fro between London and Down and several of
Darwin's and Galton's letters exist'-'. I cannot help thinking that Darwin
still thought some argument for Pangenesis might arise from this further

' For some account of this ancestor of Francis Galton, see Vol. I, p. 29.

" It is a grave misfortune that Dar>\'in never put the i/ear on any of these letters. Galton
attempted but not very successfully to date them in 1S96. When I wrote my Frauei* Galton,
A Centenary Appreciation (University Press, Cambridge), I thought some of Darwin's rabbit
letters referred to the first rabbit experiments, but 1 now feel sure this is not correct. I think
I have got them into proper seipience with Galton's, and they all bt'long to the ffcotui and
unpublished rabbit series.

166 Lift and Letters of Francis Gallon

work, otherwise it is haixl to niulerstan<l why the further work was carried
out, especially why in association witii Darwin, who had denied its hearing
on Pangenesis.

There was evidently a genxl deal ot i.'orresj)«»ndenee, now sadly missing —
which would have explainetl Darwin's views on these lenewed experiments —
during the summer of 1871. We shall now put before the reader the
remainder of this somewhat fragmentiiry correspondence, using it as a frame
for Galton's earlier work on heredity, which we shall discuss as it is referred
to. Some few of the letters of Galton have been printed in the preceding
cha))ter ; othei-s are omitted as merely referring to the arrangement of
meetings in London or at Down.

(14) We are now in Yorkshir*-. (Addi-fim) V2, Kutlwii Gatk, London, Sfpt. l.'J 71.

My dkar Darwin, I had proposod wiiting to you, in a few diiys' time, alwut the rabbits
when I received your letter. First, let uie tliank you very much for the kind care you have
taken of them. Secondly — I grieve to hear from you, that your holiday hits not l)een so much
of a success as you had ho|K»d so far as health is concerned and, thirdly on my own part, I am
glad to say, I am and have been particularly well (except only a boil inside the ear, which hurt
badly for a few days).

To return to the rabbits: — Will you kindly prevent the bucks having any further access to
the does, and make away with all the young except, sjiy, 4 or 5 as a reserve in cose of continued
accident in the forthcoming series of o{)erations. As soon as I return to town, towards the end
of Octoljcr, I will ask you to send me the old rabbits, and will l)egin at once to cro.ss-circulate
every one of them. My presj-nt a-ssistant (a most ac'coniplishcd youii;; M.li. in medical science)
haa not the manipulative skill of my old friend and I fear 1 shall have an undue proportion of
oorpees, but there fwigl be tovte successes out of the 3 does and 3 bucks tiiat you have and the
other 3 that I have.

Latterly, my whole heart has been in rats; white, old English black, and wild grey, wliich
I have had Siame-sed together in pairs, chiefly white and wild grey (for my stock of black is low),
in a largo nuraljer of cases — perhaps 30 or 40 pair. Thwe have iMsen fairly succ(w.sful ojierations
ao far as the well-being and comfort of the animals is concerned, but unexpecte<l, out of-the-way
accidents, are c<jntinually <x;curring. One pair died after 03 (about) days of [union] and
injection into the body of the one passed into the other. I hope in this way to test Pangenesis
better than by the cross-circulation for if even 1 drop of blood per hour pusses froui rat to rat,
a volume equal to the entire contents of the circulation of either will be interchaiigwl in 10 days,
and this is equal in its effects to a pretty complete intermingling of the bloods. All crystalloids
diffuse readily from rat to rat (as poisons) through the tissues, and as we know that eggs of
entozoa arc carried through the veins by the blood, it seems that a long continued Siamese
union would be a valuable means of experiment.

We look forward with much pleasure to our return to town, to see your daughter in hor
new house. I do not think thut 1 wrote myself, for my wife was writing to oiler you, wliich I
do now, my lieartiest congratulations on the event. But, you must mi.ss her.

Ever sincerely yours, Francis Galton.

(16) 42, Rutland Gate, S.W. Nov. 9/71.

Mt dkar Darwin, I had not the least doubt but that I could have sent you before now
definite results about my rabbits, but I cannot:— you must have patience with me and wait yet
longer. The cold has killed one litter to which I had looke<I forward, and 1 have had a series
of other mishaps not worth specifying, the result of which is that I have only one silver grey
litter to go by — vizi^that of which I told you, which included a yellow tme, slate fi,r^y on the
belly, fri</i #cni<» irhi(f on hit tail. I should have thought this a great success but it may he
pronounced a 'yellow smut'! Another result is that I have built a go<Kl serviceable little house
for the raV)bitg in m}* own backyard and have all the l)est of them under my own eye, now.
The litt.r tliHt ijii-d from cold, looked very hopefully marke<l — liut 1 think one cannot trust to,

Von't'SiKHuleiwe with Vliadi-H Darwin 167

appiiroiilly, pied uiarkiiiKu in very young Hilver f^T«y». I will write again aa Mjon aa I have
(Ipfmite results; iiuti when Iho little yellow follow is somcwlmt older, he ia now 6 weeka, I will
get opinions about liini. Very aincorely yours, Francis Oai-ton.

//■ you can easily lay your Imuds upon Gould's AiitlirojKjIogy of N. America, I ithould be
grateful for it.

(16) 42, Rutland (Jate, S.W. SovenAer 21/71.

Mv DEAR Oakwin, I am truly aHliamed to have treHpaNHcd so long on your IcindnMs, in

keeping the nibbits, but until now, owing to a variety of causes (including im cpidi-mic where
the animals art; kept), I could not a.sk for tlieni Imck. Now, all is ri'ady to receive thoni in
Univei-sity College and [ hIiouKI lie much obliged if yon would instruct your man to send them
there. I enclose laljels with the address:— Charles 11. Cart«»r, Xuseutn, University College,
Gower Street, London — to put on them. Mr Carter will receive them when they arrive. Please
tell your man to keep the bucks and does sejMirate and to write huckt on the hamp«?r which
contains them. Will you also let me know what I am indebte<l to you for their U-mX and kc«»p,
including a judicious 'tip' to your man. I am really most oblige<l to you, I should liave lH*n
stnindcd in this experiment, without the help, becau.se I have only 2 of my lot of rabbits alive
and they are lK»th out of condition and T doubt if one will live.

The C^ollege nhiitu up at T) in thf d/ternimn and nothing can l)e received after that hour. If
that is too curly for the carrier, what .shall I do? — When may I expect them to arrive? My
rat.s have died sjidly, but owing to causes foreign to the effects of the operation. My last living
pair, after Ix'ing uniteil nt^iirly '^ months, were killed Inst week for the purpo.se of injection. Dr
Klein kindly did it for me. One animal was injected with blue and the other with rtxl, and
vaxcnlar union i» proved; but the connection was small, however l)r Klein thinks that with

La more protracted connection the union would have be«»n more complete. So I shall go on with

I vigour. Very sincerely yours, Fkancis G ALTON.

(17) 42, Rutland Oatb, S.W. November 24/71.

Mv DEAK Darwin, The results are indeed most curious — You must kindly permit me to
run down to you to-morrow (Saturday) for an hour or .so, to see them and to fix what to do.
1 see my train would land me at Orpington at 11.12, so T supjwse I should arrive at l>own at
about half past twelve. If however it should be a really wet da}', I would [xtstpone coming till
Tuesday. You are indee<l most kind to have t»iken all these pains for me and I sincerely trust
the experiment may yet Ix'ar some fruit. I happened to l)e very unlucky with my Angora
transfuinons but there is no reason why they or the cross-circulation should not succeed and I
; will do my best to try it. Very sincerely yours, Francis Galton.

[(18) 42, Rutland Gate, S.W. Dec. 2/71. (From AthnvteHtn)

My dbar Darwin, The rabbit^) arrived quite safely and are in excellent condition. My
man's letter to tell me of their arrival did not reach me till after jxjst time last night or
I should have written earlier. Once again, most sincere thanks for your kindness in taking
care of them. Ever sincerely, Francis Galton.

J<iH. 'I'Md [iii<l-l\ Down, liKcKKSiiAM, Kknt.

My DEAR Galton, The Rabbits have lost their patches and are grey of different tints, so
you wei-e right. They are (juite mature now and ready to breed. We have put 2 does to a
buck, for one more generation. Had you not better have the others soon, as we shall soon want
space for the Breeders?

Have you soen Mr Cnxtkes! I hope to Heaven y«m have, as I for one should feel entire
[confidence in your conclusion". Ever youre sincerely, Ch. Darwin.

' I think this refers to Galton's investigations into spiritualism with Cnjokea (see our p. 6.1
\«l seq.). In More LHUrs of Charles Darwin, Vol. Ii, p. 443, there is a letter of Darwin t-o Ijuiy
Derbj' which reads: "If you had called here after I had read the article [proliably Cporikes'
'Researches in the Phenomena of Spiritualism,' (^mirterly Journal i>f' Sri^'ncf, 1S74] you would
have found me a much perplexed man. I cannot disbelieve Mr Crookes' statement, nor can I
believe in his result. It has removed some of my difficulty that the supposed power ia not an

168 Life and Lcftn'x oj' Francis (ralton

(19) 42, Ht'TLAND Gate, S.W. Ftbrmiry 1/7 i. (\i At/i'-niirum)
Mv DEAR Dakwin, If you can make it ooiivpiiient to wmuI, in separate Iminpcrs, I buck

and 1 doe, I should l)e }{la<l, as then my stock will Ix' largi- eixni^di to be above risk of ac<-i<lcnt.
As for the others, pray do what you like with them. Would you send the pair, lus lieforo,
addramed to — Dr Charles Cart«r, University College, Gower Street, and if you could kindly let
a postage card be st-nt to him, U> say when they might In.' expected, they would he the more
sure to be imnie<liat«ly attendtnl to. I grieve to say, that I find I must abandon the rats, as a
task above my power to bring to a successful issue I am most truly obliged for the C4ire you
have taken of the rabbits - I heartily wish, for my part, that I could have done more in the
way of experiment than I have effeetod. Very sincerely yours, Francis Oalton.

(20) 42, Rutland Gatk, S.W. .\fay 26/72.

My dkak Dakwin, I feel perfectly ashamed to apply again to you in my recurring rabbit
difficulty, which is this: I have (after some losses) got three does and a buck of the stock you so
kindly took charge of cross-circulated, and so have means of protnvcting the experiments to
another generation, and of breeding from them and seeing if their young show any signs of mon-
grelisni. They do not thrive over well in Ixndon, also we could not keep them during summer
at our house, l)ecause the .servants in charge when we leave could not l)e troubUnl with them.
Is it possible that any of j'our men could take charge of them and let them breed, seeing if the
young show any colour, then killing the litter and breeding afresh, 2 or 3 times overl 1 would
most gladly pay even a large sum — many times the cost of their niHintenance — to any man who
would really attend to them. Can you help me? Ever sincerely yours, Francis Galton.

Down, Beckenham, Kent. May 27th. [1872t]

Mt dear Galton, We shall be very happy to keep the 4 rabbits and breed from them.
I have just spoken to my former gi-oom (now commuted into a f<K3tnian) and he says he will do
his utmost to keep them in good health. I have said that you would give him a present, and
make it worth his while; and that of course mlds to the expense that you will l>e put to, and
I have thought that you would prefer doing this to letting me do so, as I am most ptjrfectly
willing U> do.

If you will send an answer by return of post, I will direct our carrier, who leaves here every
Wednesday night, to call on next Thursday morning at whatever place you may direct. Next
week we shall probably be at Southampton for 10 days.

We have now got 2 litters from some of the young ones which you saw here; and my man
says that in one litter there are some odd white marks about their heads ; but I am not going
again to be deluded about their appearance, until they have got their permanent coats.

Yours most sincerely. In haste for post, C. Darwin.

(21) 42, Rutland Gate. J/«y 28th, 1872.

My dear Darwin, You arc indeed most kind and helpful and I joyfully will .send the
rabbits. But really and truly I must bear every expense to the full and will rely on your
g^txwm telling me, at the end; in addition to his present. The rabbits are none of them abso-
lutely recovered, at all events the buck and 1 doe are not, but they will want no further
att-ention in respect to what remains unhealed of their wounds. Two of the does are l)elievod
to be in kindle, having l)een left with the buck a fortnight and 10 days ago. I will tell

anomaly, but is common in a lesser degree to various persons. It is also a consolation to reflect
that gravity acts at any distance, in some whollj' unknown manner, and so may nerve-force.
Nothing is so difficult to decide as where to draw a just line between scepticism and credulity.
It was a very long time before scientific men would believe in the fall of aerolites; and this
was chiefly owing to so much ba<l evidence, as in the present case, l>eing mixed up with the
good. All sorts of objects were said to have l)een seen falling from the sky. I very much hope
that a numl>er of men, such as Profes-sor Stokes, will bt; induced to witness Mr Crookes'
exiK-rimentH."

It will l)e clear that at this time — afU^r the Galton investigations but before Huxley's
rpp>rt (sj-e our p fi7^ —Darwin was endeavouring to retain an open mind.

CorrexjMiHfli-nrc irith C/iarh-« Darwin 169

l>r Carter to lubvl awl Minul all particulars with theui and tu nmrk Uieir backtt with big
nuiiiertils in ink. Tlin carriur sliould call at Uitivrrxity C'ullc^i- for thuiu, asking the purter at
th(^ gate. T enclose a papor for him. Oiico iigaiti, with siiiii-ri' thanks,

Ever yours, Pravciii Oaltow.

T have just corroctcil prixif.s of a little pii(XT to Ix- shortly read at tlu" Koyal Society on
"mo<Kl-relationship" in which I try to defiuH what the kinnhip really is, Imtwi-*"!! (mrentM and
their ott'Nprin^. 1 will sojid a copy when I have one ; it may interest you.

42. Rutland Oatr, S.W. .Hay 29 72.

Mv DEAR Darwik, May I lunch with you on Tluinwlay and arranRft alnjut rabhitat We
shall then lx< stayiiif? for 2 days in your neighbourhixxl at Mrs Brandrani, Hayes C^nnmoii.

Your letter reache<l me just l)eforo we wen? leaving town for a Haturday and Sunday viMit,
and I did not reply at once, waiting to be sure about our engagements. If I don't receive a
post card at al)ove address to say 'no,' I will coma Ever sincerely y(»ur», Francis Galton.

The spiritualists liave given me up, I fear. I can't get another invite to a stance.

42, Rutland Oat«, S.W. Juw i/T2.

.Mv iiKAit Dakwiv, Thank you very much aVxmt the rabbits. T however sincerely trust
you did not sj'ud your man all the way on purpose for them alone ! Anyhow I feel I have put
you to much trouble and e^n only repeat how greatly I am obliged.

Your criticisms on my paper are very gratifying to me, the more so that the question yon
put is on(! to which I can at once reply. You ask, why hybrids of the first generation are
nearly uniform in character while great diversity app<'ars in the grandchildren and succeeding
generations'? 1 answer, that the diagram shows (see next jiage') that only 4 stages separate
the children from the parents, but 20 from their grandparents and therefore, judging from
these liniit<Hl data alone, (ignoring for the moment all considerations of une<|iial variability in
the different stages and of pre-potence of particular qualities etc..) the incn^ase of the mean
deviution of the several grandchildren (from the average hybrid) over that of the several
children is as \/20: or more than twice as great. The omitted considerations would make the
deviation (as I am prepared to argue) still greater.

I will mid the explanatory foot-note you most justly suggest, and should be very glad if
you would let me have your i-opy back (T will return it) with marks to the obscure piiaBages
that I may ti-y to amend them.

I found the [? writing] an uncommonly tough job; having to avoid hyp>the.sis on the one
hand and truism on the other and, again, the difficulty of being sutliciently general and yet not
too vague. Tt is very difficult to dniw a correct verbal picture in mezzo-lint, I mean by burnish-
ing out the broad efTects and not by dnisviiii,' bard outlines.

Ever very sincerely yours, Francis Galton.

I have knocke<l every .symlwl out of my paper and wholly rearranged the diagrams etc., to
make it le«.s unintelligible. F. G.

A pleasant journey and rest to you all !

flaltoti's {);i])er wius read at tlie Royal Society on June 13th of this year,
and we now turn to its examination.

We have seen (p. 114) that Galton as early its 18(59 uronotinded a
doctrine e<]uivalent to the continuity of the germ-plasm ana tne non-in-

' In AiiivKilt and PlanU under Dom««linUiott, Ist Edn. 18()8, p. 400, Darwin writes
"Crossed Forum are generally at first int«irmediate in character between their two parents;
but in the next generation the offspring generally revert to one or both their grandparents, and
occjusionally to more remote ancestors." He then proceeds to explain this by latent geramules,
and had he lioen a statistician could have de<luce<:l at once a Mendelian quarter! He points out
the triple character of the sectjnd genenvtion of hybrids distinctly.

' 1 omit the diagram, as I have failotl to interpret it and then-fore cannot tran.Hcril»e it
properly.

p o u W

n

170 Life and Lettrrs of Fniiu'ix (kilfoii

heritance of ac«j»nre(l characters. This position, which is clear cut aiul fairly

easily defensible, was I hold later obscured in his mind by two influences

a) the strong belief of Darwin in the inheritance of accjuired characters, and

Darwin's doctrine of pangenesis. Both may be siutuned up in the single
influence: an intense admiration for Darwin, which enforced an exaggerated
respect for the authority of his judgment in individual instances. The doc-
trines of pangenesis and of the inheritance of acquired characters seem to
me to have actually retarded Galton's progress and to have rendered his
statement of his own views less clear than tliey otherwise would have been.
I tnice this influence particularly in his paper 'On Bloofl-relationship ' of
1872'. This memoir would, I think, have given a sharp-cut theory had it not
been darkened by the shadow of Darwin's views on heredity.

We will cite in regard to this the opening words of the ' Blood-relationship':

"I propftse in this memoir to deduce by fair re«.soning from ackiiowlcdgfyl fact«, a more
definite notion than now exists of the meaning of the word 'kinship.' It is my aim to analyse
and descrilx! the complicated connection that binds an individual, hereditarily, t4> his iwrents
and to his brothers and sisters, and therefore, by an extension of similar links, to his more
distant kinsfolk. I hope by thes«> means to set forth the doctrines of heredity in a more orderly
and explicit manner than is otherwise practicable.

From the well-known circumstance) that an individual may transmit to his descendants
ancestral qualities that he does not hims<>lf possess, we arc ansurcil that they could not have
been altogether destroyed in him, but must have mnintained their existence in latent form.
Therefore each individual may properly l)e conceivtvl lis consisting of two parts, one of which
is latent and only known to us by its effects on his posterity, while the other is patent and <3on-
stitutes the person manifest to our senses." (p. 394.)

Galton then proceeds to say that both these patent and latent ek-iiicnis
in the parent give rise to the 'structureless elements' in the offspring. Now
in the above sentences Galton clearly divides the 'structureless elements'
of the parent into those which give rise to the somatic characters of the
parent, and those which remain latent. At first sight we miglit suppose from
the above definitions that Galton did not include latent elements similar
to those which produced the somatic characters, but it appeal's from his
remarks on p. 31)8 that he really did so, for he attributes on that paj
special features in the off'spring corresponding to special features in t
parents, not to the somatic characters in the parents, but to 'latent equiva-
lents.' In other words, he considers that, in the bulk of cases, the corre-
spondence in somatic characters between parent and child is not due to any
influence of the somatic characters of the parent, but results from the latent
elements of the parent. Thus Galton's 'latent elements' constitute aljso-
lutely the gametic elements of more modern notation. Had Galton gone at
this time a stage further, and asserted that the somatic characters of the
parent were only an index to the latent elements in him, and not directly
associated with the bodily characters of the off'spring, he would have reached
an important principle. I hesitate to call that principle merely the con-
tinuity of the germ-plasm, for Galton saw a good deal further than anything
contained in the word 'continuity' itself He believed that both in the case

• Proe. R. Society, Vol. XX, pp. 394-402.

Correttjwmfrun' irlth Charles Darmn 171

of tlie patent and the latent elements selection took place, so that not only
are the somatic elements u selection of all possible somatic elementa of
an individual of the same ancestry, hut the latent elements or germ-phwm
were themselves a selection. This selection he termed 'class representation.'
That the somatic or bodily characters are a selection is, of course, obvious ;
that the germ -pliusm is selected also is extremely pr(ihul)le, hut less easily de-
monstrated. Gulton represented to himself tlio 'structureless elements as a
vast congeries of individual elements — like balls of a great variety of colours
in a bag. A selection is made of these ('class representation') for the
embryonic elements which by development become the adult elements, the
somatic chaiuctei-s ; that is the simple explanation of variation in the somatic
characters of individuals of the same ancestry and reared under the same
environment. Another selection from the stime bag gives the germ-plasm of
the individual on which his gametic characters depend, i.e. the po-ssibilities
of his descendants. Thus the continuity of the 'latent elements' or as we
might say of the germ-plasm was in CJalton's mind broken by continual
selection. The 'class re|)resentation' of the somatic chai-actere giving the
phenomenon of visible variation, and the 'class representation' of the germ-
plasm the variation of stocks or stirjis.

Galton did not in this paj)er, I do not think he ever did, carry out his
hypotheses to their legitimate conclusions. In the first place the two selec-
tions from our 'bag' cannot l)e treated as wholly inflependent; the .somatic
characters are not |)erfectly correlated with the gametic characters, but they
are correlated with them, antl as we descend to highly specialise<l nices
highly correlated with them. It would not I)e unreasonable to suppose that
the somatic characteis arise from a sub-selection of the gametic group, or
from leaving a portion of this drawing 'on the table.' But the selection of
the germ-plixsm must lead to its simpler and simpler structure, especially in
the cjuse of unisexual reproduction. The coui-so of evolutit)n must on this
hypothesis stai't with a highly complex germ-plasm and tend to brejik this
up into simpler and simpler groups as generation by generation more elements
are difleientiated, i.e. organism dirters frt)m organism by having fewer and
fewer common latent elements. We should see genera breaking up into s|)ecies,
sj)ecies into local races, and ultimately races into stirps and j)ossibly stirps
into the merely ideal 'pine lines,' or organisms in the case of which it would
be impossible to carry germ-plasm selection further for it wouhl have be-
come of one type oidy; the innumerable balls of immense variety in our bag
would have been reduced to a single colour!

Darwin's natural selection acts only on evolution through the definite
correlation of somatic and gametic characters. Galton's germinal selection, a
random selection at the output of each new individual, must — if there be
isolation — tend to produce species, races and sub-races. A pure race could
only be one in which all latent elements were so substantially represented
that there was little chance of a 'class representation' excluding any of
them'. This is not the place to discuss at length the bearing of Galton's

' Purity of race might also be preserved by much intra-racial crossinjk'

172

Life ami Tji'tters of Frunci* (lultou

germinal selection on tlie origin of" species, or his 'class representation' on
the orijfin of somatic variations. He did not prt'-ss it himself to its legitimate
conclusions, and probably did not see its full bearings on evolution. His
general schenu' from 'sf luct nii-li'ss ch'inents' of parent to those of oHspring
IS as follows :

Stroetiiralew

BUmraUof

Parent

{tbroagh
BeprcMDUtioD >
afford )

°'*~-U-'''y''-{ri'pnL\[.Aauu

ElenMBU

I become )

ElemcnU

whioh by s 1
Second Selection y
ooutribate to j

I throngh ' Class 1 Latent ( which by a
•! Representation '[• Klementg ■|(li'volopmfiit
, ( afford ) in Embryo ( become

Intent r which bv a 1
Klemonts ■(Second Selection >•
in Adult ( contribute to I ,

Structureless

Elements of

Offspring

What I have terme<l a 'Second Selection' (ialton terms 'Family llepre-
sentation," 1 think, on the ground that these selections produce the various
somatic and gametic differences to be found in the niemliers of the same
family'. But it seems to me that it would l)e best simply to sj)eak of first
and second selections instead of 'class' and 'family' representations. Having
put forward this scheme Galton now proceeds to express his grave doubts as
to the 'a<lult elements' contributing anything or at least anything substantial
to the 'structureless elements' of the offspring. He asserts that where the
parents have a patent character that also exists in the latent form, Le. in
their gametic characters,

"I should demur, on precisely the same grouuds, to objections Itased on the transmission of
qualities to grandchildren being more fre<|uent through children who jmissi'8.s those qualities
than through children who do not; for I maintain that the personal manifestation is, on the
average*, though it need not be so in every case, a oert4iin proof of the existence of some latent
elements." (p. 399.)

In other words Galton is insisting on the somatic characters being only
correlated with, or an index to, the gametic chai-acters, and on the alwence of
complete association. He states that :

"the genonil and safe conclusion is, that the contribution fniiii the patent elements [somatic
characterti (»f parent] is very much less than from the hitent elements [gametic characters of
parent]." (p. 399.)

And again :

"We see that parents are very indirtnitly and only partially related to their own children,
and that there are two lines of connection between them, the one [adult latent elements] of large
and the other [adult somatic element*] of small relative iniportiinee. Tlie former is a collateral
kinship and very distant, the parent l)eing descended through two stages from a structureless
source, and the child (as far as the parent is concerned) througii five distinct stages from the
same source; the other but unimportant line of connection is direct and connects the child with
the parent through two stages." (p. 400.)

Galton even speaks of the 'structureless elements' that go to form the
embryonic elements of tlie parents as going so far as heredity is concerned
to "a nearly sterile destination."

Why did not Galton have the confidence at this time to say wholly
sterile destination? I think there is not the least doubt that the lenfant

' Of course Ualton reoogiiis<><I the biparental contributions and in n second diagram shows
the increased complexity.

Correnpimdrnrr frith Chfirlt'H Darwin 173

terrible ot" Uarwiii still somewhat olwcure*! liw view'. In8t«ad of 'Vive Piiii-
genesis ! ' his cry ought to have been * PangenesiH li la lanterne pour

rainoui' (le hi Science I' fiiiltoii coiiUl not swim uhsohitcl st the current

of ^emmulcM flowing from tlie aomutic orguuH to reuifoir i.l ^fnuiiuil celUI
He still thought that Darwin's insistence on the heredity of some ac<|uired
characters could not be the fabric of a dream'. He saw the light but authority
was too great :

"We cannot now fail to lie inipresiMMl with the fallacy of FAckoninK inheritance in the amial
WHy, fniin parriits to oflHpriii);, iisitij; tlioM^ wdiiI.h in tli«'ir [xipnlur scnsn of viwihlc p<>nionalitie«.
Th*< span ot' the true lifre<iilary link conn(>c-t.s, a.s I linvc alreiuly insistt'd upon, not the |iarent
with the offsprinjf, liut the prinmry elenmnts of the two, «uch as they exi«tefl in the newly im-
preffimte<l ova, whence they wore respectively develojm*!. No valid excuw can be offeml for
not attt'ndiiiK to this fact, on the K<°ound of onr ignorance of the variety and prnportionat«
vahu'H of the primary elements; we do not inoiid matters in the least, hut we gratuitously add
confusion to our if^norance, hy dealing with hertnlitaiy facts on the plan of ordinary jK^ligrt^es —
namely, fi-om the pfmoiig of the parents to those of their offspring." (pp. 400-1.)

No Mendoliaii ever put more strongly than Oalton thus did that somatic
characters are no meastue of gametic |io.ssil)ilities! Nay.Galton knew all about
the fact that the second generation of hybrids shows more divei-sity than the
first, V)ut he did not call it, and perhaps rightly did not call it, 'segregation.'

"It is often remarked that the immediate offspring of different races resemble their parents

equally, hut that great diversities appear in the next and tlie succeeding generations A white

parent neces.sarily contributes white elements to the structureless stage of his offspring and a
black, black ; but it does not in the least follow that the contributions from a true mulatto must
l>e truly mulatto." (p. 402.)

YetCJalton — and after him the whole Biometric School — have l)een accused
at random of asserting that all charactei-s blend !

' The grave danger of Pangenesis was that it could, if by a very artificial mechanisin, account
for so much— rightly recognised or wrongly intei-pretetl^phenomena; it therefore blocked the
way to a simpler theory which, po.ssibly truer to nature, could not account for the latter.
Hence ai-ose the controversy as to the inheritance of 'acquired characters' of later days, a slow
process of getting rid of wrong inteq)retation8. lastly many phenomena which r^rwin ac-
counts for by the diffused genunultis of pangenesis can be wjually well (les<Tilx)d by aggregated
germinal units in the reprfxluctivc cells.

- Darwin even thought of the iidieritance of insanity as that of an acquired character.
Habits, nientnl instincts and even insjinity modified the nerve-cells and were tran.smitted to
the offspring by ilifferentiate<l gemmvdes (A nimnla and Plantu,.,, 1 st Edn. Vol. ii, p. 39.')). " No one
who liius attended to animals either in a stute of nature or domestication will doubt that many
special fears, tastes, etc., which nmst have In-en ac<|uire<l at a remote periixl, art- now strictly
inherite<l": wrote Darwin in 187."? (Nnliirf, Vol. vii, p. 281). While some instincts may have
been develope<l by long ages of selection, "other instincts may have arisen suddeidy in an indi-
vidual and then Ijeen transmitted to its offspring independently IxJth of selection and ser\ice-
able experience though subsequently strengtheneil by liabit."' Darwin then cites the case of
Huggii\s' dog ' Kepler,' but it seems to me that there wa.s far too little known of the ancestry
of 'Kepler' in «// lines to l>a.se any evidence for the inheritance of acquired characters in a
certain family of dogs having an antipathy to butchei-a and their shops.

There is not the slightest doubt that 20 to ."50 years hence we shall hear of nervous break-
downs attributed to '.shell-shockwl' fathei-s of the Great War, and proliably .spoken of hh
instances of the inheritance of acquirefl characters. In\ ■ of the family history of oases of

'shell-shock ' ttliows, however, that the bulk of these cjisf^ iiat<"d with mentally anomaloas

stocks.

1 74 TAfe and Leftfr^ of Fnitids (Unltoii

Galton concludes as follows, therein ro-iissertiiig the difference l)etween
somatic and mimetic qualitias, JUid at the same time the value of the
statistical metnod:

"One result of this investigation is to show very clearly that largo variation in individuals
from their parents is not incompatible with the strict doctrine of heredity, but is a consecjuence
of it wherever the breed is impure. I am desirous of applying these considerations to the intel-
lectual and moral gifts of the huiniin race, which is more mongrelised than that of any other
domesticated animal. It ha.s Ix'on thought by some that the fact of children frecjuently showing
marke<l individual variation in ability from that of their parents is a proof that intellectual
and moral gifts arc not strictly transmitted by inheritance. My arguments lead to exactly the
opposite result. I show that great individual variation is a necessity under present conditions;
and I maintain that results derive<l from large averages are all that can be required, and all
we could expect t-o obtain, to prove that intellectual and moral gifts are as strictly matters of
inheritance as any purely physical qualities." (p. 402.)

It is curious that in the face of such a passage as this, there should still
exist writers who have not grasped that the inheritance of the mental and
moi-al qualities was a foundation stone of Galton's creed of life. His whole
theory of inheritance was developed to account for supposed difficulties in
this principle raised by his critics. And the principle itself — the equal in-
heritance of the p.sychical and physical characters — wiis the basis of his
proposal to better the race of man by giving primary weight to his nature,
and only secondary importance to his nurture. This paper of Galton's is now
half-a-century old ; I know of no earlier paper which ponited out so definitely
the distinction between the somatic and gametic characters, which emphasised
the continuity of the germ-plasm', which rai.sed at the very least doubts as
to the inheritance of acquired characters, which asserted that the pereonaJ or
bodily characters of the offspring were not the product of those of the parents,
and taught that the resemblance of father and son was really like that of
brothers, for all were products of selected elements of a continuous germ-
plasm. I feel that adequate credit has rarely been given by biologists to
Francis Galton for these results, and there is no excuse for this neglect, for
the paper in question was not published in an ol)scure journal, but in the
proceedings of the foremost English learned society.

I caji only hope that, however late in the day, this Life of Galton may
aid in demonstrating the real ])arentage of certain now widely-current ideiis.

W(^ may now return to the rabbit corresjxjndence.

9, UovAL Crescknt, Makinp. Pakai)*:, Brioiiton. AnyiiKl 11/72.

My DEAR Darwin, The buck is (juiU' well — the (mclosed note just re<-eived explains every-
thing. Now that Dr Ciirt»'r has returned, he will 8e«j timt all is ri^ditl^Mloiie. Will you kindly
tell your servant to explain to the carrier? Very sincej-ely yours, Francis Galton.

' To show how opposed this was to Darwin's views I may cite thei4ntfm»/» aivd I'laiUg...,
IstEdn. Vol. ii,p. 383: "The reproductive organs do not actually create the sexual elements; they
merely determine or pennit the aggregation of the gemmules." "Use or disuse etc. which in-
duced any modification in a structure should at the same time or previously act on the cells...
and consjHjuently would act on the gemmules" (p. 382). '' Hence, spt^iking strictly, it is not
the rtrpnxluctive elements nor the buds, which generate new organisms, but the cells themselves
throughout the body" (p. 374), i.e. by the production of gemmules which aggregate in buds or
aexual elements.

Corre^tputulemr tinlk C/iarlcM Dnnoin 175

42, Rutland Gate, Noe. 7/72.

Mv UKAK Dahwin, Accept very bext thanlcH for Kxprettion which I have been devouring;

you will, I mil mw', mccivo niimbnrli'MH lettflin of hints corrolMiriitive of the |K>iiit ike;

even I eould iiiid will iMin<l soino. Miit I write s|)eciHlly to siiy thiii if you can; to s^ lore

printed cireuliirs of tjuiTics, I tan di.sj)oMo of three this very nioiitli infwt excelli-iiliy fwr you.
One hy im expedition up the Congo, nnother l>y a man from the Ziinziluir nide into Africa and
a third l>y ii very intelli;;ent (lermtin (Knglisli Hpeaking) head of a misHioiiary colktge on hiH way
to my old <-ountry in Africa.

Would you have a short note Hent mo, — pray do not write yourself — alMiut the rabbitii.

Ever sincerely yours, Fkaxcis Oalton.

V.H. You do not I think mention in Kxpremion what I thought wan univeraal among
bhililx'rinf; children (wlicn not tryinjj to sex? if harm or help was eoniini; out of the corner of
OTie eye) of pressing the knuckles against the eyelnills; thereby, reinforcing the orbiculariN.

What a curious custom hand-Hliaking is and huw rapidly savages take tu it in their inter-
course with Kurop'anw.

I have a |uimphlet of yours to st>nd back.

Down, Hkckbnham, Kkst. AW Mth. [1«72t|

My dkar (1 ALTON, 1 was going in a day or two to have writUin to you about the rabbits.

Those which you saw when here (the l«.st hit) and whicli were then in the transition mottled
condition have now all got their perfect coats, and arc i>fr/ectly true in charwUr. They are now
ready to breed, or soon will Ix); do you want one more generation? If the next one is as true
ps all the others, it seems to me quite superfluous to go on trying.

Many thanks for your note and offer to send out the iiuerios; but my career is so nearly
clastyl, that I do not think it worth while. What little more I can do, shall he chiefly new
work.

1 ought to have thought of crying children rubbing their eyes with their knuckles; but I
did not tliink of it, and cannot explain it. As far as my memory serves, they do not do so
whilst roaring, in which case compression would be of use. I think it is at the close of a crying
fit, as if they wished to stop their eyes crying, or prolmbly to relieve the irritation from the
.salt tt«r8. I wish 1 knew more aljout the knuckles and crying.

I am rejoiced that your sister is recovering so well : when you next see her pray give her
my very kindest remembrances. My dear Galton, Yours very sincerely, Ch. Darwin.

Wliat a tremendous stir-up your excellent article on 'Prayer' has made in England and
America.

12, Rutland Gatk, Nov. 16/72.

My dear Dakwin, I have left your kind letter of ten days since unanswered, having some
possible rabbit combinations in view wliich have ende<l in nothing. The ex|)oriments have, I
quite agree, In-en carried on long enough. It would be a crowning point to them if your groom
could get a prize at souje show for those he has reared up so carefully, as it would attest their
purity of breed. There is such a show, I lx?lieve, imp<'n<ling at the tVystal Palace. Enclosed
is a jE2 cheque. Will you kindly tip him with it for me, assuring him how indebted 1 feel for
his attentitm. I don't know how I can repay you'.

Would it not be worth while before abandoning the whole affair to get a litter from each

of the available does, not with a view of keeping the young, but simply of seeing whether any

are born mottled, and if not of then killing them? The reason being, that the mixed breed are

very apt to take wholly after one or the other ancestor, and one might get no other evidence

of impure l)lood than a rare instance of a decide<lly mo!igrel birth.

However 1 leave this quite in your hand.s, knowing that it means -5 or 6 weeks more trouble
with the nibbits.

I read and re-read your Expression with infinite instruction and pleasure, and feel sure that
its influence will soon be seen at the Royal Academy. Enclosed is a small addition to the
not*; alxnit the family on p. 34.

My .sister Emma, I am rejoiced to say, is now at the .seaside steadily mending in perfect
quiet and in full hopes of complete restoration to health. I wish iniwt heartily that yours w»«
better. Ever sincerely yours, Francis Oalton.

176 Life and Letters of Fnairis (lalttni

l>owx, Hkckeniiam, Kkst. Dec. 30 [1872].

My dbak Galtos, A young Mr Balfour, a friend of my sons, is HtAying hero. He is very
clover and full of zeal for [Biology]. He has lx>en transplanting bits of skins between brown
and white rat-s, in relation to Pangeno-sis ! He wants to try for several successive generations
the sanM! experiment with rabbits. Hence ho wants to know which colours breed truest. I have,
of course, reconimendwl silver greys. What other colour breiids true? Can you tell niel I think
white or albinos had Ixjtter be avt)ided. Do any grey broe<ls, of nearly the colour of the wild
kind, bnt-d true? Will you be .so very kind as to let me hear? I much enjoyed my short glimpse
of you in London. Ever yours, C. Dakwin.

Down, Bkckbniiah, Kknt. Jan. 4th [1873].

My dkak Galton, Very many thanks for Fraser': I have been greatly interested by your
article. The idea of ca.st-e« lieing spontanouusly formed and leading to intermarriage is quite
new to ine, and I should supjMjse to others. I am not, however, so hopi-ful as you. Your pro-
posed See' would have awfully laliorious work, and I doubt whether you could ever get efficient
workers. As it is, there is much of insanity and wickedne-ss in families; and there would l)e
more if there was a register. But the gi-eatest ditliculty, I think, would Ik? in deciding whodeserved
to Ihj on the register. How few are alK)ve mediocrity in health, strengtii, nwrals and intellect;
and how difficult to judge on the.se latter heod.s. As far as I see within (he same large superior
family, only a few of the children would des«>rve to Ih- on the register ; and those wouUl naturally
stick to their own fan)ilies, so that the su|>erior children of distinct families would have a good
chance of associating most and forming a cast*'. Though I see so much difficulty, the object
seems a grand one; and you have poinU-<l out the sole fea,siblo, yet I fear Utopian, plan of
procedure in improving the hunuiu race. I should lie inclined to trust more (and this is part
of your plan) to experimenting and insisting on the importance of the all-important principle
of Inheritanw. I will make one or two minor criticisms. Is it not proliable that the inhabitants
of malarious countries owe their degraded and miserable appearance to the bad atmosphere,
though this does not kill theui ; rather than to ''economy of structure"? I do not set< that an
orthognathous face would cost more than a prognathous face ; or a g«M>d morale than a ba<l one.
That is a tine simile (p. 119) about the chip of a statue: but surely nature does not moi-e care-
fully regard races than individuals, as [I lj«'lievo 1 have misunderstood what you mean] evidenced
by the multitude of races and sp<H'ies which have liecome extinct. Would it not lie truer to say
that nature cai-es only for the superior individuals and then makes her new and l>etter races.
But we ought both to shudder using so freely the word 'Nature' after what De Candolle ha.s
said.

Again let me thank you for the interest received in reading your essay.

Yours very sincerely, Cii. Dakwin.

Many thanks about the rabbits: your letter has been sent to Balfour: he is a very clever
young man, and I lieliove owes his cleverness to Salisbury blood.

This letter will not be worth your deciphering. I have almost finished Greg's Enigmas. It is
grand poetry, but too Utopian and too full of faith for me: .so that I have been rather dis-
appointed. What do you think about it? He must b«' a delightful man.

I doubt whether you have made clear how the families on the Register are to Ije kept pure
and superior, and how they are in course of time to be still further improved.

I do not know whether Francis Balfour's exjieri merits were ever pushed
to their final conclusion, but if so, I have small doubt what that conclusion
would be: A change of somatic character would not affect in a highly
developed mammal the gametic characters, whatever arguments may l)e
advanced from graft-hybrids': Galton's own blootl-tranafusion experiments
came to an end at this time. There are oidy two references that I have been
able to find to the results of the second series, so much of which was

' Thii is the "Hereditary Improvement"; see our p. 117.

* AnhnaU and J'laitU under Domestication, Vol. I, pp. 413—24, Vol. ii, p. 360, 2nd Edn.
1875.

Votrexpoiulcnce with C/nirltx Darin' n 177

tictually curried on at Down. The Hret is. by Darwin hiniw^lf in the footnote
p. 350 (1875) of the 2nd edition of his Animals anil Plnntx... :

"He [Mr Oaltoii] iiifoinis ine that .sul).s<'<|uently to tho publication of hiM (wpcr lie continued
the experinientit on ii stjll larger scale for two more genuratioiiH, without any sign of mongreluiin
showing itself in the very numerouH offspring."

The second occurs in Galton's paper "A Theory of Heredity " ' in a foot-
note, p. 342 : •

"I subsequently carried on the ex()eriuiont« with improved apparatus, and nn an oquallv
large sealo, for two more generations."

Two slight footnote notices of what occupied much of (iultons imu- und
energy for two or more years ! But the result was really of value ; it
demonstrated that the blood was not a primary factor in heredity', and it
weakened to an extent, perhaps hardly realised by Darwin, the jjntbability
of ])angenesis. The misfortune was that (Jultou could not yet clisniisH the
whole mechanism of genimules.

Ditterences, however, between the two men on tiiis sidiject did not
interfere for a moment with their warm friend.ship, and we next find Darwin
giving Cialton aid in two additional matters ; the first is in answering his
questionnaire concerning the nature and nurture of English men of science,
and the second in growing sweet-peas —the in(|uirv whieli led to the con-
ception of measuring correlation.

The answers which Galton received from his correspondents in the men
of science inquiry are of extraordinary intei-est ; they form brief auto-charac-
terisations' by the leading scientific Victorians — Darwin, Hooker, Huxley,
Spencer, (Jlerk Maxwell, Stokes and many others. The questionnaire waa
accompanied by a letter setting forth the .scope of the inquiry. It runs

ANTECEDENTS OF SCIENTIFIC MEN.

42, Rutland Gate, London.
To CiiAHLKs Dakwin, Esq. In the pursuit of an inquiry parallel to that by M. de Candolle, I
have been eiij;aged for some time past in collecting information on the .Vntocedents of Eminent
Men. My pifsent object is to set forth the influences through which the dispositions of Original
Workers in Science have mast commonly l)een formed, and have aft^'rwards lieen trained and
confirmed. As a ready means of directing attention to the importance and interest of this
inquiry, I append, overleaf, a i-epriiit of a short review of the work of M. de CandoUe, which
1 contributed to tho 'Fortnightly Review' of March, 1873.

The result of my past efforts 1ms clearly impressed upon nie the fact that a sufficiency of

I data cannot be obtained from biographies without extreme labour, if at all ; therefore, insteAd

of imjM'rfectly analysing the past, it seems far preferable to tieal with contemporary instances,

and none are more likely to appreciate the inquiry or to give correct information than Men of

[ Science.

The numl)er of persons in the United Kingdom who have filled positions of acknowledged
rank in the scientific world is quite large enough for statisticjil tnsatnient. Thus, the Medallists
of the chief scientific stxneties; the Presidents of the same, now and in former years ; thase who
have been elected to serve at various times on the Council of the Royal Society, and similarly,

' Jmirnal of the AnlhrojK>li>gical Imlitnte, Vol. v, pp. 329-48, 1875.

I' Even Darwin in his use of language was influenced by popular l>eliof as the reader will
find if he turns to the postscript of Darwin's letter of Jan. 4, 1873 on p. 176.
' Darwin's is reproduced at length in Francis Darwin's Life atn{ Letter* o/ Charles Danvin,
Vol. m, pp. 177-8.
B-. p o n 33

I

17ti

Life ami LvUtrx of Fmiiris (ialttni

the Pr»'siiU'nt« nf tin- wvcral s»<ftii>nK of tlit- HritiKh AsMM-iHtioii, furin a ImmIj- of little U-.'-s tlian
two huii(li-fd iiu'ii, now livin;;, n i-oiiKidcmltU' |Mirli<iii of whom Mtjiiiil in niort- timn one of tlie
hIkivo cat«'j;orii>s. (Hlur nu'tlio<ls of seltftion give fifty or a huntlreil HiUlilional names.

Falling; as you ilo within the range of this inquiry, may 1 ahk of you the favour of furnishing
niP with infonnationt If you shouhl desire any portions of what you may send to be considennl
aa privato^ they will he use<l in no other way tlmn to afford material for general conclusions.

I send herewith a schedule which contains the ({uestious to which I am seeking i-eplies.

, Fkancis Galton.

It would not I think be indiscreet to give in two notable instances the
replies as to "special talents, as for mechanism, practical business habits,
music, jnatheraatics, etc.," also those on hereditary characteristics.

HUXLEY.

Strong natural talent for meehanism, musie
and art in general, but all wasted and unculti-
vated. Believe I am reckoned a good chairman
of a meeting. T always find that I acquire in-
fluence, generally more than I want, in Ixjdies
of men and that administrative and other work
gravitates to ray hands. Impulsive and apt to
rush into all sorts of un<iertaking8 without
counting cost or responsibility. I»ve my friends
and hate my enemies cordially. Entire confi-
dence in tho.se whom I trust at all and much
indifference towards the rest of the world. A
profound religious tendency capable of fanati-
cism, but tempere<l by no less profound theo-
logical scepticism. No love of the marvellous as
such, intense desire to know facts; no very in-
tense love of my pursuits at present, but very
strong affection for philosophical and social
problems; strong constructive imagination;
small foresight; no particular public spirit; dis-
interestedness arising from an entire want of
care for the rewards and honours most men
seek, vanity too big to b«! »itisfied by them.

Father. A gootl musician and poss(».sed a
curious talent for drawing heads with pen and
ink '. Impulsive but kindly ; nothing otherwi.se
remarkable.

Motli^. Very impulsive and strong partizttn ;
strong affections, marked religiosity and a con-
structive imagination worthy of a novelist.
Phj'sically and nientully I am far more like my
mother than my father. Family generally, hot
temper and tenacity of purpose; considerable
power of expression in writing and speaking.

Down, Bkckenuam, Kent. May 28th, 1873.

My DEAK Galton, I have filled up the answers as well as I could; but it is simply im-
possible for me to estimate the degrees.

My mother died during my infancy and I can say hardly anything about her. It is so
impomible for anyone to judge about his own character that George first wrote several of the
answers about myself, but I have adopted only those which seem to me true.

' Inherited by his son: see Life, Vol. i, p. 4. The writer possesses a number of sketches by
T. H. Huxley drawn on blotting paper and scraps of paper, probably at a committee meeting.

OAR WIN.

(Special talents, none, except for business, as
evince«l by keeping accounts, l>eing i-egular in
correspondence, and investing money very well ;
very methodical in my habits. Steadiness;
great curiosity about facts, and their meaning;
some love of the new and marvellous.

Somewhat nervous temperament, energy of
body shown by much activity, and whilst I had
health, power of resisting fatigue. An early
riser in the morning. Energy of mind .shown
by vigorous and long-continued work on the
same subject, as 20 years on the Origin of
Species and 9 years on Cirripedia. Memory
bad for dates or learning by rote; but good in
retaining a general or vague recollection of
many facts. Very studious, but not large ac-
quirements. I think fairly independently, but
I can give no instances. I. gave up common
religious belief alnH>st independently from my
own reflections. I suppose that I have shown
originality in science, as I have made discoveries
with regard to common objects. Liberal or
radical in politics. Health good when young —
bad for last 33 years.

Father. Practical business habits; made a
Urge fortune and incurred no losses. Strong
social affection and great sympathy with the
pleasures of others; sceptical as to new things;
curious as to facts; great foresight; not much
public spirit; griiut generosity in giving away
money and assistance. Freethinker in religious
matters, great power of endurance.

Slather. Said to have been very agreeable in
conversation.

Correnpon(leti(-r trith Charles Daririn 179

Now you may perlmpv like t<> hour a few addiliunal |>articuliini aliout myself. I cannot
remeiiiltier thu time whon I had not a [Muuiion for colloctiiij;, — fintt ftoalii, frankii, then niitif raU,
shMn etc. Ah far as I am oonftciouM, thi! one compulHory fx*-rc:iHO <lurinf( my school life which
improvt^l my iiit<)llect wtiH <luin>( Kuclid, and this wax parity voluntary.

At Kdinlxirgh I do not think the loc-turnH weru uf any service to mo; hut I profited •« &
naturalLst by ohju'rvin^ for myKcIf marine animals.

At C^amliridjjti j{ettin>{ up Pali-y's Kvi(h'ncfH and Mural Phil, thoroughly well aa I did, I felt
wa.s an mlmirnlilu Iraininii;, and «verytliing ela4; l>ONh.

Aly (<<lucittion really Ih'^hii on Ixjjinl the "Heagle."

I niu.st mid that my son Frank said he could safely give as my character, "sober, honest
and industrious."

And now I want to ask you a question: if I had 50 men of 2 different nations, and for
some reiuson eoulil not measure all, if I pickt'd out the 10 tallest of ejjch nation, would their
mean heights probably give an approximate mean between all ')0 of each nation 1

I hope you will get full answers Ui your <iueries, as I dare .say the results will Iw interesting.

My dear (Walton, Yours sincerely, Ch. Darwin.

42, Rutland Gate, S.W. May 30/73.

My dear Darwin, I am truly oblifjed by the Schedule. A few others are sent, many are
promised and I have much hopes of useful statistical result in many ways. All I have thus
far got confirms the belief that the families will be on the average very small. As for what
the usual ixlucation will have l)een, I cannot yet guess.

In reply to your query about the 50, there seems — or it may be that I ani stupid — that a
word is omitted, displaced or someliow wrong, because the .sen-se is not clear and I don't know

how to interpret the meaning of the phrase " would their mean heights pn)ljably give an

approximate mean between all 50 of each nation," but the following will probably include what
you want.

If nothinj; else could lie assumed al)out the two nations than that the 10 tallest out of 50
taken at liiipliU7.ard from A had a mean height of a', and those from /i of ^, it would bo im-
possible therefrom to dwluce either: —

(1) o and /3, the respective mean heights of the 50 A and the 50 /i or

(2) the nitio of o to /3.

But if you grouped the 10 tallest in either case according to their height-s, that is, so many
between 5' 10" and 5' 11", so many between 5' 11" and 6' 0" etc., it would be possible by com-
paring the run of these numbers with those of an ordinary Table of the Law of Error, to
e.stimute appro-ximately lx>th ( I ) and (2).

10 is too small a numU'r to be serviceable I should fear in this wa}';^l(X) ought to give
excellent results; in any case the degree of regularity with which the numbers hapjtened to run
would Ix" the measure of the probability of the accuracy of the results.

If you have any case you want worktsl out aud would send me the figures I will gladly do
it Ever sincerely yours, Francis Galton.

For the year 1874 there are no letters. Darwin was ill in Septeml>er 1 873,
Mrs Tertiu.s Galton (Violett^i Diuwin) died in February 1874, Mra Francis
Ualton was very ill in 8e})teinl)er and (Jalton hiniselt" at Christinas with
" irregular gout and influenza." Darwin's eldest son George (later Professor
Sir tJeorge Darwin) takes up the correspondence.

We return to-morrow to 42, Rutland Oatk. Aor 16/74.

My dear Georok, Thank you kindly for your letter. My wife was alarmingly ill with
a sudden vomiting of arterial bliKsl, rejH'ated during the night but fortunately never afterwanls
rtHiurring. .She wius extremely weakent-d and unalije to move out of UhI for day.s, or out of the
liouse where we were staying for we<>k8, but she has steadily mendetl and now 9 weeks have

83 S

180 Life and Lettrrx nf Fraud* Gal ton

pasMd and she it alinosl and look» quite lienielf again'. We were staying with Judge Grove at
the time, 5n a houw he had taken in Dorsetahii-e for tlie shooting, — and his extreme kindness
and tliat of all the family wo can nevt-r forget.

I am ivji(ice<l at the very rimkI account you give of your heaidi, and the go<Kl news of your
Father. .Someliody ought to make a fortune by "Drosera pills" — vcgetjible }M-p8iii! The name
would Iw capital. Poor Hooker, — what a frightfid blow, — and a young family of girls wanting
a mother.

We have lxH>n at Ixwmingtoii for a fortnight and return liome tomorrow. Previously we
were at liournemouth, when I n-newed an acquaintance with H. Venn of Caius, who is great
on "Chaucer." I wonder wliat yi>ur work now is. I saw your rejoinder in the Quarterli/ but
not the original attack. I have alluded to your article on " Ilestrictions etc." in my book, which
ought to be out soon. Ever yours, Francis Oalton

Qborqe Darwin, Esq.

42, lluTLAM) (iATE, S.W. Jan. t<, 75.

Mt dear Gkoroe, Thanks for Lady U 's letter, though her correspondent says little,

and many thanks for your letter 3 or 4 days since.

That "curve of double curvature" was a sat! slip for "curve of contrary flexure." The other
point, I unluckily cannot answer, for I cannot get from the printer my copies of the paper and
do not recall the passage or context. When we next meet T will tell you. Thank you much for
the equation to the ogive.

Dr A. Clarke and nature have done me a world of good ; my heart is set a going again and
he quite withdraws a somewhat dispiriting diagnosis which he mode when he first saw me. He
told me of your diagram, on the facts of which 1 most heartily congnitulate you.

On Thursday, Jan. I 1th, there will l>e a SUitistical Council when the jmjK'rs will probably
be arranged. H I get there, 1 will send a postcard to tell when your paper is to come in.

My twin papers come in and some are very interesting. J. Wilson of Rugby is a twin and

sends me lots of addresses. I got a most curious letter from Lady E , whose family abounds

with twins, besides one treble and one quadruple birth. I feel saturated with midwifery and am
haunted with imaginary odours of pap and caudle ! You have real odours of pitch and tar.

Ever sincerely, Francis Galton.
Georoe Darwin, Esq.

42, Rutland Gate, London. April Mllb.

My dear Darwin, George told me that you would very kindly have some sweet-peaa
planted for me, and save me the pn>duce. 1 send them in a separate envelope with marked bags
t<) put the ]iroduce in, and full instructions which I think your gardener will easily understand.
I am most anxious to repair the disaster of last year by which I lost the prcnluce of all my sweet-
peas at Kew. With very many thanks, Yours very faithfully, Francis Galton.

June 2nd, 1875. (Fontainkbleau, at present only.)

Mv dear Darwin, Thank you very much for your kind letter and information. It delights
me that (notwithstanding the Frenchman's a.ssertion) the large jx-os do really produce large
plants, and that the extreme sizes sown (except Q) are coming up. I could not and did not
hope for complete success in rearing all the seedlings, but have little doubt that the sizes that
have failed may be supplemented by partial success elsewhere.

We have found Fontainebleau very pleasant and are now moving on via Neuchfttel, with
some hope that George may, as he wa.s inclined to do, hereafter fall in with us. He knows how
to loam our address from time to time. My wife is already markedly better. With our united
kindest remembrances to you all. Ever yours, Francis Gai.ton.

It seems absurd to coniimtulatf you on your election to the Vienna Academy, Ijecause you
are a long way abore such honours, but I am glad thfy have so 8trengthene<l their list by lulding
your name to it.

' The g^ve anxiety of a recurrence hung like a sword alx)ve the heads of the Gallons for
many years. Mrs Oalton 's Rncurd shows that fmm this time onward, till her death, she waS
more or less an invalid,Mn2frequent pain, which limited largely her social activities.

i

I

('inrnii>fin(l('iict' with C/inricx Ihirn'in 181

12, Kirri.ANI) (iATK. Srpt. 2'J'".'i.

My dkau Dauwin, In "Doiiu-.ttication," ii, 'ihW, you ciunte nx a Mtriking iiiNtancu of mriation
II oiLsc c-oiiiiiiuiiicnUMl liy Dr O^l" ot 2 ){irl twiiiH who hml a crookud lingor, no relative having
tho Niiinu. It hu|>{M!iied, in my twin inquiri(>H, that it camo waH sent nio which in |Miiwibly or
prolmhly the same as your'a — hut which is a ca.se of rrvn-inon. I Hend the particulnnt of thin
over Imf. You might think it worth whilu in tho view of your 2n«l Edition to a-sk Dr Ogle if

iiis ciiHo uxia that of tho .Misses M . I am not ft<i|uiiinte«l iiiyHoif cither with the MijMe>i

M or with Dr M . Dr GiUliriHt of the Crichton Institution, DuinlrieH, s«-nt me Dr

M 's communication. We are only lately Imck in KiikIiwkI and are not even yet .settled in

town. Will Frank kindly send me a line iiliout the «l«ffr^/>clM1 With uniUxl kind reniemhranceM
to you all, Kvcr sincerely, Fkan<Ih Ualton.

I have b«!on <leligliting in your "Insectivoroua Plants.

Extract from a private letter to me, written by Dr V M— — . (No address on this

letter, hut it is from Scotland and was encli>8ed by Dr Gilchrist of Dumfries.)

The Mit$e« M (twins Oct. 16, in 1875)

"There is u congenitid flexion at the second jihalan-jeal joint of tlie little finger in each caae,
but the lloxioii is not so marked as to cause unsiglitlinc.ss or discomfort. I have ascertained
that they inherite<l this peculiarity from their grandmother on the mother's side. Tlie parents
had no truce of it, nor any '>ni' nf fi>iir brothers and three sisters!"

Down, Beckeniiam, Kent. Sept. 22nd, 75.

My dkar Oalton, I am particularly obligi>d for your letter, and will write to Dr Ogle.
I think his case is different, and if you do not hear from me again, you will understand this to
be the case.

I enclose a letter which when read kindly return to me.

With respect to the sweet-peas if you have time I think you had better come down and
sleep here and see them. They are grown to a tremendous height and will be very <Iifficult to
separate. They ought to have been planted much further apart. Tliey are covered with in-
numerable |«xls. The middle rows are now the tallest. Three of the plants are very sickly and
one is dead. The row from the smallest peas are still the smallest plants. See what I say in
" Var. under Dom." Vol. ii, p. 347, about the peculiar properties of plants raised from the tnutll
terminal peas of tho pixls.

I am surprised and very much pleased at your liking mj' "Insectivorous Plants." I hope
that y<)ur tour has done you much good. My dear Oalton, Yours very sincerely, Cu. Darwin.

42, Rutland Gate. Sept. 24th, 1875.

My dkak Dauwin, We have stayed on in town another day s<j I have got from the Royal
Society and send herewith Part.s XIV and XV of the Hevue Scieittijitfite which contain the
part of Claude Bernard's lectures which you wished to see. I have put pencil X at page.s 324,
325, 327, 352 (in each case on tlie 2nd column of the page)'. These are the principal pa.<i.sage«.
Please send the pamphlets back when done with, to the Royal Society, an retw-ned hy me. Also
T return the slips from Nature (Romanes) with many thanks.

Overleaf 1 send a note about the continuation of my Pangenesis experiments. I see I made
a great mistake about the number of generations when we spoke yesterday. There were onl}*
3 gei\erations operaUnl on, on both sides. I don't care t<» claim cases in which a gn>at grand-iwm
was matched with a grand-rfai»y/»<er a.s an additional generation. Besides, the cases were few.

Very sincerely yours, Francis Oalton.

Nov. 2nd [1875J. Down, Beckenham, Kent.

Railway Station, ORriNOTON on S.K.R.
My dear Galton, I hear from George that you are going to write on inheritance and
thei-efore I think it worth telling you that Huxley does not at all believe in Balbiani's views
and statements. He says he published some years ago some strange facts and then went right
round and gave them all up. I send you Wedderburn's note and a pamphlet by him which will
amu.se you and which need not be returnee!. Yours very sincerely, Ch. Darwin.

' The pencil crosses may still lie traced in the Royal Society copy of the Revue Scient^fique
1874, witness to the fact that great men are not always great enough to obey library regulations!

182 Life and Letters of Francis GaUou

42, Rutland Gate, S.W. Nov. 3/76.

Mt dbab Darwin, It was truly kiud of you, to write ine with your own hand, a note of
warning about Balhiani ; but I do not use his statenients in any way, in my forthcoming memoir
which is to be road next Tuesday at the Anthropological Society.

llie general line of it is this:

First I start with the 4 postulates, in favour of which you have so strongly argued, and which
may reasonably be now taken for granted: —

1. Organic units in ^'rent number.

2. Germs of such units in still greater number and variety (existing smiunvhere).

3. That undevelope<l germs do not perish ; but multiply and are transmissible.

4. Organisation wholly depends on mutual affinities.

From these 4 postulates, I logically deduce several results, one of which is the importiinco
and almost the neces.sity of double parentage in all complex organisations, and consequently of sex.

Then I argue that we must not look upon those germs that achieve development as the main
sources of fertility; on the contrary, considering the far greater number of germs in the latent
state, the influence of the former, i.e. of the p>ersonal structure, is relatively insignificant. Nay
further, it is comparatively sterile, as the germ once fairly developed is passive; M'hile that
which remains latent continues to multiply. From this follows: —

(1) The extremely small triinsniissibility of acquired modifications (to which I recur).

(2) The fact that exceptional gifts are sometimes barely tninsniissible (here the sample
was over rich and drained the more fecund residue).

(3) The fact of some diseases skipping one or more generations; (here the 8upjx)sition is
made of the genus of those diseases being jxjculiarly gregarious, hence the general
outbreak of them leaves but a small residuum which has not strength to break out in
the next generation, but being husbanded in a latent form, there multiplies and re-
covers strength to break out in the next or in a succeeding generation).

Next, I go into the question of affinities and repulsions, which I put as necessarily numerous
and many-sided (while |)rofessing entire ignorance of their character) and I argue thence, a long
period of restless unsettlement in the newly fertilised ovum, accompanied as we know it to be,
with numerous segregations and segmentations in each of which the dominant germs achieve
development, while the residue is segregated to form the sexual elements. But I argue, that as
our experience of |»olitical and other segregations shows that they are never perfect, we are
justified in expecting that numerous alien germs will l)e lodged in everj' structure and that
specimens of all of them will lx> found in almost all parts of the body. In this way, I account
for the reproduction of lost parts, etc., as well as for the inheritance of all peculiarities that
had been congenital in an ancestor.

I then consider the cases of inheritance of what had ))een non-congenital in an ancestor, but
acquired by him. I show that the deduction usually made, that the structure reacts on the
sexual elements, is not justified by the evidence of adaptivity of race, whttn this depends on
conditions which nr.l equally on all parts of tlii; body. My re^ison is, that since the .same agents
(viz. the genns) are concerned Iwth in growth and in repro<luction, the conditions that would
modify the one, would simultaneously nio<lify the other ; hence they would l>e collaterally affected
and the apparent inheritance is not a case of iidieritance at all, in the strict sense of the word.
Nay the progress may b<!gin to varj' under cliange<l conditions nooufr than the jmrent (as in
the hair or fleece of the young of dogs and sheep, transported to the tropics).

As regards Brown-Hequani's guinea pigs; — if I rightly understand and am informed of his
ex|>eriment, it ia open to fatal objection. The guinea-pigs that were opcrate<l on app<vir to have
been kept separate from the rest. If so, wo should expect the young sometimes to have convul-
sive attacks from mere imitation, just as we should ex|Kx;t of children brought up in a ward of
epileptic patients, or among hysterical people (revivals, dancing mania etc.). Besides, there is
nut the least evidence that the mutilation of the .spinal marrow, on which the parentjd epilepsy
primarily depemlod, was inherite*!. I alsf) di.sparage much other evidence of the inheritance of
ac<|uin-d mixiifications, l(^aving but a vei-j' small re.sidue to accept. For this residue, I account
by supposing the germs thrown ofl' liy the struclun- during its regular reparation, to frequently
find their way into the circulation and some of the w occasionally to reach the sexual elements and
to Ixicome lodged and naturalise<l thei-e, either by finding an unoccupied place or by dishxlging
others, like immigrants into an organi8<>d society, coming from a foreign country. Thus I occoutit
both for the fact, and for the great rarity and slown<^8S of the inheritance of accjuired modifications.

I

('ofrt«ponfh'un' wif/i C/uirffti iJaririii 183

In coiicluHiiiti, I roKlkte n foriiiiT (liifiiiitinii, llmt F gtLVo of tlio clmmctor of llm rvlationHhip
iMflwi't'u |iiii'crit Hii<l oliiUI, wliicli I iiiakt;otit to Ix-, not like that wliioh conrKH!tna parc>iit nation
iiiul itH colonists, Imt like tluit wliicrh connects tlie r»/tri»i-nlittioe tjorfninirnl of the parent nation
with the r<!pre«entiitivti government of the colonistx; with the further Hupponition, that the
government of the ^uinuit country in enipowcn-<l to nominate a Hninll proportion of the ooloniata.

I have now, so far as the limits of a lett4}r admit, made a clean Ijreast of my audacity in
theoretically differing from Pangenesis; —

(1) In Hup|M)sing the sexual elements to be of as early an origin as any part of the \tody
(it was th(! emphatic declarations of Btilliiani on this point that chiellv attracted my
interest) and that they are not formed hy aggregation -of germs, floating loow and
freely circulating in the 8yMt<>m, and

(2) In supposing the |>erKoiial structure to be of very secondary importance in Heredity,
l)eiiig, as I take it, a muiiple of that which is of primary importance, but not the
thing itself.

If I could help, even in accustoming p«H)ple to the idea that the notion of Organic Germs
is certainly that on which the true theory of Heredity must rest, and that the queHtion now is
upon details and not on first principles, I shoidd lie very happy. Ever yours, FBANfis OaltoN

Thanks for the letter on the Hindoo family, which I will keep, and for the pamphlet on the
wholesale execution of weakly |>eople, which I return hy Ixtok post.

iVov. 4th [1873]. Dowx, Beckknham, Kkst.

Railway Station, Okpinctov, S.E.R.

Mv DKAK Galton, I have just returned from London where I was forced to go yesterday
for Vivisection Commis.sion.

I have read your interesting note and am delighted that you stick up for germs. I can
hardly form any opinion until I read your paper in fxtf.nso. I have mtKlitie<l |)arts of the
Chapter on Pangenesis which is now printing, and have allowed that the gemmules may, or
perhaps do, multiply in the reproductive organs. I write now as I fancy that you have not re^ul
B.-Si^quard's last pa|)er, in which he gives 17 or 13 (I forget which) instances of deficient toes
on the same foot in the ottspring of parents, which hatl gnawed off their own gangrenous toes
owing to the sciatic nerve having been divided.

You s})eak of "almost the necessity of double parentage in all complex organiwUions." I
suppose you have thought well on the many ca-ses of parthenogenesis in Ijepidoptera and Hy-
meuoptera and surely these are complex enough.

I am very glad indeed of your work, though I cannot yet follow all your reasoning.

In haste. Most sincerely yours, C. Dabwiv.

Down, Beckbnham, Kent. [1A^or4, 1876'.]
Railway Station, Okhinoton, S.E.R.

My DBA It Mil Galton, My father thought you might care to have the reference to Brown-
Sequard's jmper. There is a good resume of all his ob-servations in the ' Lancet,' Jan. 1875, p. 7.

Yours very sincerely, Francis Dahwih.

' The reader will note with amusement the completr, omission of date — the inheritance in an
intensified form of a habit peculiar not only to Charles Darwin but also to Mrs Darwin. I only
know one letter to which Darwin did put a date, it is the following written to his aunt Violetta
Galton, Francis Gallon's nintlu-r.

July 12, 1871. Down, Bkckenham, Kkxt.

My DKAK Aunt, 1 am very much obligi-d to you for your great kindne.ss in writing to me
with your own hand. My sons were no doubt deceivetl, and the picturest>ller affixed the name
of a celebrated man to the picture for the sake of getting his price. Your note is a wonderful
proof how well some few people in this world can write and express themselves at an advanced
age. It is enough to make one not fear so much the advance of age, as I often do, though you
must think me quite a youth ! With my l)e8t thanks, pray believe me with much respect, Your
affectionate nephew, Chakles Dakwin.

This letter so gracefully suggestive of both Violetta Darwin and Charles Darwin deserves

t4> tx' put on riMoiil,

184 Life ami Letters of Francis (ralton

42, Rutland Gate. Nov. 6/76.

My iikak 1)akwin, Tliivc pnHit's i-c«cIi<h1 im- troiii the Contftnjmrary Review of my 'Theory
of Henxlity,' »o I can sjwre one, and a.s I know you like to mark what you reml, do not
c«re to n-turn it. I hope it will make my meaning more clear. The rcniiirk« prinUnl ii« a
note on p. 5, but which I ought to have put in the text, will meet what you wrote about the
Hymenoptera.

I am most obliged for what you tell mc aliout Brown-Sequaiii ; I did not know of it, and
will hunt up the passage Uxlay. (Thanks for the reference, received this moniinj;.)

I should be truly grateful for criticisms which might enable me to modify or make clear
before it is too late. Ever youi-s, Fhancis Galton.

What a nuisance this motlern plan is, of sending proofs in sheet, and not in strip. One
can't amend freely.

The paper which (ialton sent Darwin is entitled 'A Theory of Heredity.'
This memoir was in type for the Contemporanj Review in November 1875',
and was read before the Anthropological Institute in the same month. It
was revised and printed in the Journal of the Anthropological Institute
(Vol. V, pp. 329-48), and it is to this is-sue that we shall refer. The paper
follows generally the lines of the 'Blood-relationship' of 1872, e.xcept that
it still more definitely disairds 'Pangenesis' and cjists still further doubt on
the heredity of actpiired characters, and modification of offspring characters
by the use or disuse of the same characters in the parent. The paper there-
fore marks a further stage in Galton's dissent from Darwin's theory and
Darwin's views. Galton writes as follows :

"The facts for which a complete theory of heredity must account may conveniently be
divided into two groups; the one refers to those inlwrn or congenital peculiarities that were
also congenital in one or more ancestors, the other to those that were not congenital in the
ancestors, but were actiuired for the first time by one or more of them during their lifetime,
owing to some change in their conditions of life.

The first of these two groups is of predominant importance, in respect to the numlier of
well-ascertained facts that it contains, many of which it is po.ssible to explain, in a l)roiM] and
general way, by more than one theory base<l on the hypothesis of organic units. The second
group includes much of which the evidence is questionable or difficult of verification, and which,
as I shall endeavour tcj show, does not, for the most part, justify the conclusion commonly
derived frtmi it. In this memoir I divide the general theory of heredity into two parts, corre-
sponding respectively to these two groups. The first stands by itself, the second is supplementary
and subordinate to it." (pp. 329-30.)

After noting that Darwin, in the chapter on Pangenesis in the Animals
and Plants..., had given the most elaborate epitome then extant of the many
varieties of facts which a complete theoiy of heredity must account for,
Galton states that his conclusions will differ e.s.sentially from Diirwin'K, and
continues:

"Pangenesis appears more eM|M'cially f mined to account for the cases wliich fall in the
second of the above-mentioned groups", which are of a less striking and a-ssured character than
tboae in the first 'group, and it will be| seen that I accept the theory of Pangenesis with con-
siderable modification, as a stlpplemcntary and 8ulx>rdinate part of a complete theory of heredity,
but by no means for the primary and more important part." (p. .130.)

' It appeared in that Review in the following n)onth. It was published also in the Revue
Seientiji^fue, T. x, pp. 198-205, 1870.

* I.<ater on p. 347 Galton says that Pangenesis over-accounta for the facts of acquired modi-
fications and reparations.

Correspuiuleuci' with t'liark^ Danrin 186

(laltoii lu'M defines the word 'stirp' to

"express tlio sum total of the f^erins, ^Mnimul>>s or wimtevor thuy may Ims caIUmI, which an» to
1)0 found, nccoriliiiff to every thiiory of organic units, in the newly furtiliMwl ovum — that in in
the oarly pre embryonic stage — from which tiiiii! it roceives nothing further irom it* |>arentii,

not even fn)m its mother, than mere nutriment' Thin word 'Htirp,' which I shall venture

to uHo, is equally ap]ilicable to the contents of 1iu<1h, anil will, I think, \n- found very convenient,
and cannot apparently IcAcl to misapprehension."

We now pass to the essential features of Galton's theory, which corre-
spotids fur more closely than Darwin's to niotlern ideas, indeed it is often
dirticult to say how much modfin idc.is luivt- fjikcii fKnn (I.iltdn uifliout
acknowledtjinent of the source.

The stirp Is the organised aggn'gate of organic umtH, or germs. The
personal structure develops by selection out of a small portion of these
units, and the sexual elements of the new individual are genemted by the
residumn of the stirp. There is no free circulation of gemmules from the cells
to be aggregated in the sexual organs. When the somatic elements are being
formed from the stirp any segmentation may contain 'stray and alien gem-
mules,' and many of these may become entangled and find lo«lgment in the
tissue. When these gemmules are lodged in great variety, the somatic cells
are really reproductive cells and thus Galton would account for the replacement
of a lost limb in the lower animals, or the reparation of .simple tissues in the
higher ones. The selectioit of organic units to form the somatic characters of
the individual from the whole host in his stirp Cialton looks uj>on as of the
highest importance. He considers that a sort of struggle for place goes on
among the innumerable germs of the stirp, and those germs which are most
frequent or have certain intrinsic (pialities^ will be most successful. He
considers that this continual selection leads ultimately in unisexual repro-
duction to the elimination of nece.ssary units and so to degeneration; sex, he
argues, is not primary, l)ut a residt of the advantage of a more primary
double parentage, which lessens the chance of one or more of the needful
species of germs in the stirp disappearing by selection'. Galton even goes so
far as to suggest that where an excess of germs liius been withdrawn from
the stirp to form a marked character, for example, great ability or even a
pathologic^d state, there will be an absence of tliese germs in the residue,
which goes to form the new .sexual element, and he accordingly accounts in
this way for the ofispring of a man of genius having small ability, or again

' (Jaltcm (p. 341) very aptly remarks that if paugenetic gemmules circulated freely through
the syst«!m. there can be little doubt that they would reach the Inxly of an unlwrn child. Thus
the paternal gemmules in that body would be dominated by an invasion of maternal gemmules
with the final ivsult that an individual would ti-ansmit maternal peculiarities far more than
piternal ones; "in other wonls people would resemble their maternal grandmothers very much
u\ore than other gnmdparents, which is not at all the case."

'•' The "dominant germs" arc "those that achieve development" (p. 341.)
■' "There is yet another advantage in double parentage, namely that as the stirp whenct;
j^_ the child sprang is only half the size of the combined stirps of his two pjirents, it follows that
l^k one-half of his possible heritage must have l)ecn suppresse<l. This implies a sharp struggle for
I^B place among the competing germs, and the success, as we may infer, of the fitt-er half of their
I^B numerous varieties." (p. 334.)

IH run X4

■

186 Life <in<f LcttirH of Fnincin (lalton

for diseases ski])pin^ a {feneration. This selecting out of germs will not
occur in animals of pure breeds for their stirp contains only one or a very
few varieties of each species of germ, so that the selection will contain all,
and tlius the offspring resemble their parents and one another.

"The more mongrel the breed, the g^reater is the variety of the offspring." (p. 336.)

To this principle, however, Galton adds a limitation, the stirp cannot be
indefinitely increased in complexity, because there is a limit to the space it
occupies. There is a finite, it great, number of varieties of germs, and of the
individual germs in each variety.

"TI1U8 in the gnwlual broeding out of negro blood, we may find the colour of a mulatto to
l)e the half, and that of a quadroon to be the quarter of tliat of his black ancestors; but as we
pn>ceed further, the subdivision becomes very irregular; it does not continue indefinitely in
the geometrie«l series of one-eighth, one-sixteenth, and sj) on, but is usually present very obvi-
ously or not at all, until it entirely disappears." (p. 335.)

Turning now to the germ which has developed into a somatic cell, CJalton
questions whether it does produce gemmules at all— at any rate its fertility
is far less than that of the latent germ. Influences acting on the somatic cells
of the parent are only slightly or not at all represented in the like somatic
cells of the olfspring. He considers at some length instances of inherited
mutilations ana of acquired characters, and thinks they may be reasonably
looked upon as a 'collection of coincidences.' Even if there are real cjises
of changes in the somatic cells of the i)arents influencing the somatic char-
acters of the offspring, Galton would out admit that occjusionally gemmules
are thrown off by somatic cells, which find their way into the circulation and
ultimately obtain a lodgment in the already constituted sexual elements.
Such a process is, however, independent of and stibordinate to the causes
which mainly govern heredity (pp. 347-88). Even to the last Galton did
not wholly give up Pangenasis, for Darwin had accepted Brown-Sdquard's
epileptic gumea-pigs, yet as Galton remarked :

"It is indeed hard to find evidence of the power of the personal structure to react upon the
sexual elements that is not open to serious objection." (p. 'Mb.)

Finally I may cite:

"Tlie hyiKithesis of organic units enables us to .specify with much i-lenrness the curiously
circuitous relation which connects the ofTspring with its p»ironts. The idea of its being one of
direct descent, in the common acceptation of tbat vague phrase, is wholly untenable, mid is the
chief cause why most persons seem jx-rplexed at the app<>arance of capriciousness in hereditary
transmission. The stirp of the child may Ix; considered t/o have <le«cende<l directly from a part
of the stirpsof each of its parents, but then the personal structure of the cliihl is no more than
an inij)erfect representation of his own stirp, and tlie jH-immal structure of each of the parents
is no more than an imperfect representation of each of their own stirps." (p. 310'.)

Such a modern ideji as that parents are only conduit-pipes for the germ-
plasm of their stocks is fully expressed by Galton with better limitation,
and with fuller suggestiveness, both in this paper and in that on Blood-

' From the modem biometric standpoint the association is 'correlational' not causal.

I

Corrrff/}07uIrnrt' with C/utffes Darwin 1H7

rel!i(i(inshi|>, than in iiiiicli current literature. It is only tlie teruiinolof^y
and the fact that (Jalton wuh not a profenHional biologist which have depriveti
him of the credit due to him aa the discoverer or inventor of what we now
term the 'continuity of tlu; i,'erm-|)l!isni.' Mij^ht not that theory, (lalton
modestly suggests, bt) substituted uitli advantage for that of pangeueHis ?

Down, \uv. 7tli [1875].

.Mv DRAit (iAi.ToN, I liHM> D^iul }'oui' csHiiy with iiiucli cuHimity anil inUirt*Mt, l>at you
prultiilily liuvf no iiltvi liow oxc'CNsivcly ililliciilt it in lit uiKlerataiiil. I rniiiiot fully )(iiu<p, only
lici'i> anil tlinrc I'onji'oturi-, wliut are tin- poinl.s on which wi; iliffur 1 ilari-.-iiiy lliis is chiftly
ilui! to Miuiiilli!-hi>a(lini>8H on my part, hut I du nut think wholly so. Your many U^rnis, not
di'tinnl "iIovcIojkmI •jerms" — "fertile" and "Ht4nili^" ffiTms (the word 'jjurm' itself from asfw>-
ciation misloadiuK to me), "stirp," — "sept,'' "residue" etc. etc., quit*; confounded uie. If I ask
myself how you derive and whert^ you plw;e the innumerable geinmulcs contained within the
spermatozoa forme<l by a male animal during its whole life I cannot answer myst*lf. Unless you
can make several parts clearer, I Ix-lieve (though I hope I am altogether wrong) that very few
will endeavour or succeed in fathoming your meaning. I have marked a few poswiges with
nuinhers, and her-e make a few itMiiarks and express ray opinion, as you desire it, not that I
suppose it will lx> of any use to you.

(1) If this iiiiplii's that many parts are not modifiixl l>y use and disuse during the life of
the individual, I diflbr from you, as every ye»ir 1 come to attribute mort- and nioi-e to
such agencj'.

(2) This seems rather bold, as sexuality hius not been detecte<l in some of the lowest
forms, though T daresay it may hereafter be.

(3) If gemmules (to use your own tenn) were often deficient in buds I could but tiiink
the bud- variations would be commoner than they are in a state of nature; nor does it
seem that bud-variations often exhibit deficiencies which might bi- accountt*! for by
aksence of the propi-r gemmules. I t-ake a very different view of the meaning or cause
of sexuality.

(4) I have oiilered Fnuser's Mag. and am curious to learn how twins from a single ovum
are distinguished from twins from 2 ova. Nothing seems to me more curious than
the similarity and dis-.similarity of twins.

(5) Awfully dithcult to undei-stand.

(6) I have gi\en almost the sauie notion.

(7) I hope that all this will lx> altered. I have received new and additional cases, so
that I have now not a shadow of doubt.

(8) Such cases can hanlly be spoken of as very rare, as you would say if you had received
half the number of cases which I have.

I am very sorry t« differ so much from you but I have thought that you would desire my
open opinion. Fnink is away; otherwi.se he should have copied my scrawl.

I have got a good stixik of pods of Sweet Pwis, but the autumn has been frightfully bad;
perhaps we may still get a few mi>re to ripen.

My dear Galton, Yours very sincerely, Ch. Darwin.

A. R. Wallace took a difterent view as to what Galton had achieved in
a letter of the following spring.

The Dell, Grays, Essex, .\farch 3rd, 1876.

Dear Mr Galto.v, I return your paper signed. It is an excellent proposal. I must take
the opportunity of mentioning how immensely I was pleased and interested with your last
papers in the Anthrop. JounuU. Your 'Theory of Heredity' seems to me most ingenious and
a decided improvement on Darwin's, as it gets over some of the great diHiculties of the cum-
brousne.ss of his Pangenesis. Your jxiper on Twins is also wondrously suggestive.

Believe me. Yours very faithfully, Alfred K. Wallace.
F. Galton, Esq.

24—2

18R Life and Letters of Frannn (,'affoti

IJ, Hi TI.ANK (lATK. Aor. ^I'l.

Mr DKAR Dakwin, AliisI Alius! — and I IiikI tnki'ii sm-h puiiis to cxprosw myself eleiirly,
and I see what I mean, so clearly!

I wa« inost obliged for the Hrowii-8«''quanl reference in the I.nncH, aiul will certainly alter
the paragraph. His non-publication cif the ]»ap»?rH, even in abstract, rend by liini at the Hritish
Association in 1870, had given nie additional fcAr that there was something wrong.

All the other points you refer to in your letter, I will do what 1 can aUiut : i.e,, make
clearer, answer, or amend; but it is tt>o late to make more than small alterations in the pi-oof.

Thank you for reference and offer to send Panum, but I have a de-scription of his i-usults,
so far as I want them, in C. Dareste (Ann, Sc. Nnt^ireUes [^ooloyif, T. xvii], 1862, 'Sur lesccufs
a double gernie,' p. 34).

In mv 'Fraser' article there is a most unlucky and al)surd collocation of words, which 1
heartily nop*- no critic will wize upon, for which I simply can't account except in the sup|M>-
sition of Iwully scratching out in the ms., and variously alt4>ring some |>a8Hage. It is al>out
'double yolketl eggs' and 'simple germs'. 1 ought never to have }>a.s.sed it in proof; but
there it is.

The twins Ixim in one chorion, — never mind whether 2 amnions or not, — is Kleinwiichter's
dictum which he fortifies by numerous mo<lcrn German authorities; Kiwisch l)eing the only one
who, it apiioars, still talks of fusion of membranes. I also noted the i-emark in the Catalogue of
the Museum Coll. Surgeons " Teratology" that twin." in one chorion are jiroliably (1 think that
was the word) derived from 2 germinal spots on one ovum.

If you care to see Kleiuwachter, I could send it you.

Very sincei-ely yours, Francis Galton.

42, Rutland Gatk, S.W. Ntn\ 10/75.

My dear Georoe, I got my back Statistical Society publications la.st night and have read
your cousin-paper with very great interest'. You certainly have exploded most effectually a
popular scjire. Would it be profitable to make any "prol)able error" sort of estimate of your
results, which should eventuate in some such form us this: "The injurious effects of first-cousin
marriagUK, measured in such and such ways, cannot exceed so and so, and probably do not
exceed so and so"1

You ought to found a fortune upon your discovery, — Thus: there are, .say, 200,000 annual
marriages in the kingdom, of which 2,000 and more are between first cousins. Vou have only
to print in proportion, and in various appropriate scales of cheapness or luxury :

"WORDS of Scientific COMFORT

and ENCOURAGEMENT

To COUSINS who are LOVERS"

then each lover and each of the two .sets of parents would be sure to buy a copy; i.e. an annual

sale of 8,000 copies!! (Cousins who fall in love and don't marry would also buy copies, as well

as those who think that they might fall in lovo.)

I read my "Theory of Heredity" at the Anthrojxjlogical last night, when up got a mad
spirituali.st who orated, and then offered to address the meeting on the subject as a medium ;
the spirit speaking' through his lips. (This was not accepted.)

Ever sincerely yours, Francis Galton.
George Darwin, Esq.

Nov. 10th. Night. [1876] Down, Beckenhah, Kent.

Railway Station. Orhinoton. S.E.R.

My DEAR Galton, I have this minute finished your article in Fraser and I do not think
I have rea<l anything more curious in ray life. It is enough tu make one a Fatalist, 1 am in a
pusion with the Spectator who always muddles if it is possible to muddle. But after all he does
not write so odiously as I did in my letter, which you received so lieautifully. I should be glad

' Joiimcd of ihf Royal Slatuitlra/ Sonet;/, Vol. xxxvill, pp. 153-82. I may j>crhaps be
permitted to add the word of warning that the danger of cou.sin marriage is luit a popular
scare. Any patent or latent defect is certain to be emphasised by cousin marriage as of course
any good characteristic.

Cornsfioiii/i III I ir'illi ('/ntr/i -^ Ihiium

1H9

to Im- cniiviricMHi I lull till- oliMcuiily wiim nil in my licml, Imt I cuiiiint tliiiik wi, fur ii cUwr
lii'iuli'tl (fIciiiiT tliiiM I iim) iu<>iiil)(>r of my family ri-nil tho iirticli- nml wit-* i\s much puaulfd an
I wius. To this miiiult^ I caiiiiot. dftiiif whiit arii "dcvj-lopt-d," "Ht<irilo'' mid "fortilo" ({CTms.
You arc II rt'ai Clii'i.Htiaii if you do not hatu nic for ever and ever,

I Khali try you when wo comi- to I>iiidon in a month or six w»H>kH time, an 1 want U» a»ik
a iiucxtiiin hIhhii hvitil m's, wliii'h ciiii Iw askisl in a minute or two, hut would till n long Iett4-r.

Yours very sincerely, Ca. Darwin.

P.S. As .soon :i.s 1 am suiv tliat no more potis of Swwt Ppbh will ripttn, I will send all the
haj^ in a Ik)x per Ilailway to you.

42, Rutland Gatk, 8.W. Nov. 26/75.

Mv KKAU I>AiiwiN, How call I thank you sufticiontly for the trouble y/)U have taken with
the peas, whicli arrived last night in heautiful order. You must let me know, when we next
meet, if there \k anything I owe you for payments of any kind connected with them; Will you,
in the meantime, give the enclostnl 10/- (I send an order mmle out in your name) to the
gardener from me? and tell him that I am much obliged for his care.

Ever yours, Francis Oalton.

Romanes has told me much of his wonderfully interesting results with the Medusae.

Dec. 18th [1875] (Homo on Monday).

Mv DEAR Oalton, (.itnirge iios lxH>n explaining our differences. I have admitUnl in new
Edit, (before seeing your essay) that perhaps tiie gemmules are largely multiplie<l in the reprt>-
ductive organs; but this dm's not make me doubt that each unit of the whole system also sends
forth its gemmules. You will no doubt have thought of the following objection to your view, and
I should iike to hear what your answer is. If l! plants an? cros.Hcd, it often or rather generally
happens that every part of stem, leaf — twen to the hairs — and flowers of the hybrid are inter-
nuHliate in chai-acter ; and this hybrid will produce by buds millions oti millions of other buds
all exactly repiXKlucing the intermediate character. I cannot doubt that every unit of the
hybrid is hybridised and sends forth hybridised gemmules. Here we have nothing to do with the
rt^priKluctive organs. There can hardly !« a doubt, from what we know, that the same thing
would occur with all tho.se animals which are capable of budding and some of those (as the
compound Ascidians) are sufficiently complex and highly organised.

Yours very sincerely, Ch. Darwin.

42, Rutland Gatk. Dec. 19/75.

My deak Dahwin, The explanation of what you propose does not seem to me in any way
(lifFenint on my theory, to what it would Ik; in any theory of organic units. It would be this:

IjCt us deal with a single ([uality, for clearne.ss of explanation, and suppose that in some
particular plant or animal anil in some particular structure, the hybrid between white and black
forms was exactly intermediate, viz: grey — thenceforward for ever. Then a bit of the tinted
.structure under the microscope would have a form which might be di-awn as in a diagram, as
follows: —

Hiite Porm. Black ?orm«

e:^

^Sm^tor

whereas in the hybrid it would be either that some cells were white and others black, and
nearly the .sjvme pn>portion of each, as in (1) giving on thi' whole when less highly magnified a

(mrpc:>(^Q0

(1) (2)

uniform grey tint, — or else as in (2) in wliich each cell had a uniform grey tint.

190 Lij'f and LvtUr* of Francis Gait on

In (1) wp WN' that each cell had Ixsen an organic unit (quoad colour). In other words, the
Ktructuntl unit is identical with the organic unit.

In ('.') the structural unit would not Ih! an urganic unit hut it would Ik.- an organic iiiclfcule.
It would liKve Ix-en due to the development, not of one geniniule hut of a gi-oup of geniiiiulee,
in which the hlnok and whiut K()ooieH would, on statistical grounds, lie equally numerous (as by
the hypothesis, they W(^n' equipotent).

The larger the nuinljer of geniniules iu each organic molecule, the more uniform will the
tint of greyish l>e in the ditTerent unit« of 8t^lcturt^ it has lieen an old idea of mine, not yet
discarde<i and not yet worked out, that the nunib(;r of unilM in e^u^h molecule may admit of
being discovei-e*! by noting the relative numlM'r of case.s of each grade of deviation fi-om the
mean greyness. If then' wen> •_' gemnniles only, each of which niiglit Im- either white or black,
then in a large number of cases ont^qiiarter would always be quite wliiU;, one-quarter quite
black, aud one half would lie grey. If tlier»> were 3 molecules, we should have 4 grades of
colour (1 quite white, 3 light grey, 3 dark grey, 1 quite black and so on accoi-ding to the suc-
oeBsive lines of "Pascals triangle"). This way of l(K>king at the matter would pi'rhaps show
(a) whether the nuinlH*r in each given species of molecule was constant, and (6), if so, what those
numbers were'. Ever very faithfully yours, Francis Galton.

42, Rutland Gate, Dec. 22/75.

My dear Gkorge, I have never supposed otherwise than that the gemmules breed abun-
dautly all over the body, thougli I look upon them merely as local panisites, so to speak, that
live, multiply and die in great multitudes in the places where they are lodged, though occasion-
ally some of them may Ix' deUichwl and drifted along with the circulation, and so find their
way to the sexual eleinents — as was explained in the .seci>n<l part of the paper.

It is by the itimiitlaiiff of all sorts of them, in every part of the Ixxly, that J accounted in
my |iaper for the reproduction of mutilated parts, and other .specilied phenomena, adding: "It
would much transa-nd my limits if I were to enter into these and kindred ({uestions, but it is
not neceiMuiry to do so, for it is sutticient to i-efer to Mr Darwin's work, where they are most
fully and carefully distrussed, and to consider while reading it whether the theory 1 have pro-
posed could not, as I think it might be, substituted with advantage for Pangeue^iis."

[I have not the CtnUemporary Review by me and cannot give the Jiage of the extract. My
copy is merely a revise, paged from 1 onwards. It is in the 12th page of the revise.]

In this passage, I meant to include propagation by buds. You will see in the preceding
page an allusion to the way in which the scattt^-etl alien germs "thrive and multiply."

Now for the application of all this: wherever in a plant developed out of a bud or seedling,
(no matter which, for the 'stirp' is similar in Iwth cases) the alien, localised germs happen to
be congre^ted in sufficient number and varieties to form material for a fresh stirp, there will
be a tendency to produce a bud. Structural conditions, such as those found at the parts where
buds usually shoot, must of course Ije liel])ful in forwarding this tendency.

The advantage of my theory ap]>ears to he this: —

By Pangenesis, we should exjxsct lUl animals, however highly organised, to throw out buds.

By my the<jry, I argue that where the animals are complex, the variety of germs concerned
in the making of them must be pro|K>rtionately gruit, and consequently the probability of a
complete set of them l)eing anywhere in existence, in the same immediate neighbourhood, is
diminished. Hence, the lower the organisation, the more freely does it bud and the higher onoe
do not bud, which is in accordance with fact.

The budding, even of the higluwt animals in the embryonic stage, is intelligible by the joint
action of 3 causes sjiecial to that period :

(1) The differentiation is less complete, and germs destined to be separated are then
together.

(2) The embryo lieing small, the alien germs in separate structures are nearer than they
become afterwards.

(3) The tissues are softer and afford less obstacle to the approach and aggregation of the
germs under their mutual athnities.

' This letter shows how very closely Galton's thought at this time ran on Mendelian lines.
The paaMige should be taken in conjunction with that on p. 402 of the memoir on Blood-rela-
tionship. See our pp. 170-4 and compare p. 84.

Con'('«jton(f<'urt' icifh ('Itnrlin Durti'iii MM

i lio|i(< I li»vt> nii.Hworixl fully ciiougli, and much rt^rt't tliut 1 iiiiHUixifrMtotKi liic i|Ui'>tiMii,
as put ill your Father's lettor, mid have j{iv<>ii you both iiiiiifcfs«j»ry trouhlf. I am t-iini-r to
reaeivo criticiHiiis — i-ven ailveisi- ones. Kvi>r yours, Fhancis (Jai.ton.

About your Father's plants and tlin statistics of j;rowtli: — In ciifK's where not only the onf.
biggest of each sort, but the two or three biggest were measured, the uncertainty of the relative
values of the moduli of variability of the tw(f sorts would l)e materially diminished.

42 Rutland Gatk, London. Jnn. 30th, 1876.

My DKAii Oeoiujk, 1 was very glad to hear good news of you fniin Litclitield, who dined
with us a few (lays back ; (but not with your sister, I am sorry to say, as she was not then well).
Strachey was nearly going yesterday to look after your map frame, possibly he did after all
(he asked ine to join liim but I was engaged). He thought of taking it IxKlily away. Never
did a thing hang so long in hand as this, but I am powerless to help. I can't understand it, as
iStrachey is so energetic iu much that he undertakes and does it so well.

I got a letter fn)m tJlaisher a short time bick alH>ut my "exjwnential ogive'' whereof he
much approves, name and all, and he gives me a compact expression for it, in t<!rms of his "error
function." I enclose a copy of part of what he says. In working out your Father's plant sta-
tistics, it occurrwl to me that it would bo uncommonly convenient to calculate an exponential
ogive tjible, which I did, and since receiving (JIai.sher's letter I sent it to him to see if he could
get it projierly recalculatwl for me directly from his formula. You see, — by knowing any two
ordinate.s, you knowtlie whole curve and can at once get the value of any other ordinatos in it.
I need not bother you with particulars about the table, further than that it gives ordinates from
1 to 50 in an ogive of 100 places, from 1 to 50 in an ogive of 1,000 places, ditto 10,000,
100,000 and a million. So that nil goes into a |>age.

But I could not make out anything by its means about those data concerning your Father's
self- and crop-fertilised plants in which only the biggest were measured. Their "run" was too
irregular. I could get no two trustworthy ordinates. The ignorance of the number of plants in
the row did not so much matter, becau.sc one knew it within limits and could find what the
result would be for those limits; l>et\veen which the real result must lie, and these were not
extravagantly far apart.

AVe have had astoiii.shing fogs in this part of Ivondon, that is going up from here to Hyde
Park corner. I never .saw one thicker than yesterday. Your friend t'ookson, whom I met
walking this morning, told nie that in one place he could only see three flagstones off. I sup-
pose you have glorious sunshine in Malta.

Tyndall's lecture al>out Bacteria was a great success and seems to have utterly smashed the
adherents of Bastian. T conclude from the theory that the physiological reason of immortality
in the next life is that there are no Bacteria in the pure air of heaven! — nothing to cause
corruption.

I send reprint..s of my twins and theory of heredity (revised); one of the twin imijh'i-s is
new and so is the last paragraph alxxit the ruckoo in the one that was in Fraser, which if yoa
care to li>ok at may interest you. Koiuanes' paper has l)cen selected as the Croonian I>>cture
of the Koyal S<Kiety for the year; a well-<leserved honour. There seems to be an epidemic in
the learned societies. Not only the Linnean, but now the Anthropological has got into such a
stat*>, and the rtwpectable Athenaeum is all in a boggle about its future trustee to replace
Ix)rd Stanhojie. Pniy remember me very kindly to your brother and with my wife's l)e8t
regards. Ever yours, Francis Galton.
(Jkohok Dakwin, E.s(|.

2, Bhvanston St. [1877]

.Mv DKAU G[ai,ton]. 1 have just U'thought me, that I received a French essay a few months

ago on the efFect-s of the conscription on the height of the men of France and on their liability

to various diseases which reiulerod them unfit for the army, due to the weaker men left at home

prowigatiiig the race. Ho shows, I think rightly, that no one hitherto had considered the

I problem in the proper light. I forgot author's name, — and where published.

Do you know this es.sayt and would you care to see it. I suppose that I could find it, but
I think I have not yet catalogued it. It seemed to me a striking es.say.

Ever yours sincerely, Ch. Darwin.

192 Life and Let f erg of Franc! a (i alt on

42 Rutland Gate, Jan. X^jn.

Mt OBAR Dahwis, Thanks very iniiiiy; WIr-m you cimie across tlje essay I should be very
l^ad to Me it. I know of a curious Swinn memoir, something apimrenily to the same ctloct, in
which the author says that the Swiss yeomen are very apt to le.ive their homesteiul to a sickly
son, knowing that he will not bo cjilleil out on service, nor tempted to take service abroad in
any form, but will stay at home and look after the property. Consequently the Swiss landed
imputation tend to deteriorate.

I will tr}' hard to put in practice 3'our valuable hints about making my lecture as little
unint4>llim'ible and dull as may he and have hopes of succeeding somewhat. George has most
kindly taken infinite pains U) the same end. Ever sincerely yours, Francis Galton.

Charles Darwin, Esq.

Down, Feb. 11th. [1877?]

My dear G. The enclosed is worth your looking at. It was sent me from N. Zealand as
the writer thought we should not in England see Tickner's Lifel I should think T. was to be
trusted, and if so case very curious. It makes me believe statement about inherited hand>
writing. I shall never work on inheritancre again. The extract need not be returned.

Ever yours, C. Darwin.

I do hope Mrs Galton is pretty well again.

42, Rutland Gate, Feb. 22/77.

My dear Darwin, Hy this iKHjk post I return Tickner's lxx)k with many thanks (after
keeping it an unconscionable time, but I knew you did not want it and it wa.s u.seful to refer
to to me).

About the deaf and dumb men speaking with Castilian etc. accent, according to their
teachers, I cannot help thinking it surticieiitly explained by their imitntion of the a»;tions of
the lips etc. of the teachers. I have tried in a l<>oking-glas.s, and it seems that I mouth quite
differently when I speak broa<l Scotch; again, la-st year, I was trying some experiments with
Barlow's 'logograph ' and the traces were greatly modified under different conditions of ca<lence.

I.«t me, before ending, heartily congratulate you on the German and Dutch t«stinionial of
which I see a notice in to-day's Tinws, and take the opportunity of wishing you many, very
many happy returns of the birthday. Ever sincerely yours, Francis Galton.

My wife is convalescent and alre^idy walks out a little.

42, Rutland Gatk, May 24/78.

Mv DEAR Darwin, The enclose*! "Composite Portraits" will perhaps interest you. The
description of them is in this week's Nature (p. 97). You will see that I have there published
the letter you kindly forwarded to me from Mr Austin of New Zealand (to whom I am now
about to write a second time). Together with the villain's (absit omen!) I send 3 of our own
family anccstoi-s which I have liad made, and for which you may wire to find some place soine-
when-. The original portraits are in the possession of Reginald Darwin and are those of our uncle
Sir Francis Darwin and of our great-grandfather and of our great gn-at-grandfather i-«^8p<<ctively'
(as you will find written on their Ijacks). These tjike the I)arwin family )>iick for '_'i centuries.
There se<'ms to be a great «leal of the Darwin type in William !)arwin b. ItiSf).

I hear vague rumours of your wonderful inve.stigations in the growth etc. of plants, and am
eager for the time when they shall be published. Ever sincerely yours, Francis Galton.

Down, Beckeniiam, Kent. March 22/79.

My dear Galton, Dr Krause has published in Germany a little life of Dr Eras. Darwin,
chierty in relstion to his scientific views; and t4) do our grandfather honour, my brother Eras,
and myN<'!f intend to have it publishe<l in English. I intend to write a short ])refaco to it,
chiefly for the sake of contra<licling the chief of Miss Sewanl's calumnies; and this I can do
from having a letter from your aunts written at the time, and from my father's correspondence
witii Miss Seward. Hut I further intend to add a few ivmarks almut our grandfatlu;r. Can
you aid me with any information or documental

' See Platee VI and LXII in Vol. i and remarks on p. 243.

PLATE XV

(ii)

Dr Kra-sniUR Darwin, Sir Fniiicis Darwin,

"Physician, PhilcMwpher and I'lift. ''Piiysicinn, Traveller and Natunilist."

To illuHtratc tho influ(.-n(X! of the CoUyer blotxl in nKnlifyiiig the Darwin i^train. From niiiiiatnrcs

in the possesHion of Mr Darwin Wilmot.

PLATE XVI

Sir Fiiiiicis Sadipvt'iell Diiiwin, "Pliysician, Tmveller iind Naturalist,'" son of Elizabeth Collier (Mi-s Chandos-Pule)
njid goflfnther of Francis Galton. From a drawing in the jxxssession of Mr Darwin Wilniot.

Conrnpoiulrnce irUli Charles Darwin 193

I have one nice and curious lett«r to MisN Huwartl which I will puhliNh. AIho miiny lettoni
ti> JoHJiih \Vi-<I^W(kmI iiikI to till- fainiiUH UcinmruN, hut I douht whether any of thf>iie will lie
worth |)ii)ili.sliiii^'. l)iiyou know whcthor thero an- i»ny lettern in the [wisHciiKion of any uH'inlwpt
of the family whicii nii)j;ht b<! worth publishing; and could you laku the trouble to aaniNt ntc
l>y j{cttinj{ the loiin or copies of them?

HeviTal yenrs ago \ roa<l the nieuioirM of your Aunt Mrs Schiinni' k an<l no far tui

T am reuienilK'r ninny of the »f«rie.s al>out I)r Darwin s<H'ini><l very iijij Did you ever

hear your mother .sp<uik of thiu IxKjk, and can you authorise me to contra<lict any which are
injuriouB to his f;ood naniel I am sure you will forgive me for troubling you on this head aa
wo have a common interest in our grandfather's fama Yours very sincerely, Ciiarlbh Darwin.

Saturday, 6, Quekh Anne Htrbbt.
My dkau Oaltox. If it would not bore you, can you come tu luncheon hero on Monday
at 1 o'clock ; as it will be my l>e8t chance of seeing you. I have boon extremely sorry to hear
that you have not bx-en well of lat« and that you are soon going abroad.

Yours very sincerely, Ch. Darwin.

A]rrU 30 [1879]. Down, Beckenham.
Many lliaiiks. The extract will coino in capitally. You are vy. goo<l to Uike so much
trouble. Mrs Hch.' received all safe, and shall soon be returne<l. I much enjoytnl my talks
with you. C D.

The followiiijr letter probably bas reference to Eliaibeth Collier's birth',
and may possibly aid in the final solution of the dilliculty as to her origin.

Down, Beckenham, Kent. June 8 [1879].
My dkau Oawon, Many thiinks for your note. I have lately been staying with my sister,
Caroline, ami she says my memory is in error about the mysterious visitor. She believes his
name was Brand, and that it was in the time of Colonel Pole; I cannot but doubt about the
latter point. My sister feels pretty positive that the gentleman stayed at the house of a
neighbour (name forgotten) antl never vi8ite<l Mrs Pole or Mrs Darwin, but sent her respectful
and very friendly nies.sage.s. Nevertheless she was never at ease till he had left the country.
Thanks for all your help. I have fixed our photograph of Dr D. Ever yours, C. Darwin.

P.S. If you should come across Dr I^jiuiler Bruuton, see if he has anything more to com-
municate about Dr D. for I shall soon go to press.

42, Rutland Gate, Nov. 12/79.

Mr DKAit Darwin, It was with the greatest pleasure that I received and read your bio-
graphy of Dr Darwin.

What a marvel of condensation it is, and how firndy you lay hold of facts that hod long
been distortefl and ram them home into their right places.

The biography seems to me quite a new ortler of writing, so scientifically accurat« in its
treatment. The many passnijes you quote are curiously modern in their conception and —
(Excuse this horrid paper which folds the wrong way) simple in expression (considering
his average style). I still can't quite ai)preciate the flaw in his mind which miule it possible
for him to write so very hypothetically for the most part, while at the same time his strictly
scientific gifts were of so higli an order. There seems to Iw an unexplained residuum, even
after what you quote from him, alxjut the value of hypotheses. I see you have mentioned
me twice, very kindly— but too flatteringly for my deserts. How you are dmon upon
Mrs Schimmelpeuninck and Miss Seward''!

' Mrs Schimmelpeuninck, Oalton's aunt: see Vol. I, p. 54.

' See Vol. I, p. 21.

' I think Oalton had a truer appri>ciation of Erasmus Darwin than possibly his cousin had, —
a better histoHcal jHirspective, — and with all their faults of exaggeration the ladies in question
did give something of the 'atmosphere,' which Charles Darwin's portrait lacks. That portrait
is wanting, in the full characterisation of a many-sidetl figure ; we can only give reality to it by
a study of Ei-asmus Darwin's own works, local gossip alx)Ut him and the public opinion of his day —

r o II 2fi

194 Life and Letters of Fraud s Gallon

I now, with fear and trembling leat you should finally vot« me a continued bore, venture to
enoloae copies of come queriex I have just had printed and am circulating, after having obtained
by perton*l in(|uiriea a good deal of verj* curious information on the points in ({ucstion. I ven-
ture to atk you more partieulnrly, liecause the 'visualising' faculty of l>r Darwin appears to
have been reinarkaMe and of n p<-ouliar order and it is jKissible that yours, through inheritance,
maj alao be similarly peculiar. It is perfectly marvellous how the faculty varieji, and moreover
aome very able men intellectually do not possoas it. They do their work liy words, I am in
oorreapondenoe with Max Miiller about this, who is an outri "nominalist."

Very sincerely yours, Francis Oalton.

Thanks for Bowditch (children's growth) which you kindly sent me.

yov. 14th [1879]. Down, Beckknham, Kknt.

Railway Statjon, Orfinoton. S.E.R

My dkar Galton, I have answered the questions, as well as I could, but they are mis-
erably answered, for I have never tried looking into my own mind. Unless others answer very
much Ijetter than I can do, you will get no good from your queries. Do you not think that
you ought to have age of the answers? I think so, because I can aill up faces of many scIukjI-
boys, not seen for 60 years, with much dUtinclnens, but now-a-days I may talk with a man for
an hoar, and see him several times consecutively, and after a month I am utterly unable to
recollect what he is at all like. The picture is quite washed out.

I am extremely glad that you approve of the little life of our grandfather; for I have hocn
repenting that I ever undertook it as work quite beyond my tether. The first set of proof-
sheeta was a good deal fuller, but I followed my family's advice and struck out much.

Ever yours very sincerely, Charlks Darwin.

QUESTIONS OX THE FACULTY OF VISUALISING'.
For explanations see the other side of this paper.
The re|ilioB will be tuied for tlatutical purpotet ofdi/ and should lie addroHsed to : —
FRANCIS OALTON, 42, RUTLAND OATK, LONDON.

Qiustiotu. liejilij'g.

1. Illumination. Moderate, but my solitary lireakfuMt w!is early and iiKirning dark.

2. Delinition. Some objects (juiU- defined, a slice of cold l>e«'f, some grajn's anil

a pear, the state of my plate when I had <inishr<l and a few
otiier objects are an distinct as if I had photos liefore me.

3. Completeness. Very in<xierat<.'ly so.

4. CVjlouring. Tlie objects alxive-named perfectly coloured.

5. Kxt<'iit of field of view. Rather small.
Diffrrenl kiiulii of Imagery.

6. Printed pages. I cannot remember a single sentence, but I rememlier the place

of the sentences and the kind of type.

7. Furniture. I have never attended to it.

8. Persons. I remember the faces of persons formerly well-known vividly,

and can make them do anything I like.

9. Scenery. llemembrance vivid and distinct and gives me pleasure.

10. (»e<>({rapliy. No.

11. Military Movements. No.

12. Mechanism. Never tried.

and I would add, an examination of the innumerable pmintings of him from various aspects.
He was ill no senstt a bltKHlless man, but clearly a man of many crotchets and |ieculiaritie8 of
temperament. I have had the privilege of examining a considerable number of Erasmus Darwin's
letters and papers, and fwl that his true characterisatitm remains to Im drawn. The final portrait
will not Ix- that of >Scliiininel|K-niiinck, but again not that of Charles Darwin. Meanwhile I find
my imagination persists in coupling the supposed extremes : Samuel Johnson and Erasmus
Darwin !

' For the nature and occasion of theae questions the reader must consult Chapter XII.

CorrenpoiH/ence loith Charles Darwin 195

Quegtions. Jieplieg.

13. Oeomotry. I do not think 1 have any power of the kind.

14. NumeraU. Whon I think of any nunilMsr, prinUnl fif(ure« riae before my

mind; I cnn't r«MnenilM'r for an hour 4 conxocative figurni.

15. Card-playinj?. Havo not playinl for many yHarn, hut I am Hun> should not

rouu-niber.

16. Chem. Never pluyiMl.
Othir nenseH.

17. ToneH of voices. Hocolloction indistinct, not comparahle with vision.
IM. Music. Extremely hazy-
ID. Sniullu. No power of vivid recollection, yet fu>metinieii call up awocinted

ideas.
20. Tastes. No vivid power of recalling.

SigmUum of Sender anil Add reim. Ciiari.ks 1).\uwin, Down, Beckcnhani. (Bom Feb. 12th, 1809.)

April 7, 1880. Down, Bkckknham, Kkxt.

Mv DEAK Oai.ton, The enclosed letter and circular may jn-rhaps interest you, as it relates
to a queer suhject^ You will jH-riuips say: liaiij,' hi.-; itnpuilence. Hut .seriously the letter might
]io.s8il>ly Im! worth taking somi^ day to the Anthropolog. Inst, for the chance of some one caring
about it. I have writtiMi to Mr Faulds tolling him I could give no help, but had forwanle«l
the letter to you on the chance of its interesting you.

My dear (Jalton, Yours very sincerely, Ch. Darwin.

P.S. The more 1 think of your visualising in<|uiries, the more intt^resting they .seem to me.

42, Rutland Oatk, April 8 XO.

Mv DKAli Darwin, I will take Kaulds' lett<'r to the Antliro. and see wliat can l>e done;
indeed, 1 myself got several tliumi) impressions a couple of years ago, having heard of the
C'hincsi' plan with criminals, but failed, perhaps from want of suHiciently niiiiut4> ol>servation, to
make out any luryf number of dillerences. It would I think Ix- feasible in one or two public
schools where the syst«Mii is established of annually taking height-s, weights etc., also t<i take thumb
marks, by which one would in time learn if the markings were as ptn-sistent as is said. Anyhow
I will do what I can to help Mr Faulds in getting these sort of facts and in having an extract
from his letter printed. I am so glad that my 'visualising' inquiries seem interesting to you.
I get letters from all directions and the metaphysicians and mad-doctors have l>een very helpful.

Very sincerely yours, Francis Galton.

Our united kindest remembrances to you all.

Galton communicated Dr Faulds' letter to the Anthropological Institute;
the original is now before ine, and it is inscril)ed, "Addressed to diaries
Darwin, Esq. and communicated by F. Galton. " Apparently that body did not
publish it as they certainly ought to have done. Many years afterwards it
was di.scovered in their archives. Its non-publication, however, was not of
such importance as it might have been, for on Oct. 28, 1880, a very full letter
from Dr Faidds appeared in Nature covering the same ground. To this
matter we shall return later.

42, Rutland Gate, July 5/80.

Mv DEAR Darwin, Best thanks for sending me Revue Scientiju/ue with Vogt's curious
paper, which I return with many thanks. The pa.ssage you markeil for me makes me sure that
he would give help of the kind 1 now want and 1 will write to him. (De (Jandolle and another
Genevese, Achard by name, have already kindly done much.)

I sen<l an advance ooj>y of those "Visualised Numerals" of mine, not to trouble you to
rivi-ead what you know the pith of already, but l>ecause of the illustrations at the end and also
for the chance of your caring to see there the contirmation from other sources (1 find that the
editor has cut out all Bidder's remarks on this p>oint — which I much regret) of what Vogt says
about the left hand executing with facility in reverse what is done by the right hand. I made

26-J

196 Lif^' ami Let fern of Franvitt Gallon

Hiildnr w^riltMo flouriHlioH with iiciirilx hclii in ImUIi IihikIs »iinultan«><)usly and the reflexion of
the one scrawl in a mirror was just like the other picture se<'n directly.

I have juHt published in .Uiwl something more alwut mental iiiuiger}', and when I get my
repriiitH 1 will s«-nd one in case you cure to glance at it.

Enclosed is a n-ference that might be put among your Dr Ei-asmus Darwin papers, in the
event of having again to revise the 'Life'. I had not a notion, until I began t<> hunt up for the
reference, how much he had considere<l the subject of mental imagery, or the very striking
experiment in Part I, Section xviii. 6 (which in my edition of 1801 is in Vol. I, p. 291), which
shows that he himself possessed the faculty in n very marked manner.

We came back after a very successful Vichy visit'; my Wife improved at once on getting
tliere, but for my part I have since l)een unlucky, and am only just out of bed after a week's
illness of the same kind as Litchfield's long affair — this partly accounts for bad Imndwriting.
With kindest remendtranciw to you all from us Itotli and from my sister Emma who is now
with us for a few days, Ever sincerely yours, Fkancis Galton.

42, Rutland Gatk, Monday morning, March 7/81.

Deak Darwin, About Worms-: — I have waited for an opportunity of verifyiu',' what I
told you about the eflect of heavy soaking rain, ivhen it suddfiily SHcci-rd» moileratf uyiilhi-r, in
driving the worms from their holes to the gravel walks, where they cniwl for long distances in
tortuous courses, and where they dia It has been very frequently observed by me in Hyde
Park, and this morning I have again witnessed it in a sufficiently well-marked degree to be
worth recording.

It rained heavily on Saturday night lust, after a spell of moderate weather. Unluckily I
was not in the Park on Sunday till near I h. by which hour the birds had had abundant time
to pick up the worms. Still, dead worms were alxjut and their tracks were most niinierfms. On
Sunday (last night) it again rained heavily and I was in the Park at 10 h. The tracks were
not nearly so numerous as they had been on Sunday moniiug, but more dead worms were alxiut.
I began counting, and found they averaged 1 to every 2 J paces (in length) of the walk, the walk
being 4 paces and a triHe more in width.

Walking on, I came to a place where the grass was swamped with rain-water on either side
of the raised gravel path, for a distance of 16 paces. In those 16 pace-lengths I counted 45
dead worms.

On not a few previous occasions when T have lieen out before breakfast, I have wider the
eondxtiont alrfculy mentioned seen the whole of the walks strewn with worms almost as thickly
88 were the 10 pace-lengths just describe*!. The worms are usually very large. I rarely notice
dead worms on the paths at other times. Ever sincerely yours, Francis Galton.

I shall be very curious to learn about the efTects of the red light as against those of a
strongly actinic c-olnur.

Down, Beckeniiam, Kent. March 8th [1881].

Mv DEAR (lALTOK, Very many thanks for \'our not<>. I have been observing the hinnmerable
tracks on my walks for s<;veral months, and they occur (or can be sef^n) only after heavy rain.
Aa I know that worms which are going to die (generally from the parasitic larva of a fly)
always come out of their burrows, I have looked out during these months, and have usually
found in the morning only from 1 to 3 or 4 along the whole length of my walks. On the other

' Both the Galtons enjoyed Vichy and visited it yearly from 1878 to 1881.

• Miss Margaret Shaen tells me that she first met Francis Galton at Down, when Darwin
WM studying earthworms. "They hiul much talk together on the subject, Mr Galton getting
most eager in trying to picture to himself exactly how the worms drt^w things into their holes
to close them up. Mr Darwin was then cxp<!rimentiiig with little bits of jjapt^r like this -<d].
laying them near the worm holi», and finding them drawn down by the point. I remember
Mr (iaiton trying to do the like with his pocket j>encil, i.e. to draw the paper down inside his
pi-ncil cose. I am pretty sure he was keen to test the worms perception of angles bv altering
the sidi-s of the triangle, getting them more e<iual to see if the worms would still detect the
snialleHt of the angles and draw that one in. I don't know if Mr Darwin did try any such
cxperiiuents." See The Formation of V>'<ipt,il,I, \f,,,,!il ihrnuyh tlie Action of Knrilnr,, )•„,•<,
pp. 14, 85-96.

Correftpondeiice with CharUit Danoin 197

hand I n'tnomi)er having in former yi-ars iM»«>n Hcort* or hundreds of dead womi« after heavy
rain. I cannot |MiM>tilily Inilii'vc that worms are drowned in the course of even 3 or 4 days
immersion; iiiul I am inclined to conclude that the death of sickly (perhaps with paranitea)
worms is thus hastened. I will n(hl a few wonls to what I have said alxiut their tracks, after
stating that I found only a very few dead oncH. Occasionally worms suffer from epidemics (of
what nature I know not) and die hy the million on the surface of the ground.

Your ruby paper answers capitally, hut I suspect thiit it is ordy hy dimming the light, and
I know not how to illuniiiiiite worni.s hy the sjime inU-nsity of liijht, and yet of a colour which
permits the actinic ray.s to pn.ss. I have triwl drawing the angle of damp |>ap4>r through a small
cylindrical hole, ii.s you sugi,'e.stcd, and I can discover no source of error. Nevertheless I am
becoming more doubtful alK)ut the intelligence of worms. The worst job is that they will do
their work in a slovenly inannt-r when kept in jMits, ami 1 iini Iwyond means perplexed to judge
how far such observations are trustworthy.

Ever iiiv ili'iir nMlt.in Viiui-s most sincerely, Ch. Darwin.

42, Rutland Gatb, Oct. 9/81.

My dear Darwin, Pray accept my best thanks for the worm book, which I have read, as
1 read all your works, with the greatest inUirest and instruction. I wish the worms were not
such disagreeable creatures to handle and keep by one, otherwise they woultl become popular
pets, owing to your lM>ok, and many persons would try and make out more ooneeniing their
strange intelligence. Once again very best thanks and Ix-lieve me.

Ever sincerely yours, Fbancis Qalton.

Down, Beckenham. March 22nd [1882]

Mv deahGalton, — T have thought that you might possibly like to read enclosetl which has
interested me .somewhat, and which you can burn. — I have been on the sick-list, but am im-
proving. Ever my dear Gallon, yours very sincerely, Ch. Dakwin.

Such, a month hefore his death, was the last letter of Darwin to Galtoii.

42, Rutland Gate, March 23/82.
My dear Darwin, Best thanks for the American article, which is certainly suggestive,
where paratlo.xical. It is delightful to find that virtue mainly resides in large and business-like
families, fond of science and of arithmetic! It eminently hits off the character of your own
family and in some fainter degree of my brothers and .sisters, and of all Quakerism.
I hope you are quite well again. With our kindest remembrances,

Ever yours, Francis Galton.

Down, Thursday, 20th April 1882.

Dear Mr Galton, My mother asks me to write to you and tell you of my dear father's
death. He died yesterday afternoon alxiut 4. He was taken ill in the middle of Tue-vlay night
and remained in a great state of faintness, sutTering terribly from deep nausea and a most dis-
tres-sing sense of weakness. He wius conscious till within a J hr. of his death. He gradually
became more and more pallorless and at last became suddenly worse. I cannot help saying how
often I have heard him speak with affection of you', Yours affectionately, Francis Darwin.

I forgot to say what I especially meant to, that my mother bears it wonderfully, she is very
quiet and calm.

' Mrs Litchfield, Darwin's daughter, tells me that her Father had a great admiration for
Galton 's acuteness and she has also a memory of her Father saying what fun (Salton was.
Miss Elizalx'th Darwin recalls a visit of Galton when they were all children, and his talking of
mesmerising tliem, but it was not attemptwl in cAse it should frighten them. After Miss
Henrietta l>arwin's marriage. Galton told her he was sure he could mesmerise her, but that it
would not be good for her. In his Miinorii-n, p. 80, Galton tells us that he learnt the art in
Austria during his undergraduate days, and mesmeri.sed some 80 persons, but "it is an unwhole-
some procedui-e, and I ha\e never attempted it since." By experiment, however, he demonstrated
that the exerci.se of will power by the operator is unnecessary, it is a purely subjective
operation.

198 Life and Lttters of Francis Gulton

The following letter to his sister, Miss Emma Galton, is not only of his-
torical interest, but jxjrtrays the intensti reverence Galton felt for his cousin:

42, Rutland Gatk, April 22/82.

DiAUR BmmA, I feel at tiineM quite sickened at the Iohh of Charles Darwin. I owod more
to him than to any man living or dead ; and I never entered his pi-esence without feeling a.s a
man in the presence of a l>elove<l sovereign. He was tio wholly free of petty faults, bo royally
aunded, ao helpful and sympathetic. It is a rare privilege to have known such a man, who
■tuids head and slioulderM al)ove his contemporaries in the science of observation. When the
news came on Thursday I went to the }ioyal Society which met that day and arrangixl that
a request should l)e telegraphe<i to the family by the President in the name of the lloyal
Society asking if they woidd consent to. an interment in Westminster Abbey, to which I have
some reason to lielieve the Dean (who is abroad) would in no way object. If so the funeral
would l)e attended by deputations from all the learned societies. I wrote to Lord Abenleen,
who fully consents on behalf of the Geographical, and who has written accordingly. I was
absolutely engaged all yesterday (till after dinner hour even), and could not learn progress.
I hope the first wishes of the family may yield and that Charles Darwin may be laid by the
side of Newton as the two greatest Englishmen of Science. I had a britif letter from Frank
Darwin on Thursday with nothing however in it that was not in the next day newspapci's. It
was evidently angina. The world seems so blank to me now Charles Darwin is gone. I
reverenced and loved him thoroughly. Ever attectionately, Fuancis Oalton.

On Aj)ril 'Jfith Darwin was buried in Westminster Abbey'; the funeral
cai-(l runs, "Wednesday April 26tii 188'J, at 12 o'clock precisely. Admit
the Bearer at eleven o'clock to the Jerusalem Chamber." Galton walked
in the procession', and on the same evening wrote to his sister, Miss Enuna
Oialfuii. .•^.'^ follows:

42, HuTLANi) Gatk, Ajn-il 2C/82.

Dkarbst Emma, The great ceremony in the Abbey is over. The whole "family" of
scientific men were there, a groat and imposing gathering. No ostentation but great from its
iatrinsic worth. The Duke of Argj-ll and Wallace were the two end pall-bearers, Huxley and
Canon Farrar were together, thus all shades of opinion and st-ation were mergfxl. It was
touching to see the blind Postmaster-General I Fawcett] led past the eottin. Several past Cabinet
Ministers were also present. They had asken me to find out Canon Farrar's views, wishing to
have some prominent ecclesiastic, esj)ecially one connected with Westminster Abbey, as a

' It is noteworthy, perhaps, that Galton on Dec. 27, 1881 had sent a note to the Pail Mall
Gazette urging the stringent enforcement of rigid sanitary conditions of burial in the case of
interments in the Ablx'y.

- Galton was also at Lord Tennyson's funeral and the-se ceremonies in the Abbey impressed
him with the existence of a greiit failure on such occasions. The solemn procession up the nave
to the chancel was not visible to the bulk of the congregation in the transepts. Galton in a
letter to The Timeg May '2Ti, 1808 writes: "My own seat was in a gootl position, but I saw
nothing of the distinguished persons who formed the pnK-ession except the fon-heads of two of
the [»all-lH9irer8 who were of exceptional stature, whose well-known names I need not specify.
All the others were sunk wholly out of sight in a trough of crowde<l humanity. It is a sad
waste of effort and op|>ortunity to so mal-organi.se a greM spectacle that its most imposing
feature prfjves to be invisible to the great majority of those who come to see it." Gallon's
solution was a slightlv raiBe<i causeway from choir to chancel. It may Ije objected that we go
to honour the dead and not to see a spectacle. But this is not wholly true; it is the spectacle
which impresses itself on the multitude and makes them realise, perhaps for the first time, the
national value of the great dead. They go to hear and they go to see that their memories and
their imaginations may lie indelibly impressed. A solemn national funeral repercusses in wider
circles than are ever reached by the acts or words of a national hero during life. It sets even
the inert inquiring.

I'LATK XVII

Miss Emma Galton, from a photograph taken in the 'fifties.

Cori'tiSjwiuhnce with CharlcM Darunn 11>9

pall-lK'itrfi' hikI lie (Fiirmr) tintertxl inoNt cordially into the wiahM of the family. He offered
to net as a pall-lioarer t'itlier in or without his toIjch, aH dt^Hirt^. Ho is to pn-aoh next Sunday
on Uarwin at the Ahlwy and tells «io that he wishes to niak<^ such amends as ho can for
the reception formerly given by the Church party to Darwin's works, and we have talked over
sonip pointM for the sermon.

Ho^iiiuld Darwin was there and Emma Wilmot and Cameron Galton and H. Bristowe.
The family party was so larjjo that inuHt of the ladies (including liouisa) nn<l aliout half of the
men wen^ placoil in the scats by the altar rails else the proct-Ksioii would have l)een too long.
H. Uristowe and I walked together. I»uisa will writt; more details. The newspa|K»rs will give
a much fuller account. The service was not particularly touching; it never is in the Abbey;
it is more like the ceremonial of ijicimj ii i'niivriiitij Degree.

I got a curd for Kra-smus to attend with the family and telegraphed to him to Loxton
thinking it jwMxble that owing to his admiration of Darwin's works he might like to come, but
he declined.

Mrs Darwin is very composed now.

I feel this is a worthle.s.s and heartless sounding letter, but as I said the feeling promoted by
the ceremony is tuit a .solemn one but rather the sense of a national honour and glory.

Ever affectly, Francis Galtos.

The words of the anthem, taken from Proverbs iii. 13, 15, Ifi and 17 "Happy

is tlie man tliat Hndetli wi.sdom.and tlie man that ffetteth understanding

Her ways are ways of plea-santness, and all her paths are peace," were aptly
chosen, tis also the anthem of Handel at the grave-side: "His Ixxly is buried
in peace, but his name liveth evermore." The ceremony did not strongly
appeal, however, to Darwin's Quaker-minded cousin ; for him the restful
burial in the little churchyard of Claverdon Leys thirty years later seemed
indeed appropriate. The ne.xt day, April 27th, Darwin's daughter, Miss
Eliijabeth Darwin, wrote to Galton's sister Emma:

"We have had a grejit deal of syuipathy and it is sof)thing to feel how many aj)preciate<l
our dear Fathers goodness. He always hail a very real affection for your- brother and took
great pleasure in his company."

On the sjime <Uiy ajjpeared a letter by (Jalton in the I'alL Mall Uazette:

The Ijate Mr Darwin : A suggestion

SlK, — Next Sunday numerous congregations will e-xj^-ct some honourable recognition of the
character and works of Charles Darwin. Let me suggest to clergymen generally that they
.should substitute on that day the 'Benedicite' for the more usual 'To Deum,' as many of its
noble verses are pointetlly appropriate to what they would prolxibly wish to say afterwards
from the pulpit: —

O all ye Works of the Lord, bless ye the Lord : praise him, and magnify him for ever.

O all ye Green Things upon the Earth, bless ye the Lord : praise him, and magnify him for over.

O ye Whales, and all that move in the Waters, bless ye the TiOrd : praise him, and magnify

him for ever.
O all ye Fowls of the Air, bless ye the Ixird : praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O all ye Beasts, and Cattle, bless ye the liord : praise him, and nisgnify him for ever.
O ye holy and humble Men of heart, bless ye the I»rd : prai.se him, and magnify him for ever.

In pursuance of the .same idea, let me adil that a staineti glass window in Westminster
.\l)bey, syniboli.sing these and other verses of the same canticle in its several panels, would be
a beautiful monument to the memory of Charles Darwin, and (piite in harmony with the
surroundings. It would afford a desired opportunity for other countries to shsre in the erection
of a memorial without merging their several contributions indistinnuishably into one, as each
country might contribute a st^parate panel. I suggest this window in addition to, and not in
substitution of, any bust or tablet that may hereafter be decided upon, and towards all of
which I, for one, am prepared to subscribe lii)erally. I am. Sir, Your obedient servant, F. G.

2()4) L{fe mid Letters of Francis (waif on

It was, perhaps, too generous an idea to expect in 1882 that an 'evolution'
window could, even in Westminster Abliey, replace the old 'creation' window
IkumhI upon its neolithic myth. But tlie time may yet come when the
national mausoleum shall contain not only the iishes of the nation's j;reat
dead, but some appropriate witness to those living embers of the mind which
entitled them to their Hnal resting-place. Galtoii strongly l)elieved in and

generously supported all projects of perpetuating the memory of the worthy
ead. It was exhibited not only in the case of Darwin, but m several other
instances. Thus in the monument he put uj) to Erasmus Danvin in Lich-
tield Cathedral', in his support of the Speke memorial and liis desire to see it
extended to embrace other African pioneei-s (see our p. 25 ftn.), and again in
the substantial aid he gave to the Oxfonl Weldon memorial. I have no doubt
fuller investigation would lead to the discovery of other instances'.

But for Darwin, Galton's aifection and reverence were unlimited. Within
three weeks of the former's death he wrote to Darwin's son George as follows :

42, Rutland Gatk, May 16th, 1882.

My dear Grohge, You may be glad to hear that the nietnorial to your father was fairly
started this aftt'rinwn and very shortly the letters to foreigners will be sent and notices in the
papers will appear. A Sub-Cmte. of the executive Cmtc. has only now to fix a few details. I was
very sorry to have missed you when you called, as there is much I sliould like to have hejird
about you all. I am very glad that your Mother beam up so well.

I want^xl too, to spetik to you (as I have to Spottiswoode) about getting together available
illustrations and memorial scraps of all kinds for a Ijook of mementos for the Royal Society
(like those of Priestley — do you know them?). There ought to l>e a picture of the 'lieagle' if one
is procurable and copies (suiall)of all the pictures and photographs. You are no doubt collect-
ing all available information of his early life before his cont-eniporaries and seniors shall have
passed away. Every month is precious. I do wish somclKxly had done this many years ago for
Dr Erasmus Darwin. If omitted, this want is soon irrevocable. When you are next in Town
pray come to us. Ever j'ours, Fuancis Galton.

Talking once to the husband of one of the greatest of Victorian women,
about the loss of a great friend — to whose learning and scholarship I owe
whatever love I may possess for accurate investigation — he remarked:

" It is difficult to measure what the mental development of an individual loses and what it
gains by the death of a friend of dominant personality."

The words seemed to me then harsh and unsympathetic, hut I have
learnt with the years the element of truth in the experience expressed by
them. That truth is not wholly appropriate to the friendship of Galton
with Darwin; the latter was only thirteen years Galton's senior, but those
years, and Galton's unlimite<l reverence for intellectual power did, as in the

' See Note at the end of this Chapter.

' One other instance I can indee<l refer to from lett<!rH in my jKissession. He was the prime
mover in the scheme for obtaining a portrait of Sir Joseph Hooker. There arc numerous letters
to Galton approving and enclosing subscriptions, and the letter of Hooker to Galton is worthy
of being preserved elsewhere than in an autograph book where I found it:

Royal Gardens, Krw, May 15/80.
Mv DEAR (Sai.to.v, Your kind letter announces a most unexj)ected honour, and a crowning
one. I only wish I could feel that 1 was worthy of it. I am quite at Mr Collier's dis|)osal and
very pleased to find that he is the selected artist. Very sincerely Yours, Jos. D. Hooker.

PI.ATK XVIII

i

^ ^ ^ ' S 'V

I

f--

u

5^.

'1 •:?

-«

i

-i s ^ ^ ^ •?■-<

N3

PLATK XIX

it

0

t'orrcMj/oiu/nirc iril/i ('/larlfH l)iiniiii 'JOl

case of Piin^etiPHis, iincoiisciDUsly shackle the fn^e ilevelopnient of (ialton's
own idej»«. (ijiltoii would never have a(ltnittt^d such an a8j)ect of the friend-
ship. To lum Darwin was the man wlio freed him from superstition and
directed his hfe-work into new chainiels'; but nevertheless the onhmker
may note, what indivifhial actors cannot apprehend, for he like the dramatist
sees the play as a whole. Be this as it may, undouhtedly the year 1882 mai ki-d
an epoch iji Galton's career'. As Mre Gallon records, Darwin's death "cast

' (iiilton did not oidy lu-knowlt'dgo this in llui nicniornble letu-r to I)urwin hinisi-lf in ISC'J
(.seo Vol. I, Piute II) l)ut most gracefully in the six-eoh he inrnle at the Royal Society dinner
after receiving the gold ine<lal in 1SM6. I will cito a portion of it:

"The ethnological hs^h-cIh of geography now [IHGO] li<-gan to attract mo more than the
physical ones. It was alxiut this time that the fact dawne<l on scieutific men that the key to
the origin of society among civilised nations and to many of their unexplained customs was to
be found in the habit.s of contemporary barbarians. I can assure you, as a sptrcialist in heredity,
that I am not sjwaking without reason when T say that i|ualities which I seem to have inlierit«il
through two of my grand parent-s gradually yielded prcceilence to those that I certainly inheritfd
from tlie other two. Kecollwt, plea.se, that this nuxial is award(><l to me for 'statistical imjuirieH
into biological phenon\ena.' I can account fully Uith for the statistics and the biology. You
mu.st please allow me the pleasure of dis.secting myself. On my father's side, I know of many
most striking, .some truly comic, instances of statistical pi-oclivity. I have in my jK)8.scssi(m
numy pounds weight of ruletl memorandum l)ooks severally allotted to almost every conceivable
household purpo.se, which belonge<l to an agetl female relative who died years ago. I also
reckon at least five other remarkable instances of a love of tabulation within two degi-eea of
kinship of myself. Again, as regards biology, I am sure there is a .similarity between the form
of the bent of my mind an<l that of my mother's father, Dr Erasmus Darwin, The resemblance
chiefly lies in a strong disposition to generalist^ upon every-diiy matters that conmionly pa.ss
unnoticed. I have myself attempte<l son\o of the very in(|uiries to which he had drawn attention,
in complete unconsciousness that he hiul done so. It was owing to this hereditary bent of mind
that r was well prepared to assimilate the theories of Charles Darwin when thev first appeared
in his 'Origin of SjK-cies.' Few can have ls>en more profoundly influenccil than I was bv his
publications. They enlargetl the hori/on of my ideas. 1 drew from them the breath of a fuller
scieutitic life, and I owe more of my later scientific impulses to the influences of Charles Darwin
than I can easily express. I rai-ely approache<l his genial pi-esence without an almost over-
whelming sense of devotion and reverence, and I valued his encouragement and approbation
more, perhaps, than that of the whole world liesides. This is the simple outline of my scientific
history." (The Time», Dec. 1, 188(5.)

^ (ialton's last tribute prolmbly to Darwin was paid at the- Darwin-Wallace celebration of
the Linneaii Society on July 1st, li)08. The present writer saw him to and from the meeting
and knew that he was feelitig unwell; his few words were a great etfort. After thanking the
President for his kind i-emarks, Oalton turned to the main point on which he felt our genera-
tion's gratitude to Darwin should \>c keenest — the fi*eeflom Darwin gave us fi-om theological
bt)ndage; "You have listentxl today to many sjK'akers and 1 have little new to say, little
indeed that would not be a refn-tition, but I may add that this occasion hits called forth vividly
my recollection of the feelings of gratitude that I had towards the originators of the then new
doctrine which burst the enthraldoin tif the intellect which the advocates of the argument from
design had woven i-ound us. It gave a sense of freedom to all the people who were thinking of
these matters, and that sense of freedom was very i-eal and very vivid at the time. If a future
Auguste Comte arises who makes a calendar in which the days are devotetl to tlie memory of
those who have been the beneficent intellects of mankind, I feel sure that this day, the 1st of
July, will not be the least brilliant." Th« Dartcin-Wailace Crl<bration...hy the Linifan
Society of Lotidon, 1 908, pp. 25-6.

It is characteristic of Francis Galton that it wiws not the enormous influence of Darwin on
the biological sciences that he thought of in the first place, but the emancipation of the human
intellect from its centuries-old ntiolithic traditions — the common gain of the average man, only
indirectly alFected by the spread of scientific knowledge — that he wished to see emphasised.

p 0 II 2«

202 fjij'e am/ LethiK of Francis (,'alfoii

a deep ^loom i>\er her husband; Imt It was followed hy his most productive
dewuie. Iiiterestw in psychological and in statisticjd investigations liJid
originated well l)efore this date, but as om- following chapters will show
they now liecanie prefloniinant and displaced to a large extent the more
biological aspect of the iiupiiries which we have associated in the second
half of this chapter with Darwin. The philosopher of Down was no longer
there either to check error or to restrain imagination. The miniature of
Darwin remained on the writing-table, but rather as a symlxjl of method,
than to suggest the warning voice of the revered master:

Ignoramus, in hoc siyno lahoremus!

NOTE I. ON THE MONUMENT TO ERASMUS DARWIN ERECTED BY
FRANCIS GALTON IN LICHFIELD CATHEDRAL, 1886.

About the time when the question of a monument to Charles Dai-win in
Westminster Abbey was being raised, Galton determined to commemorate
the grandfather of both in Licntield Cathedral, and obtained the permission
of the Dean and Chapter for the erection of a memorial medallion. This was
executed by E. Onslow Ford. See our Plate XIX. The work of Krause and
Charles Darwin on the life and ideas of Erasmus Darwin luid drawn the
attention of Galton again to his gi-andfather, and he was more than inclined
to revise the opinion he had expressed to de Candolle in 1882 (see our Vol. i,
p. 13). Perhaps what weighed much with Galton were the lines from the
preface to the Zoonomia.

The great Creator of all things has infinitel}' diversified the works of his hands, but has at
the same time stamped a certain similitude on the features of nature that demonstrate to us
that the whole is one family of one parent.

There is not a doubt, I think, that Erasmus Darwin anticipated Lamarck
in propounding a doctrine of evolution based upon the inheritance of acquired
characters, and that he recognised a unity of origin for all forms of life. It
was with this impression strong upon him that Galton made his first draft
for the Lichfield inscription. It ran as follows :

In memory of Erasmus Darwin, M.D., F.R.S., Physician, Philosopher, and Poet; Author of
Zoonomia, Botanic Gartl/-n, &c. ; Earliest propounder of the Theory j;reatly elaboratt-d by his
more distinguished grandson, Charles Darwin, which ascrilxw to the operations of animals and
plants, prompted in the first instance by their individual needs, the secondary and higher
function of mfxlifying through inheritance by various indirect and slow though certain methods,
the forms and instincts of their res[iective races, in incr(*asing adaptation to the habits of each
and to their physical surroundings and thus of furthering the development of organic nature
■8 a whole.

This inscription certainly accords with Erasmus Darwin's view, if it
does not lay as much stress on the element of ' will ' as Erasmus did. It
was, perhaps, not incompatible with Charles Darwin's opinion that at least
some acquned charactere are inherited. Galton sent it to Huxley for
criticism and Huxley replied with the following characteristic note :

Conritpondence irith IJu.rlvij (thoiil Erfutmiis Danriu '203

Will you liave patience to look at my article on "Origin" in "I^y Serinonu" wntt«n
in 18601

4, Marliiohouoh Place, Aiihkv Uoad, N.W. Oct. 12, 1886.

My dkak Galton, I have reml Kraii>«? afrt«h and I can only say that if no Ijetter ciumj ia
to l>e made out for Kra-HUius Darwin my verdict in the article " Kvolution" in the Encyclopawlia
Britunniai — (not the part which I adviwd Mr (tladstone to n'ju\)

" KraMmus Darwin, thou>;h a zealouti evolutionist, can hanlly be said to have made any real
advance on his pre(l<'ccssors"
seems to me to exprt-ss the exact truth.

That Erasmus Darwin anticipatetl Ijimarck's central idea is perfectly true — in(lee<l he wm
much more consistent and lojk(ical than I^Auiarck for ho saw the necessity of extending hia view
to the vegetahle kinf»fiom, and his conception of heredity and desire in plants, was the neoeasary
const^quence of the general theorem that lulaptation has been brought about by desire. Bat this
central i<lea of I^jimarck is exactly the most worthless |>art of the "Philosophic Zoologique."
Krause expressly admits that Erasmus knew nothing alxiut the stniggle for existence a« a
s<^lective agent. Again it is clear that Enismus had no notion of variation in Charles Darwin's
sen.se, see p. 183. "The original living filament" is "excitetl into action by the neceasities of
the creatures, which jxwsess them and on which their existence dcjH-nds."

The principles of Charles Darwin if I understand him rightly were these — Two are matter
of fact, namely:

1. Animals and plants vary within limits which cannot be defined and from causes of which
we have no knowledge.

2. Of these variations some give rise to forms better adapted to cope with existing conditions
and some to forms worse adapted — -The latter tend to extinction; the former to supersession of
the original or at any rate to coexistence with it. The last is .speculation.

3. The interaction of variation with conditions thus understood is a vera eaiita competent
to account for the derivation of later from earlier forms of life.

This is the Darwinian faith "which except a man ket^p whole and undefilixi without doubt"
he shall lie made a bishop- If you can find the smallest inkling of it in Erasmus — I cave in.

Ever yours very truly, T. H. Huxlbv.

Of Galton's reply to Huxley I find the following 'rough draft.'
Oct. 16/80. 42, Rutland Gate, S.W.

Mv i>KAR Huxley, Thank you much for your full letter. I see that the proposed epitaph
on Dr Erasmus Darwin must be alwndoned, both liecause it is founde<l on Krauso's views,
which are del)atable, and l)ecause it expresses tho.se views in a way oj)en to misapprehension.
Would you kindly tt>ll me if anything strikes you as objectionable in an epitjiph written in the
following .sensel And if you could suggest any well-sounding phrase as well, I should be truly
oblige*!.

In memory of Dr E. D. Author of etc., etc. Gifted with a vivid imagination, uncommon
jwwer of observation, an indefatigable love of research, original and prescient in his views, he
was among the first who occupied himself with the topics that were sulxsequently explored by
his grands<m, Charles Darwin, to whom he transmitted many of his characteristics.

This I know is bald in the extreme, but if the intended sense is decided on one must hope
by much touching up to make it rea<i more suitably. Thinking it might be convenient I copy
out some "pieces justificatives" on the opposite page (slightly shortening phrases and sometimes
trans|K>sing). Ever sincerely yours, Francis Galton.

Galton's pieces justificatives contain the views of Charles Darwin as to
Enusnius' mental powei"s, some citation of Krause's opinions and extracts
from Erasmus Darwin's writings showing that he only attributetl variation
in part to desire or will, but in part also to accidentid or spontaneous
causes. Galton also indicates that Erasnms had clearly state<l that the final
result of the contest between males wa-s that the strongest and most active
animal propagated the species and thus it became improved.

■ta—t

204 Life and Letters of FraHcin (ralton

OcU 18, 1886. 4, iMaklborouoh Plack, Abdey Road, N.W.

My dear Gai.TON, I havf nothing to Hay against your now form of epitaph. Indeed 1 think
it is quite just, I am not quite 8uro, however, whether a 'topic' can l)e 'explored.' But it is
easier to eriticise than to suggest something letter. Charles Darwin used to scold me for not
appreciating the 'Vestiges' (that flimsiest of Ixxiks) so you may judge how tenderly he Uxikud
at his grandfather's work. He had the noble weakness of thinking too much of other people's
doings and too little of his own. I wish none of us had worse sins to be forgiven.

Ever yours very sincerely, T. H. Huxlkv.

Did Enisinus Darwin pos.sess vivid imagination, incessant activity ami
energy of mind, ^reat ori(finality of thonglit. prophetic spirit both in science
and the mechanical arts, had he the true spirit of the philosopher — all
which characteristics Charles Darwin ascribed to him, — or did lie contribute
little or nothing to posterity? Personally 1 see no truer way of answering
that question than pointing to the achievements of his grandchildren, his
great gi-andchildren and threat great grandchildren. Tiien- scientific worth
and mechanicid ingenuity, their originality of thought and energy of mind
suggest that Charles Darwin's judgment was not in this case the product of a
'noble weakness.' Hut those who bave had a friend in the least approaching
Darwin in largeness of mind and charm of character will fully appreciate
Huxley's criticism on the first of Galton's epitaphs which ventured to name
Enisnms in the .sjime breath as his ow n hero Charles. On our Plate XX the
reader will find the final 'epitaph,' and its phraseology may obtain for him
a deeper meaning in view of this correspondence Iwtween Galton and
Huxley.

NOTE II. CONTINUATION OF THE GALTON AND DE CANDOLLE
CORRESPONDENCE, 1879-1885.

In order not to break the thread of Chapters XI and XII, I have placed
here the continuation for six years of the above correspondence. It is not
an unfitting place for it, because the letters not only provide ftn-ther evidence
of Galton's admiration for Darwin, but indicate how occupied his mind was
during these years with psychological problems. The "visuali.sed numerals,"
and the " visions of the sane " are discussed in Chapter XI, and composite
photographs (" photographies cumul^es") in Chapter XII.

(iKNKVB, 8 nov. 1879.

MoN CHKK Mo.NBiKUR, J'ai lu avcc lieuucuup do plaisir Ics opuscules que vous avez bien
voulu m'envoyer. Les photographies cumulees m'ont paru curietises. Elles serviront probable-
nient duns plusieurs cas et pour diverses recherches de md<lecine, physiologie etc. On peut en
inf<;rer aussi certaines con8«-quences utiles dans les arts. .Je me propose, pjir cc motif, de
montn-r vos generic inuujen (hiiis une seance de notre societc des arts on se trouvent toujours
des dessinateurs, des photogniphes, etc. Hi vous jmbliez d'liutres es.sais, je vous serai tri's
oblige de me lea envoyer avunt le niois de Janvier proclmin.

L'as[M;ct de vos criniiiiels confirme ce que je lisais hier dans un article scientifique sign6 de
Parville dans le Ti-mpt, sur les cranes de 36 assassins frant^is. Ixiurs crftnes (5taient larges
d'ane tempc h, I'autre.

Les ol)st!rvation8 psychom^triques dont vous decrivez les resultats me seniblent bien difficiles
& faire. Cependant je sais, par exp^'Henee, qu'on arrive en se donnant de hi peine a constater
des faits de cette nature. J'ai aussi observi' des choses analogues pendant la nuit, et ce que j'ai
conclu appuie votrc opinion par dos approchemeiits assez interessants.

I'l.ATK XX

H ^5St55i^^^-JV~'^*L-7ri'^?*ri*L.;

IKAS.VIIS llAtOMN Ml> I KV.

AulhM of the /flMtuflHA. ftotMuc (•«tkn And nCfccT «tink%

A ^iNttl obwrrcf of NMwt

vivid la •■MCiBMMa. ladrkni^falc m K^canli.

onpMl nM (h wKtiUd in hrs vio>«

Ilia lycaiklwna w<n Bkiih d«irclt4 to piotlf*

MSich nrrr •terMfd« mora MKtcuMh' tatut^ by kn G«Mhan

( luHia Dajcwi}!

lie ««« bom AD ■-)(. Ik rmM in iW Ciiy of I kUtU fii«t AD i-)b
W AD 1761 Ik dMd AD iSoi wrf «»« buncrf m IhvMh^ Dobi^lMr

ll» k^ -ifc^Mjua. fkaglrttr <if Ctunri llomM. hn Umd n Uw Cbw

l\
n

in ir:^^iBg33F^%g:jg£fa?:]^^<?;^:q^<

iMonunu'iitiil Tublet to Krasmus Diirwiii (executt?d Ijy Onslow Ford 1 aiol oiirtftl li^-
his gniiulsoii Frnnois (lalton in Liolillclil C'jitlu><lral, l.SSG.

Corn'Mjioiulence irit/i Alphonse dt CantloUc 205

Pendant deux annt^;», Jk I'ige tie 71 et 72 una, je me Buis applique k wiiiir au moment du
ri'vcil 111 imtiiro ilc iiioa rftvim. Avcc une fermc volonl"'- on y jMirvient. \a-h di^taiU s'ouWient
tW-H vitc, nmis on |)«'ut noter duns Ha tCt«< n \ei rf-ve ko rnpjMirle a den cliowii anciennoa ou
K-contes v.l i\ (Ioh uIiosi'h dont on sVtait occupi'i la veillo ou auxi|UKlIe8 on n'avait {»« jieniw''
(l('|)iiiH l<mj»t«'Mij>H. V'oici ce (jue j'ai trouvr:

1'. tri's suuvt-nt duns la Hoin-e j'liviiiH piirii" de (|u«'liiuo (x-rsonno ou ohjot mii a w-rvi de
point (k) dt'-pn't a un rfve. QueKjuefni.s on i'M avail pirli- dMvant nioi, ou javais lu k liaut« voix
le noiii ou celui do I'olijet. Rart<niont unn iocture de« yeux pnMJuisnit cette cons^juence. lie
noni ou le mot etiiit devenu .source de c|ueique association involontaire d'id^tw, conime dans vo«
olwtervationH, niais les deductions 6taient errantes et souvent absurdeK. Dt* conversations ou
lectures de quelques jours ant<''rieurs, iiit^nie je croiH de 24 heurea, ne conduiitaient pas k <le8 reve«.

2". (ct ceci encore plus certain): jainain je n'ai rev^ jk des choses qui m'avaient cauit^ ou
receniinent ou nuln-fois de vives inquii'tudes ou une vive emotion. Quoi<pie ma eiirrifcre ait M
assez uniforme j'ai eprouve de.s diagrin.s, j'ai eu des soueis qui m'eni(K'oliaient de dormir. J'ai
luwiste ii de.s sct'^nes revoiutionniiires qui m'irrilaient au plus haut degre Ma vie a ('•te expow'-e
plusieurs fiiis dans <les courses de montagne, etc. Or ces ^'v<'^nement« ne se sont jamais presenU^
dans mes reves, non plus que des plaisirs aiiciens trf-s vifs.

3°. J'ai rOve i\ des persrmnes mortes depuis Itmgtemps, mais prcsque toujoura jo me suis
Honvenu que j'en avals jmrle dans la soirco ou qu'une liaison d'id^es analogue avait exists. Par
exemple je revais sou vent 6tre avec mon p^«>, mort en 1841 : il me strmblait le voir, causer avec
lui, sur des atlaires scientifiques avec heaucoup de suiU* et de raison, mais je travaille tous lea
jours dans In liibliotht>quu de mon pi;rc, je consulte ses ouvrages etc. C'est dans le courant
habituel de mes idees. Tout cela confirme, par une autre voix, vos reflexions de la p. 7.

rj«'s idtWs ((u'on a la nuit, quiuul on est n'veille et ((u'on ne })eut pas s'endormir, contirment
egalement ce que vous dites. Dans cet et-at on a (du moins moi) deux ou trois idi-es tn'-s pre-
ci.ses ([ui reviennent couramiiient. Ce sont des idw-s qui vous pr(k)ccupent <lepuis quelquen
joui-s: probablement une inqui<5tudo sur un de vos proclie.s, un proce.s, etc., ou quelque lettre
ditKcile a re<liger, quel<iue discours a faire etc. Comnie on ne voit rien, d'autres aiu.ses d'idt'-es
nVxistent pas et celles qui vous dontinent ont une force extraonlinaire. Un peu d'agitation
nerveuse qui enip^clie de dormir augmente cette vivacite des idt'-es nocturnes. J'ai ete si souvent
frapp*'? de leur nettetc (pie je rn'ctais fait fabriquer une ardoise, avec regie mobile, pour jx)uvoir
ecrire dans mon lit certaines phra.ses, certaines divisions d'un sujet qui m'ap|)araissaient tout-
&-coup et ({ue le lendemain je ne pouvais plus retrouver. L'appareil n'est pas assez commode
pour I'eniployer, aiis.si quelquefois j'allume une lumi&i-e pour noter ce qui vient de m'apparaitre
dans ces nuits d'in.soinnie. Pour un ecrivain I'abseuce de .sujets de distractions me parait une
cau.se es,sentielle de succe.s. Je ne comprends pa.s du tout ceux qui etudient ou n'-digent en ae
pronienant dans la caiu)>agnc.

Voiln, mon clier Monsieur, des observations dont voua ferez ce que vena voudrez. Je n'ai
pas I'intention de les piiblier. Si vous voulez en parlor dans quelque note je n'ai pas d'objection,
sans cependant vous le demunder. Agree/, je vous prie, ra.ssurance de mes salutations les plus
devouees. A M-ll. dk Candollk.

42, Rutland Gate, London. April 11 80.

Mv DK.\u Sir, Thank you very much for the kind efforts you have made to procure me
information alK)ut the vi.sualisi^d iiumeral.s. They have raiu.setl M. Acharrl to send me his
numeral forms and .some interesting accompanying remarks, which I have adde<l to my col-
lection. Perhaps the enck)sod reprint may interest you, if you have not by chance already
seen it, as it gives a recent account of the facts and some remarks upon them which I think
you will find to answer in part the very reasonable doubts you suggest in your kind letter,
which I rt^ceivetl last night.

I do not think these forms of any value to tho.si- who se«' them, nor that they should be
cultivated, — but they strike me as exceedingly curious and instructive survivals of the earlieat
mentid proces.ses of a child. They ar»' specially interesting because of the reasons given in the
enclosed reprint, they have been invented by the child himself, but I will not write what you
will more rapidly read in print

It hivs lx«n a most amusing but somewhat di.scouraging experience to finti how very many
wise men are, as it were, vexed and put out by finding that other people have real undeniable
fts that they do not themst'lves jiassess a vestige of, and are inclined in consequence to

206 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

diHCivdit the inquiry. M. Antoino d'Aljlmdie who s<>es tlif-se nuinlier-fornis clearly, kindly
qucstiuned for nw several of his culloii){iu's of the Acadf'inic dew Scit-nt-eM and canu- io just the
aune result that I did. It was therefore with some wickfxi feeling of triumph that I collected
and raarch(<d off with', to the evening meeting of the Anthropological Institute, six good men
including jx-rsons well known to science, who were prejuired to describe their nuniLier-forms
and who did so very effectively. I am now Imsy on a more gencrnll)' interesting jMirt of the
subject of Mental Imagery. Believe mo with tlianks, and warm acknowledgement of the kind
interest you have so often shown in my work, Very faithfull}' yours, Francis Galton.

I am afraid our mutual friend Mr li<-ntham hiis felt the gloom and severity of this past
winter, for he do<>.s not look well, and complains about himself.
To M. Alpikinsk i>e Candoi.le.

42, Rutland Qatk, London. Jun« 5/82.

Mv deak Sik, Thank you much for your interesting t>r»)chure' on Ch. Darwin, analysing
the causes that contributed to his success. It ha.s Ix'en a great satisfaction in all our grief at
his loaa, to witness the wide recognition of the value of his work. He certainly, as you say,
appeared at a moment when the public miud was ripe to receive his views. I cau truly say for
my jiart that I was groaning under the intellectual burden of the old teleology, that my
intellect rebelled against it, but that I saw no way out of it till Darwin's 'Origin of Species'
emancipated me. Let me, while fully agreeing with the views expit»s.sed in the |mmphlet in
all irajiortant particulars, supply a few minor criticisms which it might be well to mention.

(1) As to the pecuniary fortune of Darwin, I think the phrases "moyenne j>our I'Anglo-
terre etc." — "la mai.son motleste..." [pp. 12-13] hardly convey the right idea. I should think
that his fortune wa.s much more considerable — say upwards of £5000 a year, before his brother's
death in 18^<l, and subsequt-ntly larger. The house \va.s maintaine<l in thoroughly sultstjintial
and costly comfort, — but when the particulars of the Will are publishe<l, which I suppose they
soon will be, we shall know.

(2) "Leg descendants du po^te phys[iologriste] p. 12...ont lu certainement de bonne lieureU^
ouvrages de leur aieul." I am almost certain of the contrary in every case except Ch. Darwin,
(and I doubt in his case whether he hatl). To myself the florid and now ridiculed poetry was
and is intolerable and the speculative physiology rejtellent I had often taken up the books
and could never get on with them. Canning's parody "the loves of the triangles" quite killed
poor Dr Darwin's reputation. It just hit the mood of the moment and though my mother
never wearitnl of talking of him, his life was to me like a fable only half believe<l in. That
much the same was the case with some of Charles Darwin's sons, I can, I think, atKrm.

(3) Gj-orge Darwin "deja connu jmr de bons memoires de statistique" [p. 13]. Prol>ably
you may not know his present very high position as a mathematical astronomer, who liiis re-
vealed the past history of the planetjiry .system, in a most unexj)ected way. His works are
spoken of iti the presidential address of the lloyal Society etc. as mansive works. They are only
slowly becoming known, being exceedingly lalx>rious mathematical work of a kind that is within
the practice of very few men indeed, but by them cordially recognisi'd as commensurate in
originality and importance with that of Laplace. His calculations depend on the "viscosity"
of all solid bodies on the yielding of their gidigtance to a tidal action, and most unexpected
results came out, which bind under one scheme a large variety of astronomical phenomena.

When I received your pamphlet, it .so happened that your name had just been on my lips
in respect to quite another mattt^r, in which you were at one time much interestetl and which
is now being tnken up here. It is a (juestion of cHmulatirf temjierature on vegetiition. I have
been since the beginning one of the members of the council to whom a large annual grant is
entrusted bj- Government to carry on the systems of Forecasts in land and ocean meteorology
and we are endeavouring to give weekly data that may lie of direct ust- to agi-iculturists. Ip
reply to questions that we circulated as to the b<«t form for that purpose, frequent mention
was made of the cumulative values of heat. We have acconlingly hven investigating the
proliability of calculating the.se values in units of 'day-degrees' viz. (1) cumulative effect of
heat derived from 1 Fahr. of temperature acting during 24 hours, or of (2) acting during 12

* After giving them all a go<Ml dinner. Memories, p. 271.

• "Darwin aioul, considC-rC" au point de vue des causes de s<m succ^8 et I'imjjortance do ses
travaux" tin- des Archive* (U» Sriencen de la liibliollifque f'ntrvrteHi; Tome VTl. Mni/ 1882.

Con'fHpon(frnt'r trit/f Alplioiitte df ('aiulotlc 'HM

lidunt, and mo oil TIio r<!Miilt w tlntt it ih ((iiit*! fn»i«il)lo to do ho, with fair approximation, on the
(latii of rt'){ii*teri'd days' niaxiiiia and inininui, and accepting; any arbitrary IwiHc-line aliovc which
tht' acc.uiiiulativi) tenipcraturt' i« U) Im r(*ckoned. W« can eaxily give 2 or more dicen of the
diurnal curve; that xn to say the ciiniuhitivo vulunt Iwtwwn 3 or more arbitrary tenipcmtureii.

My coUeaKues ask me to impiiro of you whether you liap|>cii lately to have again attended
to the subject or whether you have any suggestions to make that might help us, in luldition to
what you have alreiuly published and which we find to be thoroughly appreciate*! by some of
our c<)rres[Mmdent»?

It is rather out of our line to do ho, but we might perliapii, if it were thought essential, get
exjHM-inients made on the c\imulative eflW-ts of tenij^rature on some forms of vegetation — say
the certNils — but probably suthcient information for our |iurpt>se alren<ly exists. We can
measure cumulutivi- elFects of siinahiiif, rnin, and Umiu-nttiirf and could mejisure that of
rvnfwraliim under any one definite condition, but it is a question whether the latter limitation
would not render the ri-sults of little general service. I should l>e grtmtly oblige<l for a reply
to the above question. Believe me, my dear Sir, very faithfully yours, Francis Oalton.
To M. Alpiionsk i>k Candoli.k.

(Sk.nkvk, 14 Jiiinier 1884.

MoN CHKR MoNsiKUR, Je pri''|)are une si'conde edition de mon volume de I'l/utoire (Im
sciencM el (its navnntu qui est e|>uist> dt'puis longtompa et que les libraires me demandent. Pour
cela je fais grand usage dtr vos Ktiglinlimttn of Science et du volume recent des Inquiries into
Human Fncultiea qui contient Ixviucoup d'articles curieux. Nous suivons la m^me m«?thode,
celle d'observer, et quatid on le peut, de compter pour comparer, par consequent nous devons
nous iippuyer Tun I'autre et nous risquons bien peu d'etre en o|>position. Permettezmoi de
vous demander quehjues iiifornmtions ,sur des savants anglais.

Pourriez vous me diiv <|uelles etaient les {)ositions ou professions des peres du cel^bre
Zdologiste Oicen nouveileiueiit cn'-e K.C. H., de Sir George Airy et de Sir George VVheatstonet
Jo n'ai pa.s jiu le sjivoir d'apnXs les dictionnaires biographiques a ma portee.

Jo presume que Sir William Thomson, ne a Belfast, fils d'un professor de niathematiques,
^tait un protestant, d'une famille 6cossaise ou anglaisc etablie en Irlande. Est-ce exact!

Ije cnnictf>i-e de votre illustre cousin Charles Darwin est si honorable, si dminent sous
plusieurs rapports, que j'aimerais cimnaStrc sur lui certains details d'une valeur nieme secondaire.
Par excuiple, uvait-il une disposition naturelle aux arts du rlexsinl et k la iinisi/]uft Rien ne
I'indique dans ses ouvragea.

Je ne sais |>as s'il faut lui attribuer une imagination forte. Beaucoup de personnel le lui
rcprochaient, piirce (|u'elles ne comprenaient pas la valeur de ses observations et dtkiuctions, et
qu'il leur plaisait de dire qu'il se livniit a de pures hypotlnXses. Pour nioi qui ai reconnu tres
vite la sagesse de son e-sprit et de sa prudence, je ne sais pas si ces <|ualites a% aient occup*' la place
entiere de I'imagination, ou s'il faut a<linettre que mfime avec l)eaucoup de vigueur de raisonntv
ment il avait Ijeaucoup d'imnginHtioii.

L'aint^ de mes jH'tits-fils, Hayniond de Candolle, ne Anglais, elev^ 4 Rugby et qui vient
d'entrer i Trinity (college, Cambridge, voit les chiffres disposes en series, et certains chiffrcs
plus apparent.s (jue d'autres dans son esprit. C'eat le seul cas de ce genre dans ma famille.
Toujours, mon cher Monsieur, votre trte d^vou^, Alph. dk Candollr.

42, Rutland Gate, London. Jan. 27/84.

My i>kar Sir, I dela3'ed answering until 1 had an opportunity of talking over the questions
you put alniut Darwin, with his very intelligent daughter.

He did not draw, he had not a good ear for music, but wa.s much affected by it, sometimes
to tears. He had naturally, (excus*- the word which I know you det^-st! but I mean 'innately')
a very emotional disposition, which was repressed by his hitbit.s of hard thinking, but always
ready to burst out. Thus his delight in the scenery of a tour alxnit the English Lakes a few
years ago, had all the freshne,><s and eagerness of that of a boy. However his nature could not
lx> calle<l aesthetic. As reganls imagination I hardly know whether I understand the won! in
your sense, nor iudee<l if I have any definition of my own. I know that his faculty of mental
imagery was once vivid and had become diminishe<l, lx)th from what he distinctly told me and
fnmi corroborative evidence. But that he ever was deceived by imagination I shotfid think
most unlikely, as he was so rtnnarkably veracious.

208 Life and Lcttcrx of Fnniris (•aUon

He iiiav be sdid io hiivc studitKl vcnunty »« tHe hijjlif.st of mts. If iiiinpniition is cit<'d in
the seiiw of living in an ideal world of diiy (Ireaiiis iiiid fXK-try, I uiiderstiiiid he wiis very fond
of poetry** a boy but his intert«t in it fiulcd by dii^use. His sc-ifntific iniuKiniitioii in the scMise
of the power of envisaging alwtnict ideas, and living amon){ thoin, iiiid interesting hiiiisi-if with
them was obviouKly g"«t, on the evidenee of his works. I am sorrj* not to be able to give you
•t prewnt much information about the other men of whom you ask.

Wktatstime was an artisan, a nieie workman originally. He took much interest in my
inquiries and lieli>e<l me in an)' way I asketl, except as to his own history.

Airy promise*! to send me details, hut eventually did not. His parents on both sides came of
mibetantial farnHTs, solid iiicii. of local notoriety. A certain disposition to dominate in argument
is a strongly marked hereilitary characteristic on the maternal (liiddell) side.

Owen I forget at the moment; they were low rather than high-middle-class. In a few days
I shall be in the way of reviving recollections and will write again.

Thointon (Sir W.) I think you are (juite right but here also I will write again.

£xcuse this im|>erfect letter, but I am on the point of going to the country for a while and
thought it best to write before going rather than after my return. I am very glad indeed that
you are about to issue a new edition of your admirable volume. Let me say about the Darwin
family that 4 of the 5 sons have achieved a very considerable reputation here. George the
Plumian Professor at C'and)ridge is looke<l \\\nm as one of the ablest of the rising men in
mathematical physics. He has made a great mark already and is rapidly rising in repute.
Frank who lectures at Cambridge on liotany was invited to be a candidate- for the Profes»t)r-
ship of Bt)tany at Oxfortl, with a certainty of i-lection, but for domestic rejisons he refused.
Uoraoe has set up, in conjunction with a friend, a lalK)ratory at Cambridge for the manufacture
of high class scientific instruments. He is most ingenious as a mechanical originator. Leonard
the Captain of Engineers, is one of the most scientific of his standing in that scientific corps.
In the entrance examination he was first of all the candidattw.

Thank you for telling me of your son's "numlH-rform." I feel a little wicke<l delight at the
fact occurring in your own family, because I recollected that you were at first somewhat
sceptical of the reality of that curious tendency.

You will be glad to hear that we have begun at the Meteorological Office to publi.sh accu-
miUated temperatures in units of "day-<legree8," counting (1) from Jan. 1, (2) from the first of
the current week. General Htrachey ha.s workwl out a Ix-autiful method of obtaining them
approximately, from the data of the daily maxima and minima, and a monthly (and probably
a local) constant. 1 will tell them at the office to send you one of our new she<»ts as a H|R'einien.
It will give me the greatest pleasure if at any time I can Ix; of service to you in obtaining
information. Yours veiy sincerely, Francis (Jai.ton.

Our friend Mr Bentham continues veri/ weak, but lie has no orirain'c nuiliuly.
To M. Alphonsk de Candolle.

42, Rutland Gate, London. Oct. 17/84.

Mt DSAB Sir, I have read and re-read your new edition of the "Histoire des Sciences"
with grot interest and instruction, and trust you will appreciate my attention to even the
briefest criticism by the improve<i handwriting of this letter in deference to what you justly
say (and said before) at the bottom of p. 541. It is very singular how clasely in many respects,
our line* of inquiry run side by side. I shall be very curious indeed to see how far my own
data will confirm yours in the 'nouvelles recherches,' but doubt much whether they will show
the effect of heredity to Ik; so strong, eH|)ecially, for example, in myopism. Your appraisement
of the several faculties, and selection of the faculties most convenient to be ap)>rai.sed, falls in
very closely with an ettort 1 lat<'ly indicated in the "Fortnightly" and am now making, to find
out the Ijest data by which the appraist-ment may lx< swiftly and fairly made. It has struck me
that the masters and mistresses of schools might l>e able to indicate some ofttm recurrent events
in ordinary .sch<x)l life, which evoke different conduct in different children, and that by statistics
of their conduct on these occasions, some fair guide to their habits and therefore to their char-
acter at the lime being might Ix) obtained. I should Im; greatly obliged for any hints that your
experience may have suggested, how to appraise tht«e qualities.

I venturw to send you the " Fortnightly" of which 1 speak, not oidy on account of that article,
bat becaute of a very curious one in it alxnit the Jews, by L. Wolf, which I feel sure will

Corrrttpondence ivith Aljthoimr tie CamlolU: iHilt

int<>r('Kt yon in connection with your nmmrks on p. 174. T think however, tlint Mr Wolf over-
HtiitfM luH c>u»\ Wo Imvii arranged to talk the nmttcr over iiiiti ho will show mo hi« tliita. It
HtrikcH niP that tho .Jowm nro KpccialiK<><l for a jmraitiliad oxist<inc-e U|H)n other natioiiN, and that
there in iu><-(l of uvidonce that (hey are ea|>H)>le of fullilling the varied duties of a civilinod nation
hy tlioniHelvoH.

I No<' that you still atlhere U> your view of tiie inlluonwof tho parental feelings at the time
of coneeptioM, on tiie child. Couhl not that U- exp«>riinenUlly t«'.ste<l uixm «uch nniinalx as
ralihitH? and pos.sildy upon -{uinea piK^' The cause of f(')ir niiKht 1m' the exhiliition of a weaitei
or ferret. I cannot conclude without exprotiKin;^ my sincere plea«un> at tho way in which you
have Hpoken of my inquirioH. It is ono of tho ph'asantest ft«linRK to know that one is in
intellectual sympathy with others. Believe me very sincerely yours, Francis (Jai.ton.

To M. Alpiionsk dk Candolle.

OENkvK. 27 Oct. 1884.
MoN ciiKii MoNBiKUit, Jo suis trt-si heureux do penser quo voum approuvez nies denii^re*
i\'<-liercho.s sur I'hen'Hlite! A peine cepindant tOli's etaicnt publit'-es (|ue je voyais ciautres con-
sideration.s qui mi'ritaiont oxanien et avanceraient nos connaissances. J'osp^ro (|u'olh« m'. trou-
veront dans votro prochain volume.

II n'y a jmvs do doute quo hvs maitres ot maitrcsses decoles |)ourraient fairo des ol>servation8
interessnntoH sur les enfant.s, mai.n il faut vouloir olxserver, et le temps manque souvent a
dos pt>rsonne8 aussi fatiguees par leurs functions. Si on leur onioiinf, ile faire telle ou t<?ll«
observation ello se fait moina bien que si cela vient do lour propre volont<S.

lios t'coles dont on pourrait tirer lo plus grand parti sont, par exemple, les ocoles poly-
techniques, normale, navale, etc., en Fnmco. On y entre, i^ un age determint\ apre« des examens
qui clius-sent l(^s individus. Ix« Sieves sont suumis au niome regime de nourriture, etc. Ensuite
on los cla.s.so u la sortie. On pourrait done constator si, dans des conditions dgales, les plus
Imhiles ont etc les plus ou les nioins robustes, les blonds ou les bruns, los fumeunt ou les non-
fuuieurs, les tils d'liommos instruits ou d'autros, etc. II faudrait dans une do ces ocoles qu'un
medi'cin ou un des administrateurs eut I'idiie de faire ces coniparaisons, voila le dithcile, quoique
deux anneos tussont suthsantes.

Votro article 'Measuremont of Character' a I'avantage do provoquer les reflexions et 8U8-
citora pout etre de bonnes ob.servations. Je vous remercio do me I'avoir onvoyd!

L'artido de Mr WolH' sur les Juifs me parait un pen trop flatteur a leur oganl. Si certaines
pri'scriptions du Talmud .sont lH)nnos j>our la sant<^, il mo parait bieu douteux qu'elles soient
sntlisamment observcos par les fideles, connne le prdtend I'auteur. Les injonctions ne les ont pas
reiidus gi'-neraleniont propres. lis sont nioins propros quo beaucoup do chretiens auxquels la
religion ordonne de mepriser leur corps, de pen.ser surt<^>ut » lame et a la vie future. Je ne puis
croire que les .separations dos ejKmx pendant des p'rifKles au.ssi longuo^ quo celles dont parle
Mr WoUT, soient reellement observt'-es, surtout les mariagcs etant prococos, et .si on lo.s olMserve
il doit y avoir un palliatif dans uno |M)lygamie plus ou moins a<lmisc. Ix-s ancions Juifs et.-»iont
regulieroment polygames; ensuite les .sorvantt's ont probableinent s(Tvi do com|ilement i la
fennne legitime et aujourd'hui (pie .so |>asse-til ehey, los Isnu'-lites? Je voudrais ilautres tomoi-
gnages que coux do Mr Wolll', par exomple le dire do nu-decins. II y a iM-aucoup il'actrices juives
et do modeles pour les jHfintres. La prevoyance habituelle chez la race et leurs manages
precoces ont prolMiblomont plus d'imporUince pour regler los mivurs que les prescriptions de la
loi religieuse. L'artido ile Mr Wolfl' m'a appris du reste bien des choees que j'ignorais et 8t>s
roHoxions sont souvent tr^s justes.

Vous avoz bion raison do dire que les Juifs sont aduptes a la vie parasite. C'est une bonne
definition des faits. II faut dire qu'on les a forces ii eette vie except ionnelle. Si les dillicult^s
otaient I'ompletement leviV's jiour eux, ils changeraient pout etre. D'Israeli a ^te un homnie
d'l'tjit t'gal a In-aueoup de plus distingucs.

C'est un profe.sseur de physiologic Juif qui mo pro]x)sait d'executer avec raoi des exp«'rience6
sur refVet de ralc«K)lisn»o, do la jiour, etc., sur los pnxluits dans les lapins, ou les cobayes, ou les
chiens. J'avoue que ces sorte.s d'oxjKJriences me repugnent, mais je cix)is qu'ellos prouveraient
ce que jo suppose: que I'dtat momuntane des (larents influe sur les pro«luits. (>n I'a vu maiutes
fois pour I'alcoolismc et je viens de lire dans une revue tr^s .scrieu.se (Urnte ithygieHt, Octobre
1884 p. 875) ce qui .suit;

"Notre ami, lo Pn>f T,'ivet, do Bordeaux, avait a fairo (au congres d'hygiine de Lattaeie)

p o II 27

210 Lij'c and Letters oj Francis (i alt on

un 1 ■ ■tion roloutaire de hinaialitf dn jK>iiU de v}ie de s«s conseqntiices hnmani-

taif - "II lui: " Au iHjint de vue moral, cllf fnvorise rillegitimit^, les 9 d<''|)arte-

mentH qui out Ic iiioiuB do naisganccs legitinieH out nuKtii le cu«>nici<>nt d'illi'-gitiiiiito lu plus
eleve, . . . L'acconiplissonieiit im-oniplet d'une fonotion pervcrtit les excitations au lieu de los
^t«indre. L'habitude de la restriction anl^ne uiie perturbation du syst^'^me nerveux des conjoints ;
let enfant* urn par erreur dniis cen condiiiont »e re»»entent de la perturbation nerveu-ae </na
prindi h leitr anuxption. Les ali^ues sont plus noinbreux daus les d6part«nient« ou les epoux
ont le nioins d'enfante."

"M. Lunier, de Paris, est cunvaincu de rinfluence de la restriction volontaire sur le d6-
veloppement de IVtat nt'vrosique, particuli^renient de rhyNt4»rie et de la nevralgie il<^o-
lomluiire cliez les femmvs, et en cite do nonibreuses observations nouvelles. Ijv suppression du
droit d'oinesse fait que le mal s'etend conime une tache d'liuilc duns les canipiignes." Certaine-
nient dans les joiys, coninie France, oii la loi assuit; un j)artjige i-gal cntre les enfants, lioaucoup
de fenimes et de maris ont peur d'une Sii^nie, 4ieme ou .Oieme grossesse. L'etfet de cetto peur
sur certains enfants est probable. Me voici sur un sujet bien scabreux. II faut mieux s'arret^r
et vous prier, raon cher Monsieur, de me croire toujours votre tr&i d^vou^ Alpu. de Candollk.

GBNfevB. 29 Sept. 1885.

Mox ciiEK MoNsiKiR, Vous avez eu la Ijonte de m'envoyer votre savant article sur
I'h^retlite de la stature et je ni'empresse de vous en reuiercier.

La taille (soit stature) est bien un des meilleurs caracttNres a etudier au point de vue de
I'h^r^t^ II est precis et d'une nature simple qui s'adapto a la statistique. Sur le continent
nous avons une quantity? de donneea relatives k la taille des jeunes gens appeles forcement au
service militaire, mais rien sur I'liert'-dite de ce caraotvre. On a constate souvent qu'un change-
ment dans I'alinientation d'une population modiiie la tjiille nioyenne. Ainsi, dans les dejwrte-
nients fran^ais, la stature s'est (]u«lquc{ois i^lcvtk; quand le mais a ete substitud au sarrasin ou
au seigle. Inversement le canttm de Berne en Suisse avait une belle population, forte et de
taille plutdt elevee, mais les paysans se sont mis depuis 50 ans d distiller de I'eau de vie de
pommes de terre. Leurs femmes et mSnie leurs enfants en boivent. II en est resulte un
afikiblissement tris visible de la race, et vu le nombre de scrofuleux, goitreux, idiot-s, etc., il
est probable que la taille nioyenne a diminud. Nous n'avons pas de document ancien qui
pemiette de le bien omstater, mais je vous signalerai une publicati<m recente du Bureau
federal de Statistique fort interessante pour le« recherclie.s dont vous vous occuj)ez. Elle est
intitulee: Rfsultats de la i-isit^ sanilaire d«s recruen en aulomne 1884, par le Bureau do
Statistique ft'-deral, 31 pages en 4, Benie 1885, Ort^ll, Fussli et C'', I'-iliteurs a Zurich.

On trouve dans ce cahier In-aucoup de faita sur la taille, le thorax, I'acuiU' de la vue, la
profession, etc., des recrues acceptees ou i-efusecs jMiur le servic<! militaire. Le texte est en
frani^is. II est de la plume de M. Kunimer, chef du Bureau, homme tres exact et judicieux.

J'ai sur ma table un volume — malheureuscmcnt en allemand — qui contient le resume de
tout ce qu'on a rduni sur la proportion des sexes et le nombre des naissances on divers pays,
chez rhomme et dans les animaux et les plantes. Le titre est: Die Regulierung des Geschlechl-
Vfrhaltnx»»ea hex der Vermehmmj der Menschen, Tiere und PJlanzen, von Carl Dusing, Dr Phil.
Jena 1884. On rendrait service en tra<Iuisant cet ouvrage en anglais ou en franrais. Cependant
plusicurs parties, et natureHement les tableaux, sont intelligibles pour les personnes qui ne savent
pas bien I'allemand.

Iji proportion enornie des enfants m&les quand le ptro est age m'a extrfimement frappc. Quand
un de vos Ijords voudra avoir des fils il faut lui conseiller de w maricr tard ! La nutrition qui
moditie la proportion des sexes dans les produits paniSt diiferentc de co qu'on NU|ipose conniiune-
ment. Sur ce point les moyennes obtenues pour les animaux domesticiucs, selon lu nourriture
prf'Alable des parents, sont curieuscs et positives. Les vetcrinaires en Alleniagne ont reuni
beaucoup de faits. J'espt-ro que vous avancez dans vos relev(^« des nombreustw observations quo
vous avez faitcs. (Ja seni un travail bii-n intV-re^sant. I>es publications de la Societt' d'anthro-
polugieanglaisen'arrivent pas ici. Auriez-vousla IwnU'de me doiiner le titre et le prix du journal
de cette 80<:iet«''1 Je trouverais peut^f-tre Jiioyen de le faire iichetcr jmr notre Socidtd de L<'cture,
sort* d'institution litteraire qui re<,-oit d6ja des publications fraiii^aises et allemaiiihv< sur
I'anthropologie. Ilecevez, mon clier Monsieur, I'assurance de nies sentiments tr^ devoues.

Alpu. ue Candoli.e,

PLATE XXI

5

o

CJl AFTER XI

PSYCHOLOCJICAL INVESTKJATIONS

"While recognising the awful mystery of conscious existence and the inscrutable back-
ground of evolution, we liiul that ils tiic fon-niOHt outcome of many and long birth-throes,
intelligent and kindl}' man linds himself in lM>ing. lie knows how petty he is, but he also
percoiveH that he stands here on this particular earth, at this particular time, as the heir of
untold ages and in the van of circumstance. Ho ought therefore, I think, to Ik.' less ditfidont
than he is usually instructed to b<s and to rise to the conception that he ha.s a considerable
function to perform in tlio order of eventH, and that liis exertions are nee<Iod. It seems to mo
that ho should look u|x>n himself more as a frf>eman, with power of shaping the course of
future hunianit}', and that he should look Ufx>n himself le-ss as the subject of a despotic govern-
ment, in which case it would Ix; his chief merit to depend wholly ujion what had l»een regulated
for him, and to render abject obedience."

Fkancis G ALTON, Ifujuiriei) into Human Fac^Uty, 1883.

Jntroilfictori/. We have marked the transition of Galtons mind from
interest in geographical to intercut in anthropological studies. But once
deeply interested in physical anthropology, he very soon grasped that the
superHcial anthropometric characters were no adequate index to the real
man himself Probably to the day of his death he would have been un-
willing to admit that the size of a man's head had no real prognostic value
as a measure of his intelligence. But he graduallv came to the conclusion
that the static anthropometric superficial characters aHbrded little index to
a man's mentality, and from the middle of the seventies onwards Gralton's
thoughts turned more and more to the psychometric side of anthropology. He
thus grew to have less and less faith in any superHcial or IxxUly measurements
being of psychological importance. He did not, I think, consider whether
the dynamic anthropometric chanicters were more closely related than the
staticjJ to metital efficiency; indeed the measurement of the correlation
between the physiological functioning of the various orgiins of the body
and its psychical activities is a problem of ipilte recent days; and we stand
only at its threshold as far as scientiHc — by which I understand quanti-
tative— .solution goes. Gal ton was, however, among the first, if not al>so-
lutely the first, in this country to insist that anthropometry cannot make
real progress without p.sychometric oljservation and experiment. He was
the fii-st to insist upon the importance of experimental psychology — and he
approachetl the suDJect from the standpoint of the anthropologist. It is
perfectly true that Germans were working at experimental psychology at
least >is early as Galton. Wundt reversed Galton's process and piutsetl with

87—2

212 Life ami Lefterff of Francis Gal ton

doubtful success from psycliology to anthropology'. But it seems to me that
the work of the two men was wholly independent and that Galton was
the pioneer of experimental j)sychology in this country. Indeed very little
real progress was possible in this new science without the aid of Galton 's
correlational calculus, and jwychologists not only owe Galton a great debt
for his .suggestive experiments and actual apparatus, but also for those
mathematical methods which are now t1i«- nuiinionplace tools of psychologictil
investigation.

I do not speak without careful examination of the facts, when I claim
for Galton a pioneer position in experimental psychology in Great Britain.
His Inquiries into liuman Fnodty ami its Dereloiyment appeared in 1883,
but it was a rSsrimS of work which had occupietl Galton foi- at least seven
years previously, and if we include folk j)8ychology, for twelve years'.
Gralton 8 notebooks and (pieries to him.self and friends begin as early as
1876, and one docket is inscribed by himself "Psychometric Inquiries 1876."

In March, 1883, Galton printed and issued a four-page pamphlet in the
preparation of which he had trie aid of the late Professor G. C'room-Ilobertson '.
Galton opens with the statement that:

"I ajn endeavouring to compile a list of instruments suitfible for tlip outfit of an Anthro-
pometric Laboratory, especially those for testing and measuring the eHiciency of the various
mental and bodily powers. The simplest instruments and methixls for miequately determining
the delicacy of the several senses are now under discussion. After these sliall have been dis-
poaed of, the next step will be to consider the methods of measuring the quickness and the
•ocumcy of the Higher Mental Processes. Any information you can give, or suggestions that
you can make, will be thankfully accepted."

The remainder of the pamphlet deals with the measurement of sensi-
tivity, giving an analysis of the facts of sensation, and a jirogranune of what
has to De measured in (I) Skin -sensation, («) Temperature, and (h) Touch,
(II) Sight, (III) Hearing, (IV) Smell, (V) Taste, and (VI) the so-called
muscular sense. Much of this is of coui-se very familiar now. But it led
Galton him.self to devise various instruments for testing skin-sensation, hear-
ing, smell, etc. As the pamphlet states, having the facts clearly before us,
we must next "proceed to consider the most suitable apparatus to afford
the measurements (or other tests) suggested by the several paragraj)h8."
This pamphlet was followed by a proj)08al to hold an exhibition of p.sycho-

' Compare the great difference in value between Wundt's PnychologUche Studien and his
ViiUctrptyehologie.

• As evidenced by correspondence in the Ualton laboratory. The first published paper was
that on the WktMlUn of 1877, and the Composite Porlraitt and Generic Imogen followed in
1878 and 1879 respectively.

• Gallon's friendship with Croora-Roliortson Ix^an in 1876, when the latter was just starting
Mind. Galton hod sent him two of his papers on Heredity, and Crooni-llolx'rtson said they
should not lie ovi-rliKjkf-il in the second issue of that Journal. He also asked Galton for
p>-\ ■ ' iitions. "There was no one to whose int<>iligent c<X)peration 1 then owed
tu'-. . . Crooni- Robertson (1842-1892) of University Ojllege. His genius and
teni)ifniiiieril were of the mcjst attractive Scottish ty|>e — exact, sane and very genial.... Ho
was a thorough friend whose death left a void in my own life that has never been wholly
filled." Uemoriet, p. 267.

I

IIIOI

Psijchologieal ftivrstigations 213

metric instruments which was circuhited among the leading Enghsh psy-
chologists'. The notewortliy fact that resulted was that very little apjtaratus
of the kind existerl in England, and practically none had been invente<l
there. One di.stinguishctl p.sychnlogist wrote to (Jalton:

" I roj^irtl yoii an a, public l)enofact<ir and only wish I c<)ul<l !><> <if mom uw! to you. For
Home tinu- I liiive lieon iiif«>n<liiii; to jfct tjix<"lli<T somt^ |i«ycho|>hyHicftl nppHrntuN hut llv
(lirtirulty liiis l>0)>n Ui get tlii> iiuiuRy. Ju.st ii.s tlint ilillioulty wa.>< U) soiiin cxU-iit RuriiiounU<<l
I fouiicl iiiy.Hi'll' cDiiunitti'd to ii lii^giHli picott of lit^^rary work which will lake all my tinio for
siiiii<> iiiuiitlis to coino.

()iu« of till" tirst. thiiif^s I Mifjwit to do wan to wril^> to you and auk to In- aliowwl to spc ttonu-
of your apjMiratus; that [ .shall now 1k» aUNt to do when this oxliibition cour-h off. I expect
you kni>w a >;it'at deal luoro alM>ut the whole thinj{ than I <lo. I may, however, mention two
or thr<^> hooks and pa|M>rH in which apparatus has Imhih descrilK^d."

.\nd then follows a list of references, almost entirely to German pa|)er8.

" But I am afraid in saying all this to you I am making myself very otTensive, sending slack
to Newcastle. However you nnist forgivo me, if you will, and believe that I am only anxious
U) b<- of use to you if I etin."

These sentences seem to .suggest that in 1 884 a leading psychologist could
recognise Galton »w a pioneer. The sjime authority, writing in 1911, says:

"The j)osition I think is this: Oalton deserves to Ix; calle<l the first Knglishnian to publish
work that was strictly what is now called Kxperimental Psychology, but the development of
the nxivonient academically has, I Ix'liove, in no way been intluencetl by him."

Possibly it would have been better for English psychology had it \teen
e iiiHuenced by Galton. We should then have had an original English
School of I'.sychology, not handic<\pped by (Jeiinan dominance. But no one
can to-day examine American and English psychological pajwrs without
recognising that their chief superiority over German and French work lies
in tlie adoption of Galton's correlational calcidtis. It ha.s given them a
methodology far superior to that of their continental competitors, and on

' 42, Rutland Oatk, aW. Jan. 28/84.

1>KAK Mb I have undertaken to arrange aiul exhibit at the largi* forthcoming Health

Kxhibitioii a suitable outfit for an Aiithropmictric I^itwratory. Its object would be to afford
means of (h>fining and measuring personal peculiarities of Form and Faculty, more especially
to test whether any given person, reganleil as a human machine, was at the time of trial more
or less effective than others of the sjinie age and sex. Again, to show by means of te.stings
rt!peate<l at intervals during life, whether the nite of his development and decay was normal.
The apparatus should refer to: —

1. Ordinary weighing and measuring, spii-onieter, colour of hair and eyes, etc.

2. Muscular action, — strength, estimate of range of motion, right and left-hande<lneHS,
steadiness of hand, etc.

3. Ktlectiveness of the various .senses, duration of impreasions, after-images, reaction-times,
waxing and waning stimuli, etc.

. 1. Higher mental procc-sses, judgment of lengths, angles, memory of eye and ear. Elo-

I^L mentary Judgment's, innps atid apparatus.

I^B (This is but a brief ofTliiind and not a well methodised description, but it will serve for the

W^M present.)

I^B Have you any s|>ecial apparatus that you would allow me to exhibit in your namet Either

I^B the apparatus it,self, a picture of it, or any hints from which I could have apparatus madef

I^B I should lx> most gratf/id for any hints. Very faithfully yours, Fkancis Oaltoj*.

I

214 Life ami Letters of Francis Gallon

this account alone it is impossible to assert that experimental psychology in
our universities has been in no way influenced by Galton. There are not
wanting signs also, that ac!\demic psychology may awake to a truei- sense of
what Cialton achieved in this Held and will cease, while adopting his calculus,
to disregjutl Iwth his apparatus and oljservational work. Four years before
(Jalton started his exhibition he wj\.s. howevei', collecting his information
and distributing his schedules, 'i'lie folltiwing letter to Professor .laincH Ward
written in 188(1 will indicate how Galton was then working on visualised
numbei-s:

42, Rutland Gate, Feb. 9/80.

Dear Mr Ward, What a charming, interesting and full lt'tt<!r you have sent ine. I wish
Pytliagonis was in reach of the penny post that I might send him a schedule. But failing that,
please tell me if I rightly catch your explanation. Is it that Pythagoras who (to use your
numerical equivalents) always visualised "a clever boy " whenever there was any question of the
numl)er five, — five men, five shields, five dinners eta, — came to think that the "clever l>oy"
was more of a reality than the men, shields or dinnersl I could lietter understand that
"numljcrs are the /u/x>;crti> of things" than the converse way in which it is put bj' him. Will
you kindly write and tell me?

Thf as,si:»ciation l>etween nunjber and colour has, I find, to be criticised rather closely to Ix'
sure that it ha.s not a trivial origin. A young lady of apparently more than average ability
hiul astonished her F'ather by an accidental allu.sion to these things. He told me of it and
I questioned her. One very decided association was rod with "million"; she told me she
thought it due to the play of the word "vermUlion." Another correspondent (indeed 2 or 3
I think) speaks of much the same thing as regards letters. One wrote to me this morning
saying that e was always green; but he believed this due to the ee in the word. But there is
no doubt that blue has a calming effect and rod an irritating one, for the Italian ina(l-<loctors
find an advantage in putting their irritable patients in a room lighted with blue light, and
their apathetic ones under a retl light.

As regards the preference for particular numbers, it would indeed be a curious inquiry.
I had .some experience more than once in that myself; — thus in getting census returns of age,
.30 is a favourite answer, there are a paucity of 29*8 and Si's and a superabundance of 30's.
Also in meteorological readings a tendency of that kind shows itself. The Hebrew 40, etc.,
are similar cases. (In my own family IG was an habitual noun of indefinite magnitude, I
could not conceive why.) Your suggestion, however, throws much light on the usual causes
for preference.

I quite understand your \ • ' etc. in the sense you mentioned, but I see that I have some-
what bungled in the use of it notwithstanding. It often s(>cms t*) me that there is a perverse
demon, who somehow makes one write or do ditlerently to what one intended U> do. I can
recall one grt>ss error that I once made in pure defiance of my Ijetter judgment; it seemed
temporarily sent to .sleep while the hand wrote. A poor excuse!

What you say al>out your rudimentary diagram of figures is doubly interesting. It helps
to show continuity between total absence and full existence and it is the first clear account
I have received of motor sensation associatetl with numl)er. The absence of these has hitherto
astoni.she<l me, because my own representations are eminently motor. I can't think of
"gratitude" without mentally acting the part of a grateful man, etc.

I really think there will tuni up as you suppose, some facts bearing on teaching arithmetic.
A girl of Fn'nch parentage (the father is a mathematician settled in Kngland) had her system
gent me by her Father, together with his own. It shows clearly the influence of the French
uamu for numerals. With man}' thanks for all you have sent.

Yours faithfully, Francis Galton.

Psf/c/iotogi'ral /tiirntif/atiotm 215

A. I'SYCHuMETHtO TNHTHUMENTS

1 think it will In- l)eHt in dciilinj; with Francis Onlton's psyche )rn«'tric wurk
to start with soinn ucrount of the instrunu'nts devised by him. In I 87<> there-
was exhibited at South Kensington a "Special Loan (collection of Scientific
Appaiiittis," and in connection witli this exhibition a series of conferences
was held in the month of May. At these conferences di.scnssions on various
subjects took place, largely in relation to the instruments exhibited. Spottis-
woodti \vi\H J'resident of the .section of Physics, ami among the Vice-Presi-
dents were he la line, llelmholt/,, Tyndall and Sir William Thomson (Lord
Kelvin). On May 19, one of the subjects for discussion was "Tlie Limits of
Audible Sound," and among other papers Galton gave an account of his
"Whistles for determining the uj)per limits of amlible .scmnd in ditterent
persons'."

Galton notes that the number of vibrations perceived oJ' a "clo.soil pipe"
or whistle depends upon its length. Accordingly he alters its length by a
screwed plug at the closed ends; the ntmil)er of turns and part turns of the
screw are registered on a scale fixed to the walls of the whistle and on the
screw head. The j)itch of the screw is 25 to the nich. Hence one turn of tlie
head shortens the tube by 2"g-th of an inch and the head of the screw l)eing
divided into ten parts it is possible to shorten the wliistle by ^^ of an inch
with perfect ease. Now the velocity of sound in ordinaiy conditions of
temperature and pressui-e being 13,440 inches per second, the note of the
whistle may be found by dividing 13,440 by four times the length in inches,
i.e. by 4h x^Jir. where n is the reading on the scale, or 840,000/n is the
number of vibrations per seconds For example, if the screw lie set at 10,
there are 84,000 vil)rations a second, if at 70, 12,000, while a setting of
120 denotes 7000 vibrations per second. This rule of course ajjplies only to
strictly longitudinal vibrations. (}alton very properly observes that it ceases
to apply when the length of the tube is less than one-and-a-half times its
diameter. When the tube is reduced to a shallow pan, it is the transverse
vibrations which are all important. The necessity of preserving a fair pro-
portion between diameter and length, led (ialton to reduce the bore of his
tube in some cases to a very minute dimension. On this account he con-
sidered that his whistles could not be relied on for vibrations of more than
14,000 to the second.

CJalton notes than when the limits of audibility for a given person are
reached "the sound usually gives place to a peculiar sens;ition, which is not
sound but more like dizziness, and which some persons experience in a high
degree." He further remarks that young people hear shriller sounds than

' K>outh Keimint/ton Afii.ieum Conferences held in connection with the Special Loan Col-
lection of Scientijic Apparatus, 1876. Physics anil Mechanics Volnme, p. 61. Publishe<l by
Clmpman iiiul Hall. Gallon's account was reproduced with some intro«luctory matter in a
pamphlet cntitlixi "Galtons Whistles," issued by Tisley and Co., who manuractured the
whistles coinniercially. They are still manufactured, but not by this firm's successors.

'' The original gives 8-t,000/n by a slip.

21 H Life and LetUrs of Francis Gallon

older people, and cites a Doreetshire proverb "that no agricultural labourer
who is more than forty years old, can near a bat squeak." He distinj^uishes
between the shurjuifss of lieanng and the hearing of higli notes, and indi-
cates that the position of the \vhisflt> — opposite to the auricular orifice —
may be of inijxjrtance.

Dalbv 'the aurist' had already ut^ed one of (Jalton's whistles for diagnosis,
and Galton himself had tried experiments with them on all kinds of animals
at the Zoological Gardens and on insects. He put one of his whistles at the
end of a hollow walking-stick wliich had a hit of india-iniblKM- piping under
the handle, brought the stick as near jus was SJife to the animal's ear, and
when it wjis accustomed to it, stpieezed the tube, and observed whether
it pricked its ears. If it did, it probably heard the whistle. Cattle and
ponies, much more than hoi-ses, hear high notes. If you pass through the
streets of a town, working the walking-stick whistle, all the littli: dugs turn
round, but it does not seem to liave any effect on the large ones.

"Of all ci-eatures I have found none superior to cats in the |)ower of hearin;; shrill

sounds. It is jierfoctly reniarkahlc what a faculty they have in this way You can nmko

a cat, who is at a very considerable disUince, turn its ear i-ound by sounding a note that is too
shrill to Ik! audible by any human car."

Galton attributes this faculty in cats to natural selection, differen-
tiating them so that they am hear the shrill notes of mice and other animals
they need to catch. Some of Galton's audience at the conference heard the
hign notes of his whistles, others failed to catch them at all. Among the
former was Alexander J. Ellis, translator of Helmholtz's lA'hre von der
Tonenipjindmufen, who statetl that he heard all the high notes perfectly.
It is clear that very useful work might be done to-day by testing the
meml)ei-8 of families and forming pedigrees for cjises in which there is a
faculty for hearing very high notes, and probably Galton's whistles would be
an adecpiate means of investigation. I do not rememlx^r ever seeing a fre-
quency curve for a large genend po^)ulation of the limit of audil)ility'.

An addendum to the above paper on whistles was contributed to Nature'
by Galton in March, 1883. He notes that while his little whistle, set at '14
of an inch, would give about 24,000 vibrations per second if air were putted
through it, the vd^rations will be some 86,500 a second if hydrogen be
used, ueciuse the numl^er of vibrations per second is inversely proportional
to the square root of the specific gravity of the gas blown through, and
hydrogen is thirteen tinies lighter than air. Galton tested first with coal-
gas, the sj)ecific gravity of which is not nmch more than half that of conmion
air. He found that a length of "13 of the whistle gave him pei-stjnally no
audible note for air; but he heiird the note at •14; he could for coiil-gas
^et no audible note at "24. Galton suggests that the whistle-lengths at
imit of audibility, being as "14 to "25, or as '56 to I, are nearly in the ratio
of "GO to 1, or the specific gravities. I^t if the audibility depends on the
period and not the square of the period, 5(3 to I should be as the sqxiare roots

' Oalton's published data do not really provide material for such a curve (see our p. 221).
» Vol. xxvii, p. 491, corrected Vol. xxvni, p. 54.

i

Psych ological fn rexf Igatiom

217

of the specific gravities. The experiment may possibly iudicjite that the subject
apjJH'ciated the notes not by their nunil)er of vibrations, but by their en<*rgy.
As some persons can hear a musical note with the air whistle set at
much less than "H, it may be concluded that 173,000 vibrations per second
are possible with a hydrogen whistle.

"Mr Iliiwksley is making for mo ati appanitus witli small f,'as Kai,' for hy<irii;;cii pure or
diluted, and an india-ruhbor Ixill to squo(>z(^ to (>nal>l<- liydrogcn to \x- used with the whistle
wh(<n (leHirud. Tim whistle is tixtnl to the vnd of a hiiiuII india-rubber tube in order to l>e laid
luiar llio insect whose notice it may Ik> desired to attract"

Galton thought it possible that some insects may hear notes quite in-
audible to man and he proposed to put this to the test of experiment. I do
not know of any report on the results of experiments with this hydrogen
whistle on insects. The difficulty for fieldwork, as apart froni labomtory
experiment, would l>e the transport of the hydrogen.

From Hearing Galton turned his attention to the "muscular sen.se," or
rather to that combination of senses which tests by lifting weights what
dirterence, if any, there is between them'. Galton, adopting Weber's law,
took liis weights in geometrical progression, i.e. as

WR\ WR\ WR\ WR\ etc.

He chose 11'= 1000 grains and R= 1020 grains and hnd ton varieties taking
R to the powers:

0, 1, 2, .3, 3i, 4^, 5, 6, 7, U, 12.

He made his weights by charging cartridge cases with shot and closing
in the usual way with a wad. If the weights be ninnbered with the power
of R, Galton obtained a series of triplets of the following kind :

Just Perceptible Batio

Grade of Sensibility

Seqnenoe of Weight*

1020

I

1,2, 3

1030
1040

8

2, 3i, 5
3,5, 7

1050

13

2,41. 7

1-061

0,3, 6

1071

iiii

0,31, 7

1082

IV

1, .-i, 9

1093"

IV|

0,41, 9

1104

V

2,7, 12'

[1115

vi

0, 5i. 11]»

1126'

VI

0,6,- 12

Galton chose his lowest weight ( WR") so that it gave a decided sense of
weight, and his highest so that it could be handled without sense of fatigue.
The te.st consisted in placing the weights in each series in correct order of

' "An Apparatus for Testing the Delicacy of the Muscular and other Senses in different
Persons." Journal of the Anthropological Institute, Vol. xii, pp. 469-75.
' Corrected values ; these are errors in the original paper.
• Interpolated to complete series, but not available with Galton's original ten weights.

PGU

88

218 Life ami Letters of Francis Galton

magnitude. The grade, beyond which the order was not correctly given,
measured the muscular sensitivity of the individual. Galton emplia-siswl the
fact that beyond true appreciation, the correct order might l>e given by
chance in, perhaps, one or another case.

The important points here are: (1) How far the sense measured is touch
and how far muscular appreciation. In Galton's method of handling even
inertia might be a factor of the appreciation' (pp. 473-4). (11) Galton
assumes the geometrical law, and this plays a large part in his later work,
(ill) He does not suppose with Weber tliat IT and li vary from individual to
individual. He assumes a sort of population average value for IT and li.
I am by no means sure that his purjx)se could not have been accomplished
with equal eflectiveness by taking the first weight the same in each triplet
(or (luartet) and making the others proceed, not by ecjual ratios, but by
equal differences; in fact his geometrical series, except in the lowest grades
01 sensitivity , are very approximately arithmetic series.

Galton remarks:

" Blind persons are reputed to have acquired, in compensation for the loss of their eyesight,
an increased acuteness of their other senses. I was therefore curious to nmkc some trials with
my test apparatus, and I was permitted to do so on a nuinlx-r of boys at a large educational
blind asylum, but found that although tliey were anxious to do their Ix'st, their performances
were by no means superior to those of other boys. It so happeneil that the blind latis who
showed the most delicacy of touch, and won the little prizes I offered to excite emulation,
barely reached the mediocrity of the sighted lads of the same ages, whom I had previously
tested. I have made not a few oliservations and inquiries, and find that the guidance of the
blind depends mainly on the multitude of collateral indications, to which they give much heed,
and not in their superior sensitivity to any one of them. Those who sec do not care for so many
of these collateral indications, and habitually overlook and neglect several of them. I am
convinced also, that not a little of the popular Ijelief concerning tlie sensitivity of the blind is
due to occasional exaggerated statements that have not been experimentally veritied." (p. 475.)

So Galton destroyed another of the beliefs, which are only held because
men in general have been too sluggish to test their truth experimentally.

In a footnote added in March of the following year, 1883', Galton
endeavoured to distinguish l)etween the sense of touch and the sense of
muscular effort. He supposes the test object held in the palm of the hand,
palm uppermost, while the back of the extended hand rests on a broad and
padded stirrup, connected by a string with fixed pulleys and a counter-
balance weight. There is then no muscular effort to 8uj)port the weight, and
the hand can distinguish easily between the localised prtissure of the weight
on the palm and the "soft and broad pressure" of the stirrup on the back
of the hand. The counterbalance is then removed and the "operator" ex-
periences at once the muscular efforts necessary to supi)ort the weight and
distinguishes it from the mere pressure of the weight on the palm. 1 believe
Galton was the first investigator anywhere to measure mu.scular sensitivity
by the discrimination of weight Ixjxes.

As Galton's anthropometric measurements of sensitivity and of physique

' In the Anthropometric Room of the Galton Ivilwratory four not three weights are used
for each test. Each weight consists of a circular tin Ikjx loaded with shot, and is lifted by the
thumb ami two fingers without rocking. ' The pajier was read Nov. 14, 1882.

P^ffcJioio^irtiJ luVfMiijatfnJt 219

increftsed in range he 1 m^tnitiunts. Thus \''

■ ' struroent for l<^tiu^ uu* i>fn.>}>Ti.>'. ..f liitierenoes vi »i">- ■
«e described as a double weogv }':i t-nu'ter. one photometer beir._
by the examiner and the other by the ex uniiitv. who endeavoars t
•' V - . - 1 -I examiner. Actual 1 \ CJalton got over the r a.

~ » using shert- v>f >■> 'loured glass, each rot.i
on a horizontal wheel on the same axis, and which ci>uld thus be sec at
' -other line of sight; a rotation of either wheel caused

: <>in an . screen to pass through a greater thickness of

the coloureil glass. Fot the measurement of white light Galton replaced
t he $:he«>ts of coloured glass bv gratuig& The whole apparatus was extremely
simple; the examinee, with his nead screened from tM light, kxJced throogn
a slit into a horizontal tube blackened inside, at the other end of which were

' -^k on an illuminated screen. Inside the tube in

~ w-ere placed the two wheels carrying the examiner's

and the examinee's photometric sheets of glass diametrically, one was con-
trolled ' ' • . . • j.^j|j^

reoordt.. ^ ;.. — .- : - 'the

goodness of the colour n. The great advantage of the in>

over a wedge phot ' imy. but in the pov

i:ives the exjierinic... ■^.•me disad\-antage a: -

from the >-arying amount of 1 . ->cted from sheets at varying angle&

Another instrume : the s ne*. but the details of

which belong to an e. ^ vas s " f^^r "Determining R**-

action-Time, This consisted of a fairlv Is pendulum. ^^

leased at an angle of 1 g its descent it

_..v „ ,>^ •-""'! bv brushing ag.v..wc-^ « .^». ..g../^ .~.v. ^..-all mirror which
rt deoted ;. if or onto a screen, or on tbe other hand it gave a soond-

sigTial liy a ii_ :'it being thrown off the pendulum by impact with a

liollvw U'.\\ ^..v .^<>ition of the pendulum at either of these occ'-'-^"'^^
is kr.own. The position of the pendulum, whoi the renmnse is mat.
sii::.a]. is ' by means c^a thread stretched narallel to the axis oi Ute

pendulum elastic bands above and below and in a plane perpendicalar

to that of . ion of the poMlalum. This thread moves fredy between

two parallel bars in a horizontal plane, and pressing a key causes the bars
' >^ "^p on the thread, just, iot illustration, as the bars of a paralM ruler
dose on the thread. This d^ermines the response-poation of the
iH'ntiulum, the moti<Mi of which is not suddenly checked by the clamping of
the thread, owing to the elastic bands. The horizontal bars are just bdow

* I kaT« TCccnUj had aadi a pieoe of a^^pumtvs coaatr«c««d in tbe Biuttiic I^bontan
for tecnag penooal eqvataoo. Sbmb ■wrhinif 1 difieohf •row ia bringiag tbe t«o ookiaraa
vindows ade^patriy dose togoiha for rwnniMw iiiiiiiwi I aanMmntod tUs bjr «*d of a
pcJMi of Inmlfti apir, tho hiagf of tfco ortfaiy imy of oae ooaM bo juctiyowd to the iwagw of

tke oxtoMrdiMiy ny of tfw oOmt, the other i—gew Imh^ eat off by a diaffcngHL Tte tU^
tboroeri '

eofeaiiag of the border of Oe antraordiaaiy nage was ieaad aq^igibleL ' Ihid. p. S&.

* AabBilarpeBdahu^ad|iaa*BfafetoaB7til■eoroedIhAiol^iatheGall»Labo(a«olT,j«i*

' - ^r 'rTj^rlinnHiiBMii \i\[\ flillii iia i lull

»— 3

220

Life and Letters of Francis Galton

a horizontal scale which is 800 mm. below the point of suspension of the
pendulum. Galton provides a table for reading off the distances along the
scale from the vertic^d position of the pendulum in terms of the time the
pendulum takes from the vertical position to the }>osition in which the thread
IS clampe<l. The reaction time is thus ascertainable on the assumption that
the time from pressing the key to the mechanical clamping of the thread is
negligible ctiinpared with the reaction time. It would however be easy to
correct for this, if we armnged occasionally for the pendulum to work the
clamping key itself, and so ascertained the time of clamping independently
of the living l)eing's reaction and response.

Another instrument designed by Galton was intended to measure the
rapidity of a blow, or indeed trie rate of movement of any limb'. The principle
of the mechanism is that the limb , _

is attiiched by a string to a light
mechanism which draws in the
string at a faster rate than the
limb moves. The motion of the
string is checked when the limb
reaches its full extension, but a
light weight on a jilatform con-
tinues to rise freely and measures
by the height it reaches the
velocity of the platform (and of
the string) when the string was
checked. The whole scheme is
indicated in the accompanying
diagram. .47^ is a stretched india-
rubberlwind; intheactual machine
as worked this was much longer
than indicated in the diagram.
liC is a thin steel wire to which t '

the conical platform D is firmly ^ vi^

attached, an ivory cylinder ii rests
on the platform and runs loosely
on the steel wire. When the
platform D is checked, E goes
forward with Us final velocity
and this velocity is measured on
the scale behind BC according
to the height to which E rises.
A string passes from the vertex
of C and is wound round and ultimately fastened to one wheel F of a
differential pulley. Another string is wound round the second wheel G of
the differential pulley and ultimately fastened to it ; the remainder of this
string is made horizontal by being carried over a small pulley. To the

' Journal of the Anthropological InstituU, Vol. xx, pp. 200-204, 1890. "A new Inatru-
nient for McoHuring the liate of Movement of the various Limbs."

30.

20.

10.

'U

w

e

Psi/c/io/of/icdl hirentif/atiouji

221

horizontal portion a Hniall in(lia-rubl)er bull / is firmly attached, which rests
against tlio fixed Imrt'er //, when the top of the cvlimler E is at the zero of
the scale. The hall / nmst Ixt against // when the limb is fully extended.
T represents the direction of the string carried to the moving limb. The
(litltTential nnlley reduces the motion to ^ that of the moving limb. The
height h in niches reached l)y E for a given velocity w of / on impact is
00207 xur', which allows of an easy gramiation of the scale.

To me;isure the velocity of a blow Galton pliujes the examinee with his
back to a wall, and he strikes at a long feather, so adjusted that (i) when
the Hst reaches the feather the india-rubber ball .strikes the butter. Care
must bo taken (ii) that the wrist is rtot bent, and (iii) that the extended
horizontjd limb is in the horizontal line of the string : the free end of the
string is attaclied to the fist. The machine retiuires vertical and horizontal
adjustments to allow of the fidfilment of (i) and (iii). Galton states that the
instrument liad worked s<iccessfully in his lalHiratory. It neglects the resist-
ance of the air on the small l)ead or cylinder E, together with the possible
friction of the steel wire, and the additional acceleration due to the pull of
the string on the limb ; all these are however very .secondary factors, and
might, were it necessary, be allowed for. As usual with (ialton's apparatus,
the constituents are of the simplest character, and any man with a mode.st
mechanical knowledge could rig up such an instrument.

A dirterent anangenieiit for measuring the velocity of a blow was used
by Galton in 1882. It is figured by Galton in his account of his first
Anthropometric Lalioratory', to which we shall refer later, but the instru-
ment was discarded as it was liable to be injured if the blow was not a
straight one, and occasionally in that case the experimentee injured himsell"!
The instruments were chiefly devised by Galton himself, and included :

(«) For Hearing : both Acutencss and the Jliyhest audible Xote.

Under sound we first reach a point on which Galton was rather insistent,
namely that the sensitivity of women, the fineness of touch, of hearing, of
taste, etc., was not greater than that of men, although the contrary had l^een
often asserted. Galton tested with four of his whistles, giving 20,000, 30,000,
40,000 and 50,000 vibrations a second", with the following results :

Sex

Ages

Percentage c
of vib

>f caxcs in which the undermentioned nnmbers
rations were perceived as a maaical note

Namber
ofcaMa

Nnmber of vibrmtioiu per aeeond

ao,ooo

80,000

40,000

50.000

Mules ..

23—26
40—50

99
100

96

70

34
13

18
1

206
317

Females . .

>

23—26
40—50

100
100

94
63

28

8

11

1

176

284

' "On the Anthropometric Liiboratory at the lat« International Health Exhibition."
Journal of (he Anthropological Institute, Vol. xiv, pp. 205-212, 1885.

' I feel some doubt as to the accurate standardisation of these whistles.

222 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

On this Galton remarks: "It will be seen here, as in every other faculty
that has been discussed, the male surpasses the female'." Elsewhere Galton
writes' :

"The tritilM 1 Imve as yet niH<le on the sensibility of different persons confirm the rejiHon-
able ex[>ect«tion that it would, on the whole, Ix? Iii}{liest among the intellectuully ftblest. At
first owing to my confusing the quality of which I am sjxyiking with that of nervous irrita-
bility, I fanciiNl that women with tielicate nerves who are distressed hy noise, sunshine, etc.,
would have acute jtowers of discrimination. Hut this 1 found not to l>e the cas<'. Tn morbidly
sensitive persons, Iwth pain and sensation are induced by lower stimuli than in the healthy,
but the number of just perceptible grades of sensation between the two is not necessarily
altered.

I found, as a rule, that men have more delicate ])Owcrs of discrimination than women, and
the bu.siness experience of life seems to confirm this view. The tuners of pianofortes are men.
and so, 1 understand, are the tasters of tea and wine, the sorters of wrK>l, and the like. These
latter occupations are well salaried, becau.se it is of the first moment to the merchant that he
should be rightly advised on the real value of what he is about to purchase or to sell. If the
siMisitivity of women were superior to that of men, the self-interest of merchants would lead to
their being always employed, but as the reverse is the ca-st; the i)p|)Osit<' stijiposilion is likely to
be the true one."

The suggestion here made was worth consideration, but only limited
weight can be given to it, when we consider how many callings at that date
were closed to women, without their l>eing really unfitted for them. Greater
stress must, however, be placed upon Galton's actual observations such as
thase just recorded for the audibihty of high notes. At a later date' Galton
made experiments on the sensitivity of men and women with regard to their
discrimination in touch, using as an aesthesiometer a pair of dividers applied
to the nape of the neck. He found that women were supmior to men in
tactile sensibility in the ratio of about 7 to G. Galton's result has been con-
firmed by many later investigatoi-s. He also shows in the same paper that
women are more variable in sensitivity of touch than men. He dealt with
932 males and '^77 females, and worked by the method of median and quartiles.
There are irregularities in the tabled data, however, which suggest some
anomalies in the recorder's (Sergeant Randall's) methfKl of measurement;
they are probably injidequate to mfluence the main results.

Thus Galton's original generalisation was too sweeping. If we look to
the evolutionary standpoint and indulge for a moment in hypotheses, we
might suj)pose natmal selection endowed the hunter and warrior with
great sensitivity in the matter of sight and sound, while sensitivity to
touch after capture may well have played a part in the surrender of the
female and successful mating in a much earlier stage of living forms than
the human'.

{h) For Sight : Keenness of Vision, measured by an ingenious arrange-
ment, one size of type, diamond, only being used, and the specimen cards, all

' Loc. cit. pp. 278, 286.

* Journal of the ArUhropological Institute, Vol. XII, pp. 472-3, 1883.

' "The Relative Sensitivity of Men and Women," Nature, Vol. ^ p. 40, 1894 (May).

* One may reasonably recognise female sensitivity to touch in the play of tail, rubbing of
fur, and other excitatfjry actions of the male dog in courtship.

I

Pxiichological Invcstiyationa '2!2.'!i

fastened square to the lino of sight at distances 7", 9", 1 1" and soon up to 41".
The curve of the frame aUing which the test hlocks are phiced was actutdJy
an e(|uiangular spiral. Colour sense. A series of hars packed closely with
coloured wools wound round their centres, and the examinee had to place
pegs against such of the hars as had any shade of green wound round them.

Jmhjment of the Eye: As regards Lcm/th. A Hist har is shifted along until
a pointer is considered to hisect it, and a second bar until a pointer is con-
sidered to trisect it. A hinged lid in lK)th cases screens a swile on the top
of the bar, which lias a central fiducial mark and ^Joth graduations of its
whole length on either side. ^4.s- regards Perpendicularity'. A bar rotates
alKMit a screened pivot on a horizontjil table; this bar must be set i>erpen-
dicular to a line drawn on the table. When set, a lid is raised, and a jiro-
traetor rendered visible on which the difference of the setting and of true
|>erpeiulicularity can Ihj read off.

(c) Instruments for measuring Sense of Touch were also exhibited but
not used. Some yeare afterwards Galton adopted as aesthesiometer dividera
applied to the nape of the neck^

(</) Later Galton dealt with the Sense of Smell, and in the Galton
Laboratory we still use his method and his very bottles ! The tests consist :
('() in sorting out by smell from a number of bottles those having tlie same
contents and {b) in placing in order a number of bottles having various
intensities of smell of the same material.

((') In the test of the Eye and Hair Coloxirs Galton used artificial glajss
eyes respectively dark blue, blue, grey, dark grey, brown grey (green, Tight
hazel), brown, dark brown, bhick. He also used standard samples of hair :
riaxen, light brown, dark brown, black, and three sluules of red : fair red
(golden), red, dark red (chestnut auburn). He was certainly among the first to
introduce standard sciiles of this kind, and, what is more, to realise the diffi-
culty of reproducing them. Such eye and hair .scjiles are common enough now,
but were by no means so in 1882, yet the difficulty remains of reproducing
them accurately even when manufactured by one firm. The glass eyes of two
standard scales are found not to have the same amount of pigment in them,
and the spun glass silk used for standard hair scales not always the same

' Galton temi.s it "judgment of squareness," but I think such a name is better rei<erved for
another sort of test which 1 have [H-rsonally used. A nuinb»>r of rectangles, nut diverging widely
from squiires in Ixjth directions and containing one true 8(|unre, are given in confuse<l onlcr to the
examinee and he is tusked to give the nunil>er of the rectangle he considers square. In the same
way a number of ellipses differing slightly from a circle are given, and lie is a.sked to choose
the circle; of course in both ciwes without correcting glasses. By giving each member of an
audience a slip of paper as he enters, and throwing ellipses and rectangles on the screen by a
liuitcrn, I have lx)en able to nuuisure the a.stigmatism of 400 or 500 persons in a few minuU:«,
anil thus tind not only the average a.stigniatisni but the fi-efjuency distribution of astigmatism
at the same tiuia The meth<xl was suggest<'d to me by the contour of the dome of St Paul's,
which always setMns to me to have its major axis vertical, and to look ungraceful, until I rot«t«
iiiy head to the horizontal position, when it iK-comes gracefully pro})ortione<l. I found several
of my friends thought the minor axis of the dome vertical. This "judgment of squareness"
of course involves the error of judgment as well as astigmatism, but the latter is, I think, the
chief contributory factor. ' See our p. 222.

224 Life ami Letters of Francis Gallon

amount of dye. Oalton felt keenly the need for a standard and permanent
8«>t of colours, and made a suggestion on this point of great value. In 1S69
he had been struck by the great variety of permanent colours which are
produced for niasjiic work. He had l)een over the Juihbrica of mo.saic8
attachetl to the Vaticjin and seen their '^5,000 numbered trays or bin.s of
coloured mosaic. He realised at once the opportunity thus afforded not only
for the establishment of a general colour scale in this country, but, as the
mosaics were manufactured for the representation of human hgures among
other things, for skin, hair and eye-colour scales for anthropometric purposes'.
On Feb. 3, 1870, Galton sent the following letter to the Science and Art
Department, South Kensington. I cite from a rough draft in the Galtoni<ina:

"Certain scientific inquiries in wliich I am engaged have brought forcibly before my notice
the great desideratum of being able to obtain an accepted standard scale of colours, by i-eferenco
to which a person's meaning might be expressed with precision whenever he desired to designate
a particular hue or tint. The exhibition of such a standard would fall, I venture to say, most
legitimately within the province of the South Kensington Museum, and I will now show how
very easily and efficiently this desideratum miglit be 8upplie<l. In the Fabhrica of mosaics at
the Vatican in Rome there are no less than 25 thousand trays or bins, numbered consi-cutively,
and each filled with cakes of mosaic material, each separate bin l>eiug devoted to a diflerent
colour. The workers on the mosaics in the Fubbricn send, as they rinjuire, to the sui)erintendent
of this department for so mimy pounds weight fi-om such and such specifi<'<i bins, the colours
they want being solely expressed by the numlx^i-s attached to the bins. I have read cursory
accounts of this large and most remarkable factory iind I have visittxl it myself as an ordinary
though much interested sightseer, but I cannot find any full description of its management
either in the Art Library of the South Kensington Museum, or elsewhere. However it may
be taken for granted that the facts of the case are substantially as I have stated them.

Now I l>eg to propose that the authorities of the South Kensington Art Department should
make application to the Pope for mosaic tablets containing in order specimens of each of thoir
25 tliousand bins to be suspended in the Museum for the pur|)Ose of reference as a standard of
colour."

Galton then proceeds to discuss the space that such a scale of colour
would occupy; if each fragment of mosaic were 1" x \", the space recjuired
would be about ten sfjuare yards. Supjwsing we arranged our tablets in
series of 10 in file and 10 in rank, we should have for 20 rows deep, a length
of al)out 52 feet for the scale. For square sj)ecimens ^" x ^", wliich would
probably be adequate, with 40 rows deep, the length of the scale would be
aljtjut seven yards. Galton continues :

"It might be disposed as a frieze running along the wall at a height convenient for reference,
the bits of mosaic perhaps arninged in tablets of 100 containing 10 ranks and 10 files, with
dark lines at the .'ith division each way for convenience of iniine<liati>ly ascertaining the number
appertaining to each several bit

The Fablirica at the Vatican is maintainc<) by the Papal Government solely for the purpose
of inoKaics for public buildings in the Ilonian States and for making gifts to foreign poteiiUites.
Presents of art works are given in this way that re<|uir(Ml, 1 am afraid to say how many seixiratc
pieces of material for their construction and that have demanded tin; lifetime of a skilled artist
for their completion. But the series of tablets of which I speak would l)e far more easily made.

' Many years after Oalton's suggestion Pn)fessor von Luschan's useful mo.saic .skin colour
scale oaine into existence. T have also procured mosaics from the Ho/Fabrik in Berlin and
fonnerl pennanent scales for coat colour in mammals. (lalton's jiroposal was a most fruitful
one, and it is to be regretted that it wa« never carried out in its entirety.

Pxychnloyical Invest igationn 226

'I'hey wuiild be built up as readily n8 a wall in built with briclcH. Even if it occupied » man a
whole day to make a single tablet (10 x 10), the entire affair would fill lem than a year of his
time.

It is not to be supposed that the Vatican scale of colour v regular in the

interval Ix-tween the several graduations, neither have I reason !• scrui)ulou« pains

have been taken to keep the tints and hues of each bin identical in tlieir character for conwcutive
centuries, or even for shorter periods; but this at least is certain: that the series is as minute
and as comprehensive as it is ixissible to \w, that it exists in the most durable of all materials,
that it would Ik* exceedingly us(>ful to FIngland to possess such a scale, that it might be bad
almost for the n.sking and that it woulil bo a highly interesting and ornamental adjunct to the
South Kensington Museum.

It luiglit well Ihj a subject for the subsequent consideration of the authoritiea of South
Kensington whether they should not select by means of the large amount of skill and science
at their disposal say one tenth of the Vatican series to create what might be called a South
Kensington scale of colours, and distriliute identical copies of it in mosaic, which would occupy
a space accoiiliiig to the alwve calculation of less than 10 feet x I foot, among the art schools
of the United Kingdom."

In ;i postscript sent two dnys later Galton sucfgested that to avoid diffi-
culty iuid delay in Rome, it iniirht be adequate to ask for rough specimens
with their numbers from every bin and let the grinding to the required size
be done in England, where the machinery to do it was better and more
accessible than in Italy. Galton's letter was written on Feb. 3, the corre-
spondence from the Museum up to May 16th is a series of letters saying that
the subject "will receive consideration." After which date Galton, I presume,
gave up asking for an answer to his letter! Sixteen years later (1886) Galton
retiu'ned to his suggestion impressed by the fading of the original paintings
of Broca for skin tints', and by a furtner brief stay in Rome where he had
again visited the Vatican factory and made further inquiries. He now found
that there were 40,000 bins of mosaics, and of these 10,752 were classified;
they occupied 24 cases in each of which were 16 rows of 28 samples. The
flesh tints appropriate to European nation.s were about 500 in number, so
that the Vatican factory provided ample material for the selection of a series
of tints such as anthropologists desired. Topinard, Galton stated, was pre-
paring a new scale of only five or six tints for hair colour to be correlated
with Brocii's numbers, the latter's original tints having changed colour. Galton
had asked for a copy of this new scale in order to match it by mosaics; he
had promised to provide the cost, and he suggested that such scales in mosaics
should be circulated among anthropological institutes and mu.seum8. He
now adds that it may not be possible to get such mosaics from the Vatican
factory to judge by a former experience, but they could possibly be obtained
elsewliere. He then refers to his proposal of 1870 to the South Kensington
authorities and states that Mr Odo Rus.sell — later Lord Ampthill — our semi-
official representative at the Vatican (till 1870) was ultimately asked to
inquire as to the feasibility of carrying out the scheme,

"but the price asked by the Papal Government was altogether excessive, and so the matter
dropjied. Now, however, resulting not improbably from my then alsirtive suggestions, I find
that such samples are being produce<l. I .saw one set in process of Ix'ing made." (p. 146.)

' Journal of the Anthropological Institute, Vol. xvi, p. 145, 1886. "Notes on Permanent
Colour Types in Mosaic."

pan S8

226 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

Gallon exhibited cakes of Roman enamel snitable for anthropometric
standards of colour'. And then in this century we have the idea carried oiit
by a German with German made mosaics, and no one gives Galton credit for
originating the idea!

I cannot-trace that Galton got either the simple Topinard hair scale, or
Broca's scale reproduced in mosaics. Before the war I foiuid that painted scales
sent to Berlin were very speedily and accurately matched in mosaics.

It seems in place here to sunnnarise a further j)aper of a later date "On
recent Designs for Anthropometric Instruments" in so far as it deals with
the subject of oin- present chapter'. The pioneer work of Galton is here
recognised to the full. His instruments had passed from South Kensington
to Cambridge, and an anthropometric laboratory had been opened there.
Messrs Horace Darwin and Dew Smith were Improving old and devising new
anthropometric instruments in Cambridge, and a <:ood deal of this pajier
concerns their work.

A Japanese professor had sent Galton money to provide an outfit for an
anthropometric laboratory in Tokio. Professor Giuseppe Sergi wished to add
to his anthropological cabinet a set of instruments suitable for school work,
and desired Galton to select a list for him. Topinard, one of the leading French
anthropologists, wrote :

"I have written nothing as yet concerning physiological instructions to travellers, awaiting
a convenient moment for doing so. I am disposed to take directly your system, and will ask to
have all your apparatus sent to me. We possess no samples of colours for hair and eyes beyond
the polychromatic table of Broca, which the Anthropological Institute employs, but I am about
to undertake new work of this kind, and intend shortly to have some samples made; but not
many of them, probably five for eyes and five for hair. My present diflicuJly is to select the
exact sha<les and tints; if you have yourself made any such set-s, I should be much obliged if
you would let me have one." (p. 4.)

The impetus given by Gallon's anthropometric laboratories was indeed
universal, and he was admitted then to have led the way in this matter,
an admi&sion which has been almost overlooked since.

Among mattei's which concern us in this chapter are standards for hair
and eye colours. Here Galton directly suggests "glass spun by a glass
blower for comparison with hair." Thus before 1886 he had proposed sets
of standard glass eyes, mosaics for skin colour and spun glass for hair;
all three of these suggestions have been carried out in this century — by
Germans — in the well-known eye-scale of Professor 11. Martin, in Professor
von Luschan's skin-scale and Professor G. Fischer's glass-silk hair scale.
Thus the best of what we can do now, was suggested by Galton twenty
to thirty years earlier.

Horace Darwin showed (i) a very simple chronograph designed by Francis
Galton, (ii) an instrument for measuring the relative sensitiveness of the eye
to various colours, designed at the suggestion of Galton, and (iii) an instru-
ment for testing an individual's keenness in distinguishing small differences

' The t)riginalH are not in the Galtnniann, and I have not Kuccf«ded in tracing them.
• Journal of the AnlhrupologicdL Jtislitule, Vol. xvi, pp. 2-9, 1886.

FLATK XXII

Francis Galtoii in holiiliiy gml); tiikfii at Vicliy, Au;;ust,

1878, when iigpd nd years. Tlie (ialtuns were at Vicliy

again in 1880: see our p. 196.

PHychoUxjical InvestujatioiM 227

in the pitch of a musical note, presumably deeigned entirely by Darwin him-
self". All these instruments are very simple in character and ought not to be
overlooked by the iuithropoiiietrician. In particular the chronograph is very
ingenious. Darwin thus de.scril)es it:

"A wmxien rtxl is supported at its upper end by a detent, and can be released at will. The
rod tli(>n fulls frei'ly in space piissinj; tlirougii a hnlo in a fixed diaplini^ni. A weijjht in the
form of u ring larger than the hole in the diaphragiii, rests on a collar near the top of the rod.
Thus, aft<'r rod and weight together have fallen a definite distance, the weight is caught by the
diaphragm and makes the signal sound, while the rod still continues to fail. On hearing the
signal sound the person to lie teste<l presses down a lever, thereby releasing a spring clamp
which grips the falling rod finnly. The interval of time lietween the signal sound and this
operation is measured by the space the rtxl has fallen through, and is read at once in hundredths
of a second from graduations on the rod itself." (p. 9.)

Liistly, we may note that early in 1890 the Royal Society appointed a
committee of wliich I^ord liayleigh wius Chah'man, Captain Abney, Secretary,
and Sir George G. Stokes, then President of the Society, Brudenell Carter,
Church, Evans, Micliael Foster, Dr Farquharson, Galton and W. Pole were
members. The average attendance was six to eight and Galton appears to
liave attended with tne greatest regularity. At the fifth meeting he pre-
sented a memorandum fis to testing colour blindness, (i) "under not di.ssimilar
conditions to those in whicli signals are seen by sailors and engine drivers,"
(ii) in which the attendant does not know the colour being exhibited, and
(iii) the subject indicates the colour not by its name, but by turning a
thumb and finger piece attached to each colour box, with rough side up for
red, smooth side up for green, and into an intermediate position for neutral
tinted colour. The whole takes place in the dark, and the subject's answers
are ascertained by examining the colour-boxes later. There were to be nine
colour-boxes, three for red, three for green, three for neutral tint; each
series with one, two and three thicknesses of gla-ss. A good many other
methods of measuring colour sense were described, and nmcli evidence taken.
I do not know whether Galton's apparatus ever came into practical use : like
all his instruments, it was very simple, the light being provided by a police-
man's "bull's eye."

Galton's investigation of mental characters led hira directly to the
Weber- Fechner Law of the geometrical mean. Such a law appears directly
opposed to the Gaussian hypothesis that the arithmetic mean gives the best
" medium," i.e. the most probable or modal value of a series of ol)servations.
Galton accordingly proposed the following problem : Assuming the geo-
metrical mean and not tiie arithmetical n»ean to give the best "medium,"
what is the mathematical form of the frequency distributions'? Galton seems
to have held that not only in tint and length judgments', but in many

' K. Soc. I'roc. Vol. XXIX, pp. SC.'i-C, 1879. "The Geometric Mean in Vital and Socia
Statistics."

" "Three rods" (ialton writes "of lengths a, h, c if taken successively in the hand appear
to difTcr by equal intervals when a:b::b:c and not when a - 6 = 6 - <•" (p. 366). I have made a
number of individual t<.'sta on myself, but my judgment supports an arithmetic not a geometric
mean in the case of the three rocls. I once asked between 200 and .300 individuals to select on

8»— 8

228 Life and Letter$ of Franch Galtou

sociological categories, the ^'t»onietric mean would dominate the frequency
distributions :

"My purpose is to show that au assuiiiptioii which lies at tlie basis of the well-known law
of "Frequency of Error" (commonly expressed by the formula y-?-*''*) is incorrect in many
groups of vital and social phenomena, although that law has Ijcen applied to them by statis-
ticians with partial success and corresjwnding convenience." (p. 365.)

By "vital phenomena" Galton here refers to those assumed to be governed
by the Weber- Fechner law; as illustrations of "social phenomena" he cites
growth of population following a geometrical increase, or increase of capital
in a business which is proportional to its size.

"In short, sociological phenomena, like vital phenomena, are as a general rule subject to
the condition of the geometric mean." (p. 367.)

That many sociological phenomena do lead to markedly skew distributions
is I think a point of very great importance, and Galton 's attention had soon
been drawn to it. It is, however, very questionable whether the theory of
the geometrical mean is the only, or a wide enough avenue of approach.

Galton put the matter in the hands of Mr (now Sir) Donald MacAlister,
who deduced the frequency di.stribution at once', on the assumption that the
logarithms of these vital and sociological variates would obey the fre<]uency
of error-curve. I am unaware of any comprehensive investigation being
ever undertaken to test the "goodness of fit" of tliis geometric mean curve
to actual observations. MacAlister gives no numerical illustration, and I do
not think Galton ever returned to the topic. It would still form the subject
of an interesting researcli, but I fear the Galton-MacAlister curve would
be found wanting. See Biometnka, Vol. iv, pp. 193 et seq.

a PSYCHOMETRIC OBSERVATIONS AND EXPERIMENTS

Perhaps the most significant evidence of how Gralton's mind was turning
from physical to psychical anthropometry is to be found as early as 1877,
in his "Address to the Anthropological Department of the British Associa-
tion," at the Plymouth meeting of that year'. He there made, what for that

a tint scale a tint exactly intermediate between two tints A and li, which actually contained
1/10 and 9/10 of black. Tho geometric mean would have given the mode at 3/10; it was
actually alx>ut 7,10. This was confirmed by a second series of guesses. It is possible that the
eye measured the amount of white not of black in the tint shades.

> "The Law of the Geometric Mean." Ji. Soc. Proc. Vol. xxix, pp. 367 et teq., 1879. The

A e-A' logx/a)'

cnrTeMy = y.-p —

* There is an historically very instnictive series of letters wliioli were int^Tchangod lx!tween
Qalton and Huxley preserved in the Gultoniana, regarding the foundation of the "Department"
of Anthro|Kj|<>gy in 1800. Huxley wius president of Section I) Biology, from which hiui sprung
the "De|)artmenls" of Physiology and Anthropology, and he practically nominated ail the
officers of all thrc<' branches and Botany as well. "I think I mentioned to you that 1 proposed
to ask Humphry to be President of the Physiol. Department and Wallace to take charge of
the gentle Anthrop's. Both have consented. '..."X. is the one man who won't do for any ofKce
in division Anthropology! Dix milU foit, lum! Rolleston would go into convulsions at the
mere rumour, and I confess that the less often that young gentleman comes in my way — the

Psj/rhofof/irfU fnt'estujatioim 229

time WHS a lx)ld j)roposal, that all anthropologists should turn for a time
from physical antnro[)ology and study prevalent types of human character
and temperament. lie points out how it hius now become possible to in<|uire
by exact measurement into certain fundumentul (jualities of the mind; the
new science of what has been termed Psychophysics shows that the ditt'erence
in the mental (|ualitit's of man and man admits of being gauged by a suiUible
st^ale. Gallon further suggested that mental cpiiilities such an 'personal
equation' and its basis in reaction time should be measured with a view of
correlating them witli temperament and external physical characters. Among
other things he suggests the clas.sification of individuals by the time they
occupy in forming a judgment. He notes that the interval of time between
the perceptit)n of a signal and the recording of it by tapping a key, is
modified when there are alternative signals A and B, and the recording of A
is to be done by the right and of B by the left hand. An interval is required
to discrimiiiute between the signals an<l between the hands. In such a way
the individual time in forming a judgment can 1^ to .some extent measured.
Galton compares the advance of that day in the measurement of mental
characters with the numerical moii.snrement by the thermometer of heat and
cold in the days of old. As Dr John Beale wrote to Boyle in 16G3:

"If we can discourse of heat and cold in their several degrees ho aa we niay signify the same
intelligibly... it is more than our forefathers have taught us to do hitherto."

The pity is that so much psychometric apparatus is far more expensive
than thermometers! If we can, however, obtain a group with differentiated
mental characters, how shall we ascertain the external physical features
most conunonly associated with its members? And here Galton turns, I
think for the first time, to photography for lussistance.

He suggests, in the first place, a standard form of photography in which
by the aid of three mirrors, a direct three-quarter face, and reflected profile,
full-face and top of head as()ects would be ootained on the same plate at the
same time. Unfortunately he does not descrilje adequately the positions of
these mirrors, and I have been imable to determine them. I can get by
reflection norma facia/is, nornut lateralis and norma verticalis (as they are
termed in craniometry), but then the direct aspect appears to be a tnree-
quarter occipital view ! (lalton next makes what I believe is his fii-st
announcement tis to composite photography ; tliat is the method he proposes
of ascertaining whether those with differentiated mental characters have
differentiated physical features. He writes:

"Having obtainotl dniwings or photogniphs of several p<>rsons alike in rao.st respectii but
differing in minor detjiiis, what sure nietluxl is there of extracting the typical characteristics
from them ( I may mention a plan which had ocourreil both to Mr Herbert Spencer and myself,
the principle of which is to su(H?rinipo.se optically the various drawings and to accept the
aggregate result. Mr Spencer suggestetl to me in conversation that the drawings reduced to
the same scale might be traced on separate pieces of transjtarent paper and secured one upon

sweeter my temjx'r is likely to l>e. — He is such a choice sfiecinien of the Snob scientific." X. is
dead now, without leaving his impress on science, but the term Huxley found in his wrath to
characterise the young gentleman is perhaps worthy of preservation.

230 Life and Letterg of Francis Galton

Another, and then held between the eye and the light. 1 hare attempted this with some BUCoeM.
Mv own ide* was to thmw faint images uf the several |x>rtraits, in succession, upon the same
sensitised photographic plaU*. I may add that it i» ])erfeutly easy to superimpasc opticjilly two
portraits by means of a stert>oscope and that a person who is ustnl to handling instruments will
find a common double eye-glass titted with 8tflreoBCOpi<' li'tisi-s \„ \m- almost as effect mil mid far
handier than the boxes sold in shops'." (pp. 9-10.)

Thus was launched the firet idea of composite photogi-aphs. But Ualton
very rarely made a suggestion without already having applied it himself,
and in this case he hail chosen as his suhject "the criminals of" England who
have been condemned to long terms of penal servitude for various heinous
crimes."

He had formed his own views on "the ideal criminal." He has three
peculiarities of character: (i) his conscience is almost deficient, (ii) his in-
stincts are vicious, and (iii) his power of self-control is very weak. His
instincts determine the description of his crime, and the absence of self-
control may be due to ungovernable temper, to sensual passion, or to mere
imbecility.

Galton as a biologist is very cautious in his discussion of "vicious in-
stincts." He says:

"The subject of vicious instincts is a very large one: we must guard ourselves against
looking upon them as perversions, inasmuch as they ma}' be strictly in accordance with the
healthy nature of the man, and being transmissible by inheritance, may become the normal
characteristics of a healthy race, just as the sheep-dog, the rt^triever, the pointer, the bull-dog
have their several instincts. There can be no greater popular error than the supposition that
natural instinct is a perfectly trustworthy guide, for there are striking contradictions to such
an opinion in individuals of every description of animal. All that we are entitled to say is,
that the prevalent instincts of each race are trustworthy, not those of every individual. A man
who is counted as an atnjcious criminal by society, and is punished as such by law may never-
theless have acted in strict accordance with hi.s instincts. The ideal criminal is deficient in
qualities that oppose his vicious instincts; he has neither the natural regard for others which
lie* »t the base of conscience, nor ha.s he sufficient self-control to enable him to consider his
own selfish interests in the long run. He cannot be preserved from criminal mis-adventure,
either by altruistic or by intelligently egoistic sentiments." (pp. 11-12.)

Having defined the mental characters which he considers peculiar to
the criminal Galton next proceeded to investigate how far these peculiari-
ties are correlated with the physical characters, in particular with the
physiognomy. He divided his criminals into three mam groups taking in
all cases the photographs' only of men sentenced to long terms of penal
servitude; the groups were (<f) Murder, Man.slaughter and Burglary, (i) Felony
and Forgery, (c) Sexual offences. Galton believed that by continually sort-
ing the photographs in tentative ways certain natural classes began to appear,
some very well marked, and that the proportion ofthe.se in the three crime-

' Ualton's double eyeglass with stereoscopic lenses is in the Oaltoniatia.

' I think an exception must be made to this rule in the civsc of the four a.sp©cts on our
photographic plal^w referretl to alxive. But I may liav(! overlookwl some p(^ssible mirror
arrangement, and if not we have to remember that (ialton's luldre.ss was prepared in great
haste, for he had Itecn suddenly culled upon to occupy the chair owing to the ethnologist who
would otherwise have presided being debarred by illnuKs.

* Identification photographs of the Home Office provided by the Surveyor-General of
Prisons, Sir lulmuuu Du Cane.

PMifr/inloffirnl InrcHtujnttnim 231

groups wn« Higiiificuntly flifferent. If this were 8uh«tantiated, the composite
photofijraph.s of the three orimo-groups should 1h» nmrkedly flitferentuited.
The rejuler wlio hiis studied cjirefuUy the iilwve account will uiipreciate what
Galton was seeking in the composite photograph. He looked upon the
mental traits as "transmissihle })y inheritance," he held that the physical
traits were also iidierited, and he was searching to divide man up inUi
varieties in which the physiognomic characters should he indices of the
mental tniits. The common inheritance of both was fundamental to his idea.

"The AnthropolojfiHt lius n<'xt to consider tho life-liistory of thoHo varietirH, and eapocially
their tendency to iMTiictuiito thcinselves, whether t<> displace other variotien and to upread, or
else til die out. In illustration of this, I will procwd with what appeani to be the history of
the criminal class. Its ]K'rpotuation liy heredity is a <|ueNtion that desj-rves more careful in-
vesti^ation than it ha.s received ; but it is on many accounts more ditticult to grapple with
than it may at first si^ht app<>4ir to Im. Tho vagrant habits of the criminal clames, their
illegitimate unions, and extreme untruthfulneK.H, are among tho difficulties. It is, howerer,
easy to show that the criminal nature tends to be inherited ; while, on the other hand, it is
imp<w8ible that women who spend a large portion of the best years of their life in pri.Hon c«n
contribute man}' children to the population. The true state of the case appl^ar8 to be that the
criminal |)opulation receives accessions from classes who, without having strongly marked
criminal natures, do nevertheless belong to a type of humanity that is exceedingly ill suite<l
to play a respectable part in our modern civili.sation, though well suited to flourish under half-
savage conditions, being natiirall}' both healthy and prolific. These pt-rsons are apt to go to
the bad; their daughters consort with criminals and become the parents of criminals."
(pp. 13-14.)

Galton then cites the now fiimous Jukes family', of which an account had
been published in the preceding year.

"I have alluded to the Jukes family in order to show what extremely important topics lie
open to inquiry in a single branch of anthropological research and to stimulate others to follow
it out. There can be no more interesting subject to us than the quality of the stock of our
countrymen and of the human race generall}-, and there can be no more worthy inquiry than

that which leads to an explaii'>'i'>" <>f tli m. lit ions under which it deteriorates or improves'."

(p. 15.)

The genealogy of other " criminal " families published since, confirms
Galton's views, out his call to scientific criminology met with little re-
sponse for nearly thirty years. Even to the present day English anthro-
pologists do not seem to grasp that a study of the menial varieties of their
own race may be of more importance than recording the discovery of another
Romano-Briton or the funereal trappings of an Egyptian monarch.

Fi-om the time of this paper onwards for several years Galton worked
hard at composite photogi-aphs. There has been on the whole a great deal of
unjustified di-sappointment in regard to them. This has largely arisen from
a misunderstanding of what was expected from them, and a neglect of
Galton's purpose in suggesting their use. That puij)o.se is quite evident from
this first paper : It was to ascertain whether men's mental characteristics
were intraracially correlated with their facial characteristics. The fact that

' Thirty-Jimt AnniuiJ lieport of the Prison A»socuil\on of Xew York, 1876.

' In these wonls Galton definitely lays down the principle that anthropology is not a mere
antiquarian investigation, but is essentially occupied with some of the most urgent of our
present social problems.

232 Ufe and Letters of Francis Oalton

intraracial groups markedly differentiated in mental characters do not give
markedly differentiated composite photographs, should not be considered
nierelv negative and disaj)poiiiting. It should have been interpreted as a most
valuable anthropometric result, namely that mental characters are not highly
correlated with external physical characters. That conclusion is confirmed by
modern research on (luite different lines; there is little or no correlation
between human mentality and external anthropometric characters. I am fully
aware that this result cuts directly at the whole of popular belief in
physiognomy and phrenology and of the old anatomical ideas of craniometry.
But this principle statistically demonstrated will stand, and composite
photographs pointed at an earlier date in the same direction. The characters
of the mind, the workings of the brain (lej)end in the main upon conmiissures
and linkages, matters of a far more subtle nature than the shape of the brain
case. Whether the efiiciency of the mind is more clo-sely correlated with the
physiological processes of the lx)dy, i.e. with its dynamic qualities, than with
its static properties is another question, still sub judice. But one funda-
mental result of Galton's introduction of psychometry into anthropometric
measurements has been to demonstrate the very small relation of mentality
to external bodily characters. It is from this standpoint that Galton's
composite photographs did and may still do useful work.

It may be argued that the American Indian, the Negro and the Western
European have as markedly divergent and individual mental characters as
they have divergent and individual physical characters (see our p. 81), and
that both are inherited within these races of men. That there is mtei'vacial
correlation between mental and physical attributes goes without .saying as
long fis races are inlired. Pjach race simply transmits its own mentality and
its own physique, but that is no proof of a high intraracial correlation
between the two. Any geneticist knows how relatively easy it is to separate
the mentiil and sujierHcial charact**rs of one breed by crossing it with
another, much easier than it is to combine the forelimbs of one breed with
the hindlimbs of a second ; the sinq)le rea.son being the relatively high cor-
relation of the two nien)lxn"s'. Goring has shown^ that the average criminal
is not differentiated markedly from the normal man by his physical characters;
in England at any rate he is not the physically anomalous being of the Lom-
brosian school of criminologists.

The non-differentiation in a markedly significsmt manner of the composites
of groups selected by mental characters contained a fundamental scientific
fact, which has had to wait many yeare for us to grasp its full significance, and
will possibly have to wait more years still for its general popular recognition.

' In breeding several hundred dogs from crosses of Pekingese and Pommeranians, there
has only been one instance in which it might l>e supposed tlmt a Pfkingew forelimb was com-
bined with a Pomnieranian hiiullinib; but it lias l»<;eii quite possible toolitain a point<?d muzzle
and c'hocojat*' rout coinbiiied with the strong nientHl individuiility of the Pekingese. I feel
certain that a diflV-rentiation by mental (juaiities of our hybrids would not on composite photo-
graphy reprixluce Pomnieranian and Pekingese external cimincterK.

' TKe Engli'li Cnnrir/ , A Sinii^itrdl Study. l!v rimrli-s (loring, M.D., U.M. Stationery
OiBo&

I*M!/r/iolnffir(i/ liiiU'KflijntiiniM 233

Tliero have been niany uiicoJiRidere<l opinions expressefl about composite
pliott)^nii]iliy ; they may w chiefly suniiiu-d up in the view expressed I>y a
well-known zoologist at the British Association Meeting at rlvmouth in
1898'. He sjiifl that he had never been able to see the scientihc vahie of
the composite pliotograiih. It represented the haphazjird obliteration of one
element by another. To which (ialton fitly replied that the value of the
composite photograj)h was that it brought out what was common to all the
comj)onents, while eliminating that which was exceptional.

vVe shall postpone all further discussion of Gallon's work on Composite
Photography until the following chapter, but that work is oidy interpretable
when wo rememln'r its iKsychological origin : (ialton \\i\s inquiring into the
extent to which mentality is a.ssociated with physiognomy.

In 1879 (Jalton published his first investigation mto the working of his
own mind. It was issued in two forms (littering a good deal in detail. The first
paper, entitled "Psychometric Kacts," a{)peared in the Xitwteeiith Cfntnry^,
and the secontl [>aper, with the title " Psychometric Experiments," in Brain*.
The twoarticleswere independently written, thelatterbemgthemore statistical,
i'he latter opens with the words:

" Psychonietry, it is hardly lu'ccssnry to say, nu?an.s the art of imposing mea.surement and
nuiiiln^r upon oponvtiims of tlio mind, as in the practici> of detorniininp tho rt-actiimtimo of
different jH'rsons. I propose in this memoir to j^ive a new instance of psychtmietry, and a few
of its results. They may not \te of any very f;reat novelty or importance, hut they are at least
definite, and admit of verifioition ; therefore I trust it requires no apology for offering them
to tho readers of this .Journal, who will be prepared to agree in the view, that until the
phenomena of any branch of knowledge have been submitted to measurt^ment and number, it
cannot lussume the status and dignity of a science." (p. 148*.)

Galton divides thought into two main categories. In the first category
ideas present themselves by association with some object newly perceived by
the senses, or with previous ideas. In the second such of the.se a.ssociated
ideas, as happen to be germane to the topic on which the mind is set,
are fixed by attention, (ialton's investigation applied entirely to the first
category, the automatic arising of ideas by ii.s.sociation ; they come of their
own accord and cannot, except in indirect and imperfect ways, be com{»elled
to come. The inquiry dealt with the rate at which these associated ideas
come ; their .sjunene.ss and their difl'erence, and the periods of life in which
they were originally formed. He remarks that the experiments were
"exceedingly trying and irksome, and that it reciuired much resolution to go
through with them, using the scrupulous care tney demanded." This it is
easy for the reader to verify ; I have personally tried it on Galton's actual
teat list of words ; my chief tlifticulty being the reluctance of associated ideas
to appear, and their utter triviality compure<l with Galton's experience. As
Galton himself says :

"When we attempt to trace tho first step in each operation of our mind, we are usually
baulked by the didioulty of keeping watch, without embarrassing the freedom of its action.

• Tiin«» Report of Section D, Sept<«mber 10th, 1898.

' March, 1879, pp. t2.')-33. ' Vol. ii, pp. 149-57.

* The last .sentence was adopted many years ago as the motto of tl\e liiom^tri- Lnhoratory.

po n 30

234 JAfe awl Lettcrx of Francis Gallon

The difficulty ia much mon> than the coniDiun and wull-known ono of attending to two things
at ontv. It is esj)ecially duo to the fact that the oloinentary operations of the nund are
vxceixlingly faint and ovanosctMit, and that it n'tpiiroH thu utmost |Niiii.stukinK to watch tlioin

propi<rly My nu-thotl consists in allowing the mind t<» play frn-ly tor a very brief periiKl,

until a couple or bo of ideas have paasMi through it, and then while the traces or echoes of
tlio>*' ideas an- still lingering in the hrain to turn the* att<!ntiun upon them with a sudden and
W)niplete rt-awiikeiiing; to arrest, scrutinise tliom, and to record their exact app<!arance ; aftor-
wards I collate the records at leisure, and discuss tliora and draw conclusions." (p. 150.)

Calton's fii-st experiment was a leisurely walk of 450 yards down Pall

Mall, on an occasion when he felt himself unusually eajiahle of the kind of

eftbrt retjuired. He reckoned that 300 ohjects caught his eye, although he

never allowed his mind to ramble.

"It was impossible for me to recall in other than the vaguest way the numerous ideas
that had pa.ssed through my mind; but of this, at least I was sure, that samples of my whole
life had passed before me, that many bygone incidents, which I never suspected to form part
of my stock of thoughts, had been glanced at as objects too familiar to awaken the attention.
I saw at once that tlie liniiii was vastly more active than I had previously Wlieved it to Iks,
and I was perfectly ama/.c^l at the unexpecte<l width of the fields of its everyday operations."

After an interval of some days in which he kept his mind from dwelling
on his tii-st experiences, Galton took a second experimental walk. lie w;is
struck ivs before by the variety of idetis thtit j)resented them.selves, but his
admiration for the activity of the mind was reduced by the observation that
there was a gi'eat deal of repetition in his thought. He next devised an ex-
periment for testing these associations and repetitions. He selected a list
of 75 suitable words and sitting at a table with a stop-watch, stai-ted it on
exposing a word of which he was previously ignorant. He waited till the
word called uj) two tlirectly as.st>ciated ideas and then stopped the watcii and
recorded these ideas. The second associated idea was always derived from
the word itself and not from the first associated idea, for he kept his attention
firmly concentrated on the word itself Sometimes he only got one associated
idea ; sometimes three or four occurred together and he was able to record
them, but as a rule he only managed to record two with precision. Galton
went through the 75 words on four occasions at intervals of a month, "but it
waa a most repugnant and laljorious work, and it was only by strong self-
control that I went through my schedule according to programme."

The total number of as.sociated ideas was 505, and took GGU seconds to
form ; or at the rate of about 46 per minute or 2755 in an hour'. Of the
505 ideas, however, 29 occurred in all four trials, 3G in three, 57 in two and
107 in one trial only. Galton concluded therefore that reiterated Jissociation,
even under the very different conditions of place and time of his experiments,
was a nmch more marked feature than he had anticipated. He held from the
proved numl>er of faint and barely conscious thoughts and from the proved
iteration of them, that the mind is perpetually travelling over familiar ways
without the memory retaining any nnpression of its excursions.

"My associatitd ideas were for the most part due Ui my own unsharecl exp<!rienoC8, and
the lint of them would necessarily differ widely from that which another person woidd draw

' There were 13 caaes of "puzzle" in which nothing sullicicutly definite occurred in the
maxitnum of time, 4 seconds, allowed for each test.

I*Ki/r/ioft>r/icaf In veHti<i(ttiouH

235

up who might repoat my oxp«riinenta. Therefore one ««« clearly, and I may say one can nee
mtiaturably how impoMHihle it is in a general wny for two growii-u|> p«!r«<jnH to lay their niinclH
side by side together in jiorfect accorfi. The miiiie senUMice cannot procluce preeiMcIy the Name
effect on l)oth, and the lir«t <|iiick iiiiprexHionH that any given word in it may convey, will
differ widely in the two mindN." (p. ir>7.)

Gallon was able in 124 cases of associated idojis to determine the |)eriod
of life at wliicli they became associated with the word. His results may be
thus abstracted :

Associations formed at foUotinng periods of Life.

No.

Peroentagei

Total

39
46
15

Foar timea

Three time*

Twioe

Onee

Hoyhood and Youth ...
SubHcipient MuuIioihI ...
Quite llecent Events ...

48
57
19

10

8

. 0

18 .

r 9

7
3

19

7
5
1

13

13

26
11

Total ...

124

100

The greater fixity of the earlier associations is clear as well as the fact
that half the associations date fioni the period of life Ix^fore leaving college.
As.sociation8 are largely fixed in childhood and adolescence, but I do not
think it necessarily fI)ll()WK as Galton seems to suggest that early education
has a huge efi'ect in fixing our associations. The result may fiow from menUd
j)lasticity, or the unstocked condition of the mental storehouse of youth.

Lastly Galton divides the original words into three classes, and the
associated ideius into four.
The original words :

(i) were capable of mental images, as 'abbey,' 'alx)rigine.s,' 'abyss.'
(ii) re])resented actions or states of mind as 'abasement,' 'al)horrence,'

'ablution.'
(iii) fornu^d more abstract notions as 'aptness,' 'ability,' 'abnormal.'
'i'he as.sociated ideas were :

(rt) Sense imagery, chiefly visual.

[h) Histrionic, the mind visualised it.self acting a part.
((•) Merely verbal associations as names of persons.
(a) Verbal associations as in phrases and (quotations.
Galton gives the following analysis :

Per cent

. nature

of Associated Ideas.

No.

Nature of Wor.ls

Sense
Iniogvry

Histrionic

Verbal AsDOciations

Per

cent.

Persons

Phrases and Quotations

26

20
29

Capable of Mental Images
Actions or States of Mind
Abstract Notions

43

32
22

11

33
25

SO
13
16

37

100
100
100

30_2

236 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

Of these results Galton writes that they

"hmve forcibly shown to me the great iraperfection in my generalising poweni; and I am sure
that most {lersomt would tind the sHiiie if they niiul<> .similar trials. Nothing is a suror sign of
high intellectual capacity than the power of <|iiickly .seizing and ea.sily manipulating ideas of a
Very alwtract nature. Commonly we grasp thein very imj)erfectly, and hold on to their skirts
with great difficulty. In comparing the order in which the ideas pre>ient<id thcm8elv<>s, 1 lind
that a decided precedence is assumed hy the Histrionic ideas, whenever they occur; that vertial
■asociations occur first and with great <|uickness on many occasions, but on the whole they are
only a little more likely to occur first than secx>nd ; and that Imagery is decidedly more likely
to be the stvond, than the first of the associations cidlod up by a word. In short, gesture-
language appeals the most (juickly to our feelings." (pp. 161-2.)

"Perhaps the strongest of the impressions left by these experiments regards tli(> multi-
fariousness of the work done by the mind in a state of half-unconsciousness, and the valid
rwuion they afford for l)elieving in the e.xistence of still deeper strata of mtMitnl operations,
sank wholly below the level of a)n.sciousne.s.s, which may account for such mental phenomena
as cannot otherwise be explained'. We gain an insight l>y these exj>eriment8 into the
marvellous numlier and nimbleness of our mental associations, and we also learn that they are
very far indeed from being infinite in their variety. We find that our working stock of ideas
is narrowly limited, but that the mind continually recurs to them in conducting its ojx-rations,
therefore its tracks necessarily become more detine<i and its tlexiliility diminished as age
advances." (p. 162.)

There can be little doubt that Galton broke new ground in these papers
both as to substance and method. But they prinluced little repercus.«ion
among English psychologists; not improbably becau.se it is an easier task to
experiment on another's mind than on one's own mind.

(lalton's work of 1879 undoubtedly turned his thoughts to Mental
Imagery, and he issued in November of that year a schedule containing
Questions on the F'aculty of Visualising'. On the data obtained from this
questionnaire Galton published in Mitul for July, 1880, a paper entitled:
"Statistics of Mental Imagery'." The scope of this paper was twofold :
namely to indicsite how very varied is the intensity of visualising in tlie male
membei-s of tlie Engli.sh Race and to indicate i>ow Gallon's method of ranking
or of percentiles (see our Chapter XII) could be applied to such psychometric
statistics.

' In the A'tnttefiith Century (ip. 433) Galton writes: "The unconscious operations of the
mind fre<]uently far transcend the conscious ones in intellectual impin-tance. .Sudden inspira-
tions and tho.se tliishings out of resulUs which cost a great deal of conscious elFort to ordinary
people, but are the natural outcome of what is known as genius, are undoubtedly products of
unconscious cerebration. Con.scious actions are motived, and motives can make themselves
attended to, whether consciousness Ijc present or not. Consciousness seems to do little more
than attest the fact that the various organs of the brain do not work with perfect ease or
coojK-ration. Its {xxsition appears to be that of a helpless spectator of but a minute fraction
of a huge amount of automatic brain work."

' Galton suggested the morning's breakfast Uible as an object for visualisation anil re-
quested answers to the following questions: (1) Illumination? (2) Definition? (3) Comph-tc-
nessl (4) Colouring? (.")) Extent of Field of View? He then turned to various concrete
examples of visual i.sation and aske<l his examinees to state whether they could visualise
(6) Printed pages? (7) Furniture? (8) Persons? (9) .Scenery? (10) Geography? (11) Military
Movementst (12) Mechanism? (13) Geometry? (14) Numerals? (l.")) Card Playing? (IG) Chess?
There is no doubt that the answers he received under (14) were the original source of his
later work on "Visualised Numerals."

• Vol. V, pp. 301-18.

Piti/r/iofof/i'ail /iii'fx/i'f/dtionM 237

Galton confesses that the firet results of his imiuiry amazed him. He had
hegim by questioning friends in the scientitic world, l)ecaust! he thought
they were tlio most likely persons to give accurate answers, and to nis
astonislnuent most of the men of science replied that mental imagery was
unknown to them.

"They hn<l iii> iiioro notion nf iti tru<' niitiirc tliiin a colour lilind man, who hiis not
(lisceriip<i hia ilpfcet, has of the nature of colour. Thoy had a ini'iital deficii-ncy of which ihey
were unaware, and naturally enough Rup{ioM<(l that those who were nomiaily endowed were
romancing." (p. 302.)

The members of the French Institute exhibited a like incredulity as to
the reality of the visualising faculty. On the other hand in general society
Galton found many men antl women with the power of vi.sualising. He wjis
thus compelled to the conclusion that, whatever its cau.se might be, scientific
men as a class have feeble powers of visual representation.

"My own conclusion is, tliat an ovor-r«sadines» to perceive clear mental pictures is antagon-
istic to the uc(|uireinent of Li>(hly generali-stnl antl alistract thought, and that if the faculty of
producing them was ever j>os.ses.sed by men who think hard, it is very apt to Ije lost hy disust*.
The highest minds are prol)al>lv thase in which it is not lost, hut sulmrdinatetl, ami is ready
for use on suitable occiusions. I am, however, IhiuikI to say, that the missing facult}' seems to
be re|)laced so .servicejibly by other mfxles of conception, chiefly I In^lieve connecte<l with the
motor sense, that men wlio declare themselves entirely deticient in the power of seeing mental
picturt's can nevertheless give lifelike descriptions of what they have seen, and can otherwise
express themselves as if they were gifted with a vivid visual imagination. They can also
become painters of the rank of Royal Academicians." (p. 304.)

Galton data were collected from 100 adult men, of whom 19 were Fellows
of the Royal Society, three times as many more of distinction in other kinds
of intellectual work, and the remainder of less note. He had also returns
from 172 Charterhouse boys who had been interested in the matter by their
Science Master Mr W. H. Poole. The whole of the original material — with
nujch that Galton collected later for a new edition of the I)i(/inne.<t info Human
Faculty — is in the Galtoninmt, and would be well worth working up by more
modern statistical methods than were available in 1879.

W^hat Cialton does in this paper is to arrange the answers to each of his
tpiestions — vividness of imagery, colour representation, extent of Held of
mental view — in ranks by order of intensity, for his 100 adult males and for
two groups of the Charterhouse boys : A for the upper cla.sses, Ji for the five
lower cla.sses of the school. When the material was ranked Galton cited the
Highest, the first Suboctile, the first Octile, the first Quartile, the Median,
the last Quartile, the last Octile, the hist Suboctile and the Lowest Answers.
The intensities exhibited by the two Charterhouse groups at the various
selected ranks were very similar, and the adult males were not very dis-
similar from these, but they did not form as regular a series .is tli.' Ixiv^ TIm-v
were avowedly not members of a true statistical group:

"being an aggregate of one class of persons who replied because they had remarkable powers
of imagery and had much to say, of another cla.ss of persons, the scientific, who on the whole
are very deficient in that gift, and of a. third cla.ss who may justly be considered as fair samples
of adult males." (p. 312.)

238 Life ami LHtern of Francis Galton

The reader of the jmper will certAinly realise — probably for the first time
— how very varied is the power of mental imtigery among individuals. But
unless the reader is very faiuiliar with the process of 'ranking' he is unlikely
t4» extract at once frotn that system such results a« that : 1 2 per cent, of persons
see the mental inuige as vividly iis the real thing, 12 per cent, only recall
c<.ilours by a special effort for each, and more than (J per cent, have a larger field
of mental than of normal view, i.e. can see more than a hemisphere, all the
fjices of a die at once or the three walls of a room, and even the fourth
simultaneously by an effort. It may be doubted whether the ranking scheme
wjis best adapted to attract attention to a most interesting investigation.
The paper concludes with a few observations on "visualised numerals."

I had frecjuently been puzzled by a number of lantern slides in the
(iaitoniatta, which besides giving various phenomena associated with mental
imagery provided illustrations of liuslnuan, Mskinio and palaeolithic draw-
ings and carvings. They undoui)tedly belonged to some public lecture, but
there was nothing in the three lists of papers prepared by Galton hini.solf to
indiaite that this lecture wiis ever published, nor was tliere any statement
on p. 339 of the Inquines into liuruan Faculty to say that the "1880
Mental Imagery. Forfiw/hth/ liexnew; Mind" referred to practically distinct
pa|)ers. They are, however, distinct, and although the F<>r(iti(//itli/^ })aper, en-
titled "Mental Imagery," does not cover the whole ground of the lantern
slides, there is little doubt that it contains a great deal of the substanee of
the lecture to which they belonged. The lecture wjis certainly one on ''Mental
Imagery," and, although it was not published in extcnm, the Fortnujhlly
probably containetl the substance of it. There is little doubt that both slides
and Forlniijhtly paper deal with the nmtter of Galton's popular lecture at
the Swansea Meeting of the British Association in 1880. According to L. G.'s
Record that meeting was attended by Galton and his wife. Mrs Galton makes
no reference to the lecture, nor have I discovered any manuscript of it in the
Galtoniana. It is jwssible that it was needful to cut out a good deal of
the material of the lectm'o from the Fortniyhtly article as it would not be
intelligible without illastrations.

The paper commences with what Galton himself calls vague physiological
considerations concerning tlie difference between a sensation received by the
optic nerve and transmitted to the brain, and a mental image where the
secjuence of events would occur in the reverse order, there being tlie propa-
gation of a central impulse from the brain towaids the optic nerve. This
reverse process can be so vigorous that the mental image is vivid, and may
in certain cases amount to a hallucination. The.se considerations

"justify us in ascril)iii)jj the inarkod diffen-nccs in tlie quality, an wfll i\a the vivi(liu«a, of the
mental iuiagerj" of ditlerent persons, U) the various (Jegre<?H in which the several links of a long
nervous chain are apt to Ik? afltjcted." (p. 313.)

Galton states that
"his purpose is to point out the coniiitioiiH under which mental imager}' a.s alwve defined is

' FortnigMy Review, Vol. xxvui, N.S. pp. 312-24, Septeml>«!r, 1880. The Afind paper is
entitled "Statistics of Mental Imagery." {Uril. Amoc. llejxirl, 18H0, p. Ixxviii.)

Pt<i/r/iof)H/ii'(t/ linumtiijatuniM 239

most useful, an<l the piirtiiubir furiiiH of it wliioh wii ou}{lit to aim »t (k'vclopiii({, and I nhall
adduco eviiluncn to hIiuw llmt llu- viHUiillNiii); faculty udinitM of ImI' ' it<><|, altliough no

attt'iiipt has (>v»tr yi-t Ih!<iii iniulr, im far as I know, to hriiiK it Hy ly «n<l altot;<>thor

under control." (p. 313.)

Ciiilttui !i|i|ili('.s his "o^ivc ciirvi-" heii', ;i.s in Mm'/, ;iii<l (•<iiiclu<l<-> in.ii
"the im'(IIiiin ((uality of iiioiitiil imagery uiiioiig Kiigli.sliim'ii may l»o IfiieHy
described as fiiirly vivid but incomulete." (Jwiiig to the flatneBS of the
curve Ijetweeii the (juartiles, our author holds that it should Ik; feiisiblc to
educate the liu;ulty among the great majority of men to the degree in which
it manifests itself without any education at all in at least one person
out of sixteen, i.e. to the suboctile value, where the image is firm an<l clwir.
I nuist confess that 1 do not feel convinced of the great "educai)ility " of
the general population in visual imagery, by the rather slender evidence
Galton gives from the fjayh- Ntttionulc tie Dcssiit in Paris, and from an
eminent engineer, who had great visual faculty in form, and acquired it by
practice in colour also (pp. 322-3). The visual faculty may l)e largely innate
ni such selected populations as engineers and artists, and may merely need
exercising. It is (liflicult also to reconcile Galton's view that educjition
could span the gai) from lower quartile to upper suboctile with his state-
ment in the foUowmg sentences :

"The visualisin>; faculty is a natural gift, and like all natural gifts, Ims a teiideiiry to Ix?
inlu'rit«l. In this faculty the tendency to inlicritance is exceptionally strong, as I have abundant
ovideuoe to prove, especially in respect to certain rar(! peculiarities, of which T shall speak
[numlwr forms and colour associations], and which when they exist at all, arc usually found
among two, three, or more brothers and sistere, parents, childi'en, uncles and aunts and
cousins'." (p. 314.)

From families Galton turns to races, and while fuhnitting the difficulty in
civilisetl races of the modification by eduaition considers that the French
possess the visualising fiictor in a high degree, noting their power of pre-
arranging ceremonials and fetes, and their genius for tactics and strategy,
which show that they are able to foresee effects with unusual clejirness.
Their phrase "figurez-vous" or "picture to yourself," he says, seems to express
their dominant mode of j)erception. Galton next turns to uncivilised races
and stresses the cave drawings of the Bushmen of South Africa. He con-
siders that the drawings of uncivili.sed races are largely the products of
"mental imagery." This he justifies from a letter to hunself frouj Dr Mann,
of the Cape, who in I860 observed a Bushman lad at work:

"Ho invariably l)egan by jotting down upon paper or on a slate, a nuinlwr of isolated dot.s
which presenttMl no connection or trace of outline of any kind to the uninitiated eye, but
lotikinl like the stars scattered promiscuously in the sky. Having with much deliberation
satisfied himself of the sufficiency of these dots, he forthwith In-gan to run a free bold line from
one to the other, and as he did so the form of an animal— horse, buflfalo, elephant or some kind
of ant«lopo — gradually developed itself. This was invariably done with a free hand, and with
such unerring accuracy of touch that no correction of a line was at any time attempted. I
undersUxHl from this lad that this was the plan which was invariably pursued by his kindred
in making their clever pictures." (p. 316.)

' Oalton states that the fact that scattered members of the same family had number forms
was often discovered for the first time by his own inquiries.

•240 Life nnti lAttcnt of Francis GaUon

Gallon concludes from Dr Mann's account that a drawing by this method
would \te imjHXssible if the artist had not a clear imatj;e' of the animal in his
mind's eye. He refers also to the enmavinj^ of mammoth, elk and reindeer
on bone by the men of the ice-age as illustrating the same visualising faculty.
His argument would have been nujch strengthened h;ul the cave-drawings
of pjdaeolithic man been known in 1880, for these must have Ix^en made in
semi-obscurity without the presence of the model Ijeing jjossible.

Among other illustrations of the visual imagery of the uncivilised races
Galton cites the Eskimo |)erformaiices, in particular, a chart drawn from
memory of the coast from Pond's Bay to tort Churchhill', a straight line
distance of more than 1 100 miles, which the draughtsman must at one time
or another have visited in his canoe, and which was in reinarkal)le accord-
ance with the Admiralty Chart of 1870 (p. 316).

Galton next turns to nvunl)er forms ^nd colour sussociations, that is colours
associated with numl)ers, letters or more particularly vowels. He had formed
a collection of hundreds of such cases, not only from English, but from
American, French, German, Italian, Austrian and Russian correspondents.
He points out how in many cases the visualising faculty is not under con-
trol, the fii-st acquired image of any scene holds its place, and cannot be
subsequently corrected. M.any j)er.sons find no difficulty in recalling faces
unint<?re8ting to them but are powerless to summon up the looks of dear
relatives lost to them (i). 319). (Jalton gives an amusing experiment he made
with a young lady and a philosophising friend. Both lie accosted with the
words: "I want to tell yoti about a l)oat." The young lady immediately
visuali.sed a rather large boat pushing of!" from the shore, filled with gentle-
men and with hwlies dressed in blue and white. The philosopher said that
the won! 'Iwat' called up no dt;finite visual image, for he at once exerted
himself to hold his mind in suspense, refusing to think of any particular
boat, with any particular freight from any particular point of view. Galton
suggests that:

"A habit of suppressing mental imagery must therefoi-e characterise men who deal much
with abstract idi-a.s; anil as the power of dealing easily and tiniilj' with those ideas is the surest
criterion of a high order of intellect, we should expect that the visualising faculty would Iks
starved by disuse among philosophers, and this is precisely what I have found on inquiry to be
the case." (p. 319.)

Galton points out that while our readings with mental visualisation may
be dangerous it is equally inadvisable to starve this i)ower. He suggests
that if the boat-experience h.-ul been carried a stage further, the speaker
sjiying: "the boat was a four-oared racing boat, it was psussing quickly just
in front of me, and the men were bending forward to take a fresh stroke,"
the listener ought to have had a definite picture well liefore his or her eyes.
It ought to have the di.stinctness of a real four-oar going either to the right

' Later in the paper (p. 322) Galton refers to the rare power of throwing a mental image
on to a sheet of white jmpor and holding it fast there while it is outlined with a pencil. He
considers the Hush-boy ha<l souH'tliing of this faculty.

' Lat. 7.3° to lat. ."iH" 44'. The chart was published on p. 224 of Captain IlnlVs JoumaU
issued by the U.S. {■i>vcrniii<-iit in 187!).

Pmjchological InveMigations 241

or left, in short to be ii generic image of a four-oar formed Ijy a combination
into a single picture of many sight-memories of such lx)at8. "I argue," ho
writes, "that the mind of a man whose visualising faculty is free in its
action forms these generalised images of its own accord out of its past
experiences" (p. 320).

Galton states the forms of the visualising faculty which he thinks ought
to be aimed at in education :

"The capicity of CHlliii); uji at will t\ clear, Ht«a<ly and complete mental im i ' ly object
that wo have recently examine<l antl studied. Wo hIiouIiI lie able to visualine t t fn^ely

frt)m any aspect; wo .should lie able to pnyet^t any of its imaj^oH on pap<'r and diaw its outline
thero; w(! sliould further Ihj able to embrace all sidea of the obje<!t simult*neoUHly in a Binglo
perception, or at l<!a-st to sweep all Hides of it Huccensively with so rapid a mental fjlance im to
arrive at practically the same result. Wo ought to lie able to construct images from description
or otherwi.se, and to alter them in wliatover way we pleasa Wo ought to acquire the power of
combining sejxirato, but more or hsw similar images into a single generic one. Lastly we should
learn to carry away pictures at a glance of a mori; complicated scene than we can succeed at
the moment in analysing'." (p. 322.)

A final point which Galton makes in this extraordinarily interesting
paper is that the will cannot render vivid a faint image; its action is negative
being limited to the suppression of what is not wanted and would confuse:

"It cannot create thought, but it win prevent thoughts from establishing themselves which
lead in a false direction; so it keeps the course clear for a logical se<iuence of th(!m. Hut if
appropriate ideas do not come of their own accord, the will is powerless to evoke tlieiii. Thus
wo forget a familiar name, it is impo.ssible to recall it by force of will. The only plan in such
a case is to think of other things, till some chance as.sociation suggests the name. The mind
may bo seriou.sly dulled by over concentration, and it will only recover its freshness by such
change of scene and occupation as will encourage freedom and discursiveness in the flow of
ideas." (p. 324.)

The paper concludes with the extract which we have cited in the fuller
form from the Inquiries into Human Faculty (see our p. 211).

(lalton's investigation of visualised numei^als or number forms sprang
directly from his inquiries as to mental imagery. Several of his corre.s|X)iident8
referred to their "number forms," i.e. the schemes in which they visualised
the nmnerala from 1 to 200, or in some cases to a thousand or even a million.
Closely allied to these number forms were arrangements of months of the
year and of the days of the week. Others visualised in much the same way
the years of their life and even the centuries of history. Not a few of these
"forms" were associated with colours or shading. Galton collected both
before and after the publication of his Imiuiries into Jluman Faculty large
quantities of these fonns, and there is very ample correspondence with regard

' About this Galton writes: "A useful faculty, easilj' developed by practice, is that of
retaining a mere i-etinal picture. A scene is flashed upon the eyo; the memory of it persists,
and di^ails which escaped observation during the brief time when it was actually seen may be
analy.seil and studie<l at leisure in the subsequent vision." This point needs very full investiga-
tion. Personally I have tried in vain to get any detail of scene or action, which I had not
individually taken in on the occurrence. I feel grave doubts whether the details "which escaped
observation" would not be supplied later Ijocau.se they were probable accompaniments, and
to give evidence in a court of law of what happened by aid of such a visualising faculty would
be for me a very real danger.

r o II 31

242 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

to them. Much of the data has never been publislied ; Galton continued to col-
lect for a revised edition of the Inquiries which he never issued. In particular
there is a docket denlinjj; with heredity in number forms, and he accumulated
much evidence to show — not that the particular number forms — but that the
tendency to visualise numlxjrs runs \n families. Before he discussed the
matter in his Inquiries into Hunuin FaniUij, he published two memoirs on
the topic. The firet, entitled " Visualisetl Numerals," appeared in Nature
Jan. 15, 1880', And the second, with the siime title, in the Journal of the
Anthropological Institute, being a paper read on March !», 1880'. At this
time Galton had collected eighty such numl>er forms and he found that alx)ut
one pereon in thirty adult males and one in fifteen adult females possessed a
number form. Among children they appeared to be more frecjuent, but were
less fixed and distinct and tended to fade away with age. The 'form,' Galton
considered, was of an older date than that at which a child began to learn to
read, and repiesented his mental processes at a time of which no other record
remains (./. A. 1. p. 93 and especially Nature, p. 495). The 'forms,' he held,
were the most remarkable existing instances of what has been termed "topical
memory," the establishment of an association between position and the tiling
to be remembered; a link emphasised by teachers of mnemonics when they
advise speakers to associate mentjilly the corners ol' a room with the different
topics of a speech they are about to deliver. Discussing the relative frequency
of number forms in the two sexes Galton writes :

"I have been astonished to find how superior women usually are to men in the vividness

of their mental imagery and in their jKjwers of introspection I find the attention of

women, especially women of ability, to be instantly aroused by these iiKjuiries. They eagerly
and carefully address themselves to consider their modes of thought, they put pertinent
questions, they suggest tests, they express themselves in well-weighed language and with
liappy turns of expression, and they are evidently masters of the art of introspection. I do
not find any peculiar tendency to exaggeration in this matter either among women or men ;
the only difference 1 have observed between them is that the former usually show an unexpected
amount of intelligence, while many of the latter are uncxp<H;tedly obtuse. The mental difference
between the two sexes seems wider in the vividness of their mental imagery and the power of
intnwpecting it than in respect to any other combination of nicntal faculties of which I can
think." (Naturt, p. 252.)

The paper read before the Anthropological Institute was not only fuller
than that in Nature, but wiis of special interest because Mr George Bidder,
Colonel Yule, the Rev. G. Henslow, Mr (now Sir) Arthur Schuster, and others
each descriljed their own nimiber forms. It would seem that these gentlemen
were unaware, until Francis CJalton began his inquiry, that there was any-
thing unusual in the possession of a number form. This experience I also
have had not infrequently, when I have found a person with a number form ;
he seemed to suppose everybody had a numl>er form, and to be rather
incredulous when I asserted that this was not so. Galton himself, it is of
interest to note, did not visualise numerals. He writes :

• Vol. XXI, pp. 252-3, 323, 494-5. = Vol. x, pp. 85-102. The copies of both

theae memoirs in the Galtoniana contain the nauies of the various contributors of number
forms.

Pui/cliolof/i'caf fuvenfifffitiong 243

"Another general experience in that the power of noeing vivid iniagefl in tlm niind'H eye
ha« little connection with Uinh or low ability, or any other ohvious chaructfrititic, so tlmt at
prasent I am often puzr.lwl to kuo.hii fri>ni my f{i'n<'ral knowledge of a friond, whether he will
|)r<)V<! on iiKiiiiry t<i have the fariilty or not. I have inHtancea in which the hi({heBt ahility in
accompaniiMl hy a huKO nmosure of thJM gift, and other?* in which the faculty appearn to lie
almost wholly alisi-nt. It in not jK)s.se!WCHl hy all artists, nor hy all mathcmatician.H, nor hy all
nu-chanicH, nor hy all men of science. It i.s certainly not jiok.wr.'msI liy all metuphysicianM, who
are too apt to put forward Keiienili.sjitions, l)a.s«Hl solely on the experiences of their own .sjiecial
way of thinking, in total disregard of the fact that the mental op<'nition.s of other men may Ixs
conducted in very different wayg to their own." (Mature, p. 25'2.)

And again :

"Although philosophers may have wiilt<>n to show the inipos-sibility nt our (iiscnveiing
what goes on in the minds of others, I maintain an opjxwite opinion. I do not see why the
report of a person on his own mind should not ho as intelligible and tnistworthy as that of a
traveller upon a new country, whose landscapes and iidwl>itants are of a different tyj)e to any
which we ourselves have seen. It appears to me that inquiry into the mental constitution of
other people is a most fertile Held for exploration, especially as there is much in the facts
adduced hero, as well as elsewhere, to show that original differences in mental constitution are
permanent, Ixnng little niodititsl liv the necideiits of educution', and that they are strongly
hereditary." (Nature, p. 256.)

Our Plates (XXI and XXli) give specimens of number form.s. The Gal-
toniana contains many more and further shdes of a certitin number of coloured
ones which do not appear in tlie publi.shed papers.

The next paper we reach was given as a Friday evening discourse at the
Royal Institution, May 13, 1881'. It is entitled: "The Visions of Sane
Persons." The object of this lecture was to show the unexj)ected prevalency
of a visionary tendency among persons who form a part or ordinary society.
Visions, illusions, hallucinations are stages of the same mental phenomenon,
and may grade in Intensity up to the star of Napoleon I or the daimon of
Socrates and ultimately link up with a touch of madness.

Galton commences his lecture with referring in succession to:

(a) Nmnher Forms. "Strange visions for such they must be called, ex-
tremely vivid in some cases, but almost incredible to the great majority of
mankind," who are inclined to set them down as fantastic nonsense.

(/>) The Association of Colour with Sound. The persistence of colour
association with sound is fully as remarkable as that of Number Forms with
numbers; generally it is concerned with the vowel sounds, and it is not a
mere general colour, but a very distinct tint of that colour, which is asso-
ciated with the given sound. The association is permanent, but very arbitrary,
no two pei-sons agreeing in their distribution of tints to sounds.

(c) Association of ]Vords unth visualised Pictures. Sometimes this curious
fantasy occurs in a vague fleeting way, but occasionally the pictures are
strangely vivid and permanent. Thus in Mrs Haweis' mind the interrogation

' This sentence .since visualisation is part of the mental constitution does not seem wholly
in accord with Gallon's view that it should be possible by education to raise the intensity of
that faculty in the general pt^pulation so that the present grade at the upper suboctile should
represent that of the lower quartile of the new population.

* Publishwl also in the Forlniyhtly Review, June, 1881 : Proceedings, Royal I^iatitution,
Vol. i.\, pp. 644-55, 1882.

31— a

244 Life ami Letters of Francix Galton

'What?' always excited the idea of a fat man cracking ii long whip. And
such pictures are the regular conconiitanta of the words and go hack as long
as memory is ahle to rtnydl.

((/) I ietnn's in the Field of View, token the eyes are closed, or in jterfect
darkness. Many persons appear to have this kaleidoscopic change of forms,
if they simply close their eyes and wait; thus Galton himself had these forms
to a slight extent, but too fugitive to describe or draw. The llev. George
Henslow had them in a marked degree, and Goethe apparently also'.

{e) Phanta.naagoria. A coumion form of vision is the appearance of a
crowd of phantonjs hurrying past like men in the street. They are occa-
sionally seen in broad daylight, but generally come to a person in bed, after
j)utting the candle out and preparing to sleej), but by no means yet asleep.
Galton reports that he knew three scientific men of eminence who had such

f>hantasmagoria in one form or another'. Galton concludes with actual hal-
ucinations occurring to sane people in good working health corresponding to
tiie familiar hallucinations of the insane.

"I have," he writes, "a sufficient variety of caHcs to prove the continuity between all the
forms of visualisation, beginning with an almost total absence of it and ending with a com-
plete hallucination. The continuity is, however, not simply that of varying degrees of inUiiisity,
but of variations in the character of the process itself, so that it is by no means uncoinnion to
find two very different forms of it concurrent in the same person. There are some who
visualise well and who aXat) are seers of visions, who declare that the ^■ision is .not a vivid
visualisation, but altogether a different phenomenon. In short if we call all sensations due to
external impressions 'direct,' and all others 'induced,' then there are many channels through
which 'induction' may take place, and the channel of ordinary visualisation in the persons
just mentioned is different from that through which the visions arise." (p. 649.)

"It is remarkable how largely the visionary temperament has manifested itself in certain
periods of history' and epochs of national life. My interpretation of the matU>r, to a certain
extent, is this — that the visionary tendency is much more common among sane people than is
generally suspected. In cjirly life it seems to be a hard les-son to an ioiaginativo child to
distinguish between the real and visionary world. If the fantasies are habitually laughed at
and otherwise discouraged, the child 8<x)ii acquires the power of distinguishing them ; any
incongruity or non-conformity is quickly noted, the vision is found out and discredited, and is
no further attended to. In this way the natural tendency to see them is blunted by repression.
Therefore, when popular opinion is of the matter-of-fact kind, the seers of visions keep quiet;
they do not like to be thought fanciful or mad, and they hide their experiences, which only
come to light through inquiries such as those that I have been making. But let the tide of

' The present writer has them somewhat vividly, first colour patterns, then floral devices,
succee<le<l by the abrupt appt«rance of highly characteristic faces, corresponding to no
individuals known to him, and with trait-s emphasised to caricature.

' I do not know whether Galton would have cla.ssed utxler vision or phantasmagoria
another form of visualisation which comes to the present writer without any willing or power
of control. Waking in the morning he lies on his Iwick and looks eyes wide open at the empty
white washed ceiling. In a varying number of seconds it will become closely covered with
written matter in long narrow columns. It is never print, but has finely made, heavy black
vertical letters, as those of a mo<li(!val MS. J/ortulus aniriuie. The words although apjwirently on
the ceiling and of normal size are i>erfectly clear and legible, but on attempting to read them only
a word, here or there, will Ije grasped l»eforo the whole script either vanishes, or change,s. The
author recently caught two words widely apart 'mathematics' and 'faithful' in the vision.
He can well imagine that more easily moved natures, unaware of the frequency of such phan-
tasmagoria, might by pondering on them intensify them and read from them supernatural
meMages directing their conduct, thus crossing the border line between sanity and insanity.

PLATE XX 11 1

Miss Milliccnt Adiile Galton (Mrs Hunl)ury). Dic^l in 1883.
From a phutograpli tnkcn in the 'xixtitw.

I\i/(-holo<jical /nvext it/at ioim 245

upinion ciiangu iind fjrow fiivounililu to HU|K!ruaturuli.Hiii and the ncorH of viKiouM coiiio to the
front. It JH not tluit ii fiiciilty pruviouiily iion-exiHtunt Iiiim Ixren Huddciily <!Vokt?«l, but thnl a
faculty lonf? Hinothurwl in Huorct lin-s b<*n Huddonly allow»>d frocdon) to oxpnMW iUielf, and it
may Ix) to run into oxtravajjance owing to the removal of reiuionablo safcguanls." (p. GM.)

Wo may coiisidor here Galton's last puhliHhed exjRiriinentul invejitigation
on JntrosjMictiori. In 1884, the year after the appearance of the Immiries into
Ilumftn luicitUij, he issiu'd in Sliiul' a paper entitled: "Free-will, Observa-
tions anil Inferences." The e.xperinient wuh actually made in 1 88."{, " during the
somewhat uneventful but pleasant months of a summer spent in the country'."
Galton explains his aims ni the following words:

"Tlio ca»i« appfar raw in which any of the nunierouH writers on Freo-will liave Rtcadily,
and for a long tiino togttther, watchinl tho ofiorationM of their own mind whenever it wa«
engaged in Huch an act, and iliHcusMions on Free-will have certainly lieen much more frequent
than HyHteniatiu oLmervations of it. ConHequontly for my own information, I undertook a courbe
of introspective inquiry la.st year; it was carried on almost continuously during six woekii, and
has Ihmmi pr(K-eedod with, off and on, for many suhsecpifnt months. As the results weru not
what I expoctwl and as they were very distinct, I publish them, of course on the under-
standing that I profess to speak only of the operations of my own mind. If others will do the
same, we shall he hereafter in a position to generalise.

My course of observation was that, whenever I caught myself engaged in a feat of what
might fairly Iw called FnH.vwill, I checked myself and reculle<l the antt;ce<lents and noted any
cin-umstances that might have intluencwl my decision and forthwith wrote down an account
of the whole transaction. After I had collated several notes I found that the variety of pro-
ccs.se8 to Lk! observed was snuill: I ihei-efore discontinueil my notes, but nmintuined the obser-
vations, until I felt satisfied that I could describe as much of what goes on in my own mind
as falls within the kon of its consciousness.

I may say that, after some preliminary malat^lroitness had been overcome, I did not find
the tivsk ditticult, nor even irksome ; not nearly so much as in other introspective inquiries
I have made. It is true that facility in any kind of introspection is difficult to acquire; it
depends on tho establishment of a habit something like that of writing in the midst of [other]
avociitions. When the latter has once been attained, the writer recovers tlie thread of thought
that has l>cen dropped at each interruption, and rarely finds it broken. So it is with intro-
spection." (p. 406.)

Galton at once discards acts of 'Will' as distinguished from free-will as
they are usually automatic; tenacity of purpose does not denote free-will,
and is not usually considcri'd to l)e a hi^h onh-r of p.sycliical activity'.

' Vol. IX, pp. 406-13.

' The Galtons were "done up by I>jndun whirl and grief for Mr Si.>otti.swot(»le'8 death and
the funeral in the Abbey, July ."Jth, ami I lKX.'ame .so unwell at the Jenkinsons that we U^gan
our summer outing at IJoscombe and ]^)urnemuuth and spent a pleasant month meeting
plea.sant people. All the time I was on starvation diet. Then we wont to Newton Abbot near
Tonpuiy and visitetl Totnes and Dartmouth and Tor(|uay; also a pleasant time, and with nice
dry weather such as one seldom enjoys in England. Still I prefer a foreign climate and think
it suits my tiresome ailment better." L. G.'s Uncord.

Gallon's sister Adele Bunbury died on Dec. .31st and Montagu Butler's first wife Ocorgina
during this year, so that the Galtons lost three close connections in the year following Darwin's
deMh. Fi-ancisGalton wrote an obituary notice of S|>ottiswoode for tho IloyalGeographical Society
(I'roceediitgs X. M. S., 1883, Vol. v, pp. 489-91) and conclude<l it with the wortls: "his name
will assuredly take its place in the national men)ory ivs one of thase upon whose ability, moral
character, and resolute work, the credit of the English nation is mainly founded." Spottiswoodo
anil Galton hiul been joint Honorary Secretaries of the Iloyal Geographical Society and intimate
friends for many years.

' "As obstinate as a mule " or more vulgarly "as obstinate as a pig" are cited by Galton to
express his meaning.

246 Life and Tjetters of Francis GaKon

Again, appetites as motives automaticiilly direct the will, and these cases
may be aisrt^rded, nor did Galton trouble about cases in which two motives
of the sjuiie kind were in conflict and the greater j)revailed. "There is no
more anomaly in these than there is in the heavier scale-pan of a balance
descending." Galton ultimately a8st)ciated the possible csises of free-will
with cases of irresolution, and to his great surprise found that not more tlian
about one such case arose in the day. "All the rest of my actions seenu'd
clearly to lie within the province of normal cause and consequence."

Galton classified these classes of "irresolution" into three categories:

(i) Each of two alternative plans grew less attractive the longer it was
looked at, and so the mind "swung to and fro incapable of wholly fixing
itself on either."

(ii) A Htfulness in the growth of a desire to change one's condition or
occupation. "The resolution was delayed until a considerable rise of the
new desire corresponded with a sudden fall of the old one." Galton illus-
trates this by the daily act of waking up and rising in the morning.

(iii) A change of Ego. An Ego which wants to continue staying com-
fortably in bed, and an Ego with a faint voice preaching the merits of early
rising.

"To this I may give intellectual assent, but l)efore it is possible for me to will to rise the
Ego that is subsisting in content must somehow bo abolished and a transmigration must take
place into a different Ego, that of wide-awake life."

The mind may be shifted into a new position of stable equilibrium, by
such a small matter as a twig tapping against the window.

"I suspect that much of what we stigmatise as irresolution is due to our Self being Ijy no
means one and indivisible, and that we do not care to sacrifice the Self of the moment for a
different one. There are, I believe, cases in which we are wrong in reproaching ourselves sternly,
saying, 'The last week was not Sf)ent in the way you now wish it liad been' because the Self
was not the same throughout. There is room for applying the greatest happiness of the greatest
number, the particular Self at the moment of making retrospect being not the only one to be
considered." (p. 409.)

Galton next turns' to what he terms 'incommensurable motives,' cases
in which

"the one that was not the most keenly felt, nor gave the greatest pleasure in any sense of the
word, emerged triumphant." (p. 409.)

He argues that the 'apparently' stronger psychical motive may not be
the physiologically stronger motive, had we an exact cognisance of the battles

* He gives the following illustration: "An imperious old lady, infirm and garrulous, calh-d
at my house just as 1 hat! finished much weary work and wits preparing with glee for a long walk.
Hearing that I wa.s at home, she dismissed her carriage for three quarU-r.s of an hour, so I was
her prisoner for all that time. As she talked with little wssiition, I hiul full o]>portunity for
<jue«tioning myself on the feeling that supporte<] me tlnx)Ugh the iiilliction. The responst; always
i^ped itself in the same way, 'social duties may not l)c disregiirde<l ; beside^s this is a capital
occasion for introspection.'" Ualton comments: "I^eaving aside the last clause of the reply we
•ee here. ..how a keen desire may wither under the iiiHuenee of something alKiut which our
oonaciousness is scarcely exercised ; some one of the many habits, whose quiet and firm domination
gives a steadiness and calm to mature life that children cannot comprehend." (p. 410.)

I'sj/r/iofofjical Invest if/at ions 247

in our brain ; the appearance of relative strength is deceptive. Galton draws
attention to the stjirtling spontaneity with which some of the ideas that
(lotenninu tlio will se»3tn to arise. He sugf^ests a sulwonscious chain of
idnis a part of which suddenly conies into consciousness and may dominate
the will. "Most of our ideas are partially shaped when they are first con-
sciously perceived, and fro<|U«'titly they are fully shapcvl."

Those who with closed eyt« witness a whole series of transformations
not called up by any act of will of their own, and of which they cannot chance
the sefpience hy any conscioiis effort, will be prepared to consider favouralily
Galton's view that every form of sudden presentation, every new ideii, hasan
analogous source to these visual ones.

"Moroover, as the iinaginntion works in oliscun^ dopttis out of the usual ken of consciousness,
there Hcemn reason for supposing that the 'something' upon which it works may in modt cases
be equally beyond its view. It in also certain that those who introsptcot, and those who study
the goncms of dreams, succeed in diHcovering plain causes for numerous images and thoughts
that had spcmed to iiave arisen sponUmeously. If thi'se explanations are correct, as I feel
assured they are, wc must understand the word 'spontaneity' in the same sense that a scientific
man undrrst«nds the word 'chance.' lie thereby atlirnis his ignorance of tlie precise causes of
an event, but he docs not in any way deny the possibility of determining them. The general
results of my introspe(;tive inquiry support the views of those who hold that man is little more
than a conscious machine, the larger part of whose actions are predictable. As n^gards such
residuum us there may be, which is not auUjmatic and which a man however wise and well
informed could not possibly foresee, I have nothing to say, but I have found that the more
carefully I inquired, whether it was into the facts of hereditary similarities of conduct, into
the life-histories of very like or very unlike twin.s, or now introspectively into the processes of
what I should have called my own Free-will, the smaller seems the ix>om left for the possible
residuum." (pp. 412-3.)

(Jalton would have been the last to claim finality for his conclusions, but
his investigation raises many points of interest, and like so much of his
psychological work emph.asises the wide field of sulxionscious mental activity
springing at odd intervals into consciousness. This Galton compares with the
sudden and silent appearance of the head of a seal above the surface of still
water and its just as sudden and silent di.sappearance, the observer being yet
aware that the seal has been continuously active in a manner unperceived
below the surface.

Three other psychological experiments on himself were made by Galton,
but the results were not published. He refei-s to them in his Memories\ In
the first, made in his youthful days, he wius guided by a pa.ssionate desire to
subjugate the body to the spirit, and determined that the will should replace
automatic acts. He applied this to bi'eathing, and every breath was sub-
mitted to the will. The normal power of breatlnng was dangerously interfered
with and he felt as if he should suttbcate, if he ceased to will. He hatl a
terrible lualf-hour in which by slow and irregular steps the lost automatic
power wjis recovered. Secondly Galton determined to g*ain some of the
conunoner feelings of Insanity. He adopted the plan of inve.sting everything
he met with the imaginary attributes of a spy. Galton found the experiment
only too successful; in the course of a morning stroll by the time he had

' Pp. 276-7.

248 Lifv and Letters of FraueU Galtou

\valke<] from Kuthuul (iate to the Green Park calxstand in Piccarlilly every
horse even on the stand seemed watching him, either with pricked eare, or
else disguising its espionage. Hours elapsed before the uncanny sensation
wore ott and Galton sjiid that he could only too easily re-establish it.

In his third experiment Galton strove to gain an insight into the abject
feeling which a savage has for his fetish or idol, and he fixed on the grotesfjue
figure on Punch's wrapper, and made believe in Punch's possession of divine
attributes, and his mighty power to reward or punish men according to their
treatment of him. The experiment gradually succeeded, and for a long time
he retained for Purich's image a large share of the feelings that a barbarian
luis for his idol and learnt "to appreciate the enormous potency they might
have over him."

Pereonally I have been much puzzled by the rasurrection in modern days
of the mascot, and by the apparent depth of feeling in some minds with
regard to mascots ; re-reading Galton's experiment with Punch, explained to
my unimaginative mind how easily such reversions to fetishism may arise in
the case of more emotional natures among modern men.

These three experiments aptly illu.strate what serious endeavours Galton
made to understand and appreciate the workings of his own and other men's
minds.

C. INQUIRIES INTO HUMAN FACULTY AND ITS DEVELOPMENT, 1«83.

This is the third of the larger works of Francis Galton, but it differs to
some extent from the earlier two in being more completely a summary of the
memoirs of the preceding ten to twelve years'. It is true there is a good
deal added, but there is a considerable amount omitted, and those omissions
to some extent may lead the reader of the book to suppose the conclusions
based on less substantial evidence than a reader of the memoirs would h.ave
before him. On this account I have considered it best to discuss the memoins
at length, and in this section merely to supplement the earlier sections of
this and those of the following chapter by drawing attention to novel points.

Writing of the memoirs he had published since the appearance of
Hereditary Genius in 1869 Galton says :

"They may have appeared tlesult(jry wlien read in the order in which tlicy apjieared, but
as they had an underlying connection it seems worth while to bring their subst-iince together
in logical sequence into a single volume. I have revised, condensed, largely rewritten, trans-
posed old matter, and interpolated much that is new; but traces of the fragmentary origin of
the work still remain, and I do not regret them. They serve U) show that the Ixjok is intended
to be suggestive, and renounces all claim to l>e encyclopae<lic. I have indeed, with that object,
avoided going into details in not a few ca-ses where I should otherwise have writt^'n with
fullness, especially in the anthropometric part. My general object has l)een to take note of the

' Of the twenty-two memoirs on which the work is based seventeen have been alrea<ly
considered in this or earlier chapters, four will lie dealt with in Chapter XII and one in
Chapter XIII. For the titles of tlieso memoirs: see Appendix, pp. 338-9 of the work. Three
memoirs on composite photography (including that on 'Generic Images'), the memoir on the
fertility of Town and Country jx)pulations, that on Test VV(!iglits and that on (Jalton's Whistles,
together with the (jucstionnaire on visualising, are repnHiuce<i on j)p. .IJO-SO of the Appendix.

Ptn/rhologiral /nvcutiifntiotui 249

varied horcMlitary fuculties of (litToront iiion, and of the Kroat diflbroncea in different familieH
(iiid racKK, to Ifiirii how fur lii.story may hftv« kIiowii the pnioticiihility (»f Mupplaiitin^ inefficient
liuiuiin Ktot^k by lK'tt<T xtniins, Hiid to consider whether it iiiiKht not U< our duty to do «» hy
Much effortH iw may !><■ ■ ^'-rtinn <»iirs«!lve.s to further tho ends of evi.I 're

nipidly and with K'HH il ntn were left to their own coume I tliou irr

to procetsi like tlio surveyor of u new country, and endeavour to fix in the first iublauou a»
truly us I could the position of mvcimI nirdinal |X)int«." (pp. 1-2.)

It is clear from tliis j that Galton recognised he was a pioneer.

He was, indeed, the first to grasp that if evohition be the true doctrine of
the development of living forms, then it is desirable for rational man
to take stock of his varieties, mental and physical, to mejisure their
evolutionary value, and to throw himself into sympathy with the changes
Nature foreshadows for his kind. The intention of (lalton's work is to touch
on various topics more or loss coimected with the cultivation of race or, as he
puts it (p. 24), with "eugenic" questions'. Galton proposes to tell us the range
of qualities Ibund in man and therein must lie man's po.ssibilityof improvement.
Is it not a religious duty of tlu^ mtMi of to-day to leave their race butter than
they found it? Or, as Ilomanes phrased Galton's idea: Is it not man's high
prerogative to cooperate with the unknown Worker in pn)moting the great
work { The world wiis not ripe for such a doctrine in 188'5, and, needless to
say, it raised theological ire. The Guardian published a thoroughly hostile
review from which 1 cite a few sentences:

"The author cannot even refrain from trespa-ssinj; upon the territory of those with whom
he is at issue, a territory which for hiui is not matter, which cannot be st«n, or touched or
measured or weiglunl — and so cannot In* prove<l (by his method of proof) to exist. We are
henceforth to apply oursi-lvos U) elicit the 're/iijious sij^niticance' of the do<'trine of evolution;
whether if we substitute" for religious anti-relujiouH, Mr Galton would be able to demonstrate
any difi'ert"nct> in the meaning conveyed by the words he uses we take leave to doubt."

Speaking of Galton's remarks on the herd (see our p. 74) the critic writes:

"A small tril)e is sure to be slaughtered or enslaved; a large one falls to pieces through its
own 'unwioldinc8.s.' Tt must be 'either deficient in centralisation or straightened for food or
both.' '8i>lf-reliant individuals' i\n- reijuired; but neither too few nor t<K> many. The import-
ance of gregarious instincts in savagt^ life is fully set forth; but they are not equally im[>ortant
to 'all forms of sjivagi> life.' Natural sekn-tion tends to give one leader 'and to oppress super-
abundant lejuier.s.' As we have been tAiight l)efore, this wonderful law of natural selection
creates and tiestroys, rtKiuces and enlarges, raises and represses, origiiuites and ainiihilates."

Galton, as we know, discussed only the objective eflBcacy of prayer (see
our pp. 115-17), and the critic cites nis words with the comment we give
following them :

' "That is, witli questions Ijearing on what is termed in (Jreek i^ujeneg, namely, good in
stock, hei-e<litarily endoweil with noble qualities. This and the allietl word.s, ettgeneia, etc., are
equally applicable to men, brute's and plants. We greatly want a brief word to express the
science of improving stock, which is by no means continwl to ({ue.stions of judicious mating,
but which, esiH'cially in the case of nuui, takivs cogniamce of all intluences that tend in however
remote a degree to give to the niore suitable races or strains of blood a better chance of pre-
vailing speedily over the less suitable than they otherwise would have had. The word eugenic*
would sufficiently express the idea; it is at lenst a neater word and a more generalised one
than viriculture, which I once ventured to use." (pp. 24-r> ; see our p. 1 10.) Thus the name for
the science of eugenics was invented just forty years ago.

p o u 32

250 Life and Lettrnt of Fraiicia Galton

" ' Wo .siiii|ily l<wik U) the main issue — Do sick iKtrsons who pniy or nre prayi><l for,
recover on tlie avcnigo won' nipidly than others! '

•I have tlis<'<jvcrt><l hardly any instance in wliioh a nie<lical man of repute liius attributed
recoverj' t<» the inllueni-e of prayer.' 'The univei-sui! liahit of the si-ieiitilic world to ignore
the powfr of prayer is a very inijiortant fact.'
Is this a fact at allt Wliat evidence has Mr Galton to bring forward in Kupi>ort of tliis
outrageous assertion concerning the scientific world M"

And again:

"A nation, he informs us, ou>;ht not to hold tof^ther by purely gregarious instincts, 'a mob
of slaves clinging to one another thi-ough fear,' it should consi.st of 'vigorous self-reliant men,
knit to one another by innumerable til's,' and as he ought to have added, well versed in the
new dt)ctrincfi of evolution and det<'rmine<l to destroy their weaker brethren in obedience to
the great law of the survival of the fittest in the struggle for existence. Instead of wasting his
time ujx)n the records of the past and preparing for a future state, the new animal man is to
'awake to a fuller knowledge of his relatively gn-at jiosition, and begin to assume a deliberate
part in furthering the great work of evolution.' It is his 'rtdigious duty,' saj's Mr Gallon, to
do this 'tleliberately and systematically.' This is the privctical outcome of the new philasophy
for the now animal — the only religious duty he has to perform in the new Cosmos'."

I have cited these passages — very characteristic of the ecclesiastical
feeling of that day — to show how the anti-Darwinian odium thcoloyicum was
within a year of Darwin's death transferred to his cousin, because, going farther
than Darwin, he had seen that if the doctrine of evolution through heredity
and natiual selection be true, then man ought to use this principle as any
other natural law to raise his kind. The thoughts and puiposes of the Deity,
Florence Nightingale held, are only to be discovered by the statistical study
of natural phenomena, and both Francis Galton and Florence Niglitingale
believed that application of the results of such study was the religious duty of
man. Are we any nearer to-day than the theological world wiis in 1883 to a
true appreciation of that position ? Are Dean Inge and Canon Barnes avei-age
representatives of the modern Church, or is their grade, as Galton would
have put it, somewhere about the "sulx>ctile"? We sadly fear that Father
Wasniann, Mr G. K. Chesterton, and Herr BumuUer would more nearly
reproduce the median theological mind of to-day. In 1 883 it was probably
Romanes alone who recogni.sed the fact that Galton wiis virtually marking
out the lin&s of what n)ay be appropriately called a new religion.

"We have of late hiul so many manufactures of this kind that the market is somewhat
glutted, and therefore it is very doubtful how far this n<'w supply will meet with an a)>pnipriaU<
demand; but we can safely recommend Mr (Jalton's wares to all who deal in such conniioditius
as the best which have hitherto been turned out. They are the l>est because the materials of
their comjKwition are honesty and commonsense without admixture with folly or metaphor'."

After this slight indication of the reception the publication of Galton's
work met with, 1 turn to its contents. The earlier pages discuss material

' Yet surely Galton was merely stating a universal oxpeiience! What chance of publication
by a recognise*! scientific society would a memoir have if the author, describing the sequence
of any jihysiail or vital phenomena, adde<l: "but aiicording to my exjwrience the s(-<|uence is
niodifie<l in x' j ^ of ca.m^s by the power of jirayer"? We must go Iwck to Cuvier practically to
find breaks in the sequcnctw of nalui-al phenomena directly attributed in a "scientific" memoir
to tlw-ocratic intervention.

' Th'-. (Jtuirdian, July 1, 1HS3, p. 1001. » Nature, Vol. .\xvni, p. 98, Mar. 31, 1883.

PHj/r/ut/uf/ic(if /tnrntifjathil9 251

witli which tlio reader of the present vohiine is familiar; they deal chiefly
with the antliropometric chanictors, with the variety in features, with the type
face as reached by composite jH)rtmiture, with the healtliy.the disejust'd and the
criminal. (Jalton then reiterates his view on the influence of town hfe (see our
pp. 123-25). He next turns to a very important matter, wliich liad l»een thrust
on his attention when deahng with Enghsh men of science, namely Knenjij.

" Energy is the ciipacity for labour. It jh c<>iisiHU>nt with all th<> ruliUMt virtu(.\s, ami iimkiii
a largo piiictice of them po.s.sil)lo. It is tiui iiim-siiru of fullncHS of life; the luorv energy the
nioro ahiiiidaiiee of it; no energy at all Ih death; idiots uro fcehic and listlewi. lu the inquiries
I niiule on the antecedents of men of science no |K>int.s came out nion- .strongly than tlmt the
leaders of scientific thought wen' generally gifte<l with rernarkal>le energy, an<l that they had
inherit<»d the gift of it fnmi their parenU and griiiul|«irrMts. I have nince found the .same Ut
Ixi the ca.se in other careers. Knergy is an attriimte of the higher races, Ix'ing favoure<l lieyond
all other i|ualiti(^s hy natural .selection. We are goac|e<l into activity liy the conditionn and
strugglfts of life. They atlonl stinnili that oppri-.ss and worrj- the weakly, who coniplaiii and
lx!wail, and it may Im- succuuiI) to them, hut which the energetic man welconien with a good
humoure<I shrug, anil is thi> Ix-tter for in the end.

The Ktimuli may lie of any description: the only im[)ortnnt matt«.>r is that all the faculties
should l)e kept working to prevent their jK'rishing hy di.sease. If the faculties are few, very
simple stimuli will sutKce. Even that of (leas will go a long way. A dog is continually
scratching himself, and a bird pluming it.self, whenever they are not occupied with food,
hunting, lighting, or love. In those blank times there is very little for them to attend to
l)e.side.s their vnritMl cutaneous irritations. It is a matter of observation that well washed and
combed domestic pets grow dull; they miss the stimulus of fleas'." (pp. 2.5-6.)

Galton further remarks that it does not follow that because men are
capable of doitig hard work that they like doing it. Some may fret if they
cannot let ott" their superfluous steatn, but others need a strong stimulus such
as wealth, ambition or passion to compel them to action.

"The solitary hard workers, under no t^ncouragement or compulsion except their sense of
duty to their generation, are unfortunately rare among us." (p. 26.)

"It may be objected that if the ruce were too healthy and energetic tliere would be in-
sufficiont call for the exercise of the pitying and self-denying virtues, and the character of men
would grow harder in consetjuence. But it does not seem re;i,sonable to preserve sickly bn-efU
for the sole purjKJse of tending them, as the bree<l of foxes is pre.serve<l solely for sport and its
attendant advaiituges. There is littlt! fear that mis<.'ry will ever cease from the land, or that
the conipo-ssionate will fail to find objects for their conipa-ssion ; but at present the supply
vastly exceeils the demand; the land is overstocked and overburdened with the listless and
the inca|iable.

In any scheme of eugenics, energy is the most important quality to favour; it is, as we
have seen, the basis of living action, and it is eminently transmis.sible by de.scent." (p. 27.)

Galton next deals with sensitivity, describing his weight-lifting and
whistle test for touch and sound. Speaking of discrimination by the senses,
he remarks on the limitation of language to express various degrees of dif-
ferefice by what we now term broail categories. He writes:

"We inherit our language from barbarous ancestors, and it shows traces of its origin in the
imp<Mfect ways hy which grades of ditFerence admit of Innng expressed. .Suppose a |Mxlfstrian
is asked whether the knapsack on his Iwck feels heavy. He carimit find a replv in two words

' The humour of this pa.ssage quite escaped unc critic. Otherwise he might have roalis«'d
that Galton's proiluction in the critic's case of 'cutaneous irritations" \va.s a most useful stimulus
against the critic himself growing dull.

3-i 2

262 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

th»t cover more viiru'tics than (1) very heavy, (2) rather heavy, (3) moderate, (1) rather light,
(5) very light'. I once took ooiisiderahle pnins in the Htlein|)t to dnvw up verlwl sciiles of
more than tive orders of iim^'nitude, usin;j those expressions only that any cultivatod jxTson
would understand in the saine i>enst>; but I did not succeed. A series that satistietl one person
waa not interpreted in the same sense by another." (p. 33. )

The general aim of" tli is section of (Jal ton's work is to sliow that the range
of sense di.scriniination in man is wide, that cU'licate (liseriuiination is an
attribute of a high race, and that it is not, as some have supposetl, necessarily
associated with nervous irritahility.

The author next emphiusi.ses the imjx)rtance of family anthropometric
roisters, a matter to which we shall shortly return. We may note his
concluding remarks :

"The investigation of human eugenics — that is, of the conditions under which men of a
high tyjie are producid — is at present extremely hampered by the want of full family histories,
both medical and general, extending over three or four generations. There is no sucii difficulty
in investigating niiinial eugenics, because th(! generations of horses, cattle, dogs etc. arc brief,
and the breeder of any such stock lives long enough to aci|uire a large amount of ex|>i-rience
from his own personal oli.si'rvation. A man, however, can rarely Ik> familiar with more tlian
two or three generations of his contemporaries liefore age has begun to clieck his powers; his
working experienct^ must therefore be chietly bastHi upon reconls. Believing, as 1 do, that
human eugenics will become recognistnl bt^fore long as a study of the highest prai-tical im-
portance, it seems to me that no time ought to be lost in encouraging and directing a habit of
compiling |)ersonal and family hi.stories. If the necessary materials l>e brought into exisUnice,
it will refjuire no more than zeal and pt!rsuasivene.ss on the part of the future investigator to
collect as large a store of then) as he may require." (pp. 44-5.)

Then follows a discussion of statistical methods, in particular of the
"ogive curve" (see om* Chapter XII); it is followed by a study of character
(see our pp. 208-27 1), by a discussion of the criminal (see our pp. 229-231)
and the insane, and their heredity; and then we have the salient points of the
paper on gregarious and slavish instincts reproduced (see our pp. 72-74).
Galton next turns to the great variation in the visualising power of man and
summarises, and to some extent expands, the memoirs we have already dis-
cussed (see our pp. 236-45). He refers in more detail to blindfolded chess-
players, who play several games at once, and notes c-uses of orators mentally
reading manuscript in making speeches.

"One statesman has assured me that a certain hesiUition in utt<'rance, which he has at
times, is due to his being phigued by the image of his manuscript speech with its original
erasures and corrections. He cannot lay the ghost, and he puzzles in trying to decipher it.

Some few persons see mentally in print every word that is uttered; they attend to the
visual equivalent and not to the sound of the words, and they read them off usually as from a
long imaginary slip of fwper, such as is unwound from telegraphic instruments. The ex-
periences differ in detail as to size and kind of type, colour of paper, and so forth, but are
always the same in the same person." (p. 96.)

Galton next deals at some length with the visualising power of uncivi-
lised races; he notes that Bu.shmen and Eskimo are an exception to the rule

' Five categories are usually adequate for the statistician; he has unfortunately often to
content hims«!lf with three. But if seven are desirable then not unreasonable results may lie
oV>tain<Ml by such a system as (1) extn-mely heavy, (2) heavy, (3) mther heavy, (4) medium,
(."») rather light, (6) light, (7) extremely light, — provided personal equation is considered,
eliminated, or standardised.

PLATE WIV

PHifcfiologiatl fn nut it/at ions 263

and quotes from his piiper in the Fortnightly of Se|>U'ml)er 1 880 (see our
pp. 238-41), and in concluding the subject ex|)andR tlie last paragraph of
that paper into his final expresHJon of opuiion:

''There ciiii, however, 1)0 no douht iw to the utility of the vixualisin); faculty when it in
duly HulMnliiiiititi to the hijrhi-r intellectual o|K>rationH. A visuul iniuj{e in the most perfect
form of mental rcprvHentation whenever tlifl Hhii[>e, [toiiition and n-lutiunH uf olijectM in H[iace
are concerntHl. It is of imi>ortiince in every han<licriift and profewiiou where deMi((n is re<)uired.
Tlio hest workmen are those who visualiwi the whole of what they j>ro|>oso to do, Ix'fon^ tliey
take a tool in their hands. Th<' villHge smith and the carp<>nter who are employed on odd job«
ro<|uire it no less for their work than the ni<>chanician, the engineer and the architect. The
lady's iiiai<l who urniii^^iM a new dress requires it for the same reason an the decorator employed
on a palace, or the afjent who lays out |i{reat e8tat««. Strategists', artists of nil denominations,
physicists who contrive new ex|MTinients, and in short all who do not follow routine, have
nvi.'<\ of it. Thi- pleasure its use can afVord is immense. I have many corrps|M>ndentM who say
that the delight of recallinj» Ix-autiful scenery and great works of art is the highest tlmt they
know; they carry whole pictur«> galleries in their minds. Our lHK)ki8h an<l wonly educjition
tends to repress this valuable gift of nature. A faculty that is of im|Mirtaiice in all Utchnical
and artistic wcupations, that gives accuracy to our perception.s, and justness to our generalisa-
tions, is atiirvi>d by lazy disuse, instead of being cultivattnl judiciou.sly in such a way as will
on the whole bring the best return. I believe that a serious study of the l)est methtxl of de-
velopitig and utilising this faculty', without prejudice to the practice of abstract thought in
synilH)ls, is one of the many pressing desidenita in the yet unformeti science of etlueation."
(pp. 113-4.)

Galton next passes to "Number Forms" and gives here the fullest account
that he has provided of them, although in no way comparable with the
range of his collected material. He publishes thrtie plates of " Nund>er Forms"
and a fourth plate showing some typical a.s.sociations of numbers with coloure.
He also indicates that some persons as.sociate character with numerals, but
rarely, except in the case of 12, to which most pay great respect, is there
any agreement in the characterisation. Thus 3 may l)e a "treacherous sneak,"
a "feeble edition of 9," "a goixl old friend" and "delightful and amusing."
There is no agreement as to the sex of nund)ers, although Galton himself
imagined that the even numbers must of course be male (p. 144),

He then refers to the very strong evidence he had collectetl for the
hereditary character, not of particular nmnber forms, but of the tendency to
visuali.se numbers. He next turns to colour a.s.sociations and describes tnem
at considerable length (pp. 145-54). He emphasises the fact that while to
the ordinaiy man these a.ssociations of colour with letters or numbers appear
equally "wild and lunatic'," no two colour visionaries agree in their schemes,
and one seer is scandalised and almost angry at the heresies of another I

' Napoleon I seems to have held that men whoforme<l mental picture8(<aWeaM.j:), no matter what
their intellect, courageand knowle<lge, were unfit to command. MaximesdeGuerreel l'«tuee»,^o. 73.

* Galton, notwithstanding his evidence for the hcreditarj' character of this faculty, yet held
that it could be developed by training, and cited I>gros' old teacher Lecoq de Boisljaudran, who
had developed at the £cole A'atioiiale de IJessin in Paris a complete training in xTsualisation. It
can, no doubt, where it existji be developed by practice, but it may l)e (|ue8tione<l whether it
can l>e originateii in an individual without it, any more than musical sense or mechanical
ingenuity can b«> develoftetl in those in whom they are not innate

' The complexity of some of the colour schemes as shown on Galton's Plate IV is marvel-
lous; that plate required 14 colour stones to produce it lithogniphically, and therefore,
fascinating as it is, I cannot reproduce it here!

2i>4 Life aiul Letters of Francii Oalton

As I have remai-ked, Galton describes and figures only a small part of his

material, but enougli to succeed

"in leaving a just impression of the vast variety of mental coiiBtitution that exists in the
world, and how iinpossihle it is for one man to lay his mind ntrictly alongside that of another,
axc«pt in the rare instanct-s of close herctlitary rt'-semblance." (p. 154.)

The next section of the work is entitled Visionanvs, and consists sub-
stantially of the material we have discussed in our n'smiu' of the "Visions
of Sane Persons" (see our j))). '243-45). The essential point is the fretpiency
with which the automatic construction of fantastic figures takes place, and
their continued sequence without control of the volition. The transition of
such visions to hallucinations was regarded by Galton :us only a matter of
the intensity of nerve excitement, which might be produced by ill-health,
bi-ain-stornis or drugs. The following section of the book under discussion is
termed "Nurture and Nature."

"Man," writ«N our author, "is so educable an animal that it is difficult to distinguish
between that part of his chanict«r which has lxx.-u acquired through educiition and circum-
stance and that which was in the original grain of his constitution." (p. 177.)

Galton considers that the character of a nation may not change, but a dif-
ferent phase or moot! of it may Ijeconie dominant owing to some accident
causing the special representatives of that phase to be for a time national
leaders.

"The love of art, gaiety, adventure, science, religion may be severally paramount at
different times." (p. 1 78.)

Now follows a passage which I think must be cited as a whole, for it
needs some consideration :

"One of the most notable changes that can conio over a nation is from a state corre-
sponding to that of our past dark ages into one like that of the Renaissance In the first case
the minds of men are wholly taken up with routine work, and in copying what their pre-
deoessors have done; they degrade into servile imitators and sulmiissive slaves to the past. In
the aeoond case some circumstance or idea has finally di.scre«lited the authorities that imf>oded
intellectual growth, and has unexjiectedly reviialed new possibilities. Then the mind of the
nation is set free, a direction of research is given to it, and all the exploratory and hunting
instincts are awakened. These sudden eras of gi-cat intellectual progress cannot be due U> any
alteration in the natural faculties of the race, because there has not been time for that, but
to their being directeil to productive channels. Most of the leisure of the men of every nation
is spent in a round of reiterated actions; if it could be spent in continuous advance along new
lines of research in unexplored regions, vast progress would he sure to he mode. It has been
the privilege of this generation to have had fresh fields of research pointed out to them by
Darwin, and to have undergone a new intellectual birth under the inspiration of his fertile
genius." (pp. 178-9.)

The comparison of the Darwinian movement with that of the Renaissance
is a very apt one. But in neither case was it the "mind of the nation"
which was set free. The movement in Germany, for instance, n)erely trans-
ferred the niiisses of the people physically and mentally from one bondage to
a second, and where the new ideas did reach them they Ijecame symlwls of an
economic revolt, as in the Peasants' llebellion, rather tlian marks of great
intellectual progress. So it has Ixjen with the Darwinian doctrines, they
did just reach atid interest the more thinking working men in the seventies,

Pt<i/r/i<)io(/u'ftl InvcHtiijnlioHH 255

but they have ceased to have any meaning for the hulk of the population
to-day; its problems are essentially economic, and it will acce|)t as an in-
tellectual faith any doctrine which ap[)arently offers better economic con-
ditions'. The error is that we assume j^reat j)rogress in the intellectual views
of the leaders of thought in a nation always corresjx^nds to some mental de-
velopment, or to some change in the culture of the mass of the [K-oj)le.

Cialton concludes tliis section (p. 182) by stsiting that while we know "that
the bulk of the respective provinces of nature and of nurture are totally
different, and although tlie frontier between them may l)e uncerUvin," yet "we
are perfectly justified in attemi)ting to appraise their relative importance."

C)ur author now turns to Associations. He writes:

"The furniture of a man's mind chipHy consi.sts of his recollcx;tion.s and the iMinds that
unite tlioni. As all this is the fruit of exjwrience, it must differ givjitly in different minds
according to their individual experiences. I have endeavourtnl to take stock of my own mental
furniture in the way descril)Oil in the next chapter, in which it will be set-n how largo a part
consists of childish recollections, testifying to the |iernianent effect of many of the rcMults of

eArlj' wluciitiou." (p. 182) "The character of our abstract ideas, tbereforo, depends to a

considerable degive on our nurture." (p. 183.)

I think in these remarks Galton does not allow adequately for the dif-
ference in receptivity in the material educated. Galton and his brothers,
Darwin and Erasmus, had very similar early nurtures, but what made the
elder brothers merely country gentlemen in ideius and habits, and the younger
brother a foremost man of science of his day? Surely it was a ditt'erentiated
receptivity, which caused Francis to store his mind — from practically the
Siime enviroiunent — in a wholly different way; and there can l)e little doubt
that this receptivity, which stored experiences wholly otherwise than his
brothers did, wius an innate faculty, a result of natme not of nurture. Again,
many lads had the training of a classical school and of a iniiversity, pre-
cisely as Charles Darwin had, but their receptivity was very different in its
selection from his, and the result left them largely mediocriti&s. That biisal
distinction wivs one of nature. Again, it is not only the selective action in
storing experiences, but the manner in which the brain associates them,
which is important. I cannot think, therefore, that because Galton in his
Psychometric Kxperiments' found many of his associations were from early
childhoml that this denotes a large part played by nurture in mental effi-
ciency. I think the efflsctiveness of the brain in summoning fitting associa-
tions is recognised by (Jalton in the following section of his book entitled
Antechamber of Consciousness. Here he writes:

' A recent talk with a Russian Soviet professor from Moscow threw some light on the
idealist views of the Soviet leaders. The results of modern science were to be broadcasted
among the people, and the ecclesiastics who opposed this were to be removed; it was to be
science for the people as against theological bondage, but the new scientific faith was to be
associated with an economic revolution, which would benefit the masses. There cert-ainly is
a philosophic reading of history — what we might term an anthropological sense — in this com-
bination. And 1 iiwait with greater interest and more understJinding the outcome of these
idealistic scientists and p<iliticians!

' He reproduces largv'ly his papers on this subject (see our pp. 233-36) in pp. 185-203
of the Inquiries.

256 TAfe and LeittTS of Francis (ialton,

"When I am emitaged in tiying to think anything; out, the |)roce.ss of doing so appears to
mo to he this: the ideas that lie at any inomont within n>}' full conaeiousnesH seem to attract of
their own accord the most appropriate out of a numl>er of other ideas which are lying close at
hand, hut iniperfivtly within the raiifjo of my consciousness. There se«>nis to lj<> a presenoe-
flhMnber in my mind where full eonsciousnesx holds court, and where two or three ideas are at
the Mine time in audience, <uid an ant<H;hamber full of more or less alliinl ideas, which is
situatcxl just iM-yoiid the full ken of consciousiie-ss. Out of this antechandx^r the idesis most
nmrly allied to those in the pnwence-chandier appear to be 8umnione<l in a mechanically
logical way, an<l to have their turn of audience, llie snocessful j)rogres,s of thouj;lit apjH'urs
to depend — first, on a large attendance in the anU>chamber; secondly, on the presence there
of no ideas except such as are strictly germane to the topic under consideration ; thirdly, on
the justness of the logical mechanism that issues the summons. The thronging of the anU>-
chamlier is, I am convinctxl, altogether Ixsyond my control; if the ideas do not appear, I can-
not create them, nor compel them to come. Tlie exclusion of alien ideas is accomjMinie*! by a
sense of mental effort and volition, whenever the topic under consideration is unattractive,
otherwise it proceeds automatically, for if an intruding idea find nothing to cling to, it is
unable to hold its place in the antechamber and slide.s l^ck again." (pp. 203-4.)

Galton's analysis suggests the importance of (i) the selective action of
the brain in storing ideas drawn from experiences, and of (ii) its efficiency in
associating these "ide;is. In lx)th the.se faculties it seems to me that we are
dealing with an innate (juality of the brain, which distinguishes two brothers
reared under the same environment, or two youths educat(Hl in the same
way in the same school and the same university. It is impcssible to re-
produce here the whole of Galton's suggestive thought in this section of his
work on the Antochamher of Conscioii.wr.ss; we must refer the rea<ler to
the work itself One further citation of a characteristic kind may Ix^ given:

"Extreme fluency and a vivid and rapid imagination are gifts naturally and healtlifully
pOMMsed by those who rise to be great orators or literary men, for they could not have
beeome wiciCBsaful in those careers without them. The curious fact already alluded to of five
editors of ncwspajiers bi>ing known to n)c as having phantasmagoria, points to a connection
between two forms of fluency, the literary and the visual. Fluency niay be also a morbid
faculty, being markedly increa.sed by alcohol (as poets are never tired of telling us), and by
various drugs, and it exists in delirium, insanity, and states of high emotion. Tlie fluency of
a vulgar scold is extraordinary." (pp. 205-6.)

Galton's next section is entitled "Early Sentiments" (pj). 208-1 G), and
in it he endeavours to show that

" the power of nurture is very great in implanting sentiments of a religious nature, of terror
and of aversion, and of giving a fallacious sense of their being natural instincts." (p. 216.)

He states that :

"The models upon whom the child or boy forms himself ar<> the l)oys or men whom he has
been thnjwn amongst, and whom (nun some incidental cause he may ha\e learnt to love and
reBpiH.-t. The every -day iitteranws, the likes and dislikes of his |i!ireiits, their social and cjiste
feelings, their religious pt-rsuasions are al)8orl»e<i by him; their views or those of his teachers
become assimilattvl and made his own."... "He is born prepan^d to atta<-h himself as a climbing
plant is naturally disposed to climb, the kind of stick being of little importance." (p. 208.)

It seems to me that Galton overlooks here the fact that "slavish accept-
ance" is very frequently an inherited character. The child accepts the first
thing plactnl before it, not necessarily liecause it is the first thing or comes
from its parents, but Ijecause it lacks desire to in(juire for itself Galton
asserts that mere chance of birthplace makes religion a matter of accident,

Pst/r/iofof/ical Inveit(!f/(ifionM 257

but it is not chance, but mental inertia which leads many persons to retain
the religion of their childhood without further inciuiry. I cannot lay the
stress Oalton does on the danger of dogma or sentmients instilled in early
youth Imcouiiiig ingrained in the character, (^ne sees too many young people
now-a-days who have changed the religious and social faiths of their child-
hood, to lay exaggerated stress in this respect on nurture. It may have been
true 40 years ago that:

"In subjects unconnected with Hentiment, the freest inquiry and the fullest delilieration
are required before it is tliought decorous to form a final opinion ; but whenevor sontiment is
involved, iiiui es|>ecially in ([ue.stions of religious do|i(nia, HlK)ut which is more sentiment and
more diffcrt^^ce of opinion ainon^ wise, virtuous and triitli-soeking men than altout any other
subject wiiatever, free inquiry is peremptorily discouraged The relij^ious instructor in every
creed is one who makes it his profession to saturate his pupils with prejudice." (p. 210.)

Whatever the religious instructor of to-day may say or do, I think it
would have .small effect on the youth of to-day ! They have won their
freedom, or, j>erhaps, it were truer to say, it has been won for them, and in
my experience they think and choose for themselves both their .social and
their religious creeds. Those that do not, fail, not so much from prejudices
inculcated by parents and pastors, as from intellectual inertia, which the
careful observer will probably recognise as the really vital contribution of
the parents to their offspring'. Still we may well agree with Galton that

"there are a vast number of foolish men and women in the world who marry and have
children, and l)ecause they deal lovingly with their children it does not at all follow that they
can instruct them wisely." (p. 210.)

Galton points out that the wisest men of all ages may have led upright
and consistent lives and been honoured by a wide circle for their unselfish
furtherance of the public good, but that they have belonged to many races,
and have been claimed by many dogmatic faiths (pp. 211-13).

Conscience is next dealt with and it is stated that it arises from two
sources (a) inheritance, and (6) early training. Ethnologists have shown that
conscience varies from race to race and age to age; it is partly transmitted
by inheritance in the way and under the conditions suggested by Darwin':

"The value of iiilieritetl conscience lies in its being the organiseil result of the social ex-
perience of many generations, but it fails in so far as it expresses the experience of genera-
tions whose habits differed from our own. The doctrine of evolution shows that no race can
be in perfect harmony with its surroundings; the latter are continually changing while the
organism of the race hobbles after, vainly trying to overtake them. Therefore the inherited
part of conscience cannot be an infallible guide, and the acquired part of it may, under the
intluence of dogma, l)e a very bad one. The history of fanaticism shows too clearly that this is
not only a thtK)ry but a fact. Happy the child, especially in these inquiring days, who has
been taught a religion that mainly rests on the moral obligations between man and man in
domestic and national life, and which, so far as it is necessarily dogmatic, rests chiefly on the
propi-r interpretation of facts about which there is no dispute, — namely, on those habitual
occurrences which are always open to observation, and which form the basis of socalled
natural religion." (p. 212.)

' Discussing recently with a friend whether Galton's views appliitl to the young people of
to-day, I mentiorie<l a number of them known to us both who had certainly thought for them-
selves. The reply came: "Yes, but t/ie>/ have minds," and not till the words were out of the
mouth did the speaker realise that the case had been given away.

■' The Dtacetit of Man, 1871, Vol. i, p. 102, etc.

p o n 33

258 Lift' ami Letters of Francis Galfou

Terror. Galton asserts, is early learnt and he refers to the manner in
which gregarious aiiiiiials learn it from each other. In man, he mentions
the inculcation in medieval times by preachers and artists of a belief in the
horrible torments of the damned, and suggests that as torture was {M'actised
in the judicial proceedings of those days and was considered an appropriate
attribute of the highest authority, so there appeared no inconsistency in a
supremely powerful ruler, however beneficent, making the freest use of it.
Aversion, like terror, is easily taught, and Galton points to the ideas con-
cerning clean and unclean of Jews and Mussulmans. He even notes that his
sojourn in the East during a very receptive stage of his life (see our Vol. I,
Chap, vi) had impressed upon him the nobler aspects of Mussulman civilisa-
tion (see Vol. I, p. 207 and ii, p. 28), and that he then adopted .some of their
aversions, even 40 years later looking upon his left hand us unclean (p. 216).

Whatever present-day readers may feel as to the power of nurture in
implanting dogmatic belief, or in creating terrors and aversions in the mind
of the child which it is not able thereafter to cast off, there is no doubt that
the theological readere of 1883 were vastly incensed by Galton's book and
gave expression to it in a series of hostile criticisms.

Galton's final answer' to the problem of the relative strengths of Nurture
and Nature is based, as we have indicated elsewhere (pp. 126-29), on the
"History of Twins." This subject occupies pp. 216-43 of his treatise, but
it is unnecessary to repeat its conclusions here. He finishes his section by refer-
ence to the small effect that nurture has on the nature of the young cuckoo.

Then follows a reproduction of the memoir of 1 865 on the Doniestication
of Animals (see our pp. 70-72). Galton claims that the facts cited show
the small power of nurture against adverse natural tendencies. By this he
means that every wild animal has practically had its chance of being
domesticated, but that imrture has in the great bulk of cases failed to
achieve domestication. Those who fail, sometimes only in one small particulai",
are destined to perpetual wildness so long as their race continues. "As
civilisation extends they are doomed to be gradually destroyed off the face of
the earth as useless consumers of cultivated produce." Galton infers that
because very slight diflferences may make domestication impossible in related
species, so very slight differences in the natural disjwsitions of human races
may either lead them irresistibly to a certain career or make tliat career
impossible (p. 271). Galton's next section is entitled: Possibilities of
Theocratic Intervention and here again he commits the unpardonable of-
fence of trespassing fearle.s.sly upon the territory of tliose with whom he is
at issue (see our p. 249); I fear this practice is luther the rule in the case of
warfare, which is not unusually carried even into the enemy's camp. Be
this as it may, Galton replies to the criticism tliat it is idle to compare the
intensities of nature and nurture, because these may not be the only in-
fluences at work. There is the possibility of theocratic interference either
on the Deity's own initiative or as a response to prayer. Galton endeavours

' "There ih no escape from the conclusion that nature prevails enormously over nurture
when the difTerences of nurture do not exceed those ooninionly found among persona of the same
rank of society and in the xunie country." (p. '.'41.)

Pxi/r/io/ofjiai/ fni'fMtHjdtioux 250

to show that there is only one mode of theocratic interference, which could up-
set the statistical comparison of the relative intensities of nature and nurture.
He illustrates his point by su[)po8int; a caretaker tending a large ininii)er
of silkworms of various hrt-eds and fed in diff^^rent ways, and that an oljserver
watched his procee<ling8 as well as he could, hut only during the day-time
and through a telescope. Now the caretaker might have a custom, of which
the observer was ignorant, of feeding the silkwurnis in various ways during
the night, and Galton asks how this would affect the statistical conclusions.
He stiggests four jiossihilities and considei-s in each c^use that the caretaker's
unobserved interference would not att'ect the statistical conclusions bjised
upon classifications by nature and by nurture. But, I think, the reason of
this is that Galton supposes the careUiker to pay attention in his secret
proceedings only to race (i.e. nature) and to the day feetlings of these races
(i.e. nurture). What if he thought nothing alx)ut race or day feedings, but
classified his worms by some characteristic of the individuals? Supjx>8e he
fed them ditVereiitially so as to bring all worms up to practically the same
size and colour, which might be the very characteristics by which the observer
had cla.ssified respectively for nurtuie and breed? Clearly no comparison of
the effects of nurture and nature would be possible, and by Icks complete
changes the observer might be led to very false conclusions. Further, this
would be done without the caretakei- knowing, as Galton suppo.ses in his fifth
alternative, that he was watched and, because he objected to being watched,
devising plans to deceive the observer. There is no necessity to suppose

"the hotnologuo would be a gml with the attributes of a devil, who misled humble and earnest
iiujuirers after truth by malicious artifice." (p. 275.)

There is in fact no need to appeal to Milton's God, who could be moved to
laughter by man's quaint attempts to understand his works'.

Stu'ely the problem is of a different kind. Either theocratic interference
is perpetual and consistent, in which ca.se it is as definite as any law of
nature, and cannot be distinguished from it, and will not alter statistical
results; or, it is occasional and capricious, in which ca.se statistical samples
taken under apparent sameness of physical environment will give divergent
results. The general stability of statistical ratios, like the general fulfilment
of prediction from so-called physical laws of nature, is the best ai'gument
against occasional and capricious theocratic interference. On pp. 277-94
Galton repeats his statistical arguments (see our pp. 115-17) against the
"Objective Efficacy of Prayer." He expands to some extent his earlier
arguments :

"The cogency of all theso arguments is materially increased by the recollection that many
items of ancient faith have been successively abandoned by the Christian world to the domain

' Pnrndue Lost, Bk vni, 11. 70 el seq.:

"Or if they list to try
Conjecture, he his fabric of the Heavens
Hath left to their disputes, perhaps to move
His laugliter at their quaint opinions wide
Hereafter, when they come to mwli-l Ht-aven,
And calculate the stars."

260 Life and Lettent of Fraiwin Galton

of reoogniaed Boperalition. It in not two centuries ago, long subsequent to the clays of Shake-
■pawe Mid other great men wdose opinions 8till educate our own, that the HovcrtMgn of this
country w«« accustomed to hiy liands on tlie sick for their recovcrj", under tlio Ranction of a
regular Church service, which wim not oinitte<l from our prayerlKwks till the time of (ieorgo IT.
AVitche* were unanimously Ijelieved in and were regularly exorcised, and puninhiKl by law, up
to the lieginning of the last century. Ordeals and duels, most reasonable solutions of com-
plicated difticultie.s acconling to the popular theory of religion, were found untrustworthy in
practice. The minu-ulous power of relics and images, still so general in Southern Europe, is
•couted in England. The im|M>rtancc attribut4?d to dreams, the luin^ly extinct claims of
artrology, and auguries of good and evil lucks, and many other well-known products of super-
stition which are found to exist in every country, have ceased to be believed in by us. This is
the natural course of events, just as the Waters of Jealousy, and the Urim and Thummim of
the Mosaic I^w had l)ecome obsolete in the times of the later Jewish kings. The civilised
world has alrea<ij yielded an enormous amount of honest conviction to the inexorable require-
ments of solid fact; and it seems to me clear that all belief in the efficacy of prayer, in the
sense in which I have been considering it, must be yieldetl also. The evidence I have been
•ble to collect beai-s wholly and solely in that direction, and in the face of it the onus pro-
bandi must henceforth lie on the other side." (pp. 293-4.)

The following section is termed Enthusiasm (pp. 294-98), and is con-
cerned not so much with "aixlent zeal" in any kina of" work, as with the
definition of the word in its proper range — "a belief or conceit of private
revelation ; the vain confidence or opinion of a person that he has special
divine communications from the Supreme Being or familiar intercoui-se with
him'." Galton remarks that to a large number of the ablest class of man-
kind the ideu of an indwelling divine Spirit, with which they can cf)nimune,
is so habitual and vivid as to be an axiomatic truth to them. This possi-
bility, he says, has been to him a real and almost lifelong subject of thought,
and has been a motive for many of the inquiries in his book, for were
this "enthusiasm" a reality and not a vain confidence, it is clear that those
races should be encouraged who are characterised by spiritual-mindedness,
for they would be far more worthy occupants of the earth than the gene-
rality of ourselves (p. 395). Those who have known Francis Galton, and
so realised his innate simplicity of mind, will appreciate as no others can
that there was no flippancy in his words.

"There is no subject more worthy of itsverent but thorough investigation than the objective
evidence for or against the existence of inspiration from an unseen world, and none that
up to the present time has so tantalised the anxious and honest inquirer with uni)erfornied
promise of solution. The arguments scattered or hinted at throughout this book are negative
so far as they go, but it must be borne in mind that they would be scattered to the winds by
solid objective evidence on the other side, such as could be seriously entertaine<l by scientific
men desiring above all things to arrive at truth." (pp. 296-6.)

Galton then cites the points in his Ijiqtdn'es winch l)ear on the axiomatic
assumption of inspiration, the visions of apparently objective character, the
fluency which is considered automatic unless it deals with devout subjects, the
prevalence of extreme forms of religious rapture among the hysterical and in-
sane, the axiomatic necessity, to those that i)erceive tliem, of their individual
nuralier forms or colour associations. Lastly, Galton claims — and here the
dogmatic theologians would not be at one with him— that "it appears to Ije
tacitly recognisetl by all that the absolute and final court of appeal is not
' Oalton cites this definition as occurring in a "recent" dictionary.

Psifr/iofDf/intl /nr^Mfit/ationx 261

subjective but objective." We cannot lussert that our own instinctive con-
victions alone are to be trusted, we are forced to grant no less trustworthiness
to the convictions !in<l fimcies f>f others. All such convictions should be
tested, whenever possible, by )ip|)eal to facts which admit of rep<:tttioyi, for
experience shows that only observations of such facts lead to results which
can be univerKally acknowled<;ed. (Jalton insists on the duty of suspending
our Uilief and nianitaining the freedom of our mental attitude whenever there
is strong reason to doubt (p. 298). The section on Knthusiasm closes with
a fine paragraph, which indicates how far astray the critics went, when they
labtilled Galton a materialist:

"There is nothing in any hesitation that may l)0 felt oh to the possibility of receiving help
and inspiration from an unseen world, to discredit the practice that is dearly prized by most
of us, of withdrawing from the crowd and entering into quiet conmiunion with our he«rt«,
until the agitations of the moment have calmed down, and th<^ di.stortc<l mirage of tht- worldly
atmosphere has sulwideil, and the greater object^s nnd mort> enduring afffctions of our life
have reappeareti in tlieir duo proportions. We may tlien take comfort and find support in the
sense of our forming part of whatever has existed or will exist, and this n»«<l tx- the motive
of no idle service, but of an active conviction that we possess an influence which may be
sniiill but cannot be inappreciable, in defining the as yet undeternune<l pos.sibilities of an
endle.ss future. It may inspire a vigoi-ous resolve t-o use all the intelligence and perseverance
we can command to fulfil our {>art as members of one great family that strives as a whole
towards a fuller and a higher life." (p. 298.)

It was a great revolution in thought that Galton was proposing and
probably few grasped its extent in 1883. He had in mind a new religion, a
religion which should not depend on revelation, physical to a few selected
men, or psychical to a few individuals. Man was to study the purpose of the
universe in its past evolution, and by working to the same end, he was to
make its progress less slow and less painful in the future. Darwin had
taught evolution as a scientific doctrine; Galton j)roposed that this new
knowledge should be applied to racial and social problems, antl that under-
standing of, sympathy with, and aid in the progress of the general evolution of
living forms should \ie accepted as religious duties. If the pui-j>ose of the
Deity lie manifested in the development of the universe, then the aim of man
should be, with such limited {xjwei-s as he may at present posse-ss, to facilitate
the divine purpo.se. Before I )arwin, living form.s, indeed the world itself, had no
history ; there was held to be no serious etymological difierence Ijetween the first
man and modern civilised man; the reptile and the mammal were coeval.
Darwin for the first time gave a real uistory to living forms, and Galton
following him said: Study that history, study the Bible of Life, and you will
find yoiu" religion in it, and a new and higher morality as well. Thereby he
raised Darwinism on to a higher, a spiritual plane. Thus it comes about that
the last 40 })ages of Galton's Liquiries into Human Faculty conttiin some
of the finest passages he ever wrote, for they are devoted to his philosophical
or i-ather religious views, and to their Darwinian basis. Galton sjvw \n his
doctrine a new moral freedom for man and a new religion based on scientific
knowledge. His theologictd critics found it pure materialism, a fresh war
against Heaven. Who snail determine which party was in the right? These

2H2 Life aiul lA'ttem of Frntirix (iafton

extreme diverjjeiioes at least continii (Jaltuii's statement tliat the mental
•Hfferences of mankind are so p-eat that evolution has ample material to
select from !

Galton starts his |ihilosophical creed with a section on The Ohserred
Oixler of Events: his thesis here is that the universe is a sinijle entity and
we ourselves are pai-t of a mysterious whole "behind which Ties the awful
mystery of the oripn of all exist-ence," the j)ur])ose of the universe. He
considers that the conditions which direct the evolution of living forms are
on the whole marked by their persistence in improving the birthright of
succeesive generations.

"They determine at much cost of individual comfort, that each plant and animal shall on
the general average ite endowed at its birth with more suitable natural faculties than those of
its representative in the preceding generation. They ensure, in short, that the inlxirn (jualities
of the terrestrial tenantry shall become steadily better adapt^id to their lionies and to their
mutual needs." (p. 299.)

"If we summon l)efore our imagination in a single mighty host, the whole number of
living things from the eArliest ilato at which terrestrial life can be deemetl to have probably
existed, to the latent future at which we may think it can probably continue, and if we cease
to dwell on the mis-carriages of individual lives or single generations, we shall plainly perceive
that the actual tenantry of the world progresses in a direction that may in some sense be
described as the greatest happiness of the greatest number." (p. 300.)

Galton remarks how, while the motives of individuals in the lowest stages
were purely self-regarding, they have broadened out as evolution went on.
Subjects of aft'ection and interest other than self Ijecome increasingly numerous
as intelligence and depth of character develop, and as civilisation extends.
He notes that as civilisation has advanced the sacrifice of personal repose to
the performance of social duties has become more common.

" Life in general may be looked upon as a republic where the individuals are for the most
part unconscious that while they are working for themselves they are also working for the
public good." (j). 300.)

This was indeed a refreshingly optimistic opinion ! Even the period which
the physics of that day fixed for the available heat of the sun, upon which
organic life depends, did not daunt Galton. There are countless abortive
seeds and germs ; among a thousand men selectefl at random some are crippled,
others insane, idiotic or otherwise incurably imperfect in body or mind; what
if our "world may rank among other worlds as one of these"? We know that
our own life is built up of the separate lives of billions of cells of which our
body is composed. They form a vast nation, members of which are always
dying, while others'grow to take their place. The continual sequence of these
little lives — unconscious of the whole — has its outcome in tne larger and
conscious life of the man as a whole. Even this world of ours and

"our jMirt in the universe niiiy possibly in some distant way be analogous to that of colls in an
organised body, and our personalities may be the transient but essential elements of an immortal
and cosmic mind." (p. 302.)

Thus Galton, the pantheist, again puts forth as a possibility his beautiful,
but unproven and unprovable dream (cf our p. 114). All he can say of it is
that at least it is not inconsistent with observed facts. Yet even while he

/'sf/r/iolo(/ic(d /notsiujatioiis 263

iuliuits that llu' slow [jiogivHS «)f evolution is due to antfcr.lcnm and in-
heivnt conditions of wliicli we have not yet the sliglitcHt concej)tion, he
throws out an idea which foreshadows in a startling way Einstein, and in
itself predicts how his doctrine may modify man's religious views. T have
not seen this strange jmssuge (|Uotcd, nor do I know what (ialton's readei-s
may have made of it in pre-relativity days. It runs:

"It is ditVicult to witliHUkiid a suspicion that the tlirt>e diinensions of spice and the
fourth diniciisioii of time may hi' four iiuie|>eiideiit variables of a syst^-iii which is neither
space nor time, but something else wholly unconceive<l by us. Our present enigma as to
how a First Cause could itself have Uhmi brought into existence — how the tortoise of the
fable that boars the elephant, that iK'ars the world, is itself support<xl,— may be wholly
due Ut our nooossary mislran.slation of the four or more variables of the universe, limited by
inherent conditions, into the threes unlimited variables of space and the one of Time." (p. 302).

An obsciu-e passage, indeed, which one of us ought to have askeil Galton to
inter{)ret, but which now we can only place aganist Clifford's concept that
"matter is a wrinkle in space." Both men might have tauglit us to tlnnk had
our minds then been receptive.

Putting these high theories and suggestions on one side, Galton notes
two great and indisputable facts:

(i) That the whole of the living world moves steadily and continuously
towards the evolution of races that are progressively more and more adapted
to their complicated nmtual needs and to tlieir external circumstances.

(ii) That this process of evolution has been hitherto carried on with
what men from then- standpoint nnist reckon ivs great waste of oj)portunity
and life, and with little if any consideration for individual mischance.

Measured by man's criterion of intelligence and mercy,

"the process of evolution on this earth has l>een carriwl out neither with intelligence nor
nith, but entirely through the routine of various sciiuences, commonly calleil 'laws,' established
or necessitated we know not how." (p. 30.3.)

Intelligent man has now been evolved. He has enormously modified the
surface of the earth and altered its distribution of plants and animals. This
new animal, man, endowed with a little power and some intelligence, ought,
Galton holds, to assume a deliberate and conscious part in furthering the great
work of evolution.

"He may infer the course it is bound to pursue, from his observation of that which it has
already followed, and he might devote his nuKlicum of power, int«'lligeiice and kindly feeling to
render its future progress less slow and painful. Man has already furthered evolution very
considerably, Imlf unconsciously, and for his own personal advantages, but he has risen to the
conviction that it is his religious duty to do so deliberately and systematically." (p. 304.)

Thus was the Darwinian d(x;trine raised by Galton to a religious creed.

The next section of the book, entitled Selection ami Race, needs, I
venture to think, some modification. Galton, having only dealt with the
correlation of two variates, misunderstood, as 1 shall show later, the phe-
nomena of regression. His statement here that the stringent selection of
the best s})ecmiens of a race to rear and breed from can never lead to
any permanent result, is, I feel siu-e, erroneous, and due to a wrong inter-
pretation of multiple regression. Further, I doubt his assumption of the

264 Life awl Letterit of Fntncis Cnffon

diminished fertility of highly-bred animals, unless he supposed, as in the case
of the race-horse, a selection by one character, sjiy, speed, only. There is,
I think, no evidence that a selection of man by both |jhysi(|ue and mentality
would lead to an infertile race.

With Galton's statement that a low race, subjected to conditions of life
that demand a high level of efficiency, must be submitted to a very rigorous
selection involving great pain and misery, we can certainly agree. And we
can also do so in the suggestion that the terrible suffering would disappear
did we replace it by a higher race.

"The most merciful form," writes Qalton, "of what I ventured to call 'eugenics' would
consist in watching for the indications of superior strains or races, and in ho favouring them
that their progeny shall outnumber and gradually replact- that of the old one." (p. 307.)

The following section of the Inqxiiries is concerned with the Injliience
of Man upon Race (pp. 308-17). Galton gives in a very few pages an
able ethnographical survey of the world; he shows that in almost every
known country there are three or four races or sub-races of man competing
consciously or unconsciously for dominance. The process of evolution is still
going on around us, and we disregard it instead of studying it and facilitating
it. He i-aises a. strong protest against that misleading word "aborigines,"
and points out that it dates from a time when a false cosmogony thought
the world young and life to be of very recent aj^pearance. There are to-day
practically no original inhabitants of any district; all hold their lands only by
the robber-rights of their ance-stors. It would be difficult indeed to find a
country which being unoccupied was colonised by its pre.sent inhabitants, and
thence to assert their right of occupation '. Such reasoning carried to its logical
conclusion might demand the complete surrender of Australia to the marsupials
or even the monotremes.

"There exists," writes Galton, "a sentiment for the most part quite unreasonable, against
the gradual extinction of an inferior race. It rests on some confusion betwec>n the race and the
individual, as if the destruction of a race was equivalent to the destruction of a large number
of men. It is nothing of the kind where the process of extinction works silently and slowly
thn>ugh the earlier marriage of members of the superior race, through their greater vitality
under e(|ual stress, through their better ciiances of getting a livelihofxl, or through their pre-
potency in mixed marriages. That the members of an inferior clas.s should dislike being elbowed
out of the way is another matter; but it may Ije somewhat brutally arguwl that whenever two
individuals struggle for a single place, one must yield, and that there will l)e no more unhap-
piness <m the whole, if the inferior yield to the superior than conversely, whereas the world
will be permanently enriched by the success of the superior'." (p. 309.)

' The preliminary discussioti of the recent peace terms at Versailles was accompani(M^l by
much futile talk about the 'rights' of small nations and of racial units. No small |)eople,
because it at present occupies a certain area, can be said to have a 'right' to mineral resources
vastly exceeding its own consumption and easential to the needs of a larger adjacent population.
Any allotment of landit based solely on 'aboriginal' or even prasent occupational 'rights' is
certain to !« called in question by the pressure of race against race. The peace-makers of
Versailles lacked the knowledge that springs from a study of evolution.

' A great deal of the missionary argument in favour of the retc-ntion of the negro in tropical
Africa, as against the Indian, or, as (jaltoii proposed, the Chinese immigrant (see our p. 33),
ariaesfrom the fact that the negro's emotional nature makes him a more ready convert than the mort^
highly civilised Asiatics. Africa, like Europe of the folk-wandering days, has always l>een the

/*f<i/r/tolo(j{rfil /mrsfujatiouM 265

Galton notes what enormous influence the men of former generations
have exercised unconsciously over the human st<x;k of to-day. How difli-r-
ently world-history would have di'velopt'd luid our forefathers left the
'ahori^ines' of America, South Africa and Australia to the fn-c occupation
of their lands.

"Till- powi-r in niaii of vai-yiiij; tlii> fiiluii' huiimii xtiick xcsts ii urciit \i-s\ in tlio

Imnds of ('acli fi-csli ^cnoration, wliicli liii-s not yi-t Ix-f-n reco;>niH<-<l at its juhI i -i-, nor

ili'lilM'rat«>ly oinpioytHJ. It is fiNili.sli to fold th«) hands and to say that nothing can bt- dono,

ina.sniucli as Mocial forctis and uclf-inttin-sK ju-f hm slrmi'^ t<« t>i' ri'^isiiil Tlnv i d imi lie

rosi.st«d; they can bo guidoti." (p. 317.)

In the folIowin<f section, ternu'd I'oinilntiou, (Jaltou lel'tTs to tlie in-
creased danjfcr of over-population owing to improved sanitation, le.sser
mortality and the filling-up of the spare places of the world. He expresses,
as Darwin did (see our p. Ill), strong di.sapproval of Malthus' prudential
check cLS prejudicial to the hetter elements of the race who alone would be
prudent and .self-denying, while the thriftle.ss and improvident would crowd
the vacant .space left by the prudent'. The 'misery-check' — as Malthus called
all influences other than the prudential, such as deaths through lack of food
and shelter, overcrowding, war, etc. — does not seem to Galton to cover all
the cau.ses which make one race decay in the presence of a second. He
thinks that an inferior race becomes listless and apathetic in the presence of
a superior one, and loses its virility. He believes that such apathy is less
a 'misery' than the prudential restraint where there is a keen desire for
marriage (p. 320).

Galton then turns to his own direct proposals for racial betterment. He
refers first to Dr J. Mathews Duncan's data for fertility and he luses these as if
(i) they repre.sented the survivors at adult ages of those born, (ii) they
applied equally to all classes of intelligence and physique; he does not discuss
the differential infantile death-rate, nor the differential fertility rate of his
selected and rejected classes, nor the important question of the relative number
o^ survivors of early and of late marriages. He takes two groups, one of 100
mothei-s who marry at 20, and another of 100 mothers who marry at 29, and
considers their families would be 82 and 5'4 respectively. He then sjiys
that they would contribute to the next 200 in the ratio of 115 to 85. It
seems to me that the ratio should be 121 to 79. He makes the length of a
generation on the average 3 TS years, but takes 20 as being 4*5 years earlier and

mcltiufj! pot of races, and it is safe to siiy that not a single race is 'aboriginal ' in Afrira to day.
Till' Bushman and th« Hottentot would have greater 'rights' than tlie negro to largi- partn
of Africa, but their clivini might bo worsted by the Rhodesian Man. He having no lineal
de.sceiidants, would compel us in justice possibly to ascend to a prot-siniioliunian, whence
descending to the rightful heirs, we might find the chimpanzees ivs the true aborigines I

' While criticising Malthus' main conclusion Galton pays hira a high compliment: "I must
take this opportunity of paying my humble tribute of admiration to his great and original
work, which seems to me like the rise of a morning star before a day of frt3e social investigation.
Tliere is nothing whatever in his book which would hv, in the least offensive to this generation,
but he wrote in advance of his time and consequently mused virulent attacks, notably froui his
fellow clergymen, whose doctrinaire notions ujwn the paternal dispensation of the world were
rudely shocked." (pp. 318-19.)

p o It 34

266

Life awl Letters of Francis Gait on

29 years as 4"5 yeare later than the averaji^ age at marriaj^e and so takes
27 and 3(> years as the lengths of generations in the two classes. Tims in
108 years the early marrying class will have had four and the late marrying
cliuis three generations. Galton's numbers on p. 322 should, 1 think, he
repUvced hy the following:

Relative, contributions to Mateiiial Populations.

Ima

Ewrly nuurii^M (90)

Late imuTi««M (39)

108
216
324

214
4.')9
985

49
24
12

The changes emphasise considerably Galton's argument, although ex-
ception may well be taken to some of its stages, in particular to the ecjuality
of death-i-ates in large and small families. However, his general jirinciple is
probably a correct one: namely that for the physically fit early marriage
means more numerous offspring. Galton's next two sections indicate how
he proposed to make use of this greater fertility in the case of the early
married. His first suggestion is to give marks in competitive e.xaminations
for 'family merit.' Thus able youths would be favourably handicapped in
civil service examinations if they came of superior breed. A superior breed
is one which has been successful in its callings and is physically fit.

"A thriving family may be sufficiently defined or inferred by the successive occupations of
its several male niemljers in the prt-vioiis genenition, and of the two grandfathers. These arc
ptatent facta ascertainablo by almost ev'ory youth, wliich admit of being verified in his neighlx)ur-
hood and attested in a satisfactory manner. A healthy and long-lived family may Ik; defined
by the patent facts of ages at death, and number and ages of living relations, within the degrees
mentioned above, all of which can be verified and attested. A know]e<lge of the existence of
longevity in the family would testify to the stamina of the wmdidate, and be an important
addition to the knowledge of his present health in forecasting the probability of his performing
a large measure of experienced work." (p. .32.5.)

Galton would feel his way gradually in these matters, but even a small
allowance to family merit would he great in its effect as indicatuig "that
ancestrjil qualities are of present current value." The second factor is that
of 'Endowment' of the able who have 'family merit.' As money has often
been left for marriage portions for poor girls, so it might be left for the
worthier purpose of marriage portions for able young people of ' family merit.'
In the seventies the college statutes of the older universities etiforoed
celibacy on the Fellows.

"Tlie college statutes to which I referred were very recently relaxed at Oxfonl, and have
just been reformed at Cambridge. I am told that numerous mnrringes have ensue*! in conse-
quence, or are ensuing. In Hereditary (renins I showed that scholastic success runs strongly in
familieo; therefore in all seriousness, I have no doubt, that the numb<>r of Englishmen naturally
endowed with high scholastic faculties will be sensibly increase<l in future generations by the
repeftl of these ancient statutes." (pp. 329-30.)

As Galton very truly states, the wealth of the English race in hereditary
gifts has never been properly exjilored; and when it has been, the natural

I'xi/rht)lo(fical Invcufif/dtioHM 267

iii>|tul8es of man oufjht to be sufficient to erjsure that such wealth should no
more be neglected than the existence of any other possession suddenly
revealed to man.

In hiH Cunclusion Galton sums up the third of the various inciuiries in
his volume; he jKiinta out the vast variety of natural faculty, lK>th ad-
vaiitiij^eous and not, to l)e found in individuals, and the j^reat ilifferences
Ix'tween human races. Man is variable and hits changed widely in the course
of hundreds of thousands of years. This idea of gi-owth in man hatl not been
gnisped by the early cosmogony makers. Its recognition conipels us

"to reconsider what may Ik? the true place and function of man in the onler of the world."
(p. .332.)

Galton confesses to having examined this question from many points of
view, for

"wliatovor may Ix' tho vclieinoncc with which particular opinions aro insist('<l upon, it.s solution
is un(|uestional>ly doulitful. Thcro i.s a wide and growing conviction among trutlistt-king, earnest,
hundjl('-niinde<l and thoughtful \iwi\, lioth in this country and abroad, that our cosmic relations
aro hy no means so clear and simple as they are p<jpularly sup|xjsed to ho, while the worthy
and intelligent teachers of various crec<l8, who have strong persuasions on the character of
these relations, do not concur in their several views." (p. 332.)

He says the results of such inquiries as he has been able to make
do not confirm the common doctrines as to our relations with the unseen
universe. The one tiling that he can see is that man has immensely motlified
humanity by his action, and if he would only consciously take its betterment
in hand, as a freeman shaping the coui-se of future humanity, he might achieve
great ends far less ruthlessly and more economically than Nature alone.

"The chief result of these Inquiries has l)een to elicit the religious significance of the
doctrine of evolution. It suggests an alteration in our mental attitude, and imposes a new
moi-alduty." (p. 337.)

Thus Galton finally summarised his lalxjurs of more than 12 years.
Few of those who, in the following century, have quoted Galton's statement
namely that eugenics was a religion, have grasped fully its relation to
Darwin and Evolution. Huxley attitcked the old orthodox Ijeliefs l^ecause he
thought they fettered the development of science. Galton attacked them
because he thought current religion fettered the development of a higher
morality and a more rational religion. Huxley spoke at the ripe moment
and produced immediate effect. Galton spoke — as he him.self recognised —
before he could be understood. But those who know that even Norway,
Switzerland and Roumania have now established their Institutes for the
Study of Eugenics, realise that Galton's teaching is likely to affect civilised
man — now and in the future — in a manner only comparable with the influence
of a new religious faith. He brought the logical application of the doctrine
of evolution to the betterment of the human race. That in Galton's judg-
ment was a science, a morality and the only rational religious faith.

34—2

268 Life and Litters of Francis GaUon

D. LATER PSYCHOMETRIC RESEARCHES

After the publication of the Inquiries into Human Faculty, Galtoii's psy-
cliical researches cejused to flow with the ampHtudo of the years 187G- 1884,
but, as in the case of Geography, he never lost his interest in these matters,
and this is shown in a number of minor papers which he continued to issue
till at least 180G. These papers may be referred to here, but they mark the
transition of his mind to the more definite statistical standpoint of his
later years. His anthropometry was largely psychometric, but tne statistical
basis was giowing more develoj)ed and more SJitisfactory.

The first paj)er of this series which we must consider is entitled "Measure-
ment of Character." It was published in the Fortnightbj for August, 1884',
and the material appears to have been largely that of Galton's llede Lecture
in the Senate House at Cambridge"''. The opening paragraph explains Gal-
ton's purpose:

"I do not plead guilty to taking a shallow view of human nature, when I propose to apply,
as it were, a footrule to its heights and depths. The powers of man are finit«>, and if finite
they are not too large for niea,surenient. Those persons may justly lie accused of slmllowness
of view, who do not discriminate a wide range of diflVrence, but ({uickly lose all sense of pro-
j)ortion, and rave about infinite heights and unfathomable depths, and use such like expi-e.s-
sions, which are not true and betray their incapacity. Examiners are not I believe much
stricken with the sense of awe and infinitude when they apply their footrules to the intel-
lectual performances of the candidates they examine; neither do I see any reason why we
sliould be awed at the thought of examining our fellow creatures as l)est we may, in respect
to other faculties than intellect. On the contrary, I think it anomalous that the art of
measuring intellet!tual faculties should have become highly developed, while that of dealing
with other qualities should have been little practised or even considered." (p. 17'J.)

Galton then emphasises the importance of measuring the emotional
characters in man, for only by so doing can the individual know where he
stands among his fellow-men, and whether he is getting on or falling back.

"The art of mea.suring various human facultitts now occupies the attention of many in-
quirers in this and other countries New processes of inquiry are yearly invented, and it

seems as though there was a general lightening up of the sky in front of the path of the
anthropometric experimenter, which lietokens the approaching dawn of a new and interesting
science. Can we discover landmarks in character to Kerv(' as bases of a survey nr is it alto-
gether too indefinite and fluctuating to admit of nietusurement ? Is it liable to sjxjntaneous
changes, or to be in any way affected by a caprice that renders the future necessarily un-
certain) Is man, with his power of choice and freedom of will, so difFerent from a conscious
machine, that any proposal to measure his moral (jualities is lutsed upon a fallacy? If so it
would Ije ridiculous to waste thought on the matter, but if our tempt^rament and character
are durable realities, and persistent factora of our conduct, we have no Proteus to deal with
in either ca.se, and our attempts to gra.sp and measure them are rejisonable." (pp. I7D-80.)

« Vol. XXXVI, N.S. pp. 179-85.

* I cannot find that this Rede Lecture was ever independently issued. "He [Frank] was
Re<le lyocturer at Cambridge on May 27th, and wo went to the Vice-Chnncellor's and after to
Mrs Darwin's, and greatly enjoyed the four days; fortunately I was well at the time."
L. G.'s Jiecord under 1884.

I'sj/r/iolotjical Inretttigattons 269

Galton next gives his reasons for believing that character and tempera-
ment are {jersistent. These are summed up in:

(a) Heredity. A son who inherits somewhat exchisively the (juahtieH of
his father, "fails with his failures, sins with his sins, sunxiounts with his
virtues." His coui-se of life has been predetermined by his inborn faculties.

(h) The life-historifs of like twins, who behave like one person. "What-
ever spontaneous ft'elin<^ the one twin may have had, tlie otiier twin at the
very mime moment must have had a spontaneous feeling of exactly the same
kind." If we had in our keeping the twin of a man, who was his "double,"
we could obUiin a trustworthy forecast of what the man would do under
any new conditions by submitting the twin to those conditions and watching
his conduct, (pp. 180-1.)

((•) The result of Galton's own inquiry into Free-will ^see our n. 245),
which indicated how small seems the room left for a possible residuum of
free-will.

Galton concluded on the basis of these three researches that the character
which shapes our conduct is

"a (lefinite and durable 'something,' and that therefore it is reasonable to attempt to mea.sure
it." (p. 181.)

Now-a-days one might think that the statistical material on which Galton
based his conclusions was rather meagre, but most of his results have been
confirmed by more extensive researches'. He appeal's to have considered
that 'character' was in some way a unit entity:

"Wo must guard ourselvtis against supposing that the moral faculties which we distinguish
l)y difreitnit names, as courage, sociability, niggardness, arc separate entities. On the contrary,
they are so intermixed that they are never singly in action. I tried to gain an idea of the
number of the more conspicuous aspects of tlie character by counting in an appropriate
dictionary the wonls used to express them, lloget's Thesaurus wa,s selected for the purpose,
and I examined many pages of its index here and there as sjimples of the whole, and estimated
that it contained fully one thousand wortls expressive of character, each of which had a sepa-
rat«i shade of meaning, while each simivs a large part of its meaning with some of the rest."
(p. 181.)

From the mure niodcru standpoint it would seem that the direct course
would he to meiisure various factors of character in individuals and to study
the extent of the inter-correlations of these factors. At any rate in children
it may be doubted whether such factors an shyness, conscientiousness, self-
consciousness, temper, etc., are cenj hiyhly correlated together. One would
rather anticipate that character was a hotch-potch of factors mixed in
different proportions for each individual.

However, (4alton starts with 'character' as an entity like intellectual
capacity and suggests that as the latter may be sounded by definite tests
at individual points, so in character definite acts in definite emergencies may
be noted.

' For example, that the factors of character are inheritetl, see Hionietrika, Vo\. ni, pp. 131-
190; that growth and education have little intluenoc on character, see Drapers' Research
Memoirs, Biometric Series, No. 4.

270 Life and Ijettera of Francis GaUon

" Emergencies need not be waite<l for, they can bo extemporised ; traps as it wei-e can be

laid A sudden excitement, call, touch, gesture, or incident of any kind evokes, in

different persons, a response tliat varies in intensity, celerity and tiuality." (p. 182.)

Giilton suf^gests that the cardiograph, the sphyginograph, and Mosso's
blood-pressure apparatus should be used to test the effect of various small
emotional shocks. To those conversjint with relatively recent attempts by
similar means to meiisure emotional changes, it will possibly be surprising
that Galton suggestcil such investigations 40 yeai-s ago. lie even wished
to meet the criticism that the i)resence of" the recording instrument miglit
make itself felt and check the expression of the emotion. He accordingly
experimented on himself by wearing a Maret's pneumo-cardiograph

"during the formidable ordeal of delivering the Rede l^ecture in the Senate House at Cam-
bridge I had no connection establislied between my instrument and any rocoitling

apparatus but wore it merely to see whether or no it proved in any way irksome. If I had
had a table in front of me, with the recoriling apparutus out of sight below, and an expert
assistant near at hand to turn a stopcock at appropriate moments, he could have obtained
samples of my heart's action without causing me any embarrassment whatever. I should have
forgotten all alxmt the apparatus while I was speaking." (jjp. 183-4.)

Methods of measuring the unmeasured, or trapping unobserved the emo-
tional changes in men and women, delighted Galton above all things. He
was particularly pleased with Tenny.son's where he tells us that

"Lancelot returning to court after a long illness through whicii he ha<l been nursed by
Elaine, sent to crave an audience of the jealous queen. The messenger utilises the opportunity
for obaerving her in the following ingenious way like a born .scientist:

'Low drooping till he well nigh kissed her feet
For loyal awe, saw with a sidelong eye
The shadow of a piece of pointed lace
In the Queen's shadow, vibrate on the wall
And parted, laughing in his courtly heart.'"

And again — with a suggestion of grim possibilities at a social meal in
Rutland Gate, which the actuality never to my knowledge fulfilled —

"The poetical metaphors of ordinary language suggest many po.ssibilities of measurement.
Tlius when two persons have an 'inclination' to one another, they visibly incline or slope
together when sitting side by side, or at a dinner table, and they then throw the stress of
their weights on the near legs of their chairs. It does not require much ingenuity to arrange
a pressure gauge with an index and dial to indicate changes in stress, but it is dillicult to
devise an arrangement, that shall fulfil the threefold condition of being effective, not attracting
notice and being applicable to ordinar}' furniture. I made some rude experiments, but being
busy with other matters, have not carried them on, as I had hoped." (p. 184.)

Other suggestions in the paper dealt with tlio nie,i.surpnu>nt of toni])er
and fault-finding. Galton concludes:

"The points I have endeavoure<l to impress are chiefly these. First, that ehiiracter ougiit
to be measured by carefully recorded acts, representative of conduct. An ordinary generalisa-
tion is nothing more than a muddle of vague memories of mixed observations. It is an easy
vice to generalise. We want lists of facts, every one of which may be separately verified,
valued and revalued, and the whole accurately summed. It is the statistics of each man's
conduct in small every day afTairs, that will probably Ixj found to give the simplest and most
precise measure of his chanieter. The other chief point that I wish to imjiress i.s, that a
practice of deliV)erately and methodically testing the character of othei-s and of ourselves is
not wholly fanciful but deserves consideration and exiwriment." (p. IB.").)

Galtou's Kede Lecture was a very graceful address; it was full of these

I'LATK XXV

Fiaiifis (jiiltoii in tlic .sevoiilios, troin a j)hoUyijij>li.

l*xiirliol(Kjic(il. InvcMiyulions '11 \

new, if now fainiliur ideivs, hut it was a lecture of .suggeslion, and siccordingly
the reader must not expect to find in it statistics of actual niea«ureinent« of
character. It serves to explain, however, the links in (Jalton's own mind
between his work on Heredity, his pajier on Twins and his study of Free-will.
At the very time (Jalton wius writing this lecture he was collecting data by

aid of his Family Il(K;ords (s»'«i our (!haj)ter XIII) on the distribution of one

fihiuse of cliaracter, namely, Temper in Enfjjlish Families. A First Report on
lis results wa.s jniblished in the Fortiiu/litli/ lirricir, July, 1887'. The paj»er

from more than one standpoint is slightly di.s{ippointinij, and as (Jalton
himself remarks he had to set to work on rough materials with rude tcKjls
(p. 29). The criticisms that one may raise are of the following kinds.
Ihe descriptions of temper are all verbal, and although many epithets are
usetl, (Jalton in the main classifies into 'Good Temper' and 'Bad Temper.'
His 'Good Temper' contains not only the 'forbearing' and 'self-controlle*!'
but the 'submissive,' 'timid' and 'yielding.' His 'Had Temper' contains
not only the 'quick tempered,' but the 'bickering' and the 'sullen.' My own
investigations seem to suggest a fundamental aifference in 'Good Temper'
between the Self-controlled and the Weak class, and the Sullen cannot
profitably be put in the same category with the Choleric. Galton does indeed
make a five-group classification, namely: (l) mild; (2) docile; (3) fretful;
(4) violent; (5) ma.sterful. The distinction, however, between (1) and (2)
is not that of self-controlled and weak good temper, and it is not clear
whether such a marked clii-ss as the sullen has l)een put into (3), (4) or (5).
Another defect of Galton's material was the large proportion of cases, over
50 °/^, in which no record of temper was given at all. He calls these neutral
and says that approximately

Good Tempered : Neutral Tempered : Bad Tempered :: 1 : 2 : 1,

and he finds in the approximate equality of the Good and Bad Tempered,
and their total being equal to the Neutral Tempered, definite evidence of the
correctness of the records in this respect. I fail to be convinced by Galton's
arguments, for it seems to me that they would have equal application to
any cla-ssification into alternate cjitegories, e.g. criminal and non-criminal,
with a neutral class for those of whom nothing was known, or nothing
recorded. On the basis of his classification, omitting the 50 °/, of 'neutnds,'
Galton deduces that there is no selective mating in human marriage with
regard to temper', but he concludes that there is emphatic testimony to the
heredity of temper. His method of establishing tlie latter conclusion is
somewhat arbitrary and somewhat elementary, but it has undoubtedly been
confirmed by later work. He rather weakens his position, however, by
introducing a caveat that he does not propose to deal with temper as an
unchangeable characteristic. It is difficult to grasp how under such con-
ditions it is possible to assert that temper is

"nevertheless as hereditary as any other quality." (p. 30.)

' "Good and l?iid Tenipor in English Families," Vol. xui, N.S. pp. 21-30. A wrong year
and locus are assigned to this paper in Galton's Memories, p. 328.
' This is not confirmed by more recent researches.

272 Life mill fatten* of Francis Gait on

The more modern 8t4it istician would feel compelled to investigate to what
extent temper does change with growth, education and environment before
he could assert that it was as hereditary as any other (|Uiility. Putting
jiside these criticisms, (ialton undouhtedly indicated in tliis paper for the
fii-8t time that statistics of factore of character could be dealt with and
inferences drawn as to their distribution and hereditary character.

In the previous year, 1886, (iaiton had pul)lishe(l at least two pai)ers
dealing with psychometry. Mr Joseph Jacobs had been interesting himself in
"Ex])eriinents on Prehension," which he defined as the mind's power o^takivg
on certain material, in this oise auditory sensations. Nonsense syllables,
letters or numerals were delivered at alx)ut half-second intervals in a
monotonous voice, and the test consisted in the numljer the subject could
repeat'. Mr Jacol)8 found that the 'span,' i.e. number correctly repeated,
(a) increased with age, (b) was greater for those higher in the class than
for tho.se lower, and argued that the 'span of prehension' should lie an im-
portant factor in mental groups, and its determination a test of mental
capacity. Galton suggested that the inquiry should be extended to idiots, and
visited on June 18, 188G, the Earlswood Asylum with Professor Alexander
Bain, and on June 30, 1886, the Asylum for Idiots at Darenth with Professor
James Sully. The general conclusion obtjiined by Galton was that the idiots'
'span of prehension' was only alxjut half that of Mr Jacobs' normal children,
three to four figures instead of seven to eight.

In 1 886 Romanes published a theory of the origin of varieties, attributing
them to peculiarities in the reproductive system of certain individuals which
render them more or less sterile to other members of the common stock
while they remain fertile among themselves. Galton, who, as we have seen
(p. 271), had been working on assortative mating in man, considered that
special sexual attractiveness rather than sterility due to peculiarities of the
reproductive system was the source of varieties. He writes':

"It has long seemed to me that the primary characteristic of a variety resides in the fact
that the indivichials who compose it do not, a.s a rule, care to mate with those who are outside
their pale, but form through their own sexual inclinations a caste by themselves. Consequently
that each incipient variety is probably rounded ofl' from the parent stock by means of pecu-
liari(if« of seirual instinct, which prompt what nnthropt)logists call endogamy (or marriage
witliin the triln; or caste), and which check exogamy (or marriage outside of it). If a variety
should arise in the way suppose«l by Mr liomanes, nierely because its members wore more or
less infertile with others sprung from the same stock, wc should find numerous cases in which
members of the variety consorte<l with outsiders. These unions might be sterile, but they
would occur all the same, supposing of course the period of mating to have remained un-
changed. Again we sliould find many hybrids in the wild state, l>elwcen varieties which were
capable of producing them when mated artificially. Hut we lianlly ever observe pairings
between animals of different varieties when living at large in the same or contiguous districts,
and wc Imrtlly ever meet with hybrids that testify to the existence of unobservo<l pairings.
Therefore it sctniis to me that the hypothesis of Mr Romanes would in these cases fail while
that which I have submitted would stand." (p. 395.)

Gralton then suggests that even in the case of plants insects may exhibit

' Mind, Vol. xil, pp. 75-9.

» "The Origin of Varieties," Nature, Vol. xxxiv, pp. 395-6, August 26, 1886.

Pxi/r/ii>lo(/ic(if Inn'At'njationH 273

a selective appetite, and so a variety l>e preserved from intercroHsiuj^ with
tlu^ pannit stock. He olworves that when^ we just distinguish two varieties
hy one or two difVorences, these may connote a host of diilerences unknown
to us — especially those recognis«Hi by the sense of smell, so weak with us and
so stronj^ in many of the animals — "whoso aj^j^regate would amply snftice
to erect a barrier of sexual inditt'erence or even repugnance bctwicrj ili.-li-
memljers'." Galton, ct)nsidering the case of man, writes:

"No tlioniu iH nioro triU^ than tliiit of tho sexual instinct. It furinM tlic main topic of each
of tlio many hundrod (I l)eliuvo alxtut KOO) novoU annually publiglied in Kngland alunv, and
of most of tho still moi-e nunittruuH poeniH, yot ono of ito main peculiaritiex has never, wj far as
I know, Ixjcn dourly set forth. Jt is tho relation that exists Ijotwecn ilillorent doj^rces of
unlikoness and diffcrrrnt d«j;ri'os of soxiial attractiveness. A male is little attract<-<l liy a
femaK^ who closely reseinhles him. The attraction is rapidly incroa.'MNl as the ditterenco in any
given re.spect betwiKMi the male and female increases, but only up to a certain point. When
this is pas.sed, the attraction a>{ain wanes, until tho «<ro of indifference is reached. When the
diversity is still {greater, thci attractiveness becomes negative and pa-s-ses into ropuj^nance, such
as most fair complexioiu'd men apjiear to feel towards ne;;re.s.sea, and vice v«rad. I have
endeavoured to mea.sure the amount of difference that gives ri.so to tho maximum of attractive-
ness between men and women, Ijoth as regarxis eye-colour and stature, chiefly using the data
contained in my collection of 'Family Record.s,' and have succeeded in doing so roughly and
provisionally. To determine it thoroughly and to lay down a curve of attractiveness in which
the abseissiie shidl Iks proportional to the amounts of difference, and the ordinate's to tho
strength of attraction, wouhl require fresh and special data " (p. 395.)

I have not succeeded in Hnding in the Galtoniana Galton's rough and pro-
visional results, which, if found, would probably throw light on liis method. I
have thought over the possibility of his curve and tind great difficulties about
its determination. Is the man equally attracted by a plus or minus difference?
If so, the curve of attractiveness would have two maxima; but clearly the
man's opportunities of mating with both these groups would not be the same,
as one would be more frequent than the other, unless the man himself were
mediocre. If the man prefers a woman with darker eyes than himself, then
the woman's taste — for the system to work — would have to be the reverse of
the man's, or she must prefer a man with lighter eyes than herself. I have
not found in contingency tables for eye colour in man and wife signs of
this double maximum in the arrays". If the preferential difference is in
one direction only, say a man prefers a woman relatively shorter than him-
self, then the tallest class of women and the shortest class of men will have
to go without mates or /ante de inieux marry each other, which will upset
badly the curve of attractiveness, if it be based on statistical records. The
curve of attractiveness is a fascinating idea, but I do not see how it is to
be determined, and Galton's hy[)othesis that sexual taste and distaste are

' The fastidiou.sness of certain .sire,s is a real trouble to the dog bree<ler. A bitch may ha
perfectly willing to mate and other dogs desirous of mating with her, but she may have no
attraction iov the particular sire chosen until a very late stjige of her season, when he becomes
excited. Such "last moment" dogs often mi.ss their opportunity.

'■' A little considenition will show that it is verj' didicult indetHl to conceive a surface of
freijuency of which the arrays both ways are biniodal and yet such that the wife-modes of
husband accord with the husband-modes of wife I One is almost driven to the conclusion either
that there is no assortative mating, or that after all like must prefer to mate with like.

van 35

274 Life and Let tern of Francis Gait on

more imjwrtnnt in tin- on-afion of vanHti»\>^ fli.m iiitervarietal storilitv is not
really iiHected by it.

In the tbllowiiij; yeur (1887) (Jaltou luul a considurablo iliscussion in
Xature^ with Professor Max Miiller on "Tliought without Words." The
latter in his Science of Thought had propounded theories of the descent of
man entirely based on the hypothesis that tin- most rudimentary processes
of true thought cjinnot be carried on witliout words. Hence Ma.x Miiller as-
serted that the constitution of the mind of the only truly sjwjiiking animal,
man, sepanites him immeasurably from the brutes, and no jn-ocess of evolu-
tion which advanced by small steps could stride over such a gulf Galton
states that if a single instance can be substantiated of man thinking without
words the whole of Max Miiller's anthropologicid theory nnist collapse.
Galton then appeals to results he had observed by his own introspection,
and holds that ho has often thought entirely without words. For example:

"It happens tliiit I take pleasure in mechanical contrivances, and the simpler of these are
thought out by nic absolutely without the use of any mental wonls. Sup|K)8c Komclliiiig do«;s
not lit; I examine it, go to uiy tools, pick out the; right ones, uud set to work and rcpuir the
defect, often without a single word cixMising my mind." (p. 28.)

He then refers to billianls and chess; where the strokes and moves are
visualised without words beforehand ; also to fencing, where there is no
time to think in words, before the counter is given. It seems undoubtedly
clear that those who visualise vividly will think in pictures as readily as in
words, or even more readily'. Galton considers that Max Miiller failed in
reaching a true hypothesis because he generalised from his own mind, and
considered that the mind of every one else was like his own (see our p. 243).

"lieforu a just knowledge c<in be attained concerning any fiiculty of the liumun race we
must inquire into its distribution among all sorts and condition.s of men, and on a large scale,
and not among those jhtsoiis alone wlio belong to ii highly sixfialiswi literary class. I have
inquired my.self .so far as op{Hirtunities admitted, and arrived at a result that contradicts the
fundamental proposition in the Issjk before us, having ascertaine<l to my own salisfaclion al.
least, that in a relatively small number of persons true thought is habitually carrietl on
without use of mental or spoken words." (p. 29.)

The reader who wishes to follow the discussion further will tind two
letters of Max Miiller and a further letter from Galton in Nature. To the
present writer Max Miiller's resusoning seems very obscure. Replying to
Galton 8 illustmtion of chess-playing, he writes :

"You cannot move queen or knight as niei-e dolls. In chess each one of thi'se figures can
be moved according to its name and concept only. ( otherwise chess would Ix^ a chaotic
scramble, not an intelligent game." (p. 101.)

But surely the moves of any piece at chess may l)e a.ssociated with the

form of the piece and not with its name? Max Miiller obscures the matter

by adding tlie words "and concept." A concept may be attached to an

' .May 12 and June 2, Vol. .xxxvi, pp. 28-!) and 100-101.

' 8onie of Galt^jn's correspondents in discussing mental imagery, stat<Hl that they depended
so much on mental pictures, that if they lost the ptiwer of seeing them, they would not be
*ble to think at all.

Psi/rfioloffical / n vent if/a f ions 275

iiDuge or form without any idea of a word. CJalton and Max Miiller apnuar
to he (liscuHsiii}» r)ii wliolly difFtsreiit plaiiCH. "I iuld, " writes (Jaltoii, "nothing
ahout the lulvanta^o to nioilern iiuiuirers due to their poasession of Dar-
winian facts and theories, hecause we do not rate them in the same way."
It was only jiossihUi for a pre- Darwinian or at any rate an anti-Darwinian to
deny that animals think Jis well jw man. " Dogs, Sir, do a deal of j)ondering,"
was a concej)tion which had not and could not reach Max Midler. (Jalton
hroke a lance for Darwin, but he might as well have tilted at a windmill as
at the Oxford nominalist.

The matter of this controversy remained long in Galton's mind, and
seven years later he pultlished a short })aper in the Psychologicfd Revieic
entitled "Arithmetic by Smell'." The purpose of the paper is to show that '
mental proceases may l)e conducted by the sole medium of imaginary smells,
just as well as by visual or auditory images, in other words, to prove that
thought does not depend on words. Galton first devised an apparatus by
which a whiJf of scented air could be sent out as often as recjuired Ixjneatn
the nostrils. A separate simple apparatus wjvs u.sed for each scent and he
worked with the eyes shut. He was thus able to produce at will a whiff of
peppermint, camphor, carbolic acid, ammonia, aniseed, etc. He taught him.self
to associate two whiffs of pepjiermint with one whiff of cam[)hor, three of
peppermint with one of carbolic acid, anfl so on. He next practised simple
addition sums with the scents themselves, and afterwards solely with the
inutgination of them.

"TliiTO was not the sliglitost dirticulty in baiu.>i)iiiig all visual and auditory images from the

mind, leaving nothing in the consciou«nes.s but real or imaginary scents Subtra<;tion

succtHxIwI as well as addition. I did not go so far as to associate s(>parate scents with the
attitudes of mind severally appropriate to subtraction and addition, t)Ut det^'rmined by my
ordinary mental processes which attitude to assume, Ix-fore isolating myself in the world of
scents."

Gallon did not attempt "multiplication by smell, beca>i.se he had con-
vinced him.self that arithmetic by scents only, antl by imaginary .scents, was
possible with considerable speed and accuracy. He did, however, try some
experiments on taste, using s.dt, sugar, citric acid, quinine, etc., and found
that arithmetic by ta.ste was as feasible as aritlinietif hv sint'll. Thus Galton
proposed to rout the nominalists'.

In Natnn' for Nov. 15. 1894 (Vol. Ll, pp. 7:5-4) Galton gave an account
of Alfred Binet's book Psychologie des (Jramls Calculateurs et Jouenrs
d'Echi'cs. He refers to Inaudi, a Piedmontese, who did liis mental sums by
the sounds of the numbers, and to Diamandi, a Greek, who worked with

' Vol. I, pp. 61-2. New York and Ix)ndon, 1894.

- I fear Max Miiller might have retorte<l that without the earlier association of numl>ers
with names arithmetic by smell or tjvste would Ikj imjwssible. .Such an assertion is like that
of the tlieologiim who holds that the agnostic either fails to act morally, or only does so owing
to a Christian tmining or the Christian environment The one neglects the ages long evolution
of moi'ality for which Christianity is a thing of yesterday and the other would neglect the
ages long evolution of nnnd prior to language.

3o— 2

276 Life and Letters of Fraiwh Gaftoii

mental images of the figures. Galton had tested Inaudi, in whom he found
the visual form of the imagination practicjvlly absent. Binet considere that
mental 'calculating Ikivs' did not i\.s a rule inlierit their gifts, the Bidder
fumily being a conspicuous instance of exception. CJalton was not pri-pared
to accept this view; he l)elieved that two mental j)eculiaritie8 must concur
to make a calculating lx)y, namely (i) .special capacity for mental calcula-
tion, and (ii) a jwussion for exercising it. Both are rare and are not neces-
sarily coordinated, so that the chance of their concurrence may be very
small indeed. He thought that (i) without (ii) might be commoner than is
usually believed, and he cited the case of a lady of remarkable ability, whom
he had known, and who did not discover that she possessed (i) until on a
long and dull railway journey in middle life. He then gives some account of
his own experience in performing arithmetic by imaginary smells and tastes.
In 1888 Galton published a paper on "Mental Fatigue'." This was a
subject in which fi-om personal experience he felt great interest. Over-
fatigue of the brain in schools had Ijeen recently discussed and illustrated
by experiences which flatly contradicted one another. After the heat of con-
troversy had somewhat cooled Galton was asked to occupy the chair at a
meeting of the educational Section of the Teachers' Guild, and he wjis so
struck by the audience on that occasion that he considered that the Guild
might be a powerful instrument for the solution of statistical problems, if
its intelligent members could l)e intere.sted in educational inquiries. Galton
accordingly issued a .schedule of .selected tjuestions bearing on mental fatigue.
He met with an experience, often repeated in the case of the present writer,
namely that circularising societies constituted for definite educational or
social work, even on points directly connected with their aims, produces
very little by way of useful statistical returns. Galton, although his schedule
was accompaniefl by a covering letter from the Vice-Chairman of the Guild,
received only 1 16 replies to his questionnaire, and all Galton was able to do
was to set down in an orderly way the replies received. The questions
asked applied not only to the taught, but to the teachers themselves. Of
the teachers themselves one-fifth, 23, had at some period in their lives broken
down, and no less than 21 of these had never wholly recovered from the
effects. The teachers also reported with detail 59 cases known to them of
more or less serious prostration from mental overwork. At the same time
it is jK).ssible that those teachers, who had themselves suffered from or
closely observed others suffering from overwork, would be most likely to
be interested in Galton's questionnaire, and thus the IIG replies be not a
random sample of all teachers. While the answers showeil many views on
the signs of mental fatigue, and on the studies which could or could not be
undertaken when the mind was fatigued, there was little light thrown on
the best means of testing mental fatigue, or of measuriruj it in a school-class
at large. In fact the only real light on this matter came from Galton himself

' "Kcmarkg on llnplies by Ti'Achers to Questions msiKfting Mental Fiitigue," ./ournn/ <//'
th» AntJirojto/oyieal In»l\luU, Vol. xvni, pp l.'iT-Gft.

Piti/rfinfof/tral fnvestigationa 277

He refers to his statement in Nature, of June 25, 1885', entitled "Measure
of Fidget." In tliiit paper he descnlHid liow lie had counted in a section of
an aiidi«'nct' duving th<' i-cidinL'' "'' •' w.^mi i-^hhm- im-iiini!- I In- \:ir\iiii/ rate
of H(lget^

"I have 8ince frequently trie«l thin mothiMl ; it is an niiiuHiuK wiiy of pansing an otluTwiHO
(lull cvoning, but in (Irnwin^ conduKiimM from tlui numlxtr of nioviMiicntB tho av«Tng(> age of
the auili(!iic(t and their lial>itn of thou^lit have to \to taken into account. The niethiKl, how-
ever, rather niea.sures the dullnesH of the |M*rfornianco than the true mental fatigue of the
audience."

The second suggestion Galton gives is based upon the exjieriinental fiict
that tlie (luickiiess ami magnitude of the individual's reaction to a stimulus
are greatly allected hy tiitigue.

"There is an experiment, not ho well known as it Hhould bo, that a/ter a class has had
practice in i)erfoniiing it, can Ik? repentiHl ut any time in a few .soeoiids, which gives an excellent
measure of the varying amount of reaction tinu'. The cla.s.s tjike hands all round, the teacher
l>eing include<l in the circle, a watch with a sec<mdH hand lies on the table Ix-fore him. All the
pupils shut their eyes. When the .seconds hand of the watch comes over a division the teacher
gives a squeeze with his left hand to the right hand of the pupil next to hiro. That pupil
forthwith with his left hand squeezes the right hand of the next pupil, and so on. Thus the
squeeze travels round the class and is finally receivetl by the right hand of the teacher, who
then records the elapstsl time since he started it; or he may let it make many circuits U-fore
he does so. This interval divide<l by the number of pupils in the class and by the number of
circuits gives the average reaction time of each pupil. The squeeze takes usually atM)ut a
second of time to pass through each dozen or tifteen persons. Wo should expect to find

' Vol. x.x.xii, p. 174. In this paper Galton refers first to "the unequal horizontal inter-
space between head and head" in a bored audience, while in an attentive audience all sit
upright with their heads almost equi-distant. In a bored audience the bodies sway from side
to side, and the intervals In'twwn faces vary greatly. But Galton failed to find any numerical
expression for this variability of distance. He wa.s more successful when he counted fidgets as
an expression against this "mutiny of constraint." The hall in which the uninteresting paper
was read was .semicircular and divided by columns into sectors each containing at)out 50
people. He watched one of these sectors rej>eate<lly and counte<l the number of distinct move-
ments; this was very uniform, amounting to al)out 4.5 per minute or nearly one per person.
The audience was elderly, the young would have Ik-cu more mobile. When occasionally the
audience was roused to ti'mjwrary attention the frequency of fidget was not only re<luced to
less than one half, but the amplitude as well as the perio<l of the motion were notably re-
duced. "The swaying of head, trunk and arms had before been wide and sluggish, and when
rolling from side to side the individuals seeme<l to 'yaw,' that is to say they lingered in ex-
treme position.s. Whenever they l)ecame intent this peculiarity disappeared, and they per-
formed thi>ir fidgets smartly. Let this suggest to observant philosopliers when the meetings
they attend may prove dull to occupy themsehcs in estimating the frequency, amplitude and
duration of the fidgets of their fellow sufferers. They must do .so during jxriixls lM)th of
intcnsi-ness and of indifference, so as to estimate what may be called natund fidget, and then
1 think they may acquire the new art of giving numerical expression to the amount of boredom
expres-sed by the audience generally during the reading of any particular memoir."

- Ignorant of Galton and in a much le.ss scientific manner I can recall practising his
metlio<l lus a child in the sixties. The locus was a family pew in tlie chai>el of the Foundling
Hospital; there was an old and dull chaplain, the last clergyman of the Church of England
that I remember in a Genevan gown. He usc<l to preach for alwut .35 minutes, and I was
accustomed to anmso myself and to nieasuit) the dullness of his discourse by counting the
nunilKH- of coughs given in that Sunday's 35 minutes. My brother and .sister would rememl)er
the text, but I could only say on the Imsis of niy sinful and secret statistics, that the preacher
had been rather more or rather less inspiring than usual.

278 Lifv and Letters of Francis Oaltoii

unifurniity in siicccsaivo experiments when the pupils are fresli; irrttgulurity and prevalent
dcUv whi-n tliey are tinnl. I wish tliat tt^chors would often try this Miinple, aiiiusinfr, and
•ttriiotivo experiment, and when they have assured tiiemselves that their class enters into its
performance with interest and curiosity, they niiglit \n^'^\n to make careful records at different

rriods of the day and see whether it admits of Iwing uwhI as a t^'st of incipient fatigue,
should l>e exceedingly gWl to receive accounts of their ex|iericncc8. Deception must of
course be guarded against." (p. 160.)

I have not so far come across any data in the GaltoyiitDui. \\\\'\c\\ .sui^'cro.st
that any experiences were communicated to Galton.

From the teachers' replies Galton in the memoir draws two iiinclu.sion.s:
The first snggasts the reiuson why mental fatigue leaves effects so nmch
more serious than Ixxlily fatigue. When a man is fatigued in hody he has
many of the same symptoms as arise in mental fatigue, out

"as soon as the Ixxlily exertion has c1os<hI for the day, the man lies down and his muscles
have rest; hut when the mentiilly fatigued man lies down, iiis enemy coiitinues to harass him
during his weary hours of sleeplessness. He cannot quiet his thoughts and ho wastes himself
in a futile way." (p. 166.)

I am not clear that this diagnosis is of universal truth, especially in the
case of men not habitually used to excessive work. Over physical exertion —
a fifty-mile walk, or a very strenuous bicycle ride, or a whole day of heavy
gardening work — may l)e followed by muscular fidgets, by tinrestrainal)le fits
of shivenng, and by actual mental excitement which renders .sleep or muscle
rest imjxi.ssilile, and the effects may be felt for days afterwards. It says
mucli for Galton's constitution that no exj)erience of this kind .seems to have
sugge.sted to hira that for some individuals bodily and mental fatigue run
much the s,'\me course'.

The .second conclusion that Galton reaches is that breakdowns usually
occur among those who work by themselves, and not among pupils whose
teachers keep a reasonable ovensight. Too zeah)us pupils are rare. The
chief danger occurs when

"young persons are qualifying themselves for the profession of a tciicher, and have also t<>
support theniselv(>s antl p«'rhaps to endure domestic trials at the same time. Dull p«(rsr)ns
proti-ct their own health of brain hy refusing to overwork. It is among those who are 7.eal<>us
and eager, who h.'ive high aims and idea-s, who know themselves to Ix; mentally gifted, and are
too generous to think much of their own health, that the most fre<]uent victims of overwork
are chie6y found." (p. 166.)

There is much in this paper on Mental Fatigue which is of high sug-
gestivene-ss, and it shovdd certainly be read by any one j)lanning a more
elaborate statistical iiujuiry into a subject still far from completely ex-
plored. The recent discovery and di.scussion of shell-shock show how large a
section of a modern poj)ulation^ — and not the least intelligent and zeixlous —
beai-s the terrible loud of inherited neuroses. One of the points not touched
on in Galton's questionnaire is the family history of those who have suffered
serious j^rostration from mental overworlv. We should not be surprised to
find a link between this CJitegory and that of the shell -shocked. In the

' It would be of much interest to inquire into the extent to which nervous breakdowns
can bo directly traced to over strenuous physical exertion.

Pn!/c/iolo(/ical Invent ig f it ioHM 279

present state of our knowledge it should not Ije injno»Hiblo to give some
wiirnitij^ to those y"""<^ prisons who run ii (lunger if they follow a very
KtrenuouH nientiil occupiition, sucli hh thiit of tlu- school tejiclier.

Gulton, as I have noted, remained interested for many years in psychology
although, as in the conespoiidiiig case of geography, his main work changed
its character. Any mental idio.syncrasy had special attraction for him, ami in
May, 1896, he puhlished a note on what he considered n very curious mental
i)eculi.irity'. This occurred in a certain Colonel M. who wiien in the army
liad seen Hogging, wounds or death without special .sensjitions. But the
sight or talk of an injurwl finger nail at once made him feel sick and faint,
and would even hring on a deadly cold perspiration. So much was this the
case that at a large dinia-r party in the prime of life the peixistent talk of
a guest about a small injury of this kind cau.sed him fii-st to turn faint and
then to slides under the table unconsciou.s. His mother apparently attributed
the idiosyncrasy to maternal impre-ssion, she having pricke<l her finger
(without permanent injury) shortly before his birth. Colonel M. .sjiid that
his father, biother, throe sisters and nephews and nieces had no analogous
peculiarity. He had no children; it is not directly stated that his niot/ier
henself had not the peculiarity. Cialton thinks it could not have come by
inheritance, and that

"it would Ix' silly to suppose i\ .sickly horn)r of wouiulitd fiiigur imils or cliiws to have licen so
lulviiutagi'DUs to niicient iiiiiii or his brute proffenitors jis to have formerly become n riicial
cliiiriu'toristio tlirou<{h selection, and th(>u;jh it fell into disu.se under changed conditions and
apjwirently disjippeiiriHl, it wiis not utterly lost, the i)risent case showing a sudden reversion
to ancestnil traits. Such an argument would be nonsense."

He looks upon the idiosyncra.sy as a mutation, and fresh evidence of the
wide ninge of possibilities in the further evolution of human faculty. In
other words he a.ssumes that it was not inherited, but would have lieen
transmitted had Colonel M. had oHspiing. The note is interesting as illus-
trating tiie working of Galton's mind. It iloes not seem to me that the
evidence for non-inheritance is any more adequate than in the case of
lluggins' dog Keppler (see our pp. G6 and 148). But an iiupiiry into the
hereditary character — i.e. the origin and transmissibility of such mental
idiosyncrasies — would be well worth making^

Another memoir which can be.st be considered in this chajjter is that of
the same year, IBDG; it deals with the problem t)f "Intelligible Signals
between Neighbouring Stars'." Galton tells us that in 1892 Mai-s made a

' Nature, Vol. liv, p. 76, "A curious Idiosyncrasy."

' For example there are [lersons who are made to feel sick by the tearing of a piece of
calico in their pre.senee; there are others in whom the mere ima</inalu>u of drawing a knitted
glove between their teeth sends a cold shiver through all their limbs; while rec-ently I heard
of a workman who was employee! to whitewash a nnim in which thei-e were a few skulls in a
glass ease throwing up his job, beeausi^ it mad(^ him "ill to work in a cliarnel house." I think
tiiis sort of mental discomfort extends to lower living forms; I have known dogs .seriously
uneasy when a dres,sed and cured dog skin was brought to their notice, and seriously dis-
trustful of familiar friends, if they wore gloves made from wool spun from the combings of
dogs' coats.

» The Fortnightly Review, Vol. L.\, N.S. pp. 657-64.

280 f/ij'e (tin/ Lettcrit of Francis Galton

near approach to the earth, and that the poasihiUty of exchanging signals
with Mars was then discussed in the newspapers; it was considered not
impossible, if enormously difficult, to send signals. But there was a
general conclusion that if sent, the only thing tliat could he learnt from
them would be that there existed observant, intelligent and mechanical
people Ciipable of great enterprises on the other planet. Oalton thought
that much more miglit be aciiieved, and that an iutrinniatUi/ intelligible
system of signals could be devised, if the people on the other planet were
equally advanced with ourselves in pure and applied science. He amused
himself accordingly in tliinking out the ground plan of the present paper,
but laid it aside for four years during which the craze about Mars died
out, "l)eing cooled by coj)ious douches of astronomical common sense." Then,
in 1896, came an attack of giistric catarrh, wliicli developed into more serious
trouble owing to a visit to Kew — to attend the Observatory— with a tem-
perature of 102. Galton was invalided to Wildbad and its hot baths, and amid
their relaxing accompaniments, being able to work only in a desultory Ihshion,
he wrote up his pa})er on signals from Mars'. The mam point of this paper is
the building up of a system of signals from which ultimately pictures can be
constructed. It is half humorous and half serious. It starts with the idea
that arithmetical and mathematical notions will be common knowledge of
both planet's inhabitants. Signals of l\, 2^ and 5 seconds are given and
termetl dot, dash, line. These lead up to a system of numerals. Then
comes the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, the value of
the familiar n. Thence the ratio of the circumference to the radius of the
various regular jwlygons, which introduces signals for the polygons. The
24-sided regular polygon is then indicated jus a method of direction, and
so angles all round the 360° are gradually learnt in the .same way as are the
points of a compass, but direction of lines and length of lines being given it
becomes possible to give signals indicating a picture by successive "stitches"
of definite lengths in definite directions. That is to say, Galton has reached the
picture formula of his lecture on the "Just Perceptible Difference" (see the
following Chapter, p. 307). But once it is possible to signal pictures, all
becomes po.ssible. It becomes possible to indicate motion, and motion will
enable one to indicate signals for action, i.e. verbs. Such, very briefly, is
the outline of Galton's system of star signals :

"It would be tedious, and is unnecessary to elalxirato further, for it must be already
evident to the reader that a small fraction of the care and thoufjht l>estowe<l, say, on the
deci|>hennent of hieroglyphics, would suOice to place the iiihaliitants of neighbouring stars in
intt'lligihle communication if thej' were l»oth as far advancwl in science and arts as the
civilise*! nations of the earth are at the present time. In short, that an efiicient intci-stellar
language a^hnitt* of lieing esLahlished under these conditions, between stars that are sufiiciently
near together for signalling purposes."

' Both Oaltons were much deprcssefl during this year. Emily Gurney died, and Sir William
Orove diwl on the anniversary of the Gallons' wedding day (August 1st). The season whs very
wet and Galton suflerwl much from colds; he complaine<l for the first time (agetl 74!) that
his brain power was not as vigorous as formerly, that he could not work quickly and that his
deafness interfered with his committoes.

PLATE XXVI

<ialton, ngitl iilwut 75 years.

PHjicJioloiilcal Invtttt'ujtitloHH 281

Mrs Galton, all unconscious of the near future, after noting the events of
1896, iiichidiiig this paper on star signals, continues in her Record:

"So surely ilo tho gfKHl thiiipi come to 08 and pftas from us, and I try to bo thankful for
the innutnerablo bleHNiiigs we have hud t'v«!ii with the (xiin of f<H-litiK thcni m>\w. Ho v<nd% our
ypar, not an eventful one, but a ciilnily happy one, ending with a merry Xraaa at Spencer'*
[Hj>encer Butler's], the young folk full of life and ambitions."

Calmly happy sentences — not the depressed or fretfiil words of some few
of the earlier entries of the Record — and fitly concluding that hrief account
of the 43 j^ears of Louisa Butler's married life with Francis Galton.

There is only one more year of entry, 1897, in the Record, and some-
thing of it may be fitly cpioted here, for it will indicate, better than the
remarks of some superficial onlookers, the real relationship of the pair. It is
hardly necessary to remark that the union could not fail to have lx;en richer
had it been blessed with children. Galton's affection for his nieces shows
what this would have meant for him.

" 1897. It is with painful reluctance that I set down the incidents of this fatal year, and
do so on Jan. 6 the anniversary of the day, when I first became acquainted with dear Louisa
at the Dean's house, next door to our own at Dover in 18.53.

In the early jwirt of the year T was more of an invalid than she was, but we had some
plea-sjint outings together— a.<i to Nansen's great meeting on Feb. 28. Chiefly on account of
niy pei-sistent asthmatic cough we went to Bournemouth, March 22, pjirtly to be near
Dr Chepmell, whose remaining eye was threatened. He told me to go to Cauterets or Royat.
Montagu and Agnatu [the Miuster of Trinity and hi.s wife] came to us for a day from Lynd-
hurst, while we were there. We had had alarming news from time to time of Emma ['Sister
Knniiy] from the middle of Feb. onwards. At length she was better, and we went to her
April 20-2;?. Ijoui.sn wa.s well enough for some small festivities — a tea party, her last, on
May 7th, and the niiliUuy tournument. We went to Oxford, to Arthur's [Mrs Oalton's
brother's] June 5-8. June 21, Jidjilee day, we went with Mrs Lyell to the Athenaeum and they
had excellent places and Ix)uisa was not overtired. Next day Bessie [Galton's sister Mrs
Wheler] came to tea and Mrs Lyell. 26th I went to the Naval Review, L. not well enough to
go with me. July 14 left for Royat, slept at Boulogne ; next day, a weary waiting till 10 p.m.
at the Lyons Stution, but the night journey conifortjible, I^ouisa not suffering at all. July 24th
Puy de Drtme with Mr Livett and a young lady. L. remained in the garden at the auberge
while we went up, and she hml luncheon set out. I never sivw her more pleased or nicer as a
hastess than when we came down. Aug. 1, M'"" de Falbe arrived in far from good health.
Aug. 3, L. awoke with diarrhoea, — we all had it, but recovered. Very sultry. Arranged for Pimt
St Ijiui-ent in Dauphine, and wrote to have letters sent to Grenoble. On Sunday 8th she was
apparently quite well and half packed for a start next morning. Monday 9th she was ill and
sick in the night, not woi-so than frequently before. Tuesday, Aug. 10 she was woiue; I had
Dr Petit in, who made light of it, but said he would come the next morning. Wed. 11th she
was very ill, but «iw M""" de Falbe, who was able to leave her bed for the purpose. L. wrote
a post-card to Chundey [her maid] in case she was wanted. In afternoon she was very weak

indeed Thurstlay 12th worse and in a very serious stat«. That night, or rather Friday

morning early at 2 hrs J, she quietly pivssed away. On Saturday she was buried in the cemetery
of Clermont-Ferniud in plot 419, which I purchased as a concession in perp^luite. So our long
married life came to an end. Writing as I do now aftt-r nearly .') months have passed, and
I am able to take a fair retrospect, I think that the inevitable blow occurred at a more
seasonable period than at any other time. Dear Louisa's vigour was distinctly declining; she
was still able to enjoy much, but wiw I fear rapidly on the way towaiils permanent invalidism,
and she was conscious of a weakening of her mental power, small things fatiguing her much
more than formerly. Had I died first, I fear her strength would have been inwlequate to
carrying on life unaided. She has been in many respects a most valued as well as a loved
.example to me. May her good influence abide, though she personally is gone. All her friends

Po II 36

282 Life and Letterg of Frauds Gaffoii

lay strew on her power of aympathy. How I pulled through the terrible strain and hurried
requirementa uf the otx»sion I cannot conceive, but I did, tlianks largely U> the hearty and
tactful sympathy received from M"" de Fall)e and Mr Jetiiiiiigs, whii had iniide Louisa's
acquaintance and retunied to h»'lp. I could not leave lloyat on account of lotterH, till Tuesday
night, arriving in Ix)ndon Wed' afternoon, where the sympathy of Spencer, and Mary and of
Gertrude [Butler] await«d me. Some few days were spent in sorting her possessions and
carrying out Louisa's wishes. Then to dear Emma's at Leamington for a week; thence to the
Douglas Oaltons' at Himbleton also' for nearly a week; thence to Mrs Hills'' at Corby, all of
which greatly braced me. The general kindness of Louisa's and my relations was extreme.
On returning Sept. 13 Frank Butler was ready to live with me, a most valuable help against

the sen.so of isolation My own occupations were the inquiries into the Bassett hounds,

which led to the "Average CJonHtitution of each Ancestor etc." Proe. Hoy. Soc.'', also "Inquiries
into Spewl of American Trotters," /Vor. Roy. Soc.' and the method of photographic measure-
ment of horses etc., published to-day Jan. 7, '98*. The Committee on a Physical National
Laboratory has been appointed and is taking evidence. Tlie Evolution Committee has not
done much, Kew Observatory prospers; Meteorological Council, the usual routine"

Thus it is when one of our number falls out, the ranks close up; social
life as a whole goes on; our intellectual tasks are resumed, and our thoughts
are turned again from the immediate environment to the non-personal
problems of science. Galton rarely referred to the personal in conversation, or
in letters, and it has seemed best to his biographer to maintain his reticence,
allowing merely the one entry with which ne concludes Louisa Galton's
Record to tell its own tale.

To sum up the contents of this chapter, I venture to assert that no
psychologist, no statistician of energy and imagination can read its pages
and not feel that they have provided him witli suggestions of many still
unsolved problems, for whose solution the world would be not only the wiser
but the better. Such is always the outcome of Gralton's suggestive mind,
and it is on this account — the generosity of ideas — that the reader willingly
pardons an occasional conclusion based on apparently scanty data. Beyond
those data was always the rich experience of a mina during the whole of a
long life perpetually observing and placing in appropriate categories the
actions and thoughts of other men as well as of himself

' Wife of Judge Hills of Alexandria, and daughter of Sir William Grove, Galton's close
friend A numlier of Galton's letters to Mrs Hills have recently been purchased from a book-
seller for the Galton Laboratory.

» Vol. LXi, pp. 401-43. ' Vol. Lxii, pp. 310-15.

* Galton probably wrote the last sentences of this entry on the day following that, Jan. 6,
on which he had started to give the account of Mrs Galton's death.

PIJ^TE XX VI I

FranciH Ualton in the 'sixties, from a pJiotogrnph.

CHAPTER XII

PHOTOGRAPHIC RESEARCHES AND PORTRAITURE

"\VhHt«'ver he touchwi he was Hure to draw from it soinethiriK that it had never l)efore
yieliltfi, and he was wholly frix- from llial familiurity which comes to tlie professed »ludent in
every branch of science, and l)lin<ls the metital eye to the si;,'ni(icance of tilings which are over-
l<x)k«l iKicaiis*! always in view." Nature on Chaklbb Darwin, V()1. xxvi, p. 147.

We have seen in the preceding chapter how Galton supposed composite
portraiture to be connected fundamentally with psychological inquiry.
Galton developed comixjsite photography in his search for a method of
ascertaining wnether physiognomy Ts an index to mind, i.e. whether facial
chai-acteristics are correlated with mental traits. The actual method he
employed, however, was curiously enough suggested to him as a result of his
attempts to illustrate the multiple geographical features of a country, where
he wanted more than could be reiiddy exhibited on the usual type of maps.
Galton's own idea of composite portraiture would fully justify our discussing
it under the heading of " Psychometric Investigations." But as Galton's
contributions to scientific photography are numerous and important, it haa
seemed to me desirable to devote an entire chapter to the subject, although
much that will be contained in this chapter has great psychometric interest.
Galton's contributions to photographic science break up into six sections,
namely :

{A) Composite Photography.

{B) Bi-projections by Photography.

iC) Analytical Photography.

\D) Measurements by Photography.

IeS Indexing and Numeralisation of Portraits.

(F) Measurements of Resemblance, chiefly by photographs.
We shall also include in this chapter, as closely related to our present
topics, the subjects of the indexing of portraits and the telegraphy of portitiits.
The matters to be discussed occupied Galton's mind almost continuously
from 1878 to 1911, i.e. more than thirty years. They had singular fascination
for him not only because they combined fairly simple mathematical investi-
gation with mechanical invenjtion and experiment, but also because they
were closely associated with psychological and hereditary inquiries.

{A) Composite Photography.

There is a paper on combining various data in maps which explains the
origin of Galton's inquiries into composite photography. As ho hiinsolf say-^
in a paper of 1878 :

" It was while endeavouring to elicit the principal criminal types by methods of optical

36-2

284 Life and Letters of Francix Galfnti

Huperimpoution of the jiortraitB, such as I had frequently employed with maps and nieteoro-
logioal tnMses, that the idea of composite figures first occ-urre<i to me'."

Thifi pvj)er by Galton, wliich I had some difficulty in locating, and of
whicli no copy could l)e found in his collections, is entitled : " On me^uis of
combining various Data in Maps and Diagrams'." Galton therein refers
again to his stereoscopic niaji method', which plan he regrets had not yet been
adopted. He says that it needs good models, but that the number of the^e
increases every year, as the then recent French Geograj)hical Exposition de-
monstrated. He exhibited in the Ix»an Exhibition stereoscojiic views of mmlels
taken by the Royal Enginet^rs, but I do not know what subjects they rei)re-
sented. He suggested tue stereoscope, not only as a means of showing thmgs
in the solid, but of superposing plans and maps for comparative purj)oses.

He next turns to superposition by means of a telescope ; he remarks thai
if one half of the object-glass be covered up, the sole effect on the image of a
distant object will be to reduce its brilliancy by a half. Now let us suppose
two lenses placed one in front of one half of the object-glass and the other
in front of the other half, each with its own object at its focal distance ; the
two objects will then be combined superposed in the field of view of the
telescope. Instead of two lenses four might be distributed over the area of
the object-glass to combine four objects, etc. Actually Galton placed his
telescope vertically and ran a horizontal tramway under the objective; in the
blackened roof of a 'tramcar' a number of lenses were inserted and opposite
each on the floor of the carriage its own object at the focal distance of the
lens. If now lens 1 be brought under the objective we see only object 1 ,
as we push the carriage farther lens 1 tends to pass out of the field and
lens 2 to share the field ; thus different intensities of objects 1 and 2 can
be combined. A further push of the carriage causes 2 alone to be seen, and
the process continued combines it with 3, and so on. Galton's model had six
lenses of the same focal distance and size in the roof of his carriage. By this
means a series of geographical data which would overcrowd any single map
can be combined in sets of two.

" It affords a peculiarly suitable method for picturing changes whether in physical or
political geography. 1 will not describe the mechanism by which complex and powerful in-
struments of this kind might be constructed ; where the images should be thrown by a lime
light on a screen, and a string of perhaps only three large achromatic collimatore would serve
for an indefinite number of pictures." (p. 315.)

That Galton should have spoken of the old ' wheel of life ' in connection
with his apparatus, shows that ne had a foreshadowing of the modern cinemato-
graph. By using lenses of different focal length objects at different distances
could be combined, and by using inclined mirrors facing definite parts of the
object-glass the objects need not be placed in parallel planes.

• Journal of the Anthropological Iiulitnte, Vol. viii, p. 135, 1878. In this pap<!r (ftn. p. 136)
Oalton gives 1878, instead of 1876, for the year of the Map paper.

' South Kensingt^Hi Museum Conferences held in connection with the Special Loan Col-
lection of Scientific Apixiratus, 187C ; Chemistry, Hiology, Physical Geography, Geology,
Mineralogy and Meteorology (pp. 312-15). London, Chapman and Hall.

' See our p. 33.

P/iot(>!fr(ij>/ii(' IfenearrhfH and Par/ rait lire

285

Galtoii very soon discovered that the metliods of optically comhining
images are very various indeed. Thus in a paper of 1878 tie writes' :

" I hiivf" tri^l many i)tlier plnn.i ; indt-ecl the po8Ril)Iu niotluxlH of optically «upt'riinp<>Ming
two or nioio iiim>;t's iiro very numerous. ThuN I hiivc uho<I a ncxtant (with it« t«'h«cop«!
Httach(><l); also Mtripw of mirrors placed at differont anKlex, their several refleotionH lM)ing
simultaneously viewed through a teUwcop«». I have also use<l a dividwi lens, like two stereo-
scopic^ lenses brought close together, in front of the ohject-glass of a telescnp*'.

I have not yet had an ojjportunity of superiin|>osing images by placing glass negativ<w in
separate magic lanterns, all converging upon the same scrt«n ; but this or even a simple
dioramic apparatus would Ix! very suitable for exhibiting composite effects to an audience, and
if the eU>ctric light were used for illumination, the effect on the screen could be photographed
at once. It would also l)e possible to construct a camera with a long focus, and many slightly
divergent object-glasses, encli throwing an image of a separate glass negative upon the same
sensitised plato." (p. 140.)

Among Galton's instruments in the Galton Laboratoiy is a piece of
apparatus for compounding six objects. It is of the following nature. Six
dinerent photographs, arranged symmetrically round a blackened screen, face
six different object-glasses which, set round the base of a conical tube, form a
composite image of all six on a small focusing screen towards the vertex
of the cone. This image is examined by an eye-piece passing through the
centre of the vertical screen and entering centrally the base of the cone.
The focusing screen is only about 2 inches in diameter, but the image is
magnified by the eye-piece. Six components can be superposed and
examined visually, but there does not seem any special provision in the

Diagram i.

' "Composite Portraits," made by combining those of many different persons into a smgle
resultant figure. Journal of the Anthropological Institute, Vol. viii, pp. 132-42, 1878.

286 Life and Tj^tterx of Frniu-in GnKoii

apparatuB for photographing the composite image either' from helow the
screen or from the eye-piece side.

The paper of 1878 to which reference has more than once l)een made'
describes for the tiret time the very simple arrangement — a window with two
cross-hairs or wires and two pinholes in the frame — by which Galton at first
registered the series of photographs to be compounded. For full face one
hau" was taken horizontally bisecting the pupils and the other, the vertical,
bisecting the distance between the pupils. A prick made in each pinhole
then registered the photograph. It is requi.site that the whole series of photo-
graphs should be practically of the same size, or if not, reduced to the same
size. All that is needful is, if n seconds be the correct exposure and there be
m phot<3graph8, to give n/m seconds to each. If we suppose n = 50 and m = 8,
we combine eight portraits. If we wish to combine more, it is better to
combine composites of 8 to 10 each to obtain the full composite. Of this
Galton writes :

" Those of its outlines are sharpest and darkust that are common to the largest number of
the oomponents ; the purely individual peculiarities leave little or no visible trace. The latter
being neoeMarily disposed on both sides of the average, the outline of the composite is the
arerage of all the components'. It is a band and not a fine line, because the outlines of the
oomponents are seldom exactly suixTim posed. The band will be darkest in its middle when-
ever the component portraits have the same general type of features, and its breadth, or
•mount of the blur, will measure the tendency of the components to deviate from the common
type. This is so, for the very same rea-son that the ^hot-marks on a target are more thickly
dupoaed near the bull's-eye than away from it, and in a greater degree as the marksmen are
more skilful. All that has been said of the outlinen is equally true as regards the shadows;
the result being that the composite represents an averaged figure, whose lineaments have been
softly drawn. The eyes come out with appropriate distinctness, owing to the mechanical con-
ditions under which the components were hung.

A composite portrait represents the picture that would rise before the mind's eye of a man
who had the gift of pictorial imagination in an exalted degree. But the imaginative power
even of the highest artiste is far from precise, and is so apt to bo biased by special cases that
may have struck their fancies, that no two artists agree in any of their typical forms. The
merit of the photographic composite is its mechanical precision, being suDJect to no errors
beyond those incidental to all photographic productions." (p. 134.)

Galton exhibited at the meeting composites of criminals, and notes of
them that the special villainous irregularities have disappeared and the
common humanity that underlies them has prevailed'. This I think sliould
have been used as an argument that the criminal is not a distinct pAysjca/
type, criminality is a mentality and the physicjil and the mental are not
closely correlated. On the other hand, when composite photography is
applied to a physically differentiated race, e.g. the Jews, it does in a marked
manner indicate a type*. And therein, I think, its future usefulness lies.

' "Composite Portraits," Journal of the AtUhropolo<iical IiutiliUe, Vol. vm, pp. 1.32—42,
1878.

'Galton recognised later that this early composite was an "aggregation" rather than an
average.

' Mr Hyde Clarke in the discussion which followed as8(?rt«<l that the criminal characteristics
were eliminated, and they hod a natural type of man instead, and attributed the result to the
pruoesa producing merely an 'average,' in8tea<l of arguing that there was not a distinct physical
criminal tyjx^ ' See our pp. 293-4 ami l'lat<ss XXVIII and XXIX.

I'LATK XXVIII

Composites, made fi-«ni Portraits t>£ Criniiniils convicted of Murder, Manslaughter or Crimes of Violence.

i

PLATK XXIX

c
o

3

&
u
o

s

3

PholtxjrnpUit' RvMt'arvhc* and Portrait ii re 287

In the next section Gnlton i-pcords various methods he had hit upon for
superposing iniuges. Thus

(a) Tie had used a sextant with its tolescoi)e attiwihetl.

\h) Strips of mirror at various angles, tlitir sfvcrnl reflt'ctions W-itig
simultaneously viewed through a telescope.

(c) A piece of glass inclined at a very acute angle to the liuo ot sjght
and a mirror heyond it also inclined hut in the opposite direction to the piece
of glass; the latter must he thin, a selected piece of the hest glass used for
covering microsco{)ic specimens. Several such pieces inclinea at different
angles may he used for multiple conijK)unding.

{d) A divided lens like two stereoscopic Tenses brought close together in
front of the object-ghvas of a telescope (see our p. '285).

(e) Glass negatives in separate magic lanterns all converging on the
same screen.

{/) A camera with a long focus and many slightly divergent object-
glasses, each throwing an image of a separate glass negative upon a screen
(cf our p. 285).

((/) A double image prism of Iceland spar.

Of this Galton says (p. 138):

"The liest instniinent I have a.s yet contrived and used fur optical superimposition is a

'double-imago prism' of Iceland spar. The latest I have had has a clear aperture of a

square half an inch in the side, and when held at ri^ht angles to the line of sight will separate
ordinary and extraordinary images to the amount of two inches, when the object viewed is
held at seventeen inches from the eye. This is quitt> sutiicient for working with carte-de-
visite portraits. One image is quite achromatic, the other shows a little colour. The diver-
gence may be varied and adjusted by inclining the prism to the line of sight. By its means
the ordinary image of one component is thrown upon the extraordinary image of the other,
and the composite may be viewe<l by the naked eye, or through a lens of long focus, or through
an openi-gla.ss (a telescope i.s not so good) fitte<l with a sufficiently long draw tulx* to see an
object at that short distance with distinctne.ss. Portraits of somewhat different sizes may be
combined by placing the larger one farther from the eye, and a long face may be fitted to
a short one by inclining and foreshortening the former. The slight fault of focus thereby
occasioned produces little or no sensible ill-effect on the appearance of the composite. The
front and profile faces of two living persons sitting side by side, or one liehind the other, can
be easily superimposed by a double-image prism."

The apparatus itself with accessories is figured and described in Galton's
paper, and remains after more than thirty years intact to this day in the
Galton Laboratory'.

Galton remarks that the truth of the composite photograph can be assured
by the substantial agi-eement between the results from different batches of
components — " a perfect test of truth in all statistical conclusions." He tried
changing the order of exposure of the components and found substantial
identity' (p. 135).

' There are in fact two such Iceland spar compounders.

' It might seem that this point wanted greater experimental demonstration than the short
series Galton speaks of. I have, however, Galton's evidence before me; he took three portraits,
A, B, C, and compounded A + B and B + A, the composites are practically identical; then he
took A + B-^ C, A +C + B, B + A + C, B+C + A, C + A+B and C + B + A, and again the com-
posites are practically identical. He had thus good evidence that order of exposure did not

288 Life ami Letters of Francis GaUou

The paper finally discusses the uses to which composite portraiture may
be put. Galton refers to :

(i) Typical pictures of different raci-.s of men (see our pp. 290, 293-4,
and Plat; XXXIVJ.

(ii) Selection of some strongly marked type within a race, e.g. Criminal
or Phthisical subjects (see our pp. 2§6. 291-2 and Plates XX\^II, XXIX
and XXX IV).

(iii) Composite portrait of the same individual to obtiiin more than a
single momentjiry expression. Galton considered that such a composite would
have 'varied sugge-stiveness.'

(iv) Composites from independent porti-aits of historical personages. It
may be from coins, medals or busts. Thus Galton later did Alexander the
Great, Napoleon, Cleopatra, etc. (see our p, 295 and Plates XXXVI — XLIV).

(v) Composite portraits of ancestry and collaterals, each individual being
given his or her relative ' weight' in terms of exposure. Galton thus hoped
to produce 'family types,' and to forecast the physical appearance of the off-
spnng of proposed marriages (see our Plates XXXI and XXXII).

(vi) In the same manner as (v) composite portraits might be produced
to aid breeders of pedigree stock to judge the result of any proposed union
better than they are able to do at present (see our Plate XXX). CJalton
took the opportunity of appealing for family portraits taken in the same
attitude, ^ inch or say 10 mm. between the interpupillary line and the line
that separates the lips, in rigid profile, full face, and three-<juarters always
showing the left side, "in this the outer edge of the right eyelid will be only
just in sight." I repeat these suggestions of Galton in cji.se any of my readers
wish to make experiments in this somewhat difficult art for tliemselves.

At the York meeting of the British Association, Trans. B. A. 1881, p. 3,
Galton read a paper "On the Application of Composite Portraiture to
Anthropological purposes." He exhibited tlie first cranial composite, the
profile of the Andamanese skull based on eight components (see our Plate
XXXIII). The large original composite is still in the (Tdltoniaiut, but
although it is distinctly better than much later work — which has tended
to discredit composite portraiture in craniology — I venture to think that from
the standpoint of the profile l)etter fiduciary lines might Ije selected.

The next paper with which we have to deal is tliat of 1881, in which
year Galton gave an account of "Composite Portraiture" to the Photographic
Society'. Four years had produced great changes and improvements not
only in Galton's methods, but in his apparatus. He now figures and describes
a much more elaborate instrument not only for compounding, but at the
same time for reducing individual transparencies to a standard size. He
not only makes the interpupillary line and its vertical bisector the same

weight the diflcrent components. He also demonstrated that the effect of an exposure for
n Moonds wbh sensibly the same whether it was continuous or given in p equal doses; the
experimental prints giving intensity of tint due to exposure for a variety of vahies of p have
survived to this day.

' Journal and 'J'ransactioru of the Photographic Society o/ Oreat Britain, Vol. v. pp. 140-46,
June 14, 1881.

I'LATi: xxx

TLATK XXXI

Composites of tlio Members of a Family.

I'LATK XXXII

Portraits of three Sisters, full face and profile, with the corresponding Composites.

I

I'LATK XXX MI

Pholoiiraphlc Rfnenrches aiuf Port rait it re

289

for all subjects, but the distance from iriterpupillary line to the line of
the lips is also made constant'. The general principle of the ap{)anitu8
is that of a modified copying-camera, only the alteration in scale and the
adjustment in position are not done on the focusing-screen, because it is
desirable that the negative which is to be several times exposed should
remain fixed in position. By the simple artifice of a mirror let down at 45°
across the camera, Galton gets an image on a horizontal screen in the ro<jf
of his camera, and upon this screen also are thrown the three fiduciary linens
which serve ius register-marks for his adjustments. The details of the
apparatus will Ir' sufficiently indicated by the accompanying line engraving
and (Talton's description of it ; we may merely remark that gas would
now-a-days be prol)ably replaced by electric light. The apparatus is still
preservea in the Galton Laboratory.

Diagram showing thr Essbntial Parts.

A The body u. .... ^..uiora, whiob is 6xed.

B Lens on a carriage, which can be moved
to and fro.

C Frame for the transparency, on a oar-
riaKe that also supportR^the lantern ; the
whole can be moved to and fro.

r The reflector inside the camera.

Ill The arm outside the camera attached to
the axis of tho reflector; by raovinR it, the
reflector can be moved up or down.

(/ A ground'glas!) screen on the roof, which
receives the image when the reflector is
turned down, as in the diagram.

The eye-hole through which the image ia

viewed on u; a thin piece of glam im-
mediately below e reflects the illuminated
fiducial lines in the transparency at /,
and gives them the appearance of lying
upon g — the distances /k and gk being
made equal, the angle fkg being made a
right angle, and the plane- of the thin
piece of glass being made to bisect /kg.
Framework, adjustable, holding the trans-
parency with the fiducial lines on it.
Framework, adjustable, holding the trans-
parency of the portrait.

Diagram ii.

" For success and spee<l in making composites, the apparatus should be solidly made,
chieHy of metal, and all the adjustments ought to work smoothly and accurately. Good com-
posites cannot he made without very careful adjustment in scale and position. An oflThand
way of working produced nothing but failures." (p. 143.)

Galton exhibited certain results of very considerable interest tending to
meet critici-sms which had been raised. He drew on a square card a circle
of about 2 '5 inches diameter with a vertical and a horizontal diameter.
Where these diameters met the circle he placed four circular discs of different
tints, and in one quadrant he placed a black dot. He then made a composite

' It would probably be possible by a slight rotation of the frame for the transparency
about a central vertical axis to make the interpupillary di.stance (or the external ocular
distance) constant without in any way injuring the result.

P o II 37

290 Life and lA-ttcr* of Frauds Galton

of the axial four positions of this card and found: (i) a sharply defined cross,
showing the accui-acy of adjustment, (ii) four very faint dots one in each
quadnmt, indicating that any single irregularity hardly survives, (iii) the
etpial tint of the four dot« showing the etpiality of the exposure, (iv) the
unifomuty of the resulting tint of the four ' wafers ' arising from the
exposure of the tinted discs. A, B, C, D, in the four orders, ADCIi,BADC,
CHAD, and DCJiA, demonstrating that order of exposure is not material.

He also showed composites in one of which a portrait X'Vfos exposed |
and a portrait }' ^ of the total exposure, and in the other A' was exposed
^ and 1^ I of the total. The individuality of A' predominated in the tirst
and that of Y in the second ; thus justifying ' weighting ' by length of
exposure.

He further exhibited composite portraits of male and female phthisical
subjects, and of men and of officers of the Royal Engineers (see our pp. 291-3
and Plates XXIX and XXXIV), and he suggested that with 'artistic
touching' beautifully idealised family portraits might be produced for com-
mercial purposes; the irregularities of the individual disjippearing. The
paper as a whole marks a very considerable development both in the theory
and practice of composite j)ortraiture'.

We now come to two papers of 1882 and 1885 dealing respectively with
com|X)site photographs of phthisical subjects and of Jews. In the Hi-st Galton
worked in conjunction with Dr F. A. Mahomed, in the second Mr Joseph

' It wa«, perhaps, a misfortune for composite photography, tliat while it required really
extraordinary car** and patience, it was very ea.sy to compound in an inferior uinnner. It became
|K)pular, especially in America, and a go<Hl de^l was published which is of small scientific
value and in which no attempt was made at real analysis of the results. Thus Science pub-
lishc<i May 8, 1885, com|M>site portraits of American (n) Mathematicians, (/>) Nuturali'-t^.
(r) Acatlemicians and (d) Field Oeol<>f;ists, which lead us hardly furtiier than the c()uclu>i..n-
that all American scientist.s of those days were hairy, and that mathematicians while liiini,'
least so had more frown. Comixisites of Washington in three aspects (6'ctV»i(v, Dec. 1 1, l.'^s.'i)
are somewhat more succt-ssful : i'ciV)(C« also published (on May 7, 1 886) composites of American
Indians, but the components were few in numl)er. Further composite photoffraphs were made
of undergraduates and graduates of various American Colleges (Ja8tn;)w, 1887, did 21 John.s
Hopkins doctors- of philosophy for the years 188G-7: Century, March, 1887. The latter
also contains a fairly successful family composite of father, mother, five sons and one daughter).
A [Kwsibly more scientific use of composite photography was that by Persifor Frazer (Ameri<an
Dnlimtphical HoeiHy, Vol. XXMI, pp. 4.33-41, 1888 and Franklin I'mtilHU: Juuriuil, Feb. I8S(),
p. 123) U> obtain an average signature. He illustrates it by one of Oe<)rge Washington, and
thinks the process could he used to determine the maximum deviation compatible with a non-
frirginl rcHult. In our own country Arthur Thomson in 1884 {Jonnutl of Auatomi/, Vol. xix,
p. lo'.t) tried to apply it to obtain type Australian and Flurofx-an crania; the components txiing too
ft!W, and the superposition not very satisfactory, the rt>sults are not to lie taken as condemning
the application of the method in craniometry. The {Missibilitics of composite photography in
this mattt-r had been referre*! to by (ialton at the 1881 York im»eting of the Hritish AssiK-ia-
tion : see Trantartum*, p. (»90. Whipple adopted the process for the re<luction of meteorological
ohttervations (Quarterly Journal of Meteorohx/ieal Society, Vol. ix, p. 189), and it can clearly be
••mploye<l in harmonic analysis. There is no doubt tliat Oalton's idea was taken up by many,
but it may be doubt«l whether any one but the originator appreciate<l the amount of cuw and
pali'^ rod to pnxluce a good composite. At the same time I cannot pass over the fm-t

that lUmiana there exists a splendid series (not by Gidt^m) of racial com|K>sit«s, Wi-nds

and .Sixuiui, ihey are probably of German origin. I am unawai-e if they have been published.

PLATE \XXIV

CoinpoHitos of Phtliisicftl and Non phthisical Hosj)iUil Populations.

Photiuirnphir R«'Hean'hes ainl Port rait an' 'Jftl

Jacobs ^avi" liim lielp. Tlie first |)H|)er is eiititl«Hl : "An lufjuiry into the
Physiognomy of Piithisis by the Method of Composite Portraiture'." It
coiit'iiiis ilhistnitions of 47 conipoHites and of 1 I 3 individual portraits. There
is thus a ifrejit wealth of material to judj;e by. Unfortunately, and prolmbly
unavoidably, the portraits are all small, the itidividual smaller than the
composite portraits, and this, I ventiire to think, h\ssen8 the accunvcy of
judgmtuits based on comparisons of this illustrative material.

The (juestion raised by Mahomed and Galton was whether there was
any justification for a Ijelief in a phthisical diathesis ; it is of course clear
that such may exist without involvinj; a phthisical physiognomy- It is
further possible that if such a physiognomy exists, it might Ixi produced by
the action of the disease itself The material consisted of 261 male and
181 female photographs of phthisical subjects between 15 and 45 years of
age taken partly at Guy's Hospital and partly at the Brompton and the
Victoria Park Hos|jital8 for l)isea.ses of the Chest. A schedule for each
subject dealt witli : Age — extent of disease (advanced, moderate, slight) —
duration of disejise (chronic, over 3 years ; medium, 1 to 3 years ; brief,
under I year) — hereditary taint (strong, some, none) — onset of disease
(insidious, or preceded by severe haemoptysis, bronchitis, pneumonia, pleurisy,
syphilis, gout, alcoholism). These chi-ssitications enabled composites' of
various groups to be made. As control two series of female patients, each
fifty in number, and a series of male patients 100 in numljer, all suffering
from diseiises other than phthisis, were taken without selection.

When all individual phthisical patients were compounded without selec-
tion, a composite was obtained strikingly like the composite portrait of the
non-phthisical: see our Plate XXXI V. If there be made selections of the
narrow, ovoid or ' tubercular ' faces from the phthisical and non-phthisical
patients, or again of broad faces with coarser features from the two groups, we
again reach com|)osites closely resembling each other. In other words both
phthisical and non-phthisical patients contained representatives of the same
two types. Further, of the non-phthisical women 15°/^ gave the naiTow ovoid
face while only ll'6 7o of patients with phthisis presented it. Among males
the proportion of narrow ovoids was only IS'/o ^^ t.he non-phthisical patients
and 190 7^ among the phthisical on the best estimation. Taken altogether
the phthisical cases showed 14"37^ and the other than phthisical 140/^ of
the narrow ovoid or so-called ' tubercular ' physiognomy. The ' tubercular '
physiognomy is therefore not more common among the phthisicjd than the
non-phthisical diseased population. Mahomed and Galton writ« :

"Let us here emphasise tlie fact that we are now comparing phthisis with other disease*, and
not with the healthy popuUition, and these ob.servations would seem to show that a delicate
person may fail in many ways hesides Iwing phthisical, and that a delicate narrow ovoid face
may mean liability to other diseases not nece-ssarily tubercular." (p. 13.)

' Guy's Hospital Reports, Vol. xxv, February, 1882.

' In this paper a compound of composites is termed a co-coia]x>site, and if several co-com-
posites are compounded the i"csult is termed a co-co-composite. Comj>osites and coco com-
posites are positives, and require to be reversed before printing from them.

37— i

292 Lift' n»il Lcffcrs of FrniiriH OaUon

When tlie iii(Hvi(lual.s with a nmrkedly heroditm y taint were taken the
resultant face had distinctly more delicate features, but the composite seems
to the present writer too faint to provide much information ; further, these
cases mav well have shown on the average more emphasised emaciation. On
the other hand, il a composite l)e formed of the far-a<lvanced cases, where
the emaciation is shown in the deeply sunken eye, the hollow cheeks, and
thinly covered lower jaw, the face was not by any means of the narrow
ovoid ty{)e. The authors do not state whether the chronic cases were more
frequent in the hereditary and the rapid cases in the latter group. Possibly
they might have gone further in compounding the material on the basis of
the schedule data, but we must remember that the composite photographer
has not only a temptation to con)pound the well-fitting faces, but that to do
so is almost a mechanical necessity. As our authors put it :

"We would also draw attention to the fact that this is the first attempt at applying the
new process of composite portraiture on a large scale', and that many technical dithcuities,
mechanical and others, could only gradually be overcome." (p. 18).

Mahomed and Galton conclude finally that their results

"lend no countenance to the belief that any special tj'pe of face predominates among phthisical
patients, nor to the generally entertained opinion that the narrow ovoid or 'tubercular' fa<-e
is more common in phthisis than amoiuj other diseases. Whether it is more common than among
the rest of the health;/ population we ciuinot at present say.

It is true that taking Iwth sex&s together we find 14'3 per cent, of faces that may he classed
as 'narrow ovoids",' and 9-3 per cent, that come under the head of 'broad faces with coarse
features',' making in all 23-6 jter cent, of our ca.ses which may be grouped under one or other
extreme departure in either direction from the normal average ; but we doubt if this is more
than would be found among the general population. Our results are therefore negative, but it
may be they are no less valuable ; although we commenced our investigations with the expecta-
tion of establishing a ' type ' on a firm foundation, we shall be little less satisfied with them if
they have succeeded in refuting an error.

Although these conclusions would seem to indicate that there is no foundation for the t^lief
that persons possessing certain physical characters are especially liable to tul)ercular disease,
yet it may hereafter be proved that some explanation of the doctrine may be found in the course
of the disease when it attacks such persons." (p. 18.)

In the last paragraph our authors seem to have made an unallowable
extension of their result. Were it true, we must totally deny the existence
of any hereditary tendency to phthisis. Such, in my opinion, cannot be
acceptefl in view of existing statistical data. Yet any hereditary tendency
must dej)end upon a difi'erentiation in physical structure, for that ultimately
is what determmes the efficient working of the various bodily organs. But
it is idle in the present state of our knowledge to assume that there is a
high correlation between the dynamical efficiency of the bodily organs and
the physiognomy in particular. It is possible that nasal shape and carriage
of the mouth might have some — prooably not very intense — correlation
with a tulxjrcular diathesis. But no special study of mouth and nose was

' When we note that composites of 50 to 200 components were made for the first time, we
can Hppreciate the magnitude of the task.

' What our authors tenn the ' tubercular' type.
What they term the 'strumous' type.

Phiilniiraplilr HeMcurrhtx ami Purtraiture 293

luiulc ill this piipor, uiid it may l)c rloubted whether it could Jkj inmlt' on
portraits of ho hiiihII size and all reduced to the same standard length from
intorpupillary line to li|i line.

The main achievement of the paper lies undoubtedly in its demonstra-
tion (i) that mechanicjil difficulties of comijounding large series of portraits
had luien overcome, and (ii) that n(» marked association exists between a
phthisical tendency and physiognomy. The belief that itdcnw exist prolxibly
arises from the more emphatic impression on the observer profluced by
emaciation in the nan-ow ovt)id face.

The second paper to which I have referred is entitled " Photographic
Composites'," and is remarkai)le for the two plates of the Jewish type iu
profile and full face. While many will criticise, and I think rightly criticise,
the analysis Mr Jacobs gives of the 'Jewishness' in these portraits, they
must agree with him in appreciating the extraordinary fidelity with which
they portray Jewish physiognomy, or rather youthful Jewish physiognomy,
for we are nealing with young Jews. Mr Jacobs writes :

" But words fail one most grievously in trying to split up into its elements that ino«t living
of all things, human expi-ession"; and Mr Ualton's composites say in a glance more than the
most skilful physiognomist could express in many page«. 'The l)est definition,' said the old
logicians, ' is pointing with a finger ' (ilemonstratio optima ilejinitio) ; and the composites here
given will doul)tless form for a long time the best available definition of the Jewish expression
and the Jewish type." (p. 2G8.)

There is little doubt that Galton's Jewish type formed a landmark in
composite photography, and its success was, I think, almost entirely due to
(a) increased facility m the process, and (6) to the fact that his composites
were based on physiognomically like constituents. In the case of criminality
and phthisis he had based his composites on mentally and pathologically
difteientiated components, and had expected to find mental and pathological
characters highly correlated with the facial. His negative results were
undoubtedly of value, but they cannot appeal to the man in the street like
his positive success with the Jewish type. We all know the Jewish boy,
and Galton's portraiture brings him before us in a way that only a great
work of art could equal — scarcely excel, for the artist would only idealise
from one model.

Plate XXXV (described over page) reproduces Galton's Jewish compo-
sites. The original photographs are in the Galton Laboratory.

' Tlf Photographic Xews, Vol. .\.\i.\, April 17 and 24, 1885. The Jewi.sh profile occurs with
the earlier, the full face with the later issue. Galton's paper occupied pp. 243-45 of the earlier
issue. In the later issue is a paper by \V. E. Debenham on Galton's "C!omposite Portraits"
(pp. 259-60), which does not seem to do more than repeat, pi-obably unconsciously, certain
methods already referred to by (!)alton (see our pp. 285, 287), except in the one matter of
acquiring the stereoscopic power without any instrument There is also a pa{>er entitled :
"Till" Jewish Type, and (Jalton's t'oiupiKsite Photographs," by Joseph JacoUs (pp. 268-9).

'' Mr Jacobs here uses "expression" not like Darwin in the kinematic sense, but in the
statical sense of physiognomy.

•_M>4 Life and Lettern of FroMcitt (iaiton

Platk XXXV, Left (Profile). Platk XXXV, Right (Full Face).

6 18 the comjKwite of five portraits of young f is the conipoRito of the five full-faced

Jewish Iwys; ami similarly c is the coHijx>sit<' ]K)rtrait.s corrosjK)n(liug to h, while g \» the

of five others, i/ is a c<>-coinj>osite of b and c composite of those corrcsp<>ii(liiij» to c. A is a

reversed in position, and thus repr<>.s«'nt.s all co-composite of /'and (/, and represents there-

thc ten components, a is a i-ompixsite of five fore all ten components, e is a coiiiposit<' of

other oHer faces; the oonijwnonts of h and c the five older face*. The influence of a black

»re given in Gallon's original ]ilates. curl on the forehead of J\ can Ik; traced in /,

and even in h, where it is reversed (or as in/,).

The great bulk of Galton's own paper in the earlier issue deals with
moditications and improvements of his technique, and should be consulted
even to-day by any would-be compounder. His final advice with regard to
composite photography may l)e cited :

"It must be borne in mind by tlioec who attempt it, that ofThand methods will not avail.
The adjustments must be made with judgment and extreme care to produce good efli-cts. The
difference between a very carefully-made composite and one that has been combined with only
moderate care is great." (p. 24.5.)

In the paper Galton also gives for the first time his fiducial system for

Erofiles ; it consists of a sloping straight line with two horizontal straight
nes proceeding from it to the right. The portrait is adjusted .so that tiiis
sloping straight line touches the forehead, and passes through what the
photographer estimates to be the alveolar point, i.e. the point of the gum
between the middle incisors of the upper jaw'. The horizontal lines are then
taken to bisect the pupil and to coincide as far as possible with the lip line
respectively. Galton further notices that if he brings one of the fundamental
points A of his fiducial system on to the marked optical axis of his instru-
ment, and makes the corresponding point A' of his image agree witii A,
then throughout all further adjustments A will coincide with A', and this
will much simplify the complete adjusting. Beautiful as Galton considered
the adjustments of his own compounding camera to be, he believed great
improvements might l)e made in it, especially in the duection of auto-
matically setting the component in position after taking a series of measure-
ments upon it. He further emphasised the need of a simple optical method
of combining a considemble number of pliotogra|)hs t« test what the com-
pound would be like before actually photographing a composite.

The success of the 'Jewish type' convinced (Jalton that the future of
composite photography lay largely in ethnological and genetic work. He
refers in this matter to the typical crania of different races prepared by
Dr Billings, Surgeon-General of the U.S. War Department', Mr A. Thomson
of the Edinburgh Medical School (see our p. 2'JO ftn.), and earlier by himself,
using composite photography. But he clearly placed less stress on this than
on purely ethnographic portraiture of the living.

In 1879 Galton gave a Friilay evening lecture at the lloyal Institution

' The alveolar point is a wcli-recognised craniometric |x>int, and it seems slightly better in
this respect to use it than to make with Galton the sloping fiducial line touch the upper gum
between the mid-inci8f>rs. It might even avoid the difficulties of the superciliary ridges in
adult males to take the fiducial line from nasion to alveolar point.

• Copies of these are to be found in the Gallon Laboratory.

I'LATK XXXV

3

PhottHjraphir Ht-Haii'vUej* and Pni'traiture 296

on c(itnpo8ite portmiture '. The lecture is calU^l "Generic Images," according
to what (ialton terms *' the happy phrase of Professor Huxley."

"Tlir wiird goncrii' jin'suppow.s a j^fiius, tliiit is to wiy, a coIlnction of inclividualH who have
much ill coiiiinon, and aiui>ii;( wlioiii iii<-<liuiii cliariictcriNticH art; vnry mui.-h iiiori- frecfueiit than
' 'iirt'int! oiii'M 'I'lio siiiim idea is soim-tiim's exprcJtsc*! liy tlu) word typical, wliicli wa« much
iseil by C^u«'t<'l('t, who was tlie first to givt; it a ris{or(>iiM iriU-rpretatioii, and whowf idea of a
type lies at tli(3 Iw.sis of his statistical views. No statistii-iaii dreams of coiiihiniiig uhjvctx into
the same fjotieric group tliat do not ohisUir towards a common c-entrti, no more can we compoHe
generic portmits out of heterogeneous elementti, for if the attempt be made to do so the reHult
is monstrous and meaningless." (p. 162.)

We thus see that Gal ton demands a clustering round Quetelet's ' mean
man ' as a success for a composite portrait ; in such a case the mediocre
characteri.sticH prevail over extreme ones; the common traits reinforce e^ich
other and the extreme ones tend to disappear. \\\ the course of the lecture
Galton showed the following composites :

{<i) A family portrait of two brothers and a .sister. He built this up by
the aid of three converging magic lanterns carefully adjusted, and showed
that he obtained the same effect as a composite photograph of the three
component.s.

(6) Alexander the Great [(>] (reproducetl in printed lecture : see our
Plates XXXVI and XXXVII).

(c) Antiochus, King of Syria [6] (not hitherto published : see our Plate
XXXVIll).

(d) Demetrius Poliorcetes [6] (not hitherto published : see our Plate
"'IX).

(c) Cleopatra [5]. The composite was here as usual better than the
components, " none of which gave any indication of her reputed beauty ; in
fact, her features are not only plain, but to an ordinary English taste are
simply hideous " (not hitherto jnihli.shed : see our Plate XL).

(/) Nero [11] (not hitherto published : see our Plate XLI).

((/) Greek female fiice [5] (not hitherto published: see our Plate XLI I).

(A) Iloman female face [6] (reproduced in printed lecture: see our Plate
XLI II).

ii) Napoleon I [5] (reproduced in printed lecture: see our Plate XLIV).

{j) The English criminal [18| (re})roduced in printed lectvn*e). Galton
here recognises two types of criminals, one with brojul and massive features
like Henry VIII, but with a much smaller brain ; the other with a we^ik
and certainly not a common Engli.sh face' (see our Plates XXVIII and XXIX).

While Galton exhibited in this lecture more composite portraits than
I think he showed on any other occtision, his main object was to compare

' I'rotxedinyt of the Royal Institution, April 25, 1879, Vol. ix, pp. 161-70, with an
autotype reproduction of the Roman Lady, Alexander the Great, Napoleon the Great, and the
English criminal.

- The iniiterial oi\ which all these composites were ba-sed is still in the Galton I.*lK)mtory,
illhough many of the photographs are sadly faded and some of the negatives have perishtxl
(owing U> the use of piK>r chemicals, or to inadequate wa-sliiug). With the exception of the
phthisical plate all our reproductions an. frnni the original material.

296 JAfc and Letters of Francis Galton

general impressions of the mind founded upon blended memories with blended
|)ortrait8. He writes :

" In the pre-8cientific stage of everj' branch of knowle<lge, the |>revalent notions of plienomena
M« founiied u}>on general imprcsoions; but when that stage is passed and the phenomena art
meMured and numbered, many of those notions are found to be wrong, even absurdly so. This
ia the oue not only in professional matters, but in those with wliich everyone has some oppor-
tunity of becoming acc|uainted. Think of the nonsense spoken every day alwut the signs of
Cuming weather, in connection, for example, with the pha.se.s of the moon. Think of the ideas
about chance, held by those who are unae(|uainte<l with the theory of proljabilities ; think of
the notions on hertsfity l)efore the days of Darwin. It is unnecessary to multiply instances ;
the frequent incorrectne.ss of notions derived from general impressions may lie assumed, and
the obji<ct of the following discourse is to point out a principal cause of it.

Attention will he called U^ a source of error that is inherent in our minds, that vitiates the
truth of all our general impres,sions, and which we can never wholly eliminate except by
separating the confused facts upon which our general impressions are founder! and treating;
them numerically by the regular methods of statistics. It is not sutticient to learn that an
opinion has been long established or held by many, but we must collect a large number of
instances to test that opinion, and numerically compare the successes and failures." (p. 101.)

Galton assumes the |)hysioloi.jical ba.sis of memory to 1)6 of the following
character :

"Whenever any group of brain-elements has lx*n excited by a sense-impression, it becomes,
•o to speak, tender, and liable to be easily thrown again into a similar state of excitement. If
the new cause of excitement differs fn)ni the original one, a memory is the result. Whenever
a single cause throws different groups of brain-elements simultaneousl}- into excitement, the
result must be a blended memorw We are familiar with the fact that faint memories are very
apt to become confused. Thus some picture of mountain and lake in a country which we have
never visited often recalls a vague sense of identity with much we have seen elsewhere. Our
recollections cannot Ix; di8entangl(>d, though general resembhmces are recognised. It is also a
fact that the memories of persons who have great powers of visualising, that is of seeing well-
defined images in the mind's eye, are no less cajwhle of being blended together. Artists are, as
a class, pos8esse<l of the visualising power in a high degrets and they are at the sjime tirno
pp&«niinently distinguished by their gifts of generali.sation. They are of all men the inosi
capable of pro<lucing forms that are not copies of any individual, but repre.sent tlie charact<'risii<
features of classes." (p. 162.)

Galton holds that the brain has the capacity for blending memories
together, and that general impressions are faint and perhaps faulty editions
of blended memories. Thus there is some analogy between general im-
pressions and composite photographs, both are generic images.

" A generic mental image may he considered to Ixi nothing more than a generic portrait
stamped on the brain by the successive impressions made by its component images'."

But while the photogi-aphic generic image gives each component a weight
proportional to its exposure, (Jalton says that the mental composite does not
give weight in the same manner.

"The physiological effect of prolonge<l action, or of reiteratiim, is by no means in direct
proportion to the length of the one or to the fre<)uency of the other."

He then cites the Weber- Fechner Law of the geometrical mean' as one
at least of the sources of error in general mental impressions.

"Exceptional occurrences leave an impression on the brain of far greater strength, and
habitual occurrences of far less strength, than their numliers warrant."

' Oalt4>n here cites Huxley (Ilumf, p. 9.')) as independently reaching the same conclusion.

* llluRtratwl in the lecture itself by spinning discs painted black and white in concentric
ringN, one gi wng an arithmetical the other a geometrical series of tints ; the eye repudiates the
furuior an a graduated scale.

I'LATK XXXVI

1

I'LATK XXXVII

a to/, Portraits of Alexander the Great on coins of Lysinmilius, Kinj; of Tlirace.

X - Composite of Indian Alexander (see Plate XXXVT).

if - Composite of a toy!

y= Co-composite of Indian and Gi-eek Portraits.

I'LATK XXXVIII

Six Portiiiits of Antiochus I, King of .Syria, airaiiged in oixler of date with Composite in centre.

I'LA'IK X.WIX

Six Portrait:3 of Demetrius Poliorcetes, King of Macedonia, a to j] giving typical Gi-eek Head.

I'l.ATK \l.

i'ivf Pill-trails ot" CloopatiM, C,>iifi'ii oi Egypt, <( to <•, with Conipo^iti' .o.

I'l.ATK XI.I

I'LATK XLII

PLATK XMir

I

Koinaii Ladies witli t'liiiiimsiti

PLATK XLIV

Six I'oitnvits of XihioIoku I witli Composites ami Co com|H>sil('.

Photogrdjihic Researches and Portraiture ti97

Just as in the composite photograph some images may be alien to the
:feiiu8, so in the case of the mind superficial and fallacious resemblances may
X! iussociated.

"Sflpiiif,' a,s we easily nmy, what inon.strous composites result from ill-sorted combination*
of portraits, and how much nicety of iidjuHtnient is n-quirod to pro<lui'<> the truest fioHsible
generic image, we cunnot wonder at the alwunl ami fri'i|iii'iit fulhicies in our mental con-
ceptions and general impressions,"

Galton continues:

" Our mental generic composites are rarely defined ; they have that blur in excess which
photographic composites have in a Minall degree, and their background is crowded with faint
and incongruous imagery. The exceptional efl'ects are not ovormast<;reci, as they are in the
photogiiiphic composites, by the large bulk of ordinary effects. Hence in our general impres-
sions far too great weight is attached to what is strange and marvellous, and experience shows
that the minds of childr»>n, sjivages and uneducated persons have always had that tendency.
Experience warns us against it, and the scientitic man takes care to base his conclusions u|>on
actual numhei-s.

The human mind is therefore ii most imperfect iippiinitus for the elalwration of general
ideas. Compared with those of brutes its powers are marvellous, but for all that they fall
vastly short of perfection. The criterion of a [>erfect mind would lie in its cajmcity of always
creating images of a truly generic kind, dctluce<l from the whole range of its past experiences.
General impre^ssions are never to be trusted. Unfortunately when they are of long standing

I^_^ they l)econie fixed rules of life, and assume a prescriptive right not to l)e questione<l. Con-
^H 8e<|uently, tho.se who are not accustonuxi to original inquiry entertain a hatred and a horror
^"^ of statistics. They cannot endure the idea of submitting their sacred impressions to cold-
bUxKled verification. Hut it is the triumph of scientific men to rise superior to such super-
stition.s, to devise tests by which the value of lx^liefs may lie a.scertained, and to fee! sufficiently
niasttM-s of themselves todiscard contemjituously whatever may be found untrue." (pp. 168-70.)

The words just cited — almost lost in their manner of publication — are
iunong the finest Galton ever wrote in the service of science.

In reply to the recent inquiry of a friend as to what point I had reached

in my account of Galton's labours, I said : To the discussion of composite

|)ortraits in his researches on psvchology. It seemed to him an inappropriate

association. Yet almost all Galton's photographic work in liis own mind had

j relation to psychology, and up to the end of his life he continued to develop

photographic methods for statistically studying mental charactei*s. From

composite portraiture the stage was for liim an easy one to generic mental

images, thence he passed to the Wel)er-Fechner Law, and this turned his

thoughts to the statistical l)earings of the latter as we have already seen. The

_ relation Galton held to exist between generic mental images and composite

Ih photographs is well illustrated by Galton's paper entitled "Generic Images"

IH publis^ied in The Nineteenth Century for July, 187!)'. This is in some respects

IH an enlaigenient of the Royal Institution Lecture, with less technical descrip-

IH tion and no plate. The point he emphasises in this paper is the bearing of

I^H composite portraitm-e on then current metaphysical conceptions. He writes :

1^^" " Composite portraits are, therefore, much more than averages, because they include the

features of every individual of whom they are composed. They are pictorial equivalents of

those elaborate statistical tables out of which averages are deduced. There cannot be a more

perfect example than they affoixJ, of what the metaphysicians mean by generalisations, when

the objects generalised are objects of vision, and when they belong to the .same typical group,

one important characteristic of which is that medium characteristics should be far more

' Vol. VI, pp. 157-69. In this paper Galton compares the composite portrait to Quetelet's
"mean man." (p. 162.)

p u II 88

298 Life ami Let tern of Fraucim Gal ton

frequent than divergent ones. It is strange to notice how commonly this conception has been
ovt'rl(Xikt"<l l)y inetapliysiciana, ami how |iositive are their stat<'tiients that generalisations ai<'
impossible, and that the very idea of them is absunl. I will (juot<? tlie lucid writing of Sir W.
Hamilton to this effect, where he epitomises the opinions of other leading motapliysicinns.
I do so the more readily Ixvause I fully concwle that there is jx>rfect truth in what he says,
where the objects to be generalise<l are not what a cautious statistician would understand by
the word generic. Sir W. }Iamilton says {Lecliiret, ii, p. 297):

'Take for example, the term num. Here we can call up no notion, no idea correspondinL:
to the universality of the class, or term. This is manifestly impossible. For as man involve.^
contradictory attributes and as contradictions cannot exist in one representation, an idea or
notion adequate to nuin cannot be realise<l in thought. The class nuiii includes individuals,
male and female, white and black and copper coloured, tall and short, fat and thin, straight
and crooked, whole and mutilated, etc., and the notion of the cliuss muKt therefore at once
represent all and none of these. It is therefore evident, though the absuixlity was maintained
by Locke, that we cannot accomplish this; and this being im[>oasible, we cannot represent to
ourselves the class man by any equivalent notion, or idea.... This opinion, which after Hobbes,
has been in this country maintaine<l among others by Berkeley, Hume, Adam Smith, Camp
bell, and Stewart, appears to me not only true, but self-evident.'"

To this Galton replies, demolishing by a concrete representation an
imposing philosophical dogma:

" If Sir W. Hamilton could have seen and examined these com|)osite |iortraits, and had
borne in mind the well-known elements of statistical science, he would certainly have written
very differently. No doubt, if what we art; supposed to mean by the word iiian is to incluil<
women and children and to relate only to their external features and measurements, then tliu
subject is not suitable for a generic picture, other than of a very blurred kind, such as a child
might daub with a paint-brush. If, however, we take any one of the principal races of man
and confine our portraiture to adult males, or adult females, or to children whose ages lie
between moderate limits, we ought to pro<luce a good generic represi>ntation."

Bold indeed to face the metaphysician in his own cave, and as-sert that
his generic pictures were as those of a child daubing with a paint-brush,
solely because he had not adequately, i.e. statistically, defined what was to
be understood by a genus, and a generalisation ! It is the old tale of the
scientist, analysing phenomena, coming up against the metaphysician bandy
ing words'. No wonder that Galton s psychology was of small influence with
philosophising dialecticians !

(B) Photographic Bi-projection, Indexing of Profiles, etc.

As late as April, 1888, Galton was still thinking over composite photo-
graphy. In his earlier work he had made the vertical distance Ijetween the

' My friend Professor W. P. Ker warns me to avoid an ignoralio eleiichi. It seems to nu-
that any argument would turn on how far the "general idea" is that of a limited class. I feel
sure that Berkeley and I think Hamilton would have argued that the abstract idea of ii
Jewish Boy was impossible. Yet Galton shows that we can form a concrete image of such a
Boy, and he sees no reason why we should not, if so constituted, visualise hiui. BerkelcN
(Workt, Vol. I, pp. 76-7, 184.3) confesses that what other minds can do, he knows not, but \u
himself cannot abstract the qualities from a number of individuals and conipouii<l them to .i
general notion. Both Berkeley and Hamilton surveyed their own minds, and they do no:
appear to have experimented on the visualising faculty of other minds.

What (talton asserts is that it is fwssible t<> reach a general idea or a generic image pro
vided the individuals generalise*! form a limited class or yemts, and he holds that the nieta
physicians, proceeding purely by introspection, had overlooked the statistical criteria for the
homogeneity of a group or genua.

I

P/i<)to(/i'fipfn'c /icHcnrrhex and Port rait lire 'JltO

pupil liiiy line and the line of the lips the same for all his components. But
the result of this vertical distance only heing the sjiine was a great diverHity
in hreadtlis, leading to an absence of sharpnesH in the outline ; thuH, hh
Galton expres8e<l it', the result wivs an aggreifute rather than a mean. He
now considered that the value of composites would l)e nuich increased, if
they were at the sjime time reduced to a common breadth as well as a
common vertical standard. Galton chase as his breadth the interpupillary
distance, but for some purposes it might be more useful to take, say, the
external ocular distance or even the breadth of fsice at ear level. The average
value of the selected vertiail and horizontal lengths was to be determined,
and each photograph reduced to these dimensions. Thus the problem becomes
precisely that referred to on our p. 45. A photographic armngement which
would act as a bi-projector was needful, and one must be devised in which
foreshortening would not be iiccompanied by any sensible blur. (Jalton first
considered that this result could be obtained by a form of pin-hole cjiinera
he had seen discussed in the Pltotographic News ; namely one in which the
pin-hole wius replaced by two adjustable diaphnigms. The first of these
diapluagms would contain a vertical slit, and have a motion horizontally but
perpendicular to the optical axis, and another motion along the optical axis ;
the second diaphragm would contain a horizontal slit, and have one motion
vertical and perpendicular to the optical axis, and another motion along the
optical axis. By proper adjustment of the two diaphragms, interchanging
them if needful, any desired modifications in height and breadth of the
object could be made. Theoretically the scheme is admirable ; it is
precisely that of the bi-projector referred to on p. 46, first ftn., except that
the beam of light is replaced in the latter by a " mechanical straight line."
The practical difficulty lies in the need of a very intense light on the object,
not only to reduce the long exposure, but to enable the operator to adjust
the image on the focal plane. When I discussed with Galton in 1903 the
possil)ility of double photographic reduction, he did not refer to this pin-hole
scheme, possibly he had di.scarded it aller trials

Galton's notebooks and papers show that he spent in that year much time
over this problem of reducing photographically a circle to an arbitrary ellipse.
He proceeded, however, by an entirely difi'erent method. He proposed to
rotate his object plane round a vertical axis until it made an angle di with
the vertical plane, and then photograph it, trusting to stopping down to

' Photographic S'ews, April 27, 1888.

^ Trials have recently been made in the Galton Laboratory of this method of bi-projection&l
photography. To get rid of blurring the slits had to be extremely narrow, and thus a four
hours' exposure might be necessary for the reduction of a black and white drawing. It was
tlien found that the negative of the drawing had a series of light and dark bands across it.
I am not certain whether these are due to some diffraction effect, or to slight inequalities in
the breiwlth of the slits. I have found that a precisely similar system of bands, of course in
one direction oidy, may arise in photographing the sun with a focal plane shutter, when owing
to clearness of atmosphere it is neetlful to reduce the brea<lth of the slit in the shutter to a
minimum. Another objection to the method is that the circular dots used by draughtsmen for
points become ellipses, and vertical and horizontal lines do not remain of the same thickness,
but this objection applies to all methods of photographic bi-projection.

38—2

:j«m)

Life ami Litterg of Francis (ialton

cure the blurriiic. A print was then taken of the result, and this print
placed in the objective plane rotated through an angle 6^ in the opposite
direction to ^, is rephotographed. Then Galton discovered that with a certain
relation' lietween ^, and 6, the second photographing can l)e made to restore
linearity, or an original circle be converted into an ellipse. The accompanying
ditigrams indicate the three stages of Oalton's process. On the last diagram
he hatl written the words " Sliow this to Peai-son." He never did so and onlv

Object

Print of First Negative
Diagram iii.

I'rint of Second Negative
Reduction of Circle to Ellipse

after his death has his biographer discovered the large amount of time and
energy Galton spent over tliis matter; there are elaborate tables of 0, and 6
with the corresponding vertical and horizontal reductions. There is also tin
first draft of a paper intended for publication, but I cannot find that the
paper and the tables' were ever completed, still less published. Like so many
of Galton's ideiis it was simple and suggestive, but Galton was too old in

' We have found that a single negative will suHice, if a second camera Ije euijiloyed t'>
photograph the image on the foea] plane screen of the first, this camera being fidjuste<l so that it'-
focal plane makes an angle 0, with the focal plane of the first camera. The difficulty lie.s in tin
length of exposure re<]uiKit« if the objectiveji of l>oth cameras are cut down so as to redui>
blurring to insignificance. Nothing is gained theoretically or practically by tilting as well ns
rotating the object plane of the first and the optiwil axis of the second camera. The theory is
an follows : I^et rf, and b, be respectively the disUnces from the optical centre of the first
camera t« the object plane and to the focal plane, and fi, and 6, the disUnces from the optical
centre of the second camera to the focal plane of the first camera and to iU own focal plane.
Then for rectilinearity in the photograph we must have

d, tan 6, = 6, sin 6, ;

and if R„ R^ be the vertical and horizontal scales of reduction, then

X, = rf, dt/(b, 6,), /f» = R, cos *, cos tf,.

Thus Jii, must lie le«s than R^, but this is no limitation as the object can always Imj turned
through a right angle. Actually the chief difiiculty lies in the suiUble choice of J, and fZ.,. The
api>aratus Ukes a simpler form if we keep the two optic axes in the same straight line, and th.
object perpendicular to them, but roUte the focal planes in opposite directions.

' There is also a bundle entitled "Photographic lieduclion in breadth" with mcnlels in Iwth
wood and canJ of the propo8e<l camera apparatus. ,\s fjir as 1 can see Ualton always proposed
making an auxiliary intermediate print.

P/iofn(fnij»fiir ReHf'archfn ami Portraiture 301

1903 to spend the necessary time in working out the practiciil details of
camera dimensions, or sjM'nd the Iiours refpiired in dark-room ex jK-ri mental
work. As in the simihir case of analytical photoj^raphy, what is needtnl is a
younp; and enthusiastic photographer.

To gra.sp fully (Jalton's photographic activities at this time we nuist bear
in mind two important facts. He was still searching for some physical features
which should have high association with the mental characters. This attitude
was perfectly reasonable at that date, because not only no correlations between
such charactei-H had l>een determined, but the methods of measuring corre-
lations were of the crudest kind. Further (Jalton was a traveller, and every
traveller is accustomed as he passes along to notice that the racial mentality
changes with the change of the physical characters. The conception there-
fore naturally arises that physique and mentality are highly correlated.
The American Indian, the Negro, or the Arab has each his individual
physique, and each also his individual mentality. But this appearance of
high correlation may be most deceptive; it does not follow that there is
any organic linkage between the physical and psychical characters. If a
race be started from a pair of individuals both possessing a physique of
type A and a mentality of type A', we may find in later generations an
\ apparent linkage of A and A' in all the members ; but this is not a true
correlation, and a cro.ss-breeding may show that A and A' have no organic
relation, and can be at once -separated. In the second place Galton did,
like most men of his generation and probably like most of us to-day,
consciously or unconsciously, give weight to physiognomy. So impres.sed
by physiognomy is mankind in ordinary every-day life, that we hardly
realise how much confidence we place in it. We say a person is good or
bad, is intelligent or stupid, is slack or energetic, on what is too often
only a rapid physiognomic judgment. The custom is so universal as a rough
guide to conduct, that we are almost compelled to believe that there
IS in human beings an intuitive or instinctive appreciation of mental
character from facial expression. Galton differed only from the mass of us
in desiring to ascertain on what physiognomic appreciation is based. He
belonged to a generation in which the influence of Lavater and the Ijelief in
some form of phrenology were still appreciable. lie accordingly .sought to
isolate types and to measure deviations from facial type, in order to determine
whether facial variations were coirelated with mental variations. He was
really attempting to make a true science out of the study of physiognomy.
^The anthropologist up to Galton's date had employed portraiture to distin-
ruish racial types physically. Galton employed portraiture to distinguish if
^o.ssible between mental types. He may have been pui-suing a will-o'-the-
vvis}), but this psychical investigation was really at the basis of all his photo-
graphic work, and he was interested in my desire for a photographic 'bi-pro-
jector, not in the first place because it would relieve the difficulties of an
editor, but chiefly because it would be of great .service in composite and
I analytical photography. It may be that it is rather on the play of features
than on their static form that our intuitive judgment as to mental and moral

302 Life find Letters of Fronds (ialton

character is Iwised'. In this case a static pliotoj^raph would only lead to a
negative, an)eit imjMjrtant conclusion'.

From CJaltun's outlook on mankind the mentjility and physicjue of its
stirps were of fii-st-chvss importance to the child, and he eiuphiisised the value
of a flimily record matie on a standardised plan to the child as early as 1882
(Fortnightly lievit'w, January, 1882, pp. 2G-31), and of such a record (lalton
held an essential feature to be a series of photographs.

"Obtain photographs periodically of yoursi'lves and of your children, making it a family
custom to do 80, becausn unless driven by sonic custom the act will Ix; postponed until the
opportunity is lost. I^et these periodical photographs Ix; full and side views of the face on an
adequate scale, and add any others you like, but do not omit these. As the portraits accumu-
late have collections of them autotypoil. 'lake possession of the original negatives, or have
them stored in safe keeping, lal)elled and easy to get at. They will not fade', and the time may
come when they will lie valuable for obtaining fresh prints or for enlargement. Keep the prints
methodically in a family register, writing by their side all such chronicles as those that used to
find a place on the fly-leaf of the family Bibles of past generations, and much more besides.
Into the full scope of that additional matter I do not propose now to enter. It is an interesting
and important topic that requires detailed explanation, and it is better for the moment not to
touch ujjon it."

Here we see Galton's thoughts turning in the direction whence afterwards
arose his Record of Family Faculties and his Life-Histoi-y Album.

"This, however, may Iwsaid, that those who care to initiate and carry on a family chronicle,
illustrated by abundant photographic portraiture, will produce a work that they and their
children and their descendants in more remote generations, will assuredly lie grateful for. The
family tie has a real as well as a sentimental significance. The world is beginning to perceive
that the life of each individual is in some reul sense a prolongation of those of his ancestry.
His character, his vigour and his discuses are principally theirs; sometimes his faculties are
blends of ancestral qualities, more frequently they are aggregates, veins of resemblance to one
or other of them showing now here and now there. The life-histories of our relatives ai-e,
therefore, more instructive to us than those of strangers; they are especially able to forewarn
and to encourage u.s, for they are prophetic of our own futures. If there is such a thing as a
natural birthright, I can conceive of none gi-eater than the right of each child to be informed,
at first by proxy through his guardians, and afterwards personally, of the life-history, medical
and other, of his ancesti-y. The child is brought into the world without his having any voice at

' I think Charles Darwin realised this fully in 1873, and indicates it in the opening
sentences of his Expresaion, of the Emotions; for him " Expi-ession" itself means kinetic facial
changes. "Many works have been written on Kxpression, but a greater numl)er on Physi-
ognomy,— that is, on the recognition of character through the study of the permanent form of
the features. With this latter subject 1 am not here concerned.'' (p. 1.)

' There might still be a chance for tho film. It would neetl a super-Galton to organise the
technique of a comi)osite film !

' This is alas! not the fact. Oalton had a large collection of prints and negatives of in-
dividuals and of composites. A very large proportion of the prints are now so faded as to be
useless; of many the subject is iudistinguisbable. When I turned to the negatives to replace
the jirinth-, I found many negatives had perished also, gone as yellow and faded as the prints,
and others were in jir<x;c8s of decay. Unle-ss imnie<liate steps 1k' Uiki^n to reproduce it in a per
nianent way, (Jalton's un])ublislic<l photographic work will have pracliailly perisliwl entirely
within ">0 years of its preparation. Failing some form of ink repnxiuction — and then it
must not Ik; on jjaper liulen with china clay — there is no real security for permanency in
photographic negatives and prints. The patchy preservation of Galton's negatives— some fiidtMl,
Mome excellent— shows that there is no security that negatives will survive fifty years, tli<' source
may lie in varied technique, or in varied quality of chemicals used.

I

Photoijniphlr IfcscatrheH and Portraiture 303

all in the matter, and tlio HniailoHt amend that thoee who introduced him there can make, ia to
furnish him with tli<> iiiohI S4>rvio<Mil>l<- of all information to him, the complete iife-historie*
of all liis near progenitors." (p. 31.)

The idea oi* portraiture as expressing mental character and that of indi-
viduality lis measured hy deviation from type fascinated Galton throughout
the whole of his long life, and he returned to these subjects with great energy
even in his last years. He sought to measure the degree of resemblance or
of dirt'erence in portraits. The amount of lalK)ur he put into this research
was immense; there is a great nuiss of manuscript matter, there are endless
profiles drawn by his jissistants, there are models of apparatus and there is
apparatus itself. Without a more detinite key than we possess it is ollen
very ditticult to trace what line of thought he was following up, although
not infrequently one lights on most suggestive ideas in side tracKs from tne
main problem.

That the work in this direction arose from the composite photograph
investigations is clear from a lecture Galton gave on May 25, 1888 at tne
Royal Institution, entitled "Personal Identification and Description'". It
opens with the following words:

"It i.s strange that wo should not have acquired more power of describing form and personal
features than we actually (wsse-ss. For my own part I have fre(|uently chafed under the .senile
of inability to vi-ibally e.^cplain hereflitary resemblances and type.s of feature.s, and to describe
irregular outlines of numy diff"erent kinds, which I will not now particularise. At last I tried
to relieve myself as far as might l)e from this embarrassment, and took considerable trouble,
and made some experiments. The net result is that while there appear to be many wa3-8 of
approximately effecting what is wanted, it is ditHcult as yet to stsleet the l)est ot them with
enough assurance to justify a plunge into a rather serious undertaking. According to the
Kivnch proverb, the Wtter has thus far proved an enemy to the pas.sably g<«xl, so I cannot go
uiucli into detail at present, but will chicHy dwell on general principles." {Xature, Vol. x.xxvni,
p. 173.)

CJaltoii then states that while recognising different degi'ees of likenes.s
and unlikenesa we have not so far as he knows made any attempt to measure
theui. He now proposes to take for his unit of measurement the least-dis-
ceiiiihle difference.

"The measui-ement of resemblance by units of least-discernible difference is applicable to
shades, colours, sounds, tastes, and to sense-indications generally."

(ralton illustrates his method on sight differences; he takes two superpo.sed
oval contours (see Fig. «, Diagram iv, p. 304), intersecting one another, and
then halves the distance between their boundaries for a new contour, and
then halves again until he reaches — in his case in the fourth stage — a contour
indistinguisluil)le from one of the original contours. He then says there are
16 gi-ades of least-discernible difference between A and B. The method is
suggestive, but obviously liable to diftieulties, for it is clear that its measure-
ment is largely subjective. It de])ends on the fineness of drawing of the
original contours and of the subdividing contours. It depends also on the
scale upon which they are drawn. It is modified by the subjective conditions
of the observer, whether his sight is good, and whether he uses or does not

' Nature,yo\.xx\vi\i, pp. 173-77, 201-2, 1888; Proc. Royal Institution, Vol. xii, pp. 346-60,
1889; my references are to the pages of Nature.

304 Lift ami Letters of Francis Galton

use glasses. Also it is clear that the least-discernible difference may he
reached at some points long before it is reached at others, or the measure
of resemblance would vary from part to part, and ultimately be a measurt-

d

Fig. n. Fig. i. Fig. e.

Diagram iv.

of only the most unlike parts. If we agree to an average fineness of line, and
an average keenness of sight, we shall still be left with the question of scale'.
Dealing with the silhouette, Cralton remarks that:

"All human profiles of this kind, when they have been re<luct>d to a uniform vertical scale,
fall within a Hniall space. I liavf- taken those given by I^avater, which are in many cases of
extreme shapes, and have added others of Hnf^iish faces, und tliey all fall within the space
shown in Fig. Ij. [Galton is working with the distance from the notch that separates the brow
from the nose (nasion) to the parting of the lips as standard length.] The outer and inner
limits of the sj>ace are of course not the profiles of any real faces, but the limits to many
profiles, some of which are exceptional at one point and others at another. We can classify
the great majority of profiles st) that each of them shall be included lietween the double borders
of one, two, or some small numlier of standard portraits, such as Fig. c. T am as yet unpre-
pared to say how near together the double l)orders of such standard portraits .should l>o <lrawn :
in other woi-ds, wlmt is the smullest numl>er of grades of unlikeness that we can satisfactorilv
deal with. The process of sorting profiles into their pro|>er classes, and of gradually building up
a well-selected .standard collection, is a lalxtrious undertaking if attempted in any obvious way,
but I believe it can lx> effet'ted with comparative ea.se on the i>asis of measurements as will b<'
explained later on, and by an apparatus that will lie descrilnxl." (p. 174.)

The reader will now be able to perceive better what Galton was really
attempting to do by this special illustration: he was aiming at identifying
individuals by their profiles, and in order to do this it was needful to index
profiles. Tiiis leads Galton to the topics of indexing and of entering indices.
He first refers to Bertillon's system of identifying criminals, and states that
tiie actual method by which it is done is not all that theoretically could be
desiretl. He notes a fundamental difficulty that arises :

"The fault of all hard-and-fast lines of classification when variability is continuous, is the
donbt where to place and where to look for values that are near the limits between two adjacent
clasMB." (p. 175.)

' For example, siijijmwc a be required to find the degree of resemblance between t»ii umjis,
A and /i, of the same district on different scale*; shall we reduce A to R, or H Xio A, for that
will clearly affect our judgment? Or, shall we look at them both placed on the table before
us, or both hung at some little distance on a wall?

PJi(ttofiriii>hU' litM'drt'heH and Porfraifiire 305

liertillon divides each of his four fiindamentnl characters into three groups
-large, nu'diuiii, small —and (Jiiltoii points out that the diflerenc*' hftwrcn the
men at the extremes of the medium group is, for stature, say 2;i inches while
I the possihle error of determining stature may Ije ± 05 inclj ; that is to say,
that there is a total doul)tful range of 2 inches, while the medium range
itself is oidy 2;3 inches. He further points out that nearly all Hertillon's
characters, we may anticipate, will he highly correlated together and accord-
ingly his 81 ( = 13*) groups will contain very unequal nuiiibers.

"No iittfinpt lias yet been iiimie to CNtiniiite the dcgn-o of tliotr intordopeiidencf. I nm
thoreforc having the uliove ineasuroinonts (witli nli^ht nowsMjiry variations) recorded at my
anthropometric laboratory for the iiurjxise of doinjj so." (p. 175.)

I do not think the.se measurements were ever taken in adequate numlxjrs
oi- that Galton ever determined actually their correlations. This was, I
believe, first done by the late Dr Macdonell, on actual criminal data, and he
j)ointed out lunv, by the use of proper "independent vari.itos " the trouble of
correlation in the characters could be eliminated'.

The first difficulty, however, of the border-line cases, wliicli involve .such
a large proportion of the population and therefore the multiplication of
cards in several groups, Galton got over by what he termed a "mechanical
selector." I have not foimd any 'selector' described l)efore 1888, but many
since, all involving Galton's principle, some patented, without any recognition
of Galton's priority. The idea is inileed a very simple one; each individual
has a card 8 to i) inches long. If there are 4 or G indexing characters each
is allotted something less than a quarter to a sixth of the card. This
portion of the cjird represents the range of the corresponding variate and a
notch is cut into the curd at the value of the variate within this range". The
breadth of this notch represents twice the possible error of measurement, once
in excess and once in defect, for that variate. The cards are placed vertically
and loo.sely in a box divided into batches by partitions so that there is not
sufficient friction to interfere with their independent motion. The Iwttom of
the box, except sutlicient at the ends for the cards to rest on, is replaced by a
"keyboard" as Galton termed it; this keyboard is of the breadth of the
variate portion of the cards, and can be elevated by a lever. Adjustable wires
can l)e arninged across a gap in the keyboard of tiie size of the series of cards,
and these wires are adjusted to give the measurements of an individual to
be selected, just as the notches are cut in the cards. When the keyboard is
elevated its wires pjiss into the notches of those cards which are within
possible erroi-s of the individual set on the keyboard — all the other cards but
these are raised and thus discriminated from those which require examination.
It is clear that the cards do not require classification by size of organs, but
may be placed by age or alphabetically. Galton considered that this mechanical

' Biome/rika, Vol. I, pp. 177-227. The Bertillon system of indexing by physical measure-
ments luus now Iwen replaced by direct indexing of finger-prints.

- Actually the notch would nt)t be cut at the exact value of the variate except when neiir
the boundarj- of the sul)-rangc; in other positions it would suffice to cut it at the middle of the
sub-range. For Bertillon s index it would suttice practically to have pin points marked for each
variate on tlie card, where notches should bo cut.

p o u 39

306 Life and Tjettern of Francix (raffon

selector of which he gives ample drawings could deal with 500 cards at a
time. Of his ' selector ' Galton writes :

"Its objoct is to fiiui which set, out of a stAiulanl cdllootioii of many sets of monsun's,
reaenible!* any ono given set within any degree of uiilikencss. No one measure in any of the
sets selected by the instrument can differ from the corresponding measure in the given set b\
more than » specific vahie. The apparatus is very simple; it applies to sets of measures of
every d(>scription, and ought to act on a large scale as well as it does on a small one, witii
great rapidity, and be able to test several hundred sets bj- each movement. It relieves tlie eyi-
and brain from the intolerable strain of tediously compiring a set of many measures with ejicli
of a large numlier of successive sets, in doing which a mental allowance has to Ix" ma<le for :i
pliM or »;ii«M« deviation of a specified amount in every entry. It is not my business to l<«)k
after priwinei-s, and I <lo not fully know what nee<l may i-eally exist for new nietluxls of ([uickly
identifying sus[KX;ted persons. If there be any rejd need, I should think that this apparatus,
which is contrived for other purpose.-*, might after obvious modifications supply it.'

Galton then returns to the measiiremtMits of the profile and Indicates thos.
he would propose to take. These nieiusurements he then sugj^'ests should be
used with a "mechanical selector." He considers that measurements on the
profile would be nearly as trustworthy as those on the limbs for approximate
identifications, and he states that their values are less highly correlated than
those on the limbs'.

This j)aper shows that Galton at this time had not fully made up his mind
as to the best characters by which to measure or inde.x individuality. He
considered that personal characteristics existed in much more minute par-
ticular than in tlie profile:

"The markings of the iris of the eye are of the above kind. They have never l«'en lule
quately studied except by the makers of artificial eyes, who reco;,Tiise thousands of varieties of
them. These markings well de-serve being photographed from life on an enlarged scale."

Besides the handwriting, Galton refers to the bifurcations and interlace-
ments of the superficial veins, and the shape and convolutions of the ex-
ternal ear, and then turns for the first time, I believe, in published work to
the small furrows and intervening ridges on the palmar surfttces of hands
and feet. To this matter I shall return when dealing with Galton's work
on finger-prints. In the concluding paragraph of his lecture Galton tells us
that he wa.s induced to make these researches into individuality and personal
Identification in order to discover independent features which might be suit-
able for inquiries into heredity.

"It has long been my hope, though utt^'rly without direct experimental corrolwration thu^
far, that if a considerable numl>er of variable and independent features could be catalogued, ii
might be possible to trace kinship with consideral)le certainty. It does not at all follow l)ecause
a man inherits his main features from some one ancestor, that he may not also inherit a large
number of minor and commonly overlooked features from many ancestors. Therefore it is not
improbalde and worth taking pains to inquire whether each person may not carry visibly about
hia body undeniable evidence of his parentage and near kinships." (p. 202.)

' It .se<'m8 unnecessary to specify Galton's profile measurements here, for opinions will difTer
as to the suitability of his axes and choice of points. In the Oalton Laboratory, by means of
special apparatus we mark the auricular point and 'Frankfurt horizontJil plane' on the
silhouette. The nasion to the auricular point is then taken as a fundamentjil axis and as the
standani length. We have obtained on this basis mean silhouettes for men and women. I should
be inclined to measure certain deviations of the individual profile from the mean profile, when
the nasio-auricular lines of l)oth coincide in direction and magnitude, as the indexing characters.

Plioto(jr(i)>hlv Rmeai'chen aiul Portraiture '^07

While tinger-printH are now an accepted form of evidence in our courtH of
law — onlya few newly-appointed and yet uninstnicted magiHtratesipieHtioning
tlu'ir validity — it is sinpdar that no use lias hitherto In'en made of them in
ciuses of doubtful paternity, only vagtie impressions jus to family likeness Ijeing
given in evidence or apparently thought of importance.

Another lecture closely allied to that just discussed \\:i.^ ilie Royal
Institution Friday evening tliscourse on January 27, 1 8'j:3. It is entitled "The
Ju8t-Percej)til)le Uitierence"'. In this lecture (Jalton starts with a detinition :

" W(! .set'iii to oui-sclves to belong to two worlds, which arc governed by entirely (lifTereiit laws;
the world of feeling and the world of niatttT — the psychical and the physical— whose mutual
relations are the subject of the science of Psycho-physics, in which the ju8t>-perceptible difference
plays a large part.

It will be explained in the first of the two principal divisions of this lecture that the study
of just-perceptiblo ditlerences leads us not only up to, but beyond, the frontier of the mysterious
region of mental operations which are not vivid enough to rise above the thri'shold of con-
sciousness. It will there be shown how imporUmt a part is commonly playetl by the imagi-
nation in producing faint sensations, and how its power on tliose occasions admits of actual
mwisurement." (p. 13.)

(jalton started hy referring to Weber's Law and illustrating its action by
an ingenious mechanical model. He placed on an axle a wheel, a logarithmic
l^hor ecpiiangular spiral (perpendicular to the axis and with its pole at tne centre
I^Bof the axle) and an index-hand marking on a scale the angle turned through
^Hby the axle. All these were accurately balanced, so that they could rest in
^Hauy position of the axle; rouiy:! the wheel was taken a cord carrying a scale-
^Bpan at one end and a counterbalance weight to the pan at the (jther. Round
^Bthe sjiiral was taken a second cord Hxed at one end to the a.xle and carrying
^■a ball at the other. If now a weight be put into the scale-pan, the axle will
^^ rotate until the increasing ray of the spiral provides leverage enough to
balance the weight in the scale-pan. The weight in the scale-pau mejiauring
the 'stimulus,' the angle turned through by the index-hand measures the
sensation'. Galton demonstrated on the model that as the stimulus grew
large the increases of sensation were very small.

"The pi'ogressive increase in the effective length of the logarithmic arm is small at first, but
is seen soon to augment rapidly, and then to become extravagant. We thus gain a vivid
insight through this piece of mechanism into the enormous increase of stimulus, when it is
already large, that is require<l to pro<luce a fresh increment of sensation, and how soon the
time must arrive when the organ of sense, like the machine, will break down under the strain

I rather than admit of l)eing goaded farther.
The result of all this is, that although the senses may perceive very small stimuli, and can
endure very large ones without suffering damage, the number of units in the scale of sensation
is comparatively small. The hugest increase of good fortune will not make a man who was
already well off many degrees hap[)ier than liefore; the utmost torture that can be applied to
him will not give much greater pain than he ha.s already suffere<l. The experience of a life that
' Proc. Royal Institution, Vol. .\iv, pp. 13-26; Nature, Vol. XLVii, pp. 319-21, 342-4.').
' If 6 be the effective radius of the wheel, w the weight in scale-pan, W the weight of the
I bidl, <^ the angle of the spiral, 6 the angle of the scale and a the linear constant of the spiral,
so that its equation is r = n e"'""*, then the principle of moments gives us ic x b= \V x r sin <p,

I whence 6 - cot d> log - = cot A log „- . — , which is Weber's Law if ^ be read as sensation and

3y-

308 Life ami Lrlti-rs of VntmiH (hiIIoii

wi> call uneventful UKUally includes it lar^o simre uf tlie utmost iHissililc iiiii){i' of luiniiin pleiLsuros
And human p:iiiis. Thus tlio ]>hysi(i|<i<>iciil law which iii uxpi'Oj<Hed by Wcber'H fornmla is a great
leveller, liy preventing tlie diversities of fortune from creating by any means bo great a diversity
in human happiness." (pp. 11-15.)

Galton notes how the threshold of sensation Jitters in different persons
and how dehcjicy t)f perception is a criterion of a superior nature. It may be
modifieil in the Siinie |ierson by liealth and disease, by drugs and hypnotisir).

He notes, however, that external causes of stinnilation may be reinforced
by internal causes, and that external stimuli which woidd fail to exceed the
threshold may by aid of the imagination be magnitied to the |)roduction of a
just-perceptible sensation. As illustration of tliis Galton (pioted a personal
experience which cerUiinly deserves record in a biography for it indicates how
Galton worked "habitually searching for the causes and meaning of every-
thing that" occurred to him'." After citing Wordsworth and Tennyson as
cases in which the force of imagination could master their sense of the present
real, Galton notes that his own deafni-.'^s prevented him when seated in the
middle rows at a scientiHc meeting from following memt)irs read in tones
suitable to the audience at large. He could, however, distinguish the words
of the speaker if he had the unrevised proof of the memoir before 'his eyes.
If the speaker used words not in the proof, he f'ailetl to catch them, and if
he raised his eyes from the proof nothing whatever of the i-eading could be
undei-stood, the overtones by which words aie distinguislu^d being too faint
to be understood. He found that he had to approach the speaker by one
quarter of his distance from him to follow him'without the aid of seeing the
word.s. The loudness of the overtones at the two distances would be as 9 to
IG, and Galton concluded that his auditoiy imagination is to that of i insl
perceptible sound as 16 minus 9 or 7 is to 16.

"So the effect of the imagination in this case reaches nearly half-way to the level of con-
sciousness. If it were a little more than twice as strong it would he able l)y itself to produce
an effect indistinguishable from a real sound." (p. 19.)

He suggests that experiments as to this miglit be easily niaile with twu
copies of the same newspaper, a few words being altered here and there in
the copy to be read from.

People growing deaf, although they cannot lip-read, appear to interpret
sounds better when they watch the lips of the speaker. Spectators at the
theatre, e.g. at the French plays, hvar better if they follow with a "Book of
Words."

Whatever may be thought of Galton s explanation — the internal stimulus
due to the imagination — we must recognise that he discovered a most in-
teresting psychological problem in an experience which the bulk of men
would never have thought of analysing'.

The next part of Galton's paper deals with optical continuity and the
just-perceptible distance between two dots. The ordinary eye is just able or
just unable to see two dots about a minute of angle Jisunder. Taking

' Charles Darwin: see our p. 1.

' A Moniewhat similar experience occurs in deciphering very bad handwriting; we find it
im[><«sible U> le^ul the words, until we take to imagining what the wriU'r is likely to Im' talking
about, and with this ossiiituucc thu eye can often realise what the iiicroglypliicii stand for.

I

PhoUnir((pliic Itcxvnrvhex (iiu/ Pord'iiitniT IlOO

I

onliiiuiy iwuliii^ diKtimco as 12 inches, ii row of five dot« ejich aJT^tJi of an

inch in cHanieter arranged on the j)age of a book would \h> like an almost

invisii)le tine and continuous line. A row of 300 dotH to the inch will look

[at a toot like a continuous line, hut far fewer dots are interpreted l>y the

imagination as a line. The ordinary cyclostyle works hy dotting and lias aU«it

'i]40 dots to the inch; the usual half-tone engraving is produced also hy dot«,

[but without a lens the illustratidn apjtears continuous in it,s tones and shading.

Galton foxMid that with only 50 dots to the inch he could reproduce a profile

which many jjersons to whom it was .shown failed to discriminate from an

ordinary woodcut. '250 to 830 points gave exceedingly well the profile of a

Greek girl co()ied from a geni'.

Taking his points at e(|Ual (listances Cialton I'ipuikI lliai the tlirection Irom
one point to the ne.xt could he in most csxses adequately given hy the points
of the compa.ss, the top of the paper lieing treated as north. He takes the
letter (( to I'epresent north, h for north-north-e;ist, c for north-east and soon
in order up to y>. This presumed, it is possible to repre.sent any profile by a
fornnihi. Letters beyond a to j> give points of reference or rnarK by a sort
of bracket points not to Ih* drawn in as when we pa.ss from ])row to eye. For
convenience Gallon breaks up his directional letters into words of five letters
each. Thus the profile of the Greek girl involved about 400 letters or 80
words, and might have been sent by tel«'gram. In 1898 it would have cost
about XH to cable it across the Atlantic. (Jalton illustrated by examples the
accuracy with which such portraits, maps or plans could be reproduced. In
a j)ostscri{)t added to the printed lecture he gives a coordinate system which
allows of somewhat greater exactness, but it requires two numljers to each
direction; at the same time it allows variety in the length of the steps.

The whole paper is very characteristic of its author; it leads us from

{)sychological theory to a practical end, the sending of portraits by telegraph ;
mt beneath the whole we find (ialton really working at the idea of inherited
reseml)]ance as mesisured by the degree of likeness in the formulae for the
profiles of relatives.

We have noted in our first volume that the Galton family was portrayeil
in a considerable number of very characteristic silhouettes. When Francis
Galton turned to the problems of quantitatively measuiing resemblance and
of indexing portraits, he was compelled by the nature of his subject to deal
chiefiy with profiles, and from this standpoint he recognised the great value
of the silhouette. No doubt thinking of his own family portraits, he addressed
two letters to the editor of I'/tc I'hotoyrcqjfiic Xt'ivs\ Silhouettes, he tells
the readers of that journal,

"weiv vt-ry fiiiuiliar to those who livtnl in the prepliotogniphic period. They weix' quickly cut
out of paper by a, cleft hand witii a small keen pair of scissors, ami at lea-st one of the luauy
operators in this way ranked as an artist capable of making excellent likenesses'. The pajter

' This profile, about 12 inche.s high, was in the Gallonxana, and pix)bably still is, but could
not be found recently for repnxluotion here.
- .luly 15th and July 22nd, 1S87.

' No doul)t Edouai-d, who did the Galton and Darwin faiuilies. fc>ee our Vol. i. Plates IV,
I XVII, and XXXIV.

;U0 Liff ami l^i llcis of' /''riiiiri.s d'ti/foii

was black on olio siili', and llie sillmuctto timt liiul Im-cii cut out wiis pastud llicn iiiul there,
with the hhK-k siiie upwanls, ujxm a whit*' caitl, and fi-nnii>d. A pcrfectlj* durabh^ and often
a good likeness was tlieivby |>nKiuc«l in a very sliort time. Tliis art was supei-seded by plioto-
graphy, and is now teni|)urarily extinct ; but I want to .-.how that it might with great facility —
and I think with wme profit in a humble way — Jie advantageously re-introduced by the help of
the very agency that extinguished it."

Galton next suggests photographing the profile of a sitter, eitlier in a
strong light Jtgsiinst a darK baclcgrouncl, or rice versd, and then taking a
print of tiiis result, cutting out the profile and blackening it'. In his second
letter Galton gives an example ol* a silhouette prepared in this way. Such
silhouettes are, he says,

"pjirticularly useful in studying family characteristics which, I think, are on the average far
better ol»ierve<l in profiles than in any other single view of the features. The truth of this
statement may be verified in church, where whole families, each occupying a pew, can often be
seen sideways, and each family can be taken in and it.s nu-mlwrs compared at a single glance.

Ualton'g photographic silhouettes of himself, a^cd 65.

The instances will l>e found numerous in which the profiles of a family arc curiously similar,
especially tha>m of the mother and her daughters. This is most noticeable where their ages aivd
Ixxlily shapes differ greatly, as when the daughters are partly children and j)artly slim j^'irls,
and the mother is nut sliiu at all."

It nnist he admitted that ( Jalton went to chinch ratlier lor .scieiilitic liiau
religious purposes; hut the reiider of this ])a8sage will hardly be inclined to
accept Dr Beddoes' statement that Galton was wanting in a sense of humour!
See Vol. I, p. 51).

Another photographic problem which occupied a good deal of Galton's
thoughts at one time was the problem of keeping the object and the focal
plane at the conjugate foci of the optical centre of the object-glass. This

' If the sitter be place<l in front of a window, a half ])late will give a silhouette of aljout
four inches high, which is often a very characteristic ]M>rtrait. The chief need is the 'deft
hand' in cutting out the print and avoiding angles. In the Galton I.jil)orat<jry we have a
silhouetting arrangement in which the sitter's head is adjustt-*! to the 'Frankfurt horizontal
plane,' and the shadow is cast by an arc light some fifty yards away. The shadow is traced by
an artist's hand and the resulting silhouette preserve<i with the anthropometric records of the
subject. It is used for measurements and by compounding series of subjects to obtain typo
profiles.

Plintoiiraplilf Hesearchen ami Port rait nrr 311

is a very important point in the case of" reduction to an exact size. Oalton's
papers sliow a lartfe numhei- ot" attempts at its solution. He ultimately
sonjfht the aid of Mr (now Sir) Iloi-aco Darwin, who in 1878 puhlished in
Nature' a sati.sfiictory theoretical H<)lution i)y aid of a douhle Peauceilier's
'Cell. Galton found, however, that the cells would have to be of unwieldy
size, if th(vso arruiiu[«'nK>ntH were used. I am not aware that the problem
has even yet been Holved practicallv, altliough for scientific photo<;ra|>hy its
solution is very important.

(C) Analylicdl J'/ioliMfniphi/.

At the .stmie time that fialton was working out his idea of composite
portraiture a new problem occurred to him, that of creating what he termed
a "transformer" which would transform the type into any individual com-
ponent. The transformer would thus be a measure of the difference I)etweea
individual and type, or indeed between any two individual.s. He projx)sed
by this method to analyse the differences between type.s (or races), between
individualH (or l)etween an individual and his family type), or l)etween an
l^_ individual on different occa.sions. (lalton termed the production and study
l^p of transformers Anali/tical Phntocjraphy. The idea appears first to have
occurred to him in 1881; but not till 1900 did he write a letter, which ap-
peared in Ntiturc'-, August 2, on the subject, stating the outlines of the
process, and speaking somewhat doubtfully of his own power of carrying it
out. In this letter, after describing the theory' and something of the
technique, he writes:

" I photographwl two faces, each in two expressions, the one glum antl the other smiling
broadly. 1 could turn the glum face into the? smiling one, or vice versd, by means of the
suitable transformer; but tiie transformers were ghastly to look at, and did not at all give the
impre.ssion of a detached smile or of a detached glumness."

Later Galton realised that transformers were hieroglyphicswhich required
a key to their interpretiition; the photograph of a "smile" is really the
photograph of facial modifications which failing the stable basis of the face
we do not recognise as a smile at all. I owe to Mr Egon S. Peai-son the
photogruplis on p. '?>V1. A is the normal, B the smiling suoject. C and D are
the transformers. D is the "glumness" and C the "photograph of a smile."
All that can be said of the latter is that it does not closely correspond with
John Tenniel's conception of the grin which remained some time afler the
rest of the t'heshire cat had vanished\

' Vol. xvni, p. 383. « Vol. Lxn, p. 320.

■ If a; be the transformer, Galton lays down two equations

(i) pos. a + neg. a = grey, and (ii) pos. a ■*■ x = pos. 6,
whence he deduces

(iii) jH)8. a + [pos. b + iieg, a\ = pos. b + grey, (iv) pos. b + \po». a + neg. b\ = pos. a + grey.

Thus the quantities in curled brackets are the transfomiers, one the negative of the other
(the "sn\ile" and the "glumness").

* Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Edn. 1872, p. 93.

S12

TAfe and Letters of Francis (ialton

By November 27, 1900, (Jalton had devised a simple small a])paratus

' This is now in the Gallon Lal)oriit«jry. It consiHts en»ontially of a triple cann-ra; oii'
ohjwit is thrown directly on to the f<Myil plane; the other two by aid of two reflecting priKni-
are also thrown on to the game plane. The three objects thrown on to the plane arc positive ".
negative n and positive 6. Uy throwini; out one or two of the three we can throw on to tin
Rcreen (i) positive a, (ii) negative n, (iii) positive 6, (iv) positive a + negative n to show tin
uniform grey, (v) negative a + poHitive /), the transformer, or (vi) positive a + the transfomiei
giving the darkt-nt^l 6.

Photof/nipfii'r RfHcarrhrn mif/ Portra!liirr

:!i:i

with the iiitl of Mr T. 11. Diillint'yer for L'anyin<^ i>ut his |»n)jc'ct, luul this was
exhibited on the date just mentioned to the Koyal Photograjjhic Society;
Galton's paper is printed in Thr Photographic Jouimal, Vol. xxv, pp. 135-
38. The idea at the hottotn of Analytical Photof^raphy is extremely simple,
as most of (Jalton'.s metiu)d.s. A subject A and a subject li, taken in similar
positions and of similar size, have faint transparent positives and faint trans-
parent negatives taken of each. If now positive /I and negative yl l>e thrown
accurately adjusted on the same screen, they will antagonise each other and
give a iniiform grey backgi'ound. If further positive A and negative B be
thrown on the sjime screen, they will only antagonise one another where the
originals are identical ; where they are dirt'erent, they will only in part an-
tagonise each other. Thus the combination of positive A and negative B
gives a representation of their difference on a grey gi'ound. This Galton calls
the "transformer." If the transformer be thrown on the .screeVi with positive
li, it converts positive B into positive A. Similarly negative A and positive
B is the transformer, which superposed on positive A, converts it into B.
The two transformers are in fact jiositive and negative of the same difference.
In both cases the transformed portrait is that of a darkened subject. The
ct that our combination of faint positive and faint negative gives a uniform
eyor halftone is very important; because it follows that where our trans-
rmer adds nothing in the way of difference to A to make B, it will still
dd everywhere this grey or half tone. The transfomaed B will therefore be
I dnrh'ned picture of A.

Galton illustrated this point by obtaining a 'real' scale of tints. He took
nine teetotums: the first had a white surface, the second a sector of 45°
painted black, the third two sectors of 45° black, the fourth three sectors and

in

m.

Diagram v. Galton's photograph of a spinning wheel of tints.

40

:n4

Life and Lttfent of Francin (ralton

80 on up to the ninth which wiis all black. On spinning these nine teetotums,
he obtained a 'real' scale of tones from white to black'. Having thus ob-
tained a scale of nine tones from white to black, Galton terms the fifth of the.se
( 1 so' painte<l black) the medium tone. Pictures painted with tones less tlian,
but up to and including, the medium tone he calls 'faint'; pictin-es painted
in tones from the medium to the black, he calls 'dark*. He then caused three
j)ortrait~s of a lady to be painted with these tones:

(a) is the normal painting, using all the tones from 0 to 8, i.e. white
to black ;

(b) is the faint painting, using all the tones from 0 to 4, i.e. white to
metlium grey ;

(f) is the dark painting, using all the tones from 4 to 8, i.e. medium
grey to black.

On Plate XLV will be seen Galton's scale and the portraits. Of these he
writes:

"I exhibit ttiifc sketches of tlie siiiiii' portrait to show tlie dirt'croiiocs of effect under these
conditionfi, and how very little the mere question of more or less likeness is HfTected by them.
All the tones from 0 to 8 were used in painting the first picture. Then a grey mixture that
matched the medium grey was made in one corner of a palett« and pure white squeezed out in
another. The artist by using mixtures of this grey and white, and nothing else, made the
s«-cond picture as a copy of the first. It is evident that its resemblance is not affected by the
limitation of the range of tones. The third picture was made on the same principle as the
secimd, except that black and medium grey were employed instead of white and medium grey,
and here again the re.seniblance to the original is jwrfect. It follows that the value of the
analytical process is not much affected by the fact that it is unable to transform, in other words
that it cannot produce a transformer, or in still other words that it cannot isolate the differences
Iwlween any two portraits, but only those between a light half-toned copy of the one and a
dark half t-oned copy of the other. It should be remarked that although the light-toned a and
the dark-t<>ned b severally contain one-half of the coniplet* scale of tones, yet the transformer
of the light-toned a into the dark-toned b contains the complet*; scale." (pp. 13C-7).

Galton illustrates the whole process well by showing the steps taken to
convert any mosaic of four tones into another mosaic of four different tones.
He takes tones 6, 4, 2, 2 for A and 4, 6, 2, 6 for .&: see our scale Plate.

(3)

(4)
(5)
(6)
(7)
(8)
(9)

pew. a (faint half-time), i.e. (M)

iwg. a (faint halftone), i.e. (4 — Jyf)

p*^'*. 6 (faint half-tone)

darkcm-il pog. b (i.n. po*. b + 4)

pan. a + ne<i. a (uniform grey)

neg. a + )X)ii. b (the "transformer") ...

poi. a + (>»«</. a + po». b), i.e. (3) -f (8)

(which ia the same oa the darkeoed b, or (6))

i fi

2

1

2

6

1

2

•>

6

4

3

5

6

7

5

The greatest difficulty in the above proce.ss is to ensure that positive h

' Ualtoii carefully distinguishes between the scales of 'real' tones perceived or sense tone*
and actinic tonen. (p. 137.)

IM \ii; xi.v

Pliot<)<ir(ti>liic ReHearrhen and Port mil nre

315

ami negative a have the same tone, so that if 6 were «, the composite would
give merely medium grey. It is nee<lful also that /x>». n and neg. a should
accunitely antagonise one another. Our figure shows one of the illu.strations
(talton gave at the lecture, namely the "transformer" whioh will change an
T into a G.

F +

F-

a +

,'*<r ^

TRANSFORMtR
a4 25. F-

TRANSFORMEO

F+ TO a +

Diagram vi.

Galton also transformed a mosaic St George's Cross into a St Andrew's
Cross (slide.s in (ialtoniana). It may be said of these results that they were
only })artially successful — this is the view taken by Sir George Darwin in
his account of Galton in the Dictionary of National Biography {Second Suppl.
Vol. II, p. 72). But Galton recognised the main difficulty hunself:

:]1»J Life antl Litters of Frnncin Galton

"But neg&tiveM and positives do not wholly obliterate one another. They do ho to all intents
and pur|>06eii when the tones are not very far from the middle of the Hcale; an extreme white
is not obliterated by its negative." (p. 137.)

Galton was 78 years of age when the paper was published, and it was
hurriedly written (p. 138). He never worked out the technique with the care
and elalwration he devot«d to composite portraiture. Yet it seems to me that
the niethtxl is capable of Ijeing developed, and if it were the results re^iched
by it would be of very great value. The key to the whole position is the
production of a perfectly obliterating positive and negative pair. Galton's
original suggestion that

"the only satisfactory experiments now would be those made by two converging lanterns on a
screen, one at least of which admits of easy and delicate adjustment in direction and intensity
of it« illumination"'

might still be of aid in the matter. It is possible that the use of homogeneous
light in the preparation of both positives and negatives might be of some
value. Anyhow I peixonally should be sorry to dismi.ss analytical photo-
gi-aphy as idle. From the psychological standpoint it ought to be of first
class value in the study of the expression of the emotions. It should indicate
what physical or muscular changes accompany such expression. The subject
needs to-day an enthusiastic cultivator, who has the patience to develop its
technique.

{D) Measurements by Photography.

In 1896 Francis Galton started another incjuiry. He appears fii-st to have
developed a scheme for taking from the same spot two photographs, one with
the camera horizontal and the other with the camera tilted. By aid of two
such photographs distances were to be measured photographically. The
method of reduction is in some way Jissociated with photographs (positive and
negative) of a horizontal ruled square divided up into 20 x 20 small squares.
The two chief diagonals are marked and there are posts on the scjuare at the
centre and the corners. It was apparently capable of rotation about the centre
and there are photographs of it with the optical axis of the camera in one of the
diagonal planes, and in a plane bisecting the diagonal planes. There are photo-
graphs of streets, roofs and chimneys seen from a high parapet, possibly of
a briflge, apparently to be used in testing the method. But the manner in
which the reticulation was to be used in these cases is very obscure, and so far
I have only foiuid the box of negatives, and no explanatory notes or papers,
in the (Jaltoniana. It would be rash to make any dogmatic assertion, but it
would appear as if Galton at a fairly early date had been indejjendently
working at photographic triangulation.

Photographic Measurement of Distances and Lengths. No less than
eleven notebooks in the Galtoniana deal with this topic. They appear to
have Ijeen stalled in 1894-1895. They contain not only expernnental
measurements, but a succession of drafts of pa])er8, changing sometimes by

' Nature, Vol. I.X1I, p. 320. Attempts in this direction would have been made before this
in the Ualton Laboratory, but for inadequacy of funds.

/'/ti>t(t!fni/>/iii- RiKearvluH and Portrait nn- HI 7

very little tlie inetliod ot' procedure, of clianffinpf sometimes Us a|ij)lnaUoiis.
Tliero Hie a gootl many iie«(utives or piiiitu also lef'eiiiiij^ to tlie matter, some
intelligihie, some needing an interjjretution, wlucii I have been unable to
supply. To one series of such, clearly involving distant objects, I have
already drawn attention (see p. :n6) ; a gowl deal of the matter refei-s to
fairly near objects, and the Hrat experiments — to judge by the photo-
graphs— seem to have Ix'en made on a series of shelves or racks at the Kew
()i)servatory. Then (ialton photographed a bronze horse (Carousel) and de-
termined the three coordinates of eight to eleven points of it in a variety
of ways. It is really wonderful thirty years later to see the amount of
lal)our he put into work of this kind. A reader of Nature might conclude
that his communications to it were brilliant suggestions written in a few
hours. This, I U'lieve, was never the case; he rarely refers to a tithe of his
experimental work, the calculations, trials and failures he had made Ix'fore
preparing his paper; in many cases a paper was written over and over again
before it assinned its final form, and if a reader of the latter thinks the result
could have been more eiisily reached by another niethod, it is extremely
probable that that method could be found, experimentally tested and silently
rejected, in one or other of Galton's preliminary notebook records. If he tried
and condemned a method, he scarcely ever stated that he had done so. He
assumed that his readere would suppose him to have surveyed the country
before plotting the selected path to his goal.

Galton started with the general problem of studying the perspective of
a photograph; he did this by the simple method of photogmphing with his
subject some horizontal reticulation, or if needful lx)th a horizontal and a
vertical reticulation, and this served as the bjusis for analysing the perepective
properties of the photograph. Galton shows that photographic measurements
of objects may be tlivided into two classes ; those in which we measure lengths
parallel to the focal i)lane of the camera, and those in which we measure other
lines, and in this case we may require two photographsof the same object taken
simultaneously from difterent aspects. The mathematics of the latter are by
no means complicated, and are provided by (talton, but his dominant passion
for the study of heredity soon led him to the measurement of animals, and
by proper orientation of the animal the principal measurements Galton was
seeking can be obtained from a single standardised photograph, provided it
is accompanied by suittible reticulations or tiducial lines.

In one of his many notebooks I find the draft of a paper which starts
thus:

"Architecturiil dniughtiiuieii iire familiar witli the art of tniiislatiiig objects into their per-
spective representations, but the converse process of translating perspectives into their objective
etjuivalents has never, I believe, been yet brought into practice'. So long as pictures had to be

' It was not an uncommon problem before even 1890 to ask engineering students to draw
a model in {K-rspectivo and then take the measurements of parts of the original model from the
perspective drawing. It must bo confessed, however, that it was done with the view of testing
dniwing accuracy and possibly suggesting the superiority of plan and elevation drawings.
It would certainly have been giKxl experience to have obtained measurements of the parts of
machines by double photographs of them accompitiic<l b^- suitable reticulations.

318 Life and Letters of F ramus (i alt on

drawn by liaud itiid therefore inexactly, there wiis no inducement Ui conHider the poHsibilitie^
of this converse piXK-ess, for which cxiictit luie in tlie |)ictiir(' is ('Hsciitiiil to hucccsh, but now
that photography has Iteoonu- common the old ditiiculty tins <lisup|H-ur<-(l, and tiie po.s.sibilitics
of the neglected pnK-ess well deserve consideration. The applications would be numerous and
especially valuable in deti^rmining and measuring restless nnimals in tlit-ir momentar}- attitudes,
or even when in rapid motion, which could not otherwise be mea»ure<l without difficulty, or
when in rapid motion he otherwiw measured at all. The obji'ct I have especially in view is to
establish a system of mensuring a large numlier of donu'stic animals of various })e<Iigree stocks,
whether horses, cattle, sheep, dogs, j)Oultry etc., in order to ju-ovido material to advance our
knowledge of heredity of a kind that is greatly neetUnl. It is not qualitative fact« and ex-
ceptional instances that are now wanted by students of liere<lity, but a large collection of
quantitative facts in the form of trustworthy measuri-nients. They are needed to determinu
with far greater precision than they are at pn^sent known the statistical laws and coefficients
of heredity. Among these are the conditions and rate of ' regre.ssion ' of the ortsj)ring of
exceptional parents; the gradual or sudden alterations of [xmition of the point towards which
regression tends, as the breed becomes more pure; the ivlative inQucnce of the male and female
parent in respect to various measurable peculiarities; the intensities of prepotencies; the fre-
quencies and magnitudes of sudden sports, and the degrees of tlieir suljsequent stability through
successive generations. ... I should add that the direct measurement of creatures so sensitive,
timid and sudden in their actions as thorough bre<l homes, who at the same time are often
vicious, is difficult and dangerous, similarly as regards bulls and some of the breeds of dogs.
Photography is a simpler, more exact and far safer method of measurement in these cases than
the ilirect application of rotl, tape and callipers."

We shall consider later Galton's method of determining lengths parallel
to or nearly paiuUel to the focal plane of the camera. This he has published
(see onr p. 320). Ilis two-camera method of determining the three coordinates
in space of any |)oint of a subject has not, as far as I know, been publLilifd
and deserves a paragraph here.

Diagram vii, figs. 1-5, is taken fnnn ( lalton's nianuscript. Fig. 3 represents
the plan on a working .scale ; M, , M, are the plans of the optical centres of the
two camera lenses; Ijak, fed are fiducial lines drawn on the base plane upon
which the object stands; b, a and c, d are fiducial points, M,a and ALc being
the traces of the vertical planes through the optical axes of the two cameras,
and these are so arranged that M,a and M...c are accurately at right angles
to bk and fd. Figs. 1 and 2 represent the two photographs, and p, and p., the
point P in them who-se coordinates are to be determined. From jj,, jy, per-
pendiculars p,<7 and pfave dropped on the images of the fiducial lines 6a and
cd in the photographs. But clearly (ig/ba = ng/ha. and f</cd = i'c/cd. Hence
g and f on the plan drawing can be scaled. Produce M,g and MS to meet in
Q, then Q is the plan of the given point P. If S be the perpendicular from
Q ou M,a, we may take SQ and aS for our coordinates x and y. Now draw
to the same scale an elevation (fig. 4) of the system on the vertical plan
through the optical axis; N,M, is tlie height of the optical centre, ST is the
elevation of P. Since Sa is known, by joining S to N, we obtain s. If the
elevation of P, or c, be TS, we require to determine ts, for knowing it we
have TS/t« = M,S/M,a. But ta m j>,(j the apparent height in the first photo-
graph altered in the ratio of ab to ab. Fig. 5 illustrates this clearly. Of course
\ -t settle the scale for the drawing-board ab by the value of the fiduciary

' '• ab in the reticidation on the ba.se plane of the object photographed.

Such is Galton's very simple process of tiiknig meivsurements on photographs

I'hotixjiHitUir 1*1 -i, III' li, s mid I'^-t i nil n ,■•

nin

of an ohject. ll ran iiidfcd he acliu\ cd ii uw i)bjwt \m- iiianimaU' by plucin^' it
on a reticulated tunital)lt' and rotating this turntal)le tlirougli 45 or 90 to
obtain the second j)hotograj)h with the same camera. Of" course if we can
find the coordinates of one |M)int we can find those of any numl>er, and the

Diiiu;riiin vii.

distances between them can then be found in the usual way. Another method
is to find a whole series of points T and S or construct plan and elevation
(hawings of the object from the two photographs.

A paper by Galton entitled " Photograpliic measurement of Hoi-ses and

320 Life ami Lettn-n of Francis Galtoii

other animals" was published in Nahire on January 6, 1898'. It belongs
perhaps more closely to our chapters on biometry and heredity, but I have
mcluded it here xs concerned chiefly with ])hotograi)hic technujue. Oalton
jK)int^ out how fre«juently valuable horses and other show animals are photo-
graphed, but owing to the fact that there is no standardised method of
arranging animal and camera, it is not jiossible to take any meii.su rements on
these jihotographs. The st^mdardisation is a fairly easy matter, a rectangle
100 inches long and 20 inches broad is marked on the ground, by preference
in front of or parallel to a wall, upon which are two nails in the same
horizontal line at some distance apai't; a string terminating in two weights
is hung over these nails, and the vertical portions should he vertical on the
focal plane. A horse, say, is led on to the rectangle so that its feet all lie
within it, and so that the tips of its four hoofs and the short ends of the
rectangle are all visible in the focal plane. The optical centre of the camera
is 5 feet above the ground and 20 feet from the near side of the rectangle
measure<l on the ground; the optical axis is in a plane perj)endicular to the
long sides of the rectangle and this plane meets the rectangle in a line about
I foot from its central line and is parallel to the short sides. The camera is tilted
somewhat downwards, so tliat the rectangle and the hoi-se's hoofs shall be
visible in the photograph. The focal plane which must be adjustable is made
vertical by examining the vertical portions of the string which should be
vertical on the focal plane.

If now the mid-point S on the line joining the tips of the fore-hoofs on
the photograjjh l)e joined to the mid-point 7' on the line joining the tips of
the hind-hoofs, this line ST provides the trace of the median plane of the
horse on the ground. Suppose first ST to be sensibly parallel to the long
sides of the ba.se rectangle and to meet the short sides in ^ and 7", then if
.S"7' be measuretl and equal s', it follows that all measurements on the photo-
graph in the median plane must be multiplied by 100/6"' to obtain actual
measurements on the horse. The photograph of coui-se only shows the section
on the median plane of a pencil of rays from the optic centre tangential to
the surface of the horse; but Galton calculates that in tlie case of a hoi-se
with the camera 20 feet away, this would not introduce an error of ^th of
an inch into the measurements. The point would be more serious in the case
of some fat stock with backs flat like tables, and in thisca.se a stud 2 inches
in height might be fixed in the median plane at any point of the back and
the measurement on the photograph taken to its top; afterwards 2 inches
would be deductefl from the deduced measurement.

If ST be not pamllel to the long sides of the base rectangle, then its slope
to those sides can be found by producing it to meet them and dividing its
length in inches between them by 20 ; the secant of the angle corresponding to
this slope is the factor by which horizontal lines in the median plane must be
multiphetl in order to obtain their true value. Galton also indicates how
lines not parallel to the median plane can Ix^ obtained as from shoulder to
haunch bone (p. 232), but a discussion would carry us into too great detail.

' Vol. Lvii, pp. 23(1-32.

PluUoyniphlc Htftearrhes and Portraiture 321

At the British AHSociiition in 1898 (Jalton applied for and obtained the
appoiiitiiietit of a committee consisting of Professor E. B. Poulton, Pn)fe8s<jr
VV. K. li. VVeldon and himself "to promote the systematic colU'Ction of Photo-
ffruphic iind other lU^cords of Pedigree Stock." This Committee made a
Report to the Association meeting at Dover in 1899 and it was puhHshetl in
the li. A. Report for that year (pp. 424-29). The report etnpliasi.ses the
fact that while it is po.ssihh) in tlie various Stud-lKM^ks and Herd-lKxiks to
tnice the ancestry of pedigree stock, these works

" iiiriinl sfiiiil niciiiis for o))tniniiig tliat. (iJHtiiict pri'.sciitiiiont of encli of the ftearer ancewtry
which is iiveded for itii exact nturly of the Art of Brt!cding." (p. 424.)

Inibrmation is ahnost entirely confined to colour, or in the case of horses to
height at the withers. While photographs exist it is very difficult indeed to
i)l)taiii those of sire, dam and produce as adult -what Galton terms a genea-
logical tridd — and groups including the grandparents, even in the ciise of
pure-bred shorthorn cattle, are pnictically unattainable'. The reason Galton
finds is not far to seek :

"H<>rt'<lity is a ooinparativeiy n«>w scionco and few p«'ople are a-s yet ac<{uuiiit4'(l with the
character of tiie recunls most suitahie for ita study, or are sullicieiitly iinpre».sc<l with the need
for their exactness and [x'rsistence. The most important of these records wliich it seems feasible
to oht^iin are photographs, not merely pretty and well worke<l-up productions satisfactory to an
artistic eye, liut rather such as are analoj.;ous to the portraits made of criminals, for storafje at
the central police otKco, to servo as future means of identification. The desiretl photographs
need to bo taken under such conditions as shall ensure their being comparable under equal
terms and shall admit of the accurate translation of meaaurementH made upon them into
corresponding measurements mode on the animals themselves." (p. 424.)

The report then describes the Standard Conditions. These are modified
considerably from tho.se given in the Nature paper. There is to be a .solid wall
or screen painted blue, a .solid pathway in front of it of G feet width of light-
coloured bricks to show the horse's hoofs up in the photograph. Two lines are
drawn on the pathway, one two feet from the wall, and the other two feet
from the first; the edge of the path towards the camera is to show in the
photograph as a sharp line. On the wall are to be small marks or studs each
about the size of a sixpence, arranged in three verticiil and three horizontal
lines each at an exact distance of 3 feet apart, the bottom row being at a
foot above the path level; the camera is to be 30 feet from the wall, and its
optical centre at a height of 5 feet.

"The ecjuivalent fix-us of the lens should not l)e less than 9 inches, otherwise' the photograph
will 1hi too small for convenient measurement; the lens used in the experiment [at the Royal
Agricultural Hall in March 1899] was of 13 inches focus, with plates of 6^ x 4| inches, and
proved exactly suitable." (p. 426.)

The verticality of the focal plane and its parallelism to the wall are ascer-
tained by the stjuareness of the stud-network of the wall on the focal plane
screen. '1 he camera once adjusted is to remain undisturlied during a whole series
of operations. Prominent points on the horse or on cattle may be marked by

' What Ualtoii wrote in 1899 remains equally true a quarter of a century later,
p Q II 41

322

Life and Letters of Francis (hiUon

white wafers attaclied by paste'. Many detailed suggestions for taking the
|)hotof;nij»h8 are given. Galton indicates as in his earlier paper that if all
the animal's h(H)fs fall in the middle two feet of the path, a slight obliquity
to the wall will not introduce an error of any importance into the pnoto-
gniphic measurements (.see our p. 3'JO). (Jalton's procedure is now somewhat
simpler than that which he gave in Nature. He projects from the optical
centre on to the wall behind the horse, takes the mejisurement there and
reduces in the ratio of distance from that centre to median plane of horse to
distance of that centre from the wall. He now considers it adetpiate instejul
of determining the median plane by bisecting lines between tips of fore- and
hind-hoofs, to take the median plane 6 inches liehind the line joining corre-
sponding fore- and hind-hoofs. He gives reasons for believing that the
errors ot measurements made on the photographs are less than those made
by diflferent persons on the same animal.

In the cotn-se of the paper he refers to standard fjhotographs made of
28 premium stallions at the Royal Agricultural Hall and to photogra]»hs
of 31 triads made on pure-bred shorthorn cattle, chiefly at Alnwick Park.
The Royal Commission on Horse-Breeding was iisked to permit a trial
inst-illation at their show at the lloyal Agricultin-al Hall in 1H98, and per-
mission was cordially granted. The installation was made and 35 horses were
photographed in 3^ hour.s. The total cost including that of two veterinary
measurers was under £25, and Galton believed that if the operations became
customary, the cost would be paid by the sales of copies of the standard
photographs.

Galtou's Report occupies pp. 12-16 (with plate of figures) of the 7th
Annual Report of the Royal Commission on Ho^'se- Breeding (C. 9487, 1899).
He gives some strong arguments for standardise<l j)hot<»grapliy and descril)es
again in <letiiil the standardisetl methods, and the divergences between the
pnotographic and veterinary measures. He considers the latter as far more
reliable tnan the former. In the matter of

"length of bixly, the ptKitographic tnotluKl is the only une to be depended on, and it seems to
lie as trustworthy as that of height." (p. 15.)

Putting aside the length' we have for the horse " Maroni " for example :

Height in inches.

At Witberi

At Back

At Croup

From Pliotograpli
Veterinary Measurement

651
C5-5

60-7
010

64-6
fit -5

as an illustration of the extent of agreement.

' Associated with this section of the material in the Galtonutna is a careful drawing of a
hor«e by W. t'. H. Weldon with anatomical sketches of the skeleUui indicating the points
which could In; ap))roxiniatc^d to on the living animal, and suggesting suitable mwisurements.

* "A direct and trustworthy measurement of the length of a wioos or timid horse is
extremely difficult, perhaps impracticable." (p. 15.)

lotngrnphic Researches and Portraiture

"Tlu< iimiii rtwult of this pxp«'riiiient haii lieen to prove the fcawbility of tAkiiig jihotoxrapliM
of horsiM at :v Show, that shall Ini accoptahlo an ordinary portruita, and will at thu wuiie time
\mi of Hterling Mcicntilic value. I \>cg in oonstMiupiico to expr^Hs a hope that the Hoyal Com-
niisHioncTM may think fit to arrange that photogniphy umh-r Htnndard conditions* Hhnll lM>conie
a |M'rniaii)Mit feature of their annual Show8, it iMiing ini|>oHHihle to ensure that thcwe coiulitionH
nhall l)e Htrictly att<^ndi>d to whi'ii animals ar«» photngniphe<l at their homes, th" . ' '" '\"

so at a puhlie exhihition. The i'X|MTieiife ;{aiiied liy IIiIh trial. ..proven how inex] 'I .1'

the .sanii' time how neoes.sary it is t'O have an appropriate- inst^illation, one that iiii^lil Im'

remove*! and replaced when deMirt!<l If the Itoyal C'oMimi.ssioners led the way, other siK-ieties

who exhihit at the Kuyal Ajjrieidtural llall would d<iuhtles.s Ix- gliul t<i follow their example
and to avail themwlveH of the iriHtallation. The managers of local exhiliitions would in time
pursue a like practice, until the cu.stom of utilising exhibitions fur tlie pur|M>ge of photeigraphing
prize winners under stAndard conditions liecame general, and proltahly mon; or less K4*lf-KUp-
porting, and the principal ohject of tho Connnittet; of the British AK.S4)ciation...would be
attainiKl. Horses and other p<>digre«i animals are usually oxhibittMl nion^ than once, so occasional
failur(>s «lue to ImmI weather admit of U'ing substnjuently roctitietl." (p. 13.)

The general idea of standard photoj^raphs of j)edigree stock wjia a splendid
one; the re.sult.s <^f the trials seem to have heeii (piite .satisfactory, hut I can
find no trace after lH'.)i) eitiicr of further work hy the British Aas(x;iation
Committee' or of further photography at the Agricultural Hall. Galton was
already 77 years of age, and tliis was only one of many incpiiries he had in hand.
Tiiere wa.s need proliahly of an active and younger man to pusii the matter to
a complete success. Tiiis want w.os not satisfied, and Galton's suggestion did
not at that t ime hring forth fruit. Po.ssihly after another tpiarter of a century
we shall find it successfully carried out in America or in some continental
country with a keener appreciation than our own of the value of scientific
breeding.

(E) Indexing and Numcrcdisation of Portraits.

For i;J years after 1 893 (see our p. 307), Galton j)uhlished nothing further
about methods of indexing and numeralising portraits, hut he worked most
energetically at them. He divided the profile into parts — forehead, nose, lips,
chin. He had di.scovered what is soon forced on the craniolotrist — that the
component bones of the skulls of two individuals may Ije extremely alike, but
that great differences may be ])roduced by change in angle at the sutures or
joints. Now Galton's collection of profiles was most extensive; it ran to many
hundreds. He obtained them from drawings-he took 68 from Dance alone —
from photographs, and from engravings of all sorts, and again directly by sil-
houettes; he proceeded to break up his profiles into component ptirts. From
hundreds of noses or chins, he constructed a mean nose or chin. Then he pro-
ceeded to measure deviations from these mean noses or chins, and constructed
standard patterns of noses or chins. A new profile might l)e descriljed as having
Forehead No. 3, Nose No. 31, Lips No. 26 and Chin No. 8. The individuality
of the profile was thus determined and a means given for indexing it. All
that was needed in order to get something of a likeness was to add the angles
between the joints and fix tne magnification to be given to ejich component.

' No further rciwrt was made and the Committee lapsed in 1901. I do not know the
reason why; nor have I been able to discover what Iwcame of tho material collected by the
Committee. Pi-ofessor Poulton knows nothing about it; it is not in the OullonianeL, nor
among Weldon's papers.

41—2

324 Life and Letters of Francis Qalton

A profile therefore would be specified by four nunil>er8, each of which might
Ik* two figures, four nmgiiificiitions say each of two fij^ures, and three angles
say also given by two figures to nearest degree. In other words 22, say 30,
syndx»Ls m a telegram would suffice ; thus six words in code would convey a
creditable likeness of a man. Galton even supposed in his later days that
wireless could Ik' u.sed to comniunicjite to the captain of a liner the profile
of a person suspected to be on board, whom it might Ih> desii-able to keep a
watch u|>on.

Drawings of profiles of men of different races, Copts, Arabs, Negroes, etc.
were taken as well as men of every grade of distinction in our own country ;
at least three or four artists were employed at different times in the prepara-
tion of these profiles. There are endless notebooks, measurements, materials
of all kinds, and drafts of papers, I believe, never completed and published.
I CAW trace no sign of discontent with the methods adopted, but it would
ap|)ear as if Galton was always seeking for something better. He had collected
data for a work which would certainly have eclipsed Lavater's, being
based on much more accurate methods ; there is material and suggestions
enough for a scientific treatise on physiognomy. Let us remember what
Galton had in view, for there is more than one strand in his researches :

(i) He wanted to numeralise physiognomies; he dejilt chiefly with profiles,
but not wholly. For each profile he wanted a formula from which it could
be satisfactorily reproduced. Thus an individual could be identified by 80
words of 5 letters or figures each. This enabled a very sufficient likeness to
be telephoned, telegraphed or 'wirelessed.'

(ii) He wanted to index portraits, in particular, profiles. This needed a
simplification of the individual formula, and in 1907 he reduced his formula for
the purpose of indexing to 4 or at most 6 stundard points.

(iii) He wanted to obtain a quantitative measure of the degree of resem-
blance with three special aims :

(a) for the purpose of measuring hereditary likenesses or differences,

ib) for the purpose of mea-suring racial likenes.ses or differences,
c) for the purpose of ascertaining whether special types of physiognomy
were correlated with definite ment^d or moral characters.
He may be said to have solved (i) in a fairly sjitisfactory manner before
his lecture.s of 1888 and 1893. In 1907 he was satisfied with his method of
"lexiconising" or indexing profiles by standard points. In 1906 he was busy
with (iii), and he then apparently tiirew over any idea of measuring resem-
blance by likeness of formulae' and turned to optical methods, at first that of
distance and ultimately that of "blurring," to get a measure of "mistakability."
1 have a set of "blurrers" he presented to me shortly before his death, and
the method was at least ingenious, if not reducetl to a final scientific sUitement.
Not having completed his solution of (iii), he never lived to apply his methods
to the mass of material he had collected for the discussion of" (iii) («), (6), (c).

' Tlie problem pmxenU exactly the same difficulticH a.s the discovery of a single coeflScient
to measure racial diflerenoea when 30 or 40 nieasuremniits Imvc been miule uii two serioH of
crania.

PhotiKjraphir Resfarchen and Portraiture

325

I

I

To conclude our consideration of this matter we must give some account
of tlio tmhlished papere of 1906 and 1907, and of Galton's unpublished ideas
as to "ulurrers."

I deal first with the paper of 1907'. Galton writes:

"It will 1k) hIiowii that it is mny U> MoxiconiHo' j>«>rtrHiU by arninj(iiij{ tin' Mifa«iircni<'ritM
Ixitwooii A f«w pairH of thcim ptiintH [Htniidardised or caniinal {loinlHJ in nuiiu'ricul ortlor, on the
Haiiio [irinciple that wonls apo lexiconisMl in diutiunarieH in alphaliotical onliT, and to define
facial jM'fuliiirities with ({rraU-r oxiwtnesH than inij^ht have Int^n «>x|»ected." (|). CI 7.)

The cardinal points st^lected by (Jalton iire (c) the tip of the chin (^xw/o/t/o/t).
(/i) the tip of the nose, ( /) the hollow between nose and brow {nasion), (m)
tlu' hollow U'tween upjuM- lip and nose, {/) tip of lower and (») tip of upper
lip. None of these are really points but vaguely limited regions, and (ialton
proceeds to define them more closely. A tangent to chin and njisal hollow
)'}' is drawn, a line Y' V parallel to this to touch the nose is then drawn,
and finally a tangent to nose and chin intersects }'Fand }'')'' in jxjints C
and N, which give the first two cardinal points. A line drawn from N tan-
gential to the nasal hollow gives F hy intersection with YY, and tangents

Diagram viii.

to the region m from N and G intersect in the cardinal point M. To obtain
the upper lip point U we draw a tangent parallel to CF to touch u and a
tangent to touch n from N, their intersection is U. Similarly we di-aw a
tangent to / parallel to CF and to I through C and their point of inter-
section is L. Galton foinid that the position of the six ovrdinal points F, C,
N, M, U, L, when reduced to a common scale in which CF represented 100
units or "cents'," was sufiicient to "lexiconise" profiles. The processes might

' "Claswification of Portraits," NcUure, Vol. Lxxvi, pp. 617-18, October 17, 1907.

'' A "cent" on the mean profile for a life-sized adult portrait ia about 1*25 mm. or j'j incli.

326 Life and Tjetters of Francis Galton

be by distances between the points or by coordinates taking YCFY and its
perpendicular XCX as axes. Oalton preferred on the whole the indexing by
coordinates. Working merely with the foiu- coordinates of M and -V read only
to the nearest cent, Galton was able to index Dance's 68 profiles so that
no two of the ninnericjU fonindue agreed. In two-thirds of the series the
smallest ditierence between the ujost resembling pairs was 3 cents in one ur
more measures.

"This conspicuous (lifferoncp, o<|iiivttlent to Ix^ween Jjtli and Itli of an incli in a j)ortnut of
the natural size, could never be due to the inherent inij)erfection of the art of measurement, but
to some gross blunder." (p. 618.)

Galton thinks that in 1000 profiles indexed on the basis of the coordinates
of X and M only there would be some duplicates and jierhajis some triplicates.
Even these would l)e retluced by indexing Urn- L, or j)ossiljly both of them.
Galton conclu«les as follows :

"In the reportof aConunitteeappointe<l by the Seci-eUiry of State in ISOI (C. 7 20.3, price 10(/.)
to inquire into the best means available for identifying habitual criniiniiis, th<- following remark
appears on p. 18: 'An enormous amount of time is spent in examining the iKwks of photographs.
It will be seen from the figures furnished by Chief Inspector Neave that on March 1 last
twenty-one officers searched for twenty-seven prisoners — tlie total time spmt Inking 57J hours —
and made seven identiGaitions. This was an average of more than two hours for each prisoner
sought for, and more than eight hours for each itlentification.' A similar search in a lexicon
of portraits of the same size would occupy apparently fewer minutes than tiie above occupied
hours.

I will go no further now into the results of my exjx»rinients than to say that I have applied
the above method to |)ortraits of persons of very difl'erent races, and have thus far found it
efficient in all of thero." (p. 618.)

In a paper' publi.shed in the last year, 1910, of his life, Galton returns to
his ideas of standard points and of 'jointed' profiles. He simplifies and com-
bines the methods we have already referred to. The simplification reduces
his description to four 'words' of five figures. But it may well \)e doubted
whether the simplification is not at too great an expense of accuracy. His
title "Numeralised Profiles for Classification and Recognition" shows that he
was endeavouring to combine two matters, which are moreor less incompatible :
(o) adefjuate buthrief cataloguing, indexing, oras (ialtontermsiflexiconising"
of profiles with (h) reproduction of a profile from what is scarcely more than
an index formula. Actually Galton's work does not apply to the whole profile,
but only to the portion from nasion, the na.sal bridge to pogonion, the tip of
the chin. He takes as his five standard ])oints'': the nasion /♦', the nose tip,
or say, the rhinion N, the notch between the upper lip and the nose, the naso-
labial |)oint or hyj)ercheilon M, the parting of the lips or syncheilion S — no
longer the two lip-tips (see our p. 3'25) — and the tip of the chin or pogonion C.

' AWure, Vol. Lxxxui, pp. 127-.30, March .31, 1910.

' Tlieso points are clearly to lie detenninwl by tangents to the profile as dejicrilwd on our
p. 325. Although Galton does not here state this, yet his standard types and profiles indicate
it. It is doubtful how he (letine« his syncheilion, marked as a point in his standard types and
profiles; pmltably it was taken to bisect the line joining the theoretical lii>-tips of the previous
paper. The nasion and pogonion are acceptwl names in antliro|M)metry ; I have ventured to
■apply names to the other standard points.

riiotiuiruphie ReHearchcs ami Portraiture

327

Two of these five stundurd [)oiiit8, luision F and po^onion C, are used to get
ail alwoluto l)a.se. C7'' ih taken vertical, treated lus axis of //, and made 50
its in leiij^tli, the unit l)ein^ with (Jaltoii a millimetre; no fmctions l)eing
_ ven. The axis C'A' of j" is taken per|Mnidicular to CF, and the coordinates
of iV, .1/ and ii' re(|uiro two donhle-figure numbers each for ijlottinj;. Thus
far we have reached a lexicon in which naso-pof^onial lenj^tli and the coor-
dinates of rhinion, hyixTcheilon and syncheilion wouUl enable us to identify
a profile — the errors of measurement lieing as Galton says small as comparetl
to the variations due to individuality.

Galton now proceeds to tiie specification by nine types of ejich (ten in the
case of the nose) of the seven parts of the |)rofile from nasion to pogonifni.
These are (i) shape of nasion and slope of brow to l)e super[)0»Bd at F,

(i)

(ii)

(■") _

(iv)

(V)

(vi)

(vii)

t

2

5

4

5

6

7

Q

9

o

RAD: a
OACK

HAS. 2
VtllT'l.

1

K

/

A.

MASi*
BAU

RAO: C

1

K

HAS: «
IW<'»J

/

•I

KADtlO
SACK

\

•I

RAb: (O

vut'l

1
•I

RAD.re

Main

/

K

I'-'^'T

• IN'S

SLIOMT
e.CAV«

Jl-IOUT
C.vt.X

SlN't

MA«W»
C«Avt

tlAAHfl)
C.VCK

e vix

\

bad: a

HAD i
JIN'S

«AD a

C. VIH

Sr«.-r

l»AO:6

5lN'«

RAD 6
C'l/iJt

HAD ■ lO
STRT

RAD; to
SiN'S

RAS'.IO
CvK

— .•*

-»_■'

J.

_>

-v->

^>

_)■

^^

^)-

KN«|jt
tTUT

AM»CK.
C «**€

ANOUk.

Vrn'T

flAJ>; a
CCAWI

RAOia.
c.vg.v

RAO 6
STR'T

RAD: 6

e.CA</c

KAI>i6
c.vt«

r

r

T

1

1

)

1

r

(

(■

CVCN

3Mur

tvtii
Part to

C.VE.N

UP#5 P^

SHUT

PA»T«J>

H

•c

<

w

<•

N

-^

<1-

<..

SM»H.
SM«IL

SMALt-
MtBlUM

SMALU
LAftOC

SMALL

ncotvn

Lk«se

LAK»C

5"l»l.l-

lARbC

LAK»C

]

3

5

?

3

)
)

^

?

^

RAD. a

niDDt-e

»<AD a

LOWS'*

KAO. 6

RAD 6

-KA0.6

RAD. lO

RAB.IO

M.oOLt

RAOOd

(

(

1

■<

!

(

1

-(-

(

(

1

(

Dot V

Dol-N

I>oi = .U

Dot = 5

Diagram ix.
The (lots represmt the position of standarci points.

(ii) nose from nasion to rhinion, (ili) luxstril from rhinion to hypercheilon,
(iv) upper lip from hypercheilon to lip-parting, (v) nature of the lip-parting
with reference to syncheilion .us origin, (vi) size of upper and lower lips respec-
tively, (vii) outline of chin between border of lower lip and pogonion.

The type of each portion is here given by a single number. We have

328 Life and Letters of Francis Gallon

thus twelve figures for coordinates and seven for types and we can com-
municate this in four 'words' of five figurt's with one hgure to spare. After
the standard |K)iiits have been put in on tracing paper, Galton suggests that
tracings should Ik* t^iken of the seven selected standard forms on to this paper
very faintly; next

"to ImrtiKiiiitM' tlio wholti t«ntjitively with faint iind hrushliko Ktrokes; lastly, with a free and
timi hand to draw the outline through them." (p. 12f<.)

Now there is little doubt that Galton's original method of numeralising
profiles allowed their reproduction with astonishing siccuracy, and that his
original six standard j)oints ])ermit of their accurate le.\iconi.siiig. Only
exj)erience could determine whether the loss of exactness in this his final
four-word method would not be at the cost of a considerable part of the
certainty of recognition. Galton in his paper in Natvrc gives eight illus-
trations and says — with which any one examining the results would agree —
that they are by no means deficient in resemblance to their originals.

"I think they are considerably more like to them than the sketches, usually printed in the
illustrated newspapers, arc to the public characters whom tlioy profess to represent. They are,
to say the least, of considerable negative value siitlicing to cliininuto at the rate of about
nineteen out of every twenty individualn as iwt being the person referi-ed to." (p. 129.)

It must he remembered that the resemblance provided is between a profile
and a profile, not between the actual person and the four-wortled reproduction
of his profile. Dance almost in the manner of a caricaturist emphasised
individual characters especially the luisal, and this I fixncy rendei-s in the
illustrations given in Jyature identification of the accurate profiles, and
their rough reproductions, relatively easy; it would be a harder matter
with the living subjects of the profiles. Only some experience could test
the utility, but it would be worth testing as the police value would un-
doubtedly be large.

Galton fully recognised the limitiitions of the.se rougher nietliods, and
noted that the next step to an accurate profile is a large one', requiring our
four-word formula to be replaced by one of fifty or more words. Galton had
numeralised many profiles in this more elaborate way and found that normal
sighted persons who examined them at a distance of 12 inches in a somewhat
careless way did not distinguish them from the originals. By such profiles it
would be possible to recogiuse the living. I am far less certiim that the rough
profiles suggested in the 1910 paper would be lulequate, they certainly would
not preserve anything in the nature of an artistic chanicterisation, which 50
to 80 wort! fonnulae undoubtedly achieve. Here we must leave the matter
as Galton left it, until another scientific worker feels able to spend a like
number of yeare and an e(|ual enthusiasm on the analysis of portraiture.

' " I do not find that a general resemblance can be much increased by using one or a few
more quintets or words." (p. 130.)

P/i(tt()ffrfij)/ii(' ItvHvnrche* ntul Portrait tire 329

(F) Mt'fisnrements of ReHemhlaiice.

T Iiave already referred to Gallon's long-continued researches on the
infiisurenit'iit of re'senihlance. lie f^ivo in Salyrr, Octolier 4, 1906', some
iicoouiit of his method and of his apparatus' for meitsurin^ his "index of
mistakahility." He opens his account with the following worfls:

"At tlio distiiiu'c (if a fow scom'h of piicps tlio human faoc iipjx-ars to b«> a iinifonii rwldiHh
Miir, with nil Ncpiinito feiitures. On a nearer approtich spi-cks Ix-j^in to Ix" Hwn corrt'«|X)ndin>{ to
(lie eyes and mouth. These ){ra(hially incre.t«e in dixtinctnefis, until - -at about thirty |tfice.s — iho
features heoome so clear that a hitherto unknown person could thereafter tx' recognised with
some aN.Hurance. There in no Ijetter opportunity of observing the eflectii of diNtancc in con-
foundin)^ human faces than by watchinjf soldiers at a review. Their drew i.s alike, their pose
is the same, the light falls up<in them from the same direction, and they are often immoveable
for a considerable time. It is then noticeable how some faces are indistinguishable at distances
where great diversity is appaii'nt in others, and the rudelydefine*! idea will be justified that
the (listAiK-e at which two faces are just mistakable for one another might serve as a trust-
worthy basis for the ineasiireinent of re.semblimce. The same may be said of obscurity, of con-
fu.sed refi-actions, and of turbid media."

In the apparatus descrihed in this paper in Nature, Galton used distance.
But he also looked at two portraits through a graded series of "blurrers*,"
or i^la.sses with different thicknesses of Canada Balsam placed upon them.
Finally he adojjted a neutral coloured wedge (like the wedfje photometer used
tor star magnitudes), lookinj^ at the portraits through thicker and thicker
parts of it until they were "mistakable." The apparatus is fairly simple for
the distance olxservations. There is a six-foot ba.se ooard upon which are two
sledjfes carried along its length by endless cords each g<»ini; round their own
|)air of wheels, one at either end of the board. At the summit of the ba.se
l)oard, which slopes slightly downwards from the observer, is a screen with
an eye-.slit to carry sjioctacle lenses for examining the photographs; it can
l)e replaced by a bracket ujjon which optical combinations can be mounted
for throwinf^ the photographs to a consideiable distance, i.e. greater than
that of the ba.se board, in the manner of an inverted telescope. The sledges
each carry a stjvndard to which the portraits to be examined can be attached,
and when attached they can be rotated in azimuth to conipen.sate for differences
of degree in the photographs of "half" face. The position of tlie photographs
with regard to the observer's eye can be read on a scale which runs down
the centre of the ba.se lK)ard.

Galton's procedure is as follows: He first mejisures in millimetres the
distances a and u' from the pupil line to the lip line of each porti-ait. He
then takes from the ba.se board .scale the distances </ and d of the two
])ortraits from tlie eye screen in centimetres. If now the indices n = lOOu/il
and n'=lOOu'/d' be formed, then when they are equal, the two portraits
subtend the satne angle at the eye, and this allows for any difference in size.

' Vol. i.x.\iv, pp. .562-3.

' Now with a good many additions, devised by Galton him.self, in the Galton Laboratory.

' He presented me in 1907 with a series of "blurrers" and there are a good many sets in
the Galtouiana, but I have not come across any ivccount of their preparation and standartl-
isation. The photometric wedge is a much more permanent measurer.

Poii 48

330 Life and Letters of Francis Golf on

If we vary n = n' taking a whole series of values for them, we reiich a value
N at which the two portraits can be mistaken for |)ortrait8 of the same in-
dividual. This value of X is Galton's "index of niistakahility." Two persons
will have little resemblance to each other, if they must 1x3 put at a great dis-
tance off to l>e mistaken for each other; when they are very like each other
the distance will lie small or the index of niistakability will be lai'ge. The
index if it can be determined is therefore a mesusure of general resemblance.
" Faces," Galton writes,

"that are alike are certainly [in-Jdistinguishable nt shorter distancps than unlike ones, and I
notice no excessive clustering of values closely round fiarticular values of N in my results,
which there would be if niistakability always occurre<l near a particular stage, such as that
at which the whites of the eyes cease to be visible, or at twice or three times that distance.
A strong likeness in small details may so dominate the perception that a want of likeness in
larger features is overlooked. Hero the dist-ance of maximum niistakability will be small, the
portraits ap})earing more unlike when removed farther off, and the small details ceasing to be
visible. Extreme cases of partial likeness, whether in contour or in detail, would of course be
noted and allowed for. With these exceptions the index of mistakability appears to l)e a fair,
even, as I think, a close, approximation to an index of resemblance when the quality of the
observed likeness is recordefl by appropriate letters as will 1)«» <lescril)f»d later.

The observational value of niistakability lies in its asking; a simple question which different
persons would answer in the same way, when they ha<l Ixvonie faiiiiliiir with the method."
(p. 562.)

The difficulty about the di.stance me«asure of mistakability lies in the
fact that the comparison of two portraits of different sizes involves continued
resetting of the portraits at different distances. To expedite matters Galton
tabled a for given it and n, so that the operator knowing ?< and u' could
quickly send the two portraits to their pro[>er distances for a given n. Never-
theless the continual snifting for each new judgment is laborious. Galton then
proceeded to prepare test types and noted the d at which each row of figures
was just unreadable. If now a test line be put against the portraits tbem-
selves when they are just mistakable in a clear light, we can interchange d
and readability of a certain type. By marking the types by bold values of d
we replace our distance scale by a type scale. Now if the hindrance to vision
increa.ses the portraits with the test card must he brought nearer to the eye,
and they will mcrease simultaneously in legibility. The written d will always
show wnat the true (/ would be in a clear light. We now see how the
"blurrere," wedge or inverted telescope' are to lie used; we can keep the
actual d constant, and measure the apparent d on the cjird of test types
place<l alongside the portmits.

(ialton's reduction to test types seems to emphasise an obvious criticism
— the judgment of the index of mistakability will lie dependent on the
keenness of vision of the operator. Hence different operators would need
differently marked test cards, and there would Ije a need to correct the
index for personal equation, if the results of operators with marked dif-

' Atone stage of Galton's experiments he made "blurrers" of gauze of different meshes.
I think it likely he discarded these because the visibility so largely depends on the position of
the network b(;tween eye and object. Type absolutely illegible if the gauze be midway between
eye and object becomes legible if the gauze screen be quite close to object or to eye.

Pfiotof/raphic Researches and Portraiture 331

ferences of keenness of vision Ijad to be pooled. Gulton considers that
mutual mistakahility may occur under any one or more of the following
conditions, which he thinks should Ije noted alongside the index:

"aa. Tho portraits ani apparently exact copies or reductioriH on different scalea.

a. Tli(>y uppear to be portraits of the same pernon at about the Hanie age, though difTering
in poxe aii<[ dress.

l>. Th(«y would in' mistaken for portraits of the same person, even thoUfi^h they differ in hl'X
and considerably in nge, if the hair had Ix^en cut and dyed alike, and tli-' il-'.>v< itrrange<l in the
same way.

c. Aa above, if much disjjniswl, as for theatrical impersonations.

b-c. Applies to cases intermediate between I) and c.

p. Their resemblance is partial only, being confined to specified features.

The applications of the process are num<>rou8, as nmst always Ihi the case when a hitherto
vague perception is brought within the grip of numerical precision. To myself it has the special
interest of enabling the departure of individual features from a standard type to Ije expressed
numerically. The departure may l)e from a composite of their race, or from a particular indi-
vidual. The shortcomings of a (xxligree animal from a highly distinguished ancestor could be
measured in this way. Many other examples might lie given." (p. 563.)

As in his profile work Galton used a very large number of pairs of photo-
graphs of relatives to test his index of mistsikabuity upon. He asked in the
newsj)apers for photographs of families, and they appear to have been rained
down upon him; some material was suitable, some quite unsuitable! It seems
to me that to get reliable measures of resemblance special photographs should
be taken — ^full face and profile, the hair being screened under a tight fitting
elastic cap. Further if bearded individuals are to be one of the "comparates,"
then the comparison must further be maile with the chin and lips screened;
the eye is very apt to be misled in its judgments by extraneous characters
sucli as hair and pose.

A manuscript typed and prepared for press in February 1906, entitled
"The Measurement of Visual Resemblance," seems never to have been pub-
lished. It adopts a somewhat different index to that finally chosen by Galton
in October of the same year. He begins by saying that visual resemblance
between any two objects may be measured in units whose value is strictly
defined.

"Resemblance is independent of actual magnitude and has therefore to be expressed in
angular units. It is curious that no popular terms exist to express them in the language of
any civilised country, for not only would they be useful, but the diameter of the sun when
paled by an intervening screen affords an excellent and practically constant standard for rough
measurement. It would often be well to indicate objects in a distjiiit landscape by describing
them as so many sun-breadths to the right or left of some conspicuous feature, or to speak of
a mountain seen from a specified place as towering so many sun-brejidths in height, or as
bulkii\g so n\any [square] sun-breadths in area. But as sun-breadths are not terms in popular
use, and as they are not the best unit for the purpose of this memoir, I will employ another
that is. The sun's diameter may be taken as subtending an angle of 31 '0 minutes of a degree.
T will employ for my unit the diameter of an imaginary mock sun that subtends 34'4 minutes,
and is therefore wider than that of the real sun in tho proportion of 10 to 9. Its merit lies in
the fact that the tangent as also the arc of 34'4 minutes differ insensibly from O'Ol ; in other
words the angular unit is that which is subtended by 1 mcA-sure of any kind, at the distance of
100 measures of the same kind. I will call the arc subtended by this angle at any specified
distance a 'sol'."

m

42—2

332 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

Gallon now gives a paragrapli of considerable importance which shows
that he had anticipated and met the criticism which naturally arises on
reading his second paj)er.

"The portions of objects to Ix- coniparetl aiul between which Resemblance is t<j Ix; nieanured
must be strictly defined. Non-essentials may be either marked out or he simply ignored, but
there must be no vagueness iis to the limits of the portions st>lecte<l for comparison. If the
objects be portraits the selecttnl pt)rtion may be any s|x.>cilie»l part of the whole of it It may
1k> a single feature, it may be the face irrespectively of hair, and of be«rd if any, it may l)e the
whole hea<l, or it may Ik^ the entiri' person. Kut, whatever it may lie, it must l)o defined."

After defining the objects foe comparison as comparates, Galton continues :

"Thecompiirate is limited to the portion undi'r comparison, the two comjMvrates are supposed
to be re<luced to similar scales, to be mounted side by side on the same moveable screen
squarely to the line of sight, and to be viewed in a good light through a perfectly transparent
atmosphere."

Now in order to conduct the experiments successfully the experimenter
requires to have the power of adapting the focus of his eye sharply to the
various distances of tlie screen or to use an optical contrivance to sujjjjly this
faculty if he should be deficient in it — at the time of writing this paper
Galton was 84 years old, and the following words are very characteristic and
indicate at least the nature of one of his 'toys,' which I had puzzled over:

"The range of adaptability of my own eye, as in that of most elderly persons, has. become
very narrow, and during a long time w^ the cause of serious embarrassment in my various ex-
periments on Resemblance. But all this difliculty was happily removed by a small inverting
telescope of very low power, that I made abroad in a very makeshift way, out of two small
iiuignif\'ing glasses that I had by me, with pasted pii|>er tul>es and corks. It acted so well that
I was loath to replace it by a lietter. Its field of view was ample and enabled mo to focus my
eye sharply on 'comparates' at any distance from a few inches upwards. I will call telescopes
that neither magnify nor minify by the name of Isoscopes; their use is sim])ly to secure a sharp
focus for the eye at any distance. Two convex lenses of 2 inches focal length seem to be on
the whole most suitable for an isoscope. The tubes must admit of a wide range of adjustment.
Either lens may serve as the eye-piece, but when used as such it should be covered by a cap
with an eyehole. Distances must be measured from the object-glass. An isoscope should be
fitted with two eye-pieces one of them furnished with a micrometer of cros.sed lines [i.e. an areal
micrometer]. If the eye-piece be of 2 inches focus, and the distjinces between the lines one 50th
of an inch, the intervals Ijetween them will subtend 1 sol and each small w^uare will subtend
one square-sol."

Galton proposes to take as liis index of mistakability the nujuber of
square sols covered by either comparate when they are at the 'critical distance,'
and the corresponding angle is the critical angle. The measure of Resemblance
between two comparates, he says, is the angular area of either of them at the
critical distance when the coujparates as a whole are mutually mistakable.
The angular area as a whole is proportional to the number of just-distinguish-
able plots (i.e. for the normal eye plots of about 1 minute diameter) which
they contain, the possibility of mistalcing one comparate for another being due
to apparent identity in every one of the just-distinguishable plots. The more
numerous the ])lots, the more minute is the coincidence, and conse(juently
the closer the resemblance. It will be seen that the entire difference between
this earlier and the later paper of Galton is the measurement by a solid instead
of a plane angle.

PLATK XLVI

Elizalxtli Antu- fwillon (1808-1906), Mrs Wlu-lur, February 21, 1904, agwl 90.
From the last photograph taken.

I'F.ATK XLVII

i'raiicis Galton, aged t<.'J, fiom a pliotogriipli tukt-ii by W. F. U. \\\-liloii in July, VMo.

'\I enclose the best I can <lo with one of the negatives you were kind enough to let me

make. Please forgive my caricaturing you in this way. You know enough aliout the lower

forms of man to know that respect iind affection .show themselves in strange wavs— look

upon this as one of them, and pardon it." W. F. 1!. W.

Photographic /{esearche^ aiul Portraiture 333

Apart from the (juestion, however, of whether the eye does pa>« under
review and uscertjuii tlie !i|i|)!Ufnt identity of all these jn8t-di.stiii<;niHhuhle
plots, we may unk what would happen to the rel.itivi- mc.isiirtiiHnt in tin*
following cases:

A. AH the plots are absolutely alike except a It-w wluc^^ are extremely
different, say two iileiitical twins one oidy with a mole on tli<' ('i''-

li. All the plots are different hut not widely diflerent.

Tlie comparates in case li would present a hiffher index of mi.stakal>ility
than those in A, fur we should liave in the aise of .1 to proceed with dis-
tancing the comparates until the isolated anomalous feature disappeared. It
might be nothing of course so easily observed and allowed for jus a mole, but
the measure seems largely to depend upon items of extreme divergence rather
than on an avenige of all comparable plots.

Nevertheless the whole investigation is of great suggestivenass, and its
originality striking for a man of Galton's then age. He sjiw a great need,
and he did his best to supply it, spending a large part of many years over
the problem. If he did not fully solve it, no one has done so much towards
its solution, and no one to this day hivs tested his work, his apparatus or
his method and iiscertained how far they would carry us.

"The niensureinent of Resemblance is of wider importance than may appear at first sight. It
covers a field of research that escai^s the ordinary measurements by foot rule, scales and watch.
It is particularly applicai>le to a variety of biological studies in which hereditary likenesses and
family or racial jwculiarities are inquired into, and seems eminently suitable for comparing
conipo.site photographs. The account of the nieth(xl I propose has been given merely in outline.
It presents many side-issues of interest, and deserves a large amount of photograpliic illustration
such as I am now unable to give."

Thus wrote the veteran of 84 ! What is needed is that some one should
take up the subject where Galton was forced to leave it, starting |X).ssibly
with his material and apparatus. What are the average degrees of resemblance
of parent and child, of brothers and sisters, of first cousins, etc.? And would
the results obtained from Galton's Index of Mistakability correspond with
those found by the principle of con-elation from a single character in kinsmen
of various degrees ?

The number of years over which Galton's photographic researches are
stretched is in itself remarkable, but more remarkable still is the amount
of time in those years he devoted to them. I have spent weeks in going
through his manuscripts, his published papers, his photographic apparatus,
his negatives and his prints, with the view of writing the account in this
chapter, but it is more than possible that I have missed points of interest in the
overwhelming mass of his material. The suggestiveness of his contributions
to portraiture seems to me great, but long as he lived he had only time to
blaze the trail. In heredity and statistics a younger generation has been found
to take up his work; in photography and portraiture his pioneer steps have
not yet been trodden into a well-marked track by enthusiastic disciples.

CHAPTER XIII

STATISTICAL INVESTIGATIONS, ESPECIALLY WITH REGARD
TO ANTHROPOMETRY

"Until the phenomena of any branch of Knowledge have been submitted to measurement
and number it cannot assume the status 'and dignity of a science." Francis Galton.

A. STATISTICS IN THE SERVICE OF ANTHROPOLOGY

There is no branch of knowledge to which Gallon's remark applies more
closely than anthropology; and there is certainly no field of researcli which
owes more to Galton than that of anthropometry and in particular that
branch of it which deals with craniometry. Here again as we have so often
had occasion to remark Galton's contribution was essentially one of method,
and lay in his insistence that the only way to permanent and safe deductions
was the path of measurement and number. The reader has only to examine
cniniological papers of the 'sixties or 'seventies, even by such authorities
of those days as Dr George Busk or Sir William Flower, to grasp iiow in-
definite and inconclusive craniometry was before it became permeated with
Galton's ideas of measurement and numlier. Half-a-dozen measurements on
half-a-dozen skulls .screened by a smoke-fog of vague remarks were considered
an adequate basis for attack on the most elusive problems of racial differ-
entiation. There was no conception of the iiuml)er of individuals or of the
number of characters which require to be measured before we can reach
definite conclusions. Anthropology was considered as a field to be left for a
recreation ground almost entirely to men busy in other matters, for it had
developed no academic discipline of its own, until Galton's methods gave it
the status and dignity of a real science.

What troubled Galton, when travel and geography in the wider sense
had led him to anthropology, was not only the lack of quantitative method
but the lack also of ample material'. He at once set about supj)lying both
in his own original way. Yet having reached some certainty hunself he
proceeded, owing to the weakness of his brethren, in administering it only
m homoeopathic doses. At the Brighton British A.ssociation of 1872, a
recommendation was made by the General Committee, probably on Galton's
suggestion, that brief forms of instruction should be prepared tor travellers.
Two years later the Notes and Queries on Anthropvloiji/, for the Use of
Trat^ellers and Residents in uncivilised Lands, drawn up by the Committee
of the British Association (which included Lane Fox, Beddoe, Lubbock,
Tylor, Galton and uthei-s), was issued. To the first edition of this handbook

' Neither lack was fully recognised even to Galton's death in many of the papers published
by the representative EngliHh Anthropological Society ; and I remember on more than one
occasion his Haying with a sigh : "Poor dear old Anthropological." All his efforts had produced
little if any impression upon its members.

PLATE XL VIM

Francis Galton in the late 'sixties.

Statistical InvextiyatiiniH 335

Gallon contributed the hundredth section entitletl "StatisticB." He opeos
with the characteristic sentence:

"Tho topics Huitablo to HtAtiHticH aro too numerous to Kpocify; thoy inc! vthinR to

whicli such phrases lis 'udually,' 'wliloin,' ' very often ' «nfl th« likv aru n|>i>i .liich vnx

tho int(>llip-iit ri'ador hy their vague-nogs and make liini impatient at the absence of more
prcoiHo data." (p. 143.)

He then refers to the necessity of homogeneity, the breaking up even of
homogeneous groups when there is a variation largely governed by a dominant
influence, e.g. age, and the need for a truly riiiidoiu selection. He says that
precision varies as the s(juuro root of the numljer of observations, but that
number nuist not be reached at the expense of accurate reporting. He then
turns to the "law of deviations" and suggests the "ranking" of characters in
individuals, and the mejusurement of the mid (500th), the •25Uth and the
750th individuals in ranks of a thousand, or what we now term the median
and (piartiles'. The ranking gives him his so-calletl ogive curve, and his
whole appeal to theory consists in the statement that when individual
dirterences in a homogeneous population are due to manv small and inde-
pendent variable influences then the excess of the {m-\-t)t\\ individual if m
be the mid number will equal the defect of the (»i — <)th individual from the
mill individual. Galton does not enter into the mathematics of the matter.
He says this

"law of devirttioiis liolds for the mUiIiiio of men iind animals, and apparently in a useful
degree for every homogeneous group of qualities or comijouiid qualities, mental or Iwdily, that
can be named."

Galton gives no proof of the "normal curve of deviations," but suggests that
it is mathematically deducible on making certain rather forced suppositions
to render calculation feasible. Comparing fact, however, with theory

" wherever comparison is possible, it is fuund that they agree very fairly and in many cases
surprisingly well." (p. 14 t.)

He concludes with the statement that a good book on these matters has yet
to be written.

"Quetelet's Letters on the Theory of Proliabilities is perhaps the most suitable to the non-
mathematical reader." (p. 14(5.)

It will be clear that Galton was proceeding gradually, and the dose was a
very small and simple one'.

In the second edition we find Galton contributing some further sections.

' Galton then termed the 500th individual in a thousand the "average." Tlie middle man
is practically the 500th, but not so theoretical ly. The diagrnm in later editions disappeared.

" Other contributions l)y (!alton to the first edition were No. xciv on "Population," which
begins characteristically with "Count wherever you can," No. LVin on "Communications," remi-
niscent of the Art of Travel, No. Liv "Causes that limit Population," No. x.\i "Astronomy,"
with special reference to the seasons, and to steering by sun and stars. There is also (pp. 21-2)
a note on heredity, giving a list of her«>ditary characters which admit of preci.se testing;
"those who confuse the eflects of nature and nurtun? give information that is of very little
use." The first e<lition also contains a section (No. i.\) on "Physiognomy," by Charles Darwin,
who was collecting material for his work on Kxpres.sion of the Emotions, a section which
Dr Garson had the temerity to revise in later editions.

336 Li/c and Letters of Francis Galton

In a note on the "Physical Powers" he suggests takuig three weights
A, B, Cof definite and increasing heaviness ana noting how many fail to lift
each, and so ranking the conuuunity. He suggests similar tests tor running
the same distance in specified times and for running three distances in a
specified time, etc., etc. He says that such methods

"afforrl a complete and approximately correct picture of the distribution of the qualities tested,
and not merely general averages."' (p. 41.)

There is also in this edition a note on testing sight (pp. 43-4). The distance
at which the tested can distinguish between two white squares on a black
ground, one with the side and the other with the diagonal vertical, is recorded
and used ns a nieasure of acuity of vision.

"The t^fstinjr must l)e performed when the li^ht is perfectly good, hut not da/.zling.
Always test yourself when you are testing others, liecjiuse if your own elficiency conies up to
its normal Ktandarii, it is fair evidence that the conditions of light etc. are normal also, other-
wise very prol)ably they are not."

Like Darwin's contribution, Galton 's were "revised" in later editions, and
ultin)ately they disiippeared, perhaps desirably as they had lieen deprived of
any characteristic value.

Galtons anthro}X)metric projects were, however, far from l>eing confined
to travellers; he had much more comprehensive schemes in view. One of his
earliest propo-sals was the establishment of anthropometric laboratories in
schools', but here again he e.\hil)ited at first only the thinnest end of the
wedge. He had realised that statistical material for such fundamental
characters as height and weight did not exist for the Britrish jieople.

"We do not know whether the general physique of the nation remains year afU-r year at
the same level, or whether it is distinctly deteriorating or advancing in any respects. Still less
are we able to ascertain how wo stand at tliis moment in eonijmrison with other nations,
because the necessary statistical facts are, speaking generally, as deficient with them as with
ourselves." (p. 308.)

Galton's |)roposal was to take samples of reasonably homogeneous classes,
and then by aid of the census to combine the returns in the proper propor-
tions. He considered that homogeneous grf»ups of Iwys, girls and youths
already existed in several large schools, under conditions which offered extra-
ordinary facilities for obtaining anthropometric data. He proposed to measure
children in the grejit pviblic schools, middle class schools and others down to
those for pauper children (p. .Sll). Galton held that the mastera in such
scliools were " trustworthy and intelligent in no common degree," that they
knew their pupils well, and that the general organisation and discipline of the
school was favourable to collecting full and iiccurate statistics. He believed
that the school authorities might be induced in not a few instances to
cnopenite he<artily and with great intelligence. Once the system of anthro-
pometric measuiement was established in schools it would .sprciul elsewhere.

"The boys when they grow up into men would retain favourable recollections of the whole
procedure, and application might then he made to Universities, Factoricis, and other large
ixxlies of adults, with great<T prolwibility than at j)resent of obtaining the required information.''
(p. 309.)

' "Proposal to apply for Anthropological .Statistics from Schools," Journal of thf Aiithropo-
lofficai ItuUluU, Vol. ni, pp. 308-11, 1874. Paper read in 1873, proposals drafted 1872.

Stathfiral Investigation* 337

Galton confines his attention to the data for apo, hciplit and weitrht, and
remarks :

"It KctMns to nip Ix'tter not to Hp<^k at pri'nent of llu! ati' •ins

that iiii^ht 1)0 Nolv(>(i by a widor ranj;<' of in(|uiry; U'caui»<> if » ■•<>•>■

wo ask to ff>w and HJniple quest ions, wn art> far niorp likely to have ihciii WfU ami thoroughly
answ(<rp(l, than if we lia<l iKNui-d a nioro ainhitioun progrnniinc." (p. 310.)

Anthropometric measurements were soon taken at a numl)er of schools
and in some schools anthroponu'tric hvboratories estahhshed. From the schools
they spread to the Universities (Camhridge, 1884; Oxford, 1908; London,
Galton Luhoratory, 1920). But on the whole there has been a tendency to
take in routine fa.shion a few .superficial measurements, and not use the
anthropometric laboratory as a means of solving detinit*^ problems, physical
or mental. They might still be of value if a little inspiration were thrown
into their work and psycliic or dynamic qualities me»isured rather than
superficial static characteristics. One result of the nroposjil was those returns
(ix)in the public schools, upon which Galton ba.sea his paper on the weight
and height of boys in town and country schools discus.sed on our p. 125.

Another somewhat slender paper of this period is entitled: "Excess of
Females in the West Indian Islands from d(wuments communicjited to the
Anthropological Institute by the Colonial Office'." This paper gives statistics
sliuwing the excess of females in most of the West Indian colonies, although
tliere is an exce.ss of male l)irths. Tlie anomaly is partly due to mortality
following dissipation in the young of the male sex, but more extensively to
adult male emigration. The whole topic miglit now be redi.scus.sed with
fifty years ailditional statistics, and would not be without interest. As
Galton remarked in 1874 each of the West Indian Islands is an individual
.social experiment, and each therefore deserves the pains of a .separate and
tliorougii statistical investigation.

The collection of statistical data was, however, not the only point that
Galton had in view ; he sought to make statistical theory simple and of ea.sy
application, and he risked tlie po.ssibility that loss of refinement might involve
decreased accuracy and a drawing of over hasty conclusioTis. His " Proposed
St.'itistical Scale" was first given at a Royal Institution Friday evening dis-
course on February 27, 1874. lie followed the lecture up by a letter to Mature
on March 5, 1874'. His communication embraced the idea of "ranks," and the
whole theoiy of ranks has been developed from this origin. It is easy to recog-
nise that it is oflen less difficult to place two persons in order as to the in-
tensities they possess of any physical or psychical character than actually to
mea.sure those intensities. A trained .schoolin.Lster can "rank" his chuss for
intelligence with veiy considerable accuracy. If a numlier of individuals be
|)laced in order of their intensity for any character, they are arranged accord-
ing to (Jalton on a "statistical .scale" (S.8.). The grade of any individual is then
determined by the percentage of the whole population who stand above that
individual on the statistical scale. The middle man — or the man who woirid
stand half-way between the two middle men if there were two — was later said

' Jour. Anthrop. hist. Vol. iv, pp. 136-7, 1874. = Vol. ix, p. 342 (abstract of lecture, p. 344).
i> a II ' 43

338 Life and Letters of Francift Galtou

by Galton to have the median value of the character (m). The two men with
75 '/^ and 25 7, of the population alxive them are said to have the lower and
upper (luartile values (</, and </,). If the distribution Ije synunetrical about
the meaian then »i — 7, and 7, — m will he enual ; if the distribution obeys the
so-called normal curve of deviations, then all the constants i>f the distribiition
can be found by measuring the intensity of the chai-acter in the median and
in the quartile individuals. Thus Galton would place a hundred and one
savages in a row, the curves formed by the apices of their heads would be
his "ogive'" for their stature, and by measuring only the 25th, the Slst and
7Gth men he would obtain a reasonable distribution for the stature of adult
men in that tribe.

Theoreticaliy there are difficulties about Galton's "ogive," if we suppose
it to correspond to a normal curve of deviations, in particular at the terminals.
Galton endeavoured to get over these difficulties by replacing the normal
curve by a symmetrical binomial, which has a finite range. He treats of this
matter in a paper on "Stjitistics by Intercomparison with Remarks oti the
Law of Fretiuency of Error'." In this paper after mentioning that Quetelet
had shown that a binomial to the it99th [xtwer was practiadly a normal curve
of deviations, Galton goes on to indicate that the same holds very closely
for symmetrical binomials of quite low powers. Thus he plots (p. 39) the
Binomial Ogive of 17 elements agjiinst the Binomial Ogive of 999 equal
elements, which is practically identical with the Exponential Ogive, and argues
therefrom to the binomial of the 17th power being very close, indeed (which
is a fact), to the normal curve'. Galton then pa.sses to some suggestive
remarks on the origin of the distribution of deviations according to the
normal law. He rejects any idea of its source in a very large number of
small and independent contributory causes. He supposes the exponential
curve to arise because it nearly resembles the curve based upon a binomial
of moderate power, i.e. he supposes that in nature the contributory cause-
groups are relatively few; but he has to suppo.se in this case that nature
works all her processes by equal additions or subtractions, i.e. prefers the
mathematics of coin-tossing to those of the dice-box.

"1 shall show," he wriU-.t, "by quite a different line of argument that the exponential
view contain.s inherent contradictions when nature is appc<iled to, that the binomial of a
moderate power is the truer one and tliat we have means of ascertaining a limit which the
number of elements [independent cause-groups as the individual coins of n coinhincd toss]
cannot exceed." (p. 40.)

Galton takes the mean (m) and divides it by the quartile deviation
(7, — m or m — 7,) and computes the ratio ni/{q, — m). In the case of the
binomial (a + b)" this will be

nb/-67i49j^b=ViS257 J~ ,

' Philosophical Magaziiu, January, 1875, Vol. XLix, pp. .33-46.
. ' If A" Ik- the abscissa, i.e. the rank, and V the ordinate or value of the variate, m the mean,
<r the standanl deviation of the population - 1-48^57 (y, — m), and N the total po})iiln.tiim lln-n

the equation to Gallon's "ogive" will heX=\+ j -f^ ,-i(l'-"«)V£/r.

* I have not been able to agree with the values given in the Table on p. 42.

Statlxtu'nl fuvtstif/atioim 339

and It will be clear that we could not determine n — the number of inde-
pendent caiisp-i^rcmpH in ifeneral — ^witliout a knowledge of a and /*. for which
we require higher moments than the first two. If we suppose with Gallon
that " nature tosses," i.e. a = b = ^, then clearly a knowledge of iii/{q, — n») will
give s/n and so determine the number of elements, or contributory cause-
groups.

Gallon obtains (p. 43) the following results:

Number of BUemeuts or
Contribntorj Oronpa

Value of -!5-

Qalton

Above formulk

17
32
65
107
145
186
999

5
10
15
20
26
30
48

6

8
12
15

18
20
17

1

The source of the divergence is two-fold. First, there is no theoretical means
of discovering the quartiles in a binomial of discrete terms. Gallon deter-
mined them by drawing a freehand curve through the tops of the plotted
binomial blocks in order to reach a continuous ogive. This method is not
capable of great accuracy. Secondly, although the standard deviation of
a binomial is well known, the probable deviation (or quartile) will not
be equal to •67449 multiplied by the standard deviation unless n is fairly
large. Still the deviations seem too large to he wholly attributable to this
cause.

I have enlarged on this iiuuier because it provides an iilu^sl^;lUull ot the
cases in which a standard deviation can be determined and a quartile cannot.
On the other hand there is more than an assumption of a = 6 in Galton's
method. If we are given any data, for example statures of a definite group,
there appears to be no reason why the zero of stature should correspond to the
start of the binomial; nature is more likely to take its additions and sub-
tractions fronj some definite value, and zero stature to be not t)nly a great
Improbability, but an impossibility. Further, nature's unit of addition or
subtraction will not be that of the measurement of stature and this introduces
another unknown. When we approjich the problem with all these quantities —
rt, n and both the unit of addition (or subtraction) and the centre about which
nature works — unknown, we can still solve the problem of fitting a binomial
to our data. Experience shows, however, that in the great majority of cases
the equations lead to imaginary values for our constants, or to such as
are uninterpretable (e.g. n negative) on the basis of a simple binomial. In
other words nature does not work on the b;isis of a finite number of
indepoident cause-groups, such as ai-e assumed in tln^ binomial frequency;

43—2

340 Life ami Letters of FrauctH Galfoii

it is more probable that the products of the contributory cause-groups are
correlatetl. That is to say, that the first contribution influences later ones'.

As far as 1 am aware, however, Gallon was the fii-st to endeavour to
unriddle something of nature's method of working from the frequency
distribution of a given variate. We may see now-a-days that his solution of
1874 is not valid, but we have to confess that we have not got much farther
than he did'.

In the remainder of the memoir Galton discus-ses

" how a medley of snmll and minute cniises iiiny, as a first approximation to the trutli, be
looked upon as an aggregate of a moderate number of 'small' and equal influences." (p. 42.)

He considers that small disturbing influences would weld the binomial blocks
into a continuous ogive. He concludes by showing that the sum of three
symmetrical binomials taken in certain proportions may lead to a result
indistinguishable from a single binomial. He justifles the exponential law,
or normal curve, on the ground that it is very close in the results it gives to
any binomial ogive, and would propose to use it for intercomparison n\ cases
where no scale of equal parts has been or can be applied. As we have
endeavoured to show the paper is extremely suggestive, but not every reader
will Ije induced by the arguments to accept its conclusions.

Galton, influenced by his own motto : " Whenever you can, count," seldom
went for a walk or attended a meeting or lecture without counting something.
If it was not yawns or fidj^ets, it was the colour of hair, of eyes or of skins.
But the record of several cnaracters involves a considerable eifort of memory,
and using a pencil invites attention to the work of the recorder. The Galton
Laboratory pos.sesses no less than five implements of a type which Galton
later termed "registrators." One consists of a pair of cotton gloves; on the
palmar face of one glove across the fingers is a pocket capable of containing
a cai-d, about the size of a gentleman's visiting card ; just below the tip of
the thumb is a thin piece of wood or metal sewn into the inside of the glove
and carrying a needle point projecting very slightly through the material of
the glove. If the thumb be pressed against the palmar surface of any one of
the four fingers a fine hole is recorded on the card. "A great many holes
may be pricked at haphazard close together without their running into one
another or otherwise making it difticult to count them afterwards." Another
registrator consists of a tlnmble which being pressed against a card or even
a newspaper makes a pinhole by aid of a needle point which projects on the
thimble being pressed. A third registrator is a single dotter and contains a
guarded neeale-point which on a slight .squeeze stabs a strip of jiaper, the
action of the instrument being siich that a 'stab' slightly pulls the strij) of pa|>er
forward, so that a liiie of dots is made; the instrument can be held in the
palm of the hand in the pocket of an overcoat. Another simple pocket

' Nature prefers a hypergeometrical series to a binomial scries !

• No gtreas whatever, in my opinion, can be laid on the n'sults of those writers who believe
that the direction of evolution of a character can be determined from the asymmetry or skew-
new of itM distribution, or of those who assert that certain forms of distribution connote
"inntability" in the character.

I

I

Stat'mtical /nvestu/atioim 341

recorder coiisiHts of a brass disk sliding with a range of about 3" vertically,
and rather more than jf" horizontally, so that a neetUe which projects from
the disk on picssinj,' a spriiij; is cupal)le of holing alKiut one square inch of
visiting card supported on chamois leather. The range is ade(|uate for the
record of two, possibly three characters.

The most complete registrator was one made for Galton by 1 lauksluy ; the
needle point is done away with, and the instrument records on tive dials the
inunber of separate pressures ou five pins. These pins or stops communicate
by a ratchet with a scjiarato index-arm that moves round its own dial. The
dials are covered by a plate which can be removed to read oH' the results. The
instrument is ^" thick, 4" long and 1|" wide and it can be held un.seen in
either hand with a separate Hnger and thumb on each stop. Wlien any
finger is pressed on the stop below it the corresponding index-arm records a
unit. Guides are placed to keep the fingers in their proper positions. The
instnnnent may be used in the pocket or under a loose glove or other cover.
"It is possible by its means to take anthropological statistics of any kind
among crowds of people without exciting observation, which it is otherwise
exceedingly difficult to do'." I may remark that it requires some little
training to press with the correct finger. With an in.strument of this kind
Galton recorded the percentage of attractive, indifferent and repellent looking
women he met in his walks through the streets of various towns witli the
object of forming a "Beauty-map" of the Briti.sh Isles — a project he never
completed, although he held London to have most and Aberdeen fewest
beautiful women of the towns he had observed. He once also remarked to me
that he had found Salonika to be the centre of gravity of lying, though I
have no direct evidence that lie used a registrator to tick off liars and truth-
speakers in his travels in Greece.

While busy with his Hereditaty Genius, 1869, Galton had noticed how
a])t are the families of great men to die out and that genius has l)een asserted
to be related to sterility. He endeavoured to explain the matter in the case
of the judges and in the case of peei"s by special cau.ses (see our pp. 93-96).
De C'andoile also referred to this topic in his Histoire ilea ISciences,
four years later, and suggested without matiiematical investigation that
families in tiie tiKtle line mu.st always tend to die out, the name becoming ex-
tinguished when a son failed to be born. He suggested that a matliematician
ought to be able to solve this problem of the extinction of surnames. Galton
saw the importance of the determination of the i-ate of extermination of
surnames as a preliminary investig.ation to the inquiry as to the dying out
of the families of men of ability, in whose cases heredity had been too often
traced in the male line only — e.g. the extinction of peerages granted for great
achievements — and this e.xtinction of the line attribiited to some une.xplained
sterility in able men. Galton accordingly propounded the problem in the
Eihtcdtional Times, and there it met with pt)or success at first — one erroneous
solution. Ultimately the late H. W. Watson, a pereonal frientl of Galton's,

' See the paper: "Pocket liegistrator for Anthropological Purposes," liritUit Asuociation
Report, Swansea, 1880, p. 625.

34*2 TAfe and Letters of Francis Galton

was {K»rsua(itMl to take it up and sent his discussion of it to the above
Journal'. His discussion witli certain preliminary remarks by Galton was
also published in the Journal of the Anthropological Institute*. The kernel of
Watson's paper is as follows: The symlxjls I,, t,, ... t,, ... t,^ denote the chances
of a man luiving no children or one. ... s, ... q children. Then the chance of
a surname iiaving s repi-esentatives in the next succeeding generation, if it
has p in any generation, will be the coefficient of .t** in the multinomial

(/, + l,x + /,x-" + . . . + l^x'')" = T>\ say.

Let ,«i, be the fraction of N, the original number of distinct surnames,
which in the »/th generation have v representatives, then the number of
surnames with « representatives in the v generation must be the coefficient
of x* in

{,..m, + ,..m.7'+,..»«.r +...+,. ,7V-. ^''"'}^=/r(^)^. say.
It follows that r_,m,, ,.,m,, etc. are the coefficients of x, x', etc. in the ex-

f>ression /,_, (x). As soon as the t's are known, it should l)e possible, although
aborious, to find the succession of functions given by

fr{x)=f,.,{t, + t,x + ... + t,af).

As the numerical values of the ^'s are not known, Watson takes two hjrpo-
thetical systems. In the first he takes '/ = '.i and 'o = <, = ^ = ^. He finds by
a brute-force expansion that out of a million distinct surnames 333,333 will
disappear in the first, 148,147 in the second, 89,620 in the third, 70,030 in
the fourth, and only 34,150 in the fifth generation. In this ca.se the total
male pipulation is clearly constant and two-thirds of the surnames have
disappeitred in five generations. Watson's second hypothesis is that the I'b
are the successive terms in the binomial

where X, -|- X, = 1 . In this case

/, (x) = (\, -h X, x)«, and ,?n, = X,'',

and ,Tn, = (X,-|-X.,X,»)"'

= (X, + X„m.)' = X,'(^-t-,m.y.

and generally rW, = X,* ( -^ -f- r. i "i, ) •

The extinctions in each generation can then be easily cjilculated. Watson
takes the case of X, = |, X, = ^ and q = 5. In this case the t's are

<.= -237, «, = -39G, <, = '264, /,= -088, /.= -014, t, = -00l,

and the extinctions in the first ten generations of 1000 original distinct
surnames :

237, 109, (Jo, 40, 27, 18, 14, 10, 7, G,

' Educatwuil Tiiitei, Vol. xxvi, 187.3, p. 17 and p. 115.
'' Vol. IV, pj.. 1.38-44, 1874.

Stntintirnl fnvfntigntionti 343

or a total loss of 5.'?;3 Huriiami's. Here the population increases since

is greater than unity. As l)efore the extinction rate is quick to begin with
but soon slackens clown, as the number of pei-sons holding each surname
increases, while the number of surnames diminishes. On the above hypo-
thesis nearly a (juartor of newly-created peerages would Ijecome extinct in
the first generatioti and half of them by the sixth generation. With any such
hyjiothesis there is no need to appeal to sterility as rendering rapidly extinct
a large proportion of the peerage.s created for ability. It will be clear that
if we take not the number of sons, but the number of children, in computing
tlie t'n, the problem becomes that of the extinction of definite stirps; it is
highly probable that families die out in approximately the same maimer as
they die out in the male line. If mankind has not sprung from a single
pair, it seems possible that even the most innnerous nation mav tend with the
ages to be the product of a very few stirps, if not of a single pan-. The fable of
Adam and Eve may be somewhat truer for an old world tlian for a young one!
Beside the data noted in the paper on the stature of boys from urban
and rural achools", several .schools j)rovide<l material of a more extended
kind, notably Marlborough School, which had e.stal)lished something like an
anthropometric laboratory". The school medical othcer and the natural science
nuister took the measurements: namely weight, stature, horizontal circum-
ference of the head, chest girth, girth of the flexed arm over the biceps muscle,
girth of the leg over the calf, both the last two being the maximum measure-
ments. The ages of the boys ranged from 10 to 19 and there were 550 of
them. The authors of the paper give three correlation tables for age with
stature, weight and head circumference, but make no reductions, citing merely
in the case of the extreme boys in each measurement the other mefvsure-
ments of those boys. One remark deserves citing. The authors state that they

"are unaWe to trace any distinct connection between intellectual vigour and head measure-
ment ; for although many of those who possess the higher girths of head are intelligent Iwys
of considerable aV)ility, it must be confessed that many boys whose heads measure less than
22 inches, are in ability, perseverance, and general culture, quite equal to those who possess
the higher measurements." (p. 129.)

This remark bears on a point already referred to in this Life (p. 94).

Galtoii's short accompanying paper confines itself to one character, stature,
and he tells us that he proposes to illustrate the statistical methods which
will be adopted, when sufficient material of a homogeneous nature is available.
He takes the boys for each year of age and finds their means, which give
for the central ages 12^, 13^, etc. the law of growth. He thus obtains what
we should now term the regression line. But here he strikes a new point:
he finds that the arithmetical means of the arrays are not identical with

' See our p. 125.

* "On a Series of Measurements for Statistical Purposes, recently made at Marlborough
College." I?y Walter Fergus, M.D., and 0. F. Rodwell, F'.R.A.S. JonnuU of the Anthropo-
logical Institute, Vol. iv, pp. 126-30. "Notes on the Marlborough School Statistics" by
Francis Galton himself follow this paper, pp. 130-5.

344 Life and Lfttera of Frnnch Calttni

what he terms the "typical means." Tlie normal curves for the age-arrays
are not fitted to the arithmetical means, but to the "typical means.' Galton
does not describe how he obtained either "typical means" or normal curves;
probably but not certainly his "typical means" are not "modes," but what
he later termed "medians," and his normal curves were then found from
the (luartiles. The metlian oi typical mean in all cases corresponds to a less
stature tiian the arithmetic mean; and there is thus some little evidence
that the arrays are asymmetrical and are not normal curves. Galton
emphasises the jioint that we have really not a mere system of arrays, but a
continuous fretpiency surface. Further he points out that the variation of
these arrays widens as the jige increases, a condition we now know to be
incompatible with a normal frequency surface. It is a strikinj; fact that in
this firet anthropometric surface Galton should have acttially run up against
the line of meclians generally diverging from the line of means, when the
variability of the arrays is not constant, i.e. that he should have come across
the asynmietrical fre(juency surface, which is still proving a hard nut to crack.
We have seen how (Jalton \irged anthropologists io turn from the sole
discuasion of external physical character to the mental characters in man,
such as personal equation and rapidity of judgment'. He early perceived the
importsmce of the school not only for anthropometric physical but for anthro-
pometric psychical measurements, and he endeavoured to enlist the .school-
master in the service of p.sychical anthropometry. He rightly looked upon the
school as not only an institution for educating the young, but as a lalwratory
for studying their mentality, and so by increased knowledge of psychical
character improving education. In 1880 Galton wrote a strong letter on thi.s
point to Nature- as a result of his receiving from Mr W. H. Poole, then
science master of Charterhouse, very valuable material on visual images (see
our p. 237). It seemed to Galton — as it has often seemed to some of us who
do not fully realise the pressure of school routine work — that other school-
masters might emulate the exceptional Mr Poole.

"The observation I desire" — writes Oalton — "to uiuke is that as every hospitjil fulfils two
purposes, the primary one of relieving the sick, and the secondary one of advancing pathology,
so every school might be made not only to fulfil the primary purpose of educating l)oys, but
also that of adviuicing many branches of anthropology. The object of schools should be not
only to educate, but also to promote directly and indirectly the science of education. It is
astonishing how little has liecn done by the schoolmasters of our great public schools' in this
direction, notwithstanding their enviable opp)rtunities. I know absolutely of no work written
by one of them in which his experiences are cla.ssi(ied in the same; scientific spirit as hospital
caw's are by a physician, or as other facts are by the scientific man in whose special line of
imiuiry they lie. Yet the routine of school work is a daily course of examination. There,
if anywhci-e, the art of putting questions and the practice of answering them is develojied to
itii highest known perfection. In no other place are persons so incessantly and for so long
a time under clos*- inspection. Nowhere else are the conditions of antecedents, age, and
prettent occupation so alike a« in the Iwys of the same form. Schools are almost ideally perfect
place* for statistical inquiries If a schoolmaster were now and then funnel imii^iKIi' hikI

' AddrcoH to Section H, Kritish Association, 1877: see our p. 228.

• May 6, 1880, Vol. xxii, p. 9.

• The Mtreits laid on the appointment of classical and elerical fieiuls, to the nepleet of scientific
oandidatex, largely accounts for the matter.

5^

Sfnfintiatl InveHlujatJonx 345

willing to codify in a Hciciitific iiinnn<r his Urge exi>eri<'nc«>« of Uiyu, to compBre thi-ir varioun
iiionil iind intellectual (iimlitips, to i:lan«ify their natural teiniKTanipntu, antl l' 'o

(K'Hi-rilx' tliein iis a mtturaliNt would duserilK- tin- fauna of Home new land, wli . nt

iHyoliological work niiglit Ihi a<c()in|)lislie<n Hut all these great o|>|H>rtunitie.s Ij. ij.

.'ho maHterH come and go, their ex|>erience« arc lost, i>r alnn«t ho, aiul the ineideiw nh

they were founded an) forgotten, in8t<-nd of Ixjing Ht4irtd and retiderttl aceeHHilile t<. their
succeHsors ; thus our great schools are like mediaeval hospitals, where ca«vt«king was unknown,
where pithological collectionH wcni never dreamt of, and where in const'<juence the art of heal-
ing made slow and uncertain advance.

Some 8ch(H>lniast<r may jiut the inquiry: What are the subject* fitted for investigation
in schools? I can only reply: Take any Iwok that bears on psychology, select any subject
concerning the intellect, enmlions, or wnses in which you may feel an interest ; think how
a knowliMlgo of it might lx.'8t \n' advanced either by statistical questioning or hy any other
kind of observation, consult with others, plan carefully a mode of proce<lure that shall be as
simple as the case admits, then take the inquiry in hand and carry it through."

I have cited Giilton at leiurth ])ecause in 1924 his words remain as true
as in 1880, hut I have faint liope that they will hy repetition here reach a
new generation of teachers more responsive than the old. In this country
we have exceptional men who ])romulgate new idejis, l)ut the average mind is
an inert one. The school a.s lahoiatory, the factory as lahoratory, the prison
as lahoratory, and the asylum as lahoratory, these are essentially true
conceptions, hut their truth and their profit will he seen in America, in
(Jennany — even in France — hefoie they are grasped here! Galton scarcely
realised that it required greater ingenium to discover a solvahle problem
than to can y it through when proiiounded, and that the average schoolmaster
finds it easier to take prescrilxsd measures of his boys — even to fill folios
with them — than to discover an important problem and design new measure-
ments to solve it. The school anthropometric laboratory must lx» futile if it
be only a lahoratory of record and not one of discovery. The fault lies rather
with our current acixdemic training than with the schoolniiister — for it lays
greater stress on the average man solving set problems, than on finding
novel problems himself.

The boy is never discouraged, and Galton retained his boyhood to the
end. He could put on one side his teaching as to eugenics because the time
wiis not ripe for it, and propound it with all his youtliful enthusiasm nearly
forty years later; the relative barrenness of the harvest resulting from his
school anthropometric proposals did not cause him to despair of profits
resulting from anthropometric inquiry in schools. In the eighty-thiril year
of his life, thirty-three years after his first attempt, he returns to the chai'ge,
and with adilitional proposals, which would immensely increase the work —
while needle.ss to say they would enormously increase the utility — of school
anthropometric laboratories.

In 1 905, at the London Congress of the Royal Institute of Public Health,
Galton gave an address on "Anthropometry at Schools'."

"Anthropometry, or the art of measuring the physical and mental faculties of human
beings, enables a shorthand description of any individual to he given l>y recording the mejisure-
nients of a small sample of his dimensions and qualities. These will sutlicieutly detine his
bodily proportions, his massiveness, strength, agility, keenness of sense, energy, health, intei-

' Journal of Preventive Medicine, Vol. xiv, pp. 93-98. London, 1906.
pan 44

346 A//V' (ind Ldteria of Franrix O alt on

lectiwl i>ap«city, and mental character, and will subetitute concise and exact numerical values for
•erboHi' and clis|iutablc estinmt<>«'. ItH niethtMlg necestuirily liifler for dift'en-iit faculties ; some
mousurementH an* nia<le liy the foot-rule, others by scales, others by the watch ; health is
measured by the fre<iuency and character of illness ; the remaituler by j>erformances in the
■chool or on the playground. Anthropometry funiishes the readiest method of ascertaining
whether a Iwy is developing normally or otherwise, and how far the average conditions of pupils
at one institution differ from those at others. Though partially practised at every school —
for example in all examinations — it« powers are far from being generally understood, and its
range is much too restricted. But as an inten-st in anthropometry has arisen and progressed
during recent years, it is t<j be expected that the good sense of school authorities, assisted by
the exjjert knuwknlge of me<lical men, anthrojKjlogi.sts, and statisticians, will gradually intro-
duce improvement* in its metluKls and enlargement of its 8C(>])e."

This passage is noteworthy as it indicates how fully Galton had come to
realise that tlie complete anthropometric lahoratory must take measure-
ments not only of statical physique and psychical characters, hut also of the
dynamic workings of the Ixxly, and generally of its physiological and medical
fitness. What a stage onwards from that thin end of the wedge which sug-
gested a measurement of stature, and ohtained some half-dozen statical
charactere! But when we have got all this information, what is its value?
Galton was not bent on describing what the school anthropometric laboratory
should do for the Ixjy, but what it should do for the man into which he
developed. He regretted the deplorable and widespread lack of knowledge
of the true value of anthropometric forecasts. Who can answer the questions :

"How far does success or failure in youth foretell success or failure in later years 1 What
is the prophetic value of anthrojwmetry at school in respect to health, strength and energy in
afterlife t"

Indeed these matters are only yet on their trial: Will the data collected
in a fully equipjjed anthropometric laboratory recording the j)hysic{il, mental,
medical or other characters be able to make a forecast of the best career for a
young man, or the probable success or failure in after life of its examinees?
It will take twenty to tiiirty years to correlate well-selected mejisurements
with experience in after careers. Galton realised this and wished to prepare
the way for obtaining a life-history of the boys who had been measured in
the school anthropometric lalxjratories.

"The first conclusion to be emphasised is that no programme for anthropometry in any
adiool can be considered complete unless it provides for the collection of data during the after-
livM of their pupils."

Every fourth year, Galton suggests, the "old boy" should receive a
schedule and return it with an accoinit of his doings in life, his health,
vif^our, his profession and achievements, his marriage and children. These
four-yearly reports would be combined in one dossier with his school anthro-
pometric measurements record. The schedule of these records would leave
a s|)ace for one sheet of family history to be obtained from the hoy's parents
when he was about to leave school, which he himself would verify later, and
there would Ix* space for a few photograj)h8.

Such was Galton's scheme in brief abstract. It will \ye seen to approach
closely the eugenic record proposed many years previously, but now asso-

' It would be difficult to excel this passage as a description of anthropometry.

SfofiHliral Invextiyationa 347

ciated with more detailed anthropometric mea«urement8, and with the 8ch<X)l
as record office.

"Tho hcIkhiI liutlioritii'H wuuld rejoice in the podseHHion of Uit- whole history of thoae over
whose early developniput they exerciHO<l largn control. AnthropologJKts would know where to
lay hands on a nmss of material auitahlx for comparing the hi^alth, bodily i{ualitie8, and
schola.stio achiitv<'mt'nt.s in early lifn with the health, vigour and achievement« aft4;rwards.
Statisticians would possess a four-yearly census, out of which unex|)fcted conclusions would
prohalily he derived. Ijistly some few of tin- records would Im- invaluable to future biographers. ...
The etVect of the present proposals would l)e...to prolong and intensify the kindly fellowship
Ixitween past and pre.sent pupils an<l their school, and to make it serve more than .s<'ntiniental
purposes. The addition of a scientific motive could not fail to invest that relationship with a
more durable and businesslike charact<'r, and to open a way to fields of ri's«'arch of im Ninall
importance that have hitherto been neglected."

Galton sii<;ge.sts that the return of" the foin-yearly schedule .should always
be made on Fehruary 2'Jth, thu.s a.H.sociating the return with Ix-'ap Year. On
this day there should he school regatherings' and thoughts of the old school
and former friends .should predominate.

"The celebration of the day in schools would l)e much concerned with tho works of living
men, who were formerly pupils, but then engaged in the battle of life. Their doings would be
s[K)ken of, and hearty sympathy evoked. Affection and duty should co-operate in maintaining
the Imnds of fellowship l>etwecn school and former scholars; in short, its maint(;nance should
Ix" considered a 'pious' object."

"The child is father to the man.
And I would wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety."

Galton's dream was a noble one, if the time for its fulfilment he not yet.
Po.s.sibly it may one day be realised in ways the dreamer thought not of. I
cite it here to show how rarely he let foil, rather more ollen amplified in his
old age, the ideas of his younger days.

It must not be thought that Galton's principle: "Count whenever you
can," led him to a slavish admiration of all types of stati.stics. There is a
very striking illustration of the contrary. In 1877 the Council of the British
Association liad been much troubled by the proceedings of Section F (Eco-
nomic Science and Statistics), and appointed a committee to report on

" the possibility of excluding unscientific or otherwise unsuitable Pajxrs and Di.soussions from
the Sectional Proceedings of the Association."

While Calton reserved a final judgment the remarks he put before the com-
mittee were adverse to the maintenance of Section F. He analysed all the
papers of the years 1873-75 and remarked that

" not a single memoir treats of the mathematical theory of Statistics, and it can hardly be
doubted that if any such paper should be coniinunicatecl to the Association, the proper place
for it would be Section A."

GaltoM admitted that Section F dealt with numerous and important matters

of human knowledge, but such its are akin, for example, to History, not to

Science, and are therefore inappropriate subjects for the British Association.

"Usage h.as drawn a strong distinction Ix'tween knowle<lge in its generality and science,
confining the latter in its strictest sense to precise measurements and definite laws, which lead

' Revisits of the old pupil to his school after a long interval might provide opportunities
for recoixling a few simple measurements such as weight, stature, eyesight, strength.

44—2

'MS Ijife and Letterif of Francis Galton

y>y aach ex*ct prooowM of reiwoning to their results, that all minds are obliged to accept the
latter as true. It is not to lie expect^xl that tin-so strinpent conditions Hhould he rigorously
obaerrod in ever}* memoir 8ul)i)iitt«<l to u scientific meeting, but they must nut Im.' too largely
violatMl ; and we have to consider whether the subjei-ts actually discussed in Section F do
not depart so widely from the scientitic ideal its to make them unsuitiible to the British
Aaaociation."

Gallon's test of what constitutes science is clear^ — it is that of a niathe-
niatical physicist— and rigidly applied it would exclude large regions of
liiology, including possihly the doctrine of evolution.

But it emphasises exactly Galton's feeling with regard to much of what
pa8se<l for statistics in 1877, that old type of statistics which liud no theo-
retical basis, while Galton was working for a new type; he would willingly
have transferred Section F to the Social Science Congress. But what could
be said against Section F applied e«jually to and remained true till at least
the end of the nineteenth century of the Royal Statistical Society itself.
The opposite j)oint of view Wiis taken by Dr W. P'arr ; he cited a long list
of inut/ainatical statisticians from Halley to Poisson, wlio were undoubtedly
men of science. But this was no retil reply to Galton, for these men woukl
have frequented Section A, and the atmosphere of Section F, or indeed of
the Sttitisticnl Society, would have been a.s distasteful to them as to Galton.
Probably the right procedure would have been to permeate Section F with
the newer type of stati.sticians. This process has been more or less successful
in the course of the last twenty years in the case of the Statistical Society.
There is still opportunity for the modern school of statisticians to adopt a
similar course with regard to Section F.

B. STATISTICS BY SCHEDULE-ISSUES.

We have seen that Galton had great hopes from the schoolmaster as a
collector of statistical data, but he by no means confined himself to this source
of information. We have also noted how he appealed to English men of
science, and to his many personal friends and others. In' issuing schedules in
preparing his books. The ^'a/fomaJia contain numerous instances in which he
issued intjuiry schedules, and in some cases we possess considerable numbers
of these filled in. As a rule, however, I cannot find that he published
anything Ijearing on the subject of the proposed inquiry. ICither he never
iasued the schedule after printing it, or having issued it he was discontented
with the (piantity or the quality of the returns, and so made no use of them.
Yet several of these schedides are so suggestive of the workings of Galton's
mind, that they deserve a brief notice here.

Before 1876 Galton was much interested not only in the inheritance of
longevity, but also in the influence of the age of parents on the vigour of
their offspring. The schedule he issued is entitled " Iiicpiiry into the Ilelation
between Vigour in the Offspiing and Age in the Parents. ' and it is jjrt'fiiced
by the remark :

"TnatanccH are sought of old persons of Ixjth sexes, who have retained their bcxlily vigour
and activity in vcrj- advanced life. It is desired to know the ages of their fathers and mothers
at the time of their birth."

I

Statiiitiral Intritfigadons ' 349

The schedule contains spaces not only for the facts illustrating the special
vigour in old age of the suhject, hut for the ages of his parents at his hirth,
the size of his co-fraternity and his position in it, and further for other
instances of exceptional longevity in the kinship. Among the somewhat
meagre data collecte<l are several instai»ces of marked hei-editarv lonjjevity,
and one of a man who ahove eighty became the father of healthy chddren.
(JaltoM was undouhtedly interested in this incpiiry owing to the hereditary
longevity in his own family', hut the knowledge of this fact did not relieve
him from having at times considerable anxiety as to his own health, and in
the sense of the proverb "that cranky doors hang longest on their hinges,"
he was interested to know whether " a considei-able pro{)ortion of aged persons
have been more or k^ss ailing through a great portion of their lives."

I am not sure whether a printed document I have found with the longevity
dossier wjis issued with the schedule or prepare<l for some later inquiry; it
In^irs evident traces of Galton's complete or co-operative production. It is
so suggestive for an iiujuiry which ai)parently has never been made, and still
might be made with great profit, that 1 have reproduced it Ixxlily here.

Those who knew (Jalton personally will trace some of" his Ijeliefs and some
of his doubts seeking statistical confirmation in this document.

An Inquiry concerning Persons who have attained or passed the Age

of Eighty Years.

Tliis inqviiry, as will Ix* seen by the card, is intended to bo genenil, the object btung to obtain
by Collective Investigation on a large scale, information ros|)ecting the present and past condi-
tion, habits, and maladies, as well as the family history and other circumstances, of those who
have attjii net! toadvunced periods of life, in order that we may be able to ascertain, with greater
certainty than we now can, what are the circumstances which favour longevity, the means by
which it may be promoted, and the maladies which are most, and those which are least inci-
dental to it.

The following are some of the questions which arise in connection with this subject, and for
answers to which we may look.

What bodily conformation, tem]>erainent, and habits, are most associated with, or conducive
to, longevity?

Do women more frequently attain to great age than men, and have women somewhat below
the ordinary stjiture the atl vantage in this respt-ctl

Are the married or the unmarried, the stout or the 8p>are, the active or the sedentary, the
industrious or the idle, the indoor student or the outdoor workers, the well-to-do or the poor,
the town dwellers or the country dwellei-s, the more likely to lx;come octogenarians?

It is said that " small eaters and short sleepers are long livers." Is this sol Will the "early
to be<l and early to rise " maxim receive confirmation ? SVhat is the influence of alcohol t

It has In'en remarked that a considerable pro|>ortion of age<l persons have l)een more or less
ailing during a great part, or the whole, of their lives. Is that the ca.se? It has also been
remarked that many of them have been troubled with constipation, and that many have long
been in the habit of resorting t<) aperient medicine.

The cjirtilages of the ribs and the tnichea have Ijeen found soft and elastic in some very
aged people, old Parr forming no exception in this. Should this be shown to be generally the
case, the inference would follow that persons in whom they are not so are not destined to attain
to great ago.

Do octogenarians often suffer, or do they enjoy a comparative immunity from affections of

' See Memories of my Life, p. 7 — a paragraph wiiich contains the only reference I have
seen to the age of Elizabeth Collier's mother at death, if it be not a slip for the ajte at death
of Erasmus Darwin's mother.

350 Life and Letters of Francis Gallon

the urinary and genital organs, and of the abdominal organH, also from malignant disease and
•orofula t

Are they on the whole comparatively exempt from disease t

To what affections an* they most liable, and to what morbid inf1ucnco8 are they most suscep-
tible! Do any maladies s(*em to have an influence in pi-omoting longevity) What influence
opon the longevity of an individual has the age of the parents at his birth ] Do twins or the
children of twins often attain grwit age?

Infonnatioii, though nut positive, yet of much interest and importance, upon these and other
pointA, will accrue from the it-plies to the questions on the cards. It need hardly he said that
the questions are by no means exhaustive, and that information upon other points which are
judged to l>e of interest and importance by those who fill up the cards, will l)e valuable, as also
information on any special p<nnts in |>«rticular cases which seem worthy of note.

Though the questions are such that they may for the most part be answortnl by the jKirsons
themselves, or by their friends, it is hoped that in most instances the observations will Ix; made
and the information given by medical men ; and the person who fills up the card is in each instance
requested to state whether he is a medical man or not.

It will be an additional advantage if some information can )>e gleaned respecting the succession
of maladies in the same person, and in different individuals of the siinie family, or respecting the
preservative influence u|)on the system of certain maladies against the inroads of otiiers.

Something in the Hereditary Problem may be also learned resjK'ctiiig the cross action and
modifying influences of certain diswusas. For instance, is there any foundation for the view
that chronic gouty affections ret-anl the development of other diseases.

The strength and enduring quality of the body, like that of a chain, must be measured at
its weakest point; and though in it, more than in a chain, the strength and quality of some
parts TOAj compensate for deficiency in others, yet the very op|>osite may be the result. The
stronger organs may relieve, but they may also opjiress, the weaker members. A strong digestive
system may overload a weakly circulation, and prove injurious to the liver, lungs, or kidneys,
in fact a disturbing agent to the general nutrition. The requisite for longevity, therefore, we
may expect to be not so nmch strength of organs as their enduring quality, a good mutual
adjustment, in other words, their good balance. The replies relating to "plethora" and other
features of general condition will have an important bearing on this view.

Another matter about which Galton's mind was much exercised was that
of "social stability." He was anxious to know whether and to what extent
individual stirps move up and down in the social scale, or whetlier our
society is in the main made up of "castes," which stand fast by their grade
of occupation and to their social position. To tlirow light on this matter he
sought a comparison between the average social position of houseliolders of
all classes in the present day and in that of their fathers. He prepared
accordingly a schedule — whicn appears never to have lx;en issued — of in-
quiries concerning householders and their fathers; the age of the householder,
his profession, trade, or employment, his position among men of the same
occupation, and the corresponding data for tlie father of the householder were
to be recorded, and Galton hoped to get material ample enough to provide
a measure of social stability — the frequency with which sons a<lvanced on,
remained e<iual to or regre.s.sed from the father in social status. While this
8che<lule cleals with social stability in its narrower economic sense, the same
dossier contains notes by Galton giving the term social stability a much
wider significance; he notes that many view with alarm the progressive
disappearance of those ancient landmarks — such as theological ()eliels— by
which conduct htvs been traditionally regulated and fear that mankind must
sink into brutality. The motives which lead to social stability ought there-
fore to Ije measured and analysed, the main f.ict lieing that it is di8coveral)le

Sfiitisfical Inrextiyations 361

amoiif,' till', most iliveiveiit ijopulations and the most varied surroundings.
The iiKpiiry, Gallon tells us, must l)e statistical in its character, referring to
the acts of a nopulation as a whole, and not regarding the units of which it
is composed, for it is only in this way that we can neutralise and eliminate
the effects of individual character and circumstances, which are far too
numerous to he severally allowed for. Galton's notes then turn to the
" valuation of motives," and ho as-serts that while they are of the most
varied kind, they are yet commensurable; they may I* equally etticacious
in producing a particular result. "There are an indefinite variety of hriljes,
and experience shows the amount of hribe of each several sort that is neces-
sary to produce a given avemge result'." The attractive forces of each of
many siiows at a fair, aj)pealing to many diverse tastes, are comparahle in a
statistical sense without any other reservation by the money they take.
I will not venture to cite more of Galton's rough notes; he wjis thoroughly
convinced that "motives" like other psychical charactei-s are capable of
stilt istical evaluation. To press the matter would be to call forth from some
readi-rs a protest similar to that wliich the editor of the S2>ectator made
after Galton's Royal Institution Lecture of 1874, wherein he applied the
method of "ranking " to psychical characters.

" We can only t"X|ircss our wonder, and ropoat our belief that what Mr Galton has succeeded
in doing, is in exposing the utter inapplicability of physico-scientific methods to int«llpctual and
moral subjects. ...We ean imagine no more pi-ofitles.s or idle task than the attom]>t to draw out
a Statistical Scale (say) of Candour or of Power of Kepartee, and to arrange the public men of
this generation in it, except ind(H!d doing the same thing for a considerable numlier of qualities,
and giving the reiusons for the place a-ssigned in the biographies, which would be rendered
unreadable by the process'."

There might K* dithculty in "ranking " Gladstone and Di.sraeli for
"Candour, " but few would que.stion John Morley's position rel.ative to both
of them in this quality. It would reijuire an intellect their equal to rank
truly in the quality of scholarship Henry Bradshaw, Rol)ertson Smith and
Lord Acton, but most judges would place all three above Sir John Seeley,
as they would place Seeley above Oscar Browning. After all there are such
things as brackets, which only make the statistical theory of ranking slightly
less simple in the handling.

Drafted much about the same time was Galton's first circular on "Fatigue,"
by which he sought to measure any permanent ill effects of mental work.
This again w;is a topic on which Galton felt strongly, having his own ex-
perience always in mind. The proposed circular was to be addressed apparently
to the fellows and scholars in Cambridge (and possibly O.xford) Colleges, and
related not only to mental overwork, but to its possible association with
physical overstrain, in both school and college periods of life. He probably

' "The gingling of the guinea soothes the hurt that honour feels" — which is not exactly
Tennyson. (Jalton was wont to say, on seeing a hilarious party of middle-agtxl f>erson.s, that it
struck him us strange that notwithstanding their glee they were all of them orphans.

* See the Spectator, May 23, 1874, and Galton's letter with the wlitorial rejoinder May 30,
1874. "It is about time we drew the Spectator again," W. Kingdon Clifford would snv. and
Galton was only too apt to do so without malice prepense !

352 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

rofniliKMl from circulating his questionnaire, as so many of the recipients
niijjht re^istmably associato "mental overstrain" and "mental breakdown"
with a form of mentjil illness they would he unwilling to admit having
suffered from. As we have seen', Galton took up the toj)ic again in 1888,
endeavouring to obtain the requisite data from school teachei-s.

The next circular I pick up is entitled: Kthnologicnl Inquii'ies on the
liiii'iti- Ch'iviu-ter and Jntellif/i'iicc of Different Races. By Francis Galton.
'llie object of these inquiries is ckuvr, they were intended to obtain stfitistical
data upon which a judgment might be made as to how far racial character
or training influences the mental characters. The "subjects" dealt with are
to be those "who have l)een reared since childhotHl in European or American
schools, families, asylums or missionary establishments. By this restriction,
it is hoped to eliminate all peculiarities that are due to the abiding influence
of early education, and to the manners and customs of their own people.'"
The standard to be kept in mind in answering these questions is the
atrrw/*' Anglo-Saxon character; paying strict regard to the influence of sex,
age, education and social position. Wnere there is no decided divergence
from this standard, it will oe best to reply — 'ordinary.'

The (Jaltoniana contain no replies to this circular; I do not know whether
it was ever issued in mass, nor have I anywhere seen a reference to it, nor to
data obtained by its circulation. The origin of it may be connected with the
idea conveyed by Galt<:»n's treatment of unlike twins under like environment
(see our p. 12(5 et seq.). As we might suppose the questions iire well chosen,
and bear closely on Galton's own experience with uncivilised races. As the
questionnaire would be distinctly helpful to anyone eml)arking on an incjuiry
of like kind — and one might be well worth pushing with more vigour than
Galton seems to have given to the matter — 1 reproduce the questionnaire here :

1. Signature, title and full addrcsH of the sender of the information.

2. Name or initials, sex and age of individuiil whose cliarfirter is dcscriljcd.

3. Hiu (or \wr) country and race. State spi'cifically if his nice- is known to Ik- pure, if not
describe the admixture.

4. Age at which he was removed from his parents and people, also particulars .showing the
extent to which he has since tieen separated from their influence.

r>. What language, or languages, does he commonly s|)eak 1 Does he retain the use of his
native tongue 1

6. State any circumstances that may or may not justify his being considered a good typical
specimen of his race.

7. Is he capable of steady and sustained hard labour; or, is he restless and irregular in his
habits t

5. Is ho capable of filling resjwnsible situations) Hoes he show coolness of teni|>er when in
difficulty 1 (It is said that Hindoos are incapable of steering large ships, that is, of acting as
quart/Tmastcrs ; while in British vessels that duty is commonly performed by native Christians
of the Philippines.)

9. Is he «locile or obstinate 1

10. Children of many races are fully as i|uick, and even more precocious than European
children, but thoy mostly c<«se to make progress after the season of maiiliood. Their moral
character changes for the worse at the same time. State if this has Ijeen ol>serve<l in the present
inslMice.

' Of. our p. 276.

I

Sfatixtiral In vent it/at ions 353

1 1 . lias he any special aptitudes, or the reverse, such as in mimicry, aeiuie of the ludicroux,
taste in coloiirM, iiiuhIc, p(K!try, dancing, cnloiiltitiii); powor, keennetw of sight or hearing, quick-
n<'88 of observation, manual dcxtc^rity, horHonian.Hhip, aliility to tend cattlel

12. Is lie naturally poli.slic<l and HolfconipoNMi in manner or rude andawkwanil

13. Is ho modest and solf-rcliant, or servile and cringing? Is he vain t

14. Is ho solitary or sociiiblo ; morose or cht'crfult

15. Is the iMission of sexual aflbction strongly developed in him, or the reverse!

16. Is ho fond of children, and are children fond of him?

17. Does ho cherish malice for long pi-rioda, or does ho forgive frankly!

18. Is he liable to outbursts of raget

19. Did he for long show uneasiness at the restrictions of civilised life, or did he readily
accept them ; such as keeping regular hours, acting on a steady system, wearing shoes and other
clothing 1

20. Children of savages, who have been roared in missionary families, have been known to
throw olT their clothes, and quit the house in a momentary nige, and to go Ijack to their people,
among whom they wore afterwards found in apparently contentetl barluirisni. State authentic
instances of this, if you know of any, with full particulars.

21. Has he a strong natural sense of right and wrong, and a sensitive conscienceT

22. IhK'n ho exhibit to his religious teachers any strong conviction of an original sinfulness
in Ills nature, or the reverse 1

23. Is he much influenced by ceremonial observances, such as those of the Roman Catholic
Church 1

24. Is he a willing keeper of the Sabbath 1

25. Ha.s he any strong religious instinct; is he inclined to ([iiiei devotion?

26. Is he a-scotic, self-mortifying and self-denying, or the contrary?

27. Is he inclined to be unduly credulous or unduly sceptical?

28. Is ho active or inipa-ssivo in social duties?

29. I.s ho much governed by superstitious feelings, such as [are indicated by the use of]
charms or omens of go<Rl or ill luck ?

30. Has he any tendency to be sanctimonious and hypocritical ?

31. Is he honest, truthful and open, or cunning and intriguing?

32. Is he grateful or ungniteful ?

33. Does he, in conversation, make frequent use of abstract terms? Does he adequately
understiind their meaning when he employs them ?

34. Are there any other marked peculiarities in his character or intellect?

Please address cojnes to

Francis Galton,
42 Rutland Gate,
London.

This is a schedule which — if the employers of native labour could be
induced to fill it up accurately in large numbers — would still be certainly
of much value.

Francis Galton's next venture was entitled:

Inquiry into the alleged Darkening of the Hair of the English
in the Present and Recent Generatioiu.

The explanation of the reason for the inquiry is given on the back of the
schedule. It had been alleged that on the whole the hair of English
children was darker than that of their parents, and it was asserted that the
English race was gradually but surely becoming dark-haired. The object of
the inquiry was to test the truth of this statement. Galton reiuarks that it
is probable that the recent and rapid changes in English habits may have
caused certain sub-types, that were previously repressed, to prevail in the

p o II 46

354 Life ami Tetters of Frauds Calton

struggle for existence, and that it is of interest to know what these sub-
types are. The colour of animals is often found to be intimately correlated
with their power or incapacity to thrive under certain conditions, and it
may well be the same in the avse of man. Galton cites Baxter' to prove
that in America, where the pressure of life peculiar to modern civilisation is
even greater than with us, the black-haired persons are less liable to nearly
every form of disease than the fair-haired. He observes, however, that it is
needful at the same time to determine the relative fertility of the light and
dark haireil. and that it would be very important to distinguish between the
children of a dark-haired man who had sprung from a light-liaired stirp, and
those of a similar man from a dark -haired stirp. The schedule is fairly straight -
forwanl and contains the first statement of Galton's system of numerals for
relationship, i.e. child 1, parents '1, 'A, grandparents 4, 5, 6, 7, etc., the even
numbers standing for males and the odd for females (No. 1 excepted, which
may have either sex) ; the number of any individual when doublea gives that
of his father, and his mother's number is obtained by the addition of our
to the number of his father'. The characteristic Galtonian statement is
made incidentally that :

"Th« inquiry will have the merit of being accompanied by incidental pleasures; it will bt> an
excuse for corresponding with distant friends and relations on topics of common interest, and
it is probable that not a few facts of family history much prized by its members will in many
caaee be incidentally brought to light by its means."

Galton himself was so interested in family history that he quite naively
overlooked the fact that nine-tenths of humanity either fear to examine it
or are frankly bored by it. Against that dead-weight of inertia Galton
could effect little, and there is no evidence that these circulars were ever
returned in sufficiently adequate numbers to serve as a basis for an answer to
his inquiry.

' Medical and Anthropological Statistics o/the Provost- Afarshal-GeneraTs Bureau, Washing-
ton, 1875.

* Galton published a letter on this numerical system of relationship in Nature, Sept. 6, 1883,
under the title: "Arithmetic Notation of Kinship." Taking y=: father of, m = mother of, hi'
gives the following equivalent systems of notation:

Literal System. Child

1

1

4

-/

.fm

1
mm

1

etc.
Binary System.

m m/

.0^
1

mj III J'm m
etc

1
m in in

lb

I'l

1

i6o

1

101

1

110

1

ill

1

00

1001 1010

1011

1100

ll'oi 1110

1111

etc. etc.

The Binary System is cumbersome but simple, we add a zero for the father and a unit for
the mother of any individual to that individual's numlter. The decimal system is as follows:

Stntiiitiral Invest tyationn

355

The next Hchedule I have come across is termed a " Biographical liegister."
It starts with a genealogy of the subject as far as the gnindparents and
their de.sceiidants with a space for more distant relatives. Then follows the
biographical register proper with a column for each age i)eriod of seven years,
with spaces for education (class lists), amusements (tastes and pursuits),
accidents and ba<] illne.sses, anthropometric tests at various ages, and other
characteristics. The "Notes" show tliat pei"sonal appearance, pigmentation,
height, weight, etc. were to be included, and eventually marriage and children.
There is not a doubt but that this was the original scheme from which the
Life- History Alhnm sprung. The inteie.sting point is that this biographical
register was designed for undergraduates, ihe returns were apparently to
be preserved in the archives of the colleges for future statistical purposes
and for the compilation of college histories.

"It is believed that a large collection of personal and family records such as these, would
furni.sli iinjwrtant data for investifpiting the social and hero<litary antecedents that are meet
fiivounililo to success in foll('j^'(> and after life. They will certainly protect from oblivion many
facts that may hereafter prove of considerable biographical interest to the undergraduates them-
selves and to their families; [Kiasibly to a much wider circle."

Again there appears to have been no result fix)m this schedule, even if it
were ever i&sued to an undergraduate population. The author of this
biogmphy knows only too well — having collected with the aid of colleagues
two long series of schedules from nnaergraduates — how hard is the task;
each series took four to six years to collect even by those who were actually
working and teaching among the population ; and Galton had none of these
advuntages. The very wealth which enableil him to carry out effectively his
experimental ideas, prevented him from seeking and holding a teaching post,
whereby he could have created more quickly a scliool, and been able to collect
adequate material. It would be hard to say whether the balance was one of
gain or loss to the world. There were factors in Gralton's character — his
invariable courtesy and kindliness, his love of simple methods, his sympathy
with younger minds, and his suggestive enthusiasm — which would have made

Decimal Si/etem. We translate the binary into the ordinary scale. Thus :

Grade of kinship

Father's Side

Mother's Side

Child

Parents ...

Grandparents

Great-grandparents
etc.

■

1
2

1

'3

1
4

5

1

r

*

k

i lb

etc.

1
11

1

12

1 1
13 14

etc.

lb

A want of these systems is an expression for the sibsliip of any individual, his or her brothers
and sisters, or again for his or her nephews and nieces, uncles and aunts. Perhaps decimal
figures might be added.

45—2

3r)6 Lif* ami Letters of Francis Galton

him a great teacher, but a teaching post would probably have cost him that
travel-experience and that leisure to ruminate on which so much of his
scientific success depended. He loved to work and to play with aKsolute
freedom, and fixed duties would probably have l^een irksome to him, even if
his health could have stood the opus cathedrae strepkusque.

The " Biognij)hicid Register" was followed by a "Genealogical Table of the

family of bivthers and sistere that includes ." We need not linger over

this, it was the inmiediate forerunner of the " Family Records," which when
Galton hit upon the idea of offering money prizes for filling in scliedules
became at once a gi'eat success — the material source whence sprung his two
books the Li/e-JIistori/ Album and Natural Inhentaiice. The latter will be
duly considered in our chapter on Galton's contributions to Heredity.

One remaining schedule may be noticed here — Galton's circulai- letter of
March, 1882 entitled: "Application of Composite Photographic Portraiture
to the Production of Ideal Family Likenesses." This circular is remarkable
for its artistic printing and "get up." It is an appeal to amateur photographei-s
to provide full-face and ])rofile portraits of members of families, and contains
a characteristic family composite. The "bribe" in this case was a print of
the family composite together with the negative if they desired it. Galton
also stated that he should await with great interest the family's opinion on
the family likeness. The response to this circular was very considerable, and
the ruins of the material — for most of the photographs have perished or are
perishing — are still in the Galtoniana. The conditions Galton demanded for
the composite are worthy of preservation :

1. The set of jxtrtraits must be all absolutely in full-face, looking straight
at the camera just above the lens, or they must be all in profile, with the
eyes directed straightforward along their own level.

2. The light must fall from the same direction in every case; it is best
that the sittere should occupy successively the same seat.

3. The portraits of which the head alone is used, must be of about the
size of the slcetches on the previous page, that is, a little more than an inch
from the chin to the top of the head'.

Galton considered these three conditions essential,

"if the portraits differ in aspect the composite would be blurre<l; if the shmiows fall differently
they are mixed up with the lights and the composite becomes ineffective — it will Ix; like a por-
trait taken in cross-lights; if the photographs are too small the difficulties of adjustment are
greatly increased and success is uncertain.... It is, however, important that they should be
forcible and well contrasted in light and shade."

Galton adds that the composite is invariably softer and more regular than
its components; this statement was, perhaps, the inducement which led to
the disp.itfli of some of the originals now in the Galtoniana]

• More recent investigations have shown that far larger "standard" photographs can b<'
•dvuiUgeonaly employed.

I'T.ATI'! XI.IV

o

Si

s 2

? i.

3 **

(M ^

-o ^

S 4
0= a,

a."

5 i

O

s

kj

Sfatuitical Investigations 357

C. GALTON'S ANTHROPOMETRIC LAHORATORIEH

The above series of schedules will show how fertile were Gallon's plans
for collecting statistical data during the decade 1874-84. It was, however,
oidy in the course of this schedule experience that he learnt how reluctant
most people are to till up a schedule. As a result of this experience Galton
changed his nietho<l of action. Failing the establishment of school anthro-
pometric laboratories Galton determined to set one up at his own cost,
and catch the world when on its leisurely and inquisitive peregrinations.
He called into existence the fii'st Anthropometric Laboratory at the Inter-
national Health Exhibition in London, 1884. On the closing of this exhibition
the laboratory was removed to the Science Museum, South Kensington, and
the total number of visitors measured before it was closed w;is well over 9000.
These included both sexes and all ages from five to eighty years. This
splendid material, which is only at the present time being fully reduced and
utilised', together with Gallon's "Family Records" embracing between three
and four hundred families, some 150 'stirps,' provided him at last with the
material he had so long sought. The discussion of this material furnished
Galton with occupation for at least ten years; and the need for novel
statistical methods, which its problems demanded, led him to the correlational
calculus, the Jons et origo of that far-reaching ramification — the modern
mathematical theory of statistics. One quakes to think of what might have
happened luid Galton not obtained through that tirst anthropometric
laboratory and his family records the data he needed! The latter led him at
once to the quantitative measure of heredity — the correlation of kinsmen
for any faculty — and the former showed him that the same problems repeat
themselves in all statistical material, and that the conception of correlation
is not peculiar to heredity, but embraces all recordable qualities which without
being causiilly linked together yet vary more or less stringently one with the
other. From that conception arose a new view of the univeree, both organic and
inorganic, which provides all branches of science with a novum organum, far
wider-reaching in its effects than that of Bticon, and as characteristic of the
last quarter of the nineteenth century tus the fluxional calculus was of that of
the seventeenth. I have sought in vain for any forerunner of Galton in this
matter^ and feel convinced that he was the fii'st to grasp not only the need
of measuring associated variations, but the first to provide any real measure
of them. Galton wrote to Darwin on December 24, 1869 that the appearance
of the Origin of Species had formed a real crisis in his life and freed him
from his old superstition as If he hiul been roused from a nightmare (see
Vol. 1, Plate II). For some of us Gallon's new calculus acted in precisely
the same manner; it enabled us to reach real knowledge — "to submit phe-
nomena to mej\suremeut and number" — in many branches of inquiry where

" Se« for example Koga and Morant, "On the Degree of Association between Reaction Times
in the case of DiBerent Senses," Diometrika, Vol. xv, pp. 346-72, 1923.

' See a paper by the present writer entitled " Notes on the History of Correlation," Bio-
metriJca, Vol. xiii, pp. 25-45, 1920.

358 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

opinion only had hitherto held sway. It relievetl us from the old superstition
that where causjil relationships could not be traced, there exact or niathenia-
tical inquiry was impossible. We saw the field of scientific, of quantitative,
study carried into orj^nic phenomena and embracing all tiie things of the
ininil. It was for us the dawn of a new day, and we smiled indeed over the
attempts of the Spectator to obscure such a daybreak by looking westward
and asserting it was and must remain night.

To those who realise what Galton's work meant for some of us in the
'eighties, when fresh from Cambridge we encountered his pajiere, there is some-
thing of supreme interest in the path by which he readied his conceptions,
his long failure to collect data and its final solution in the Anthropometric
Laboratory.

The growth of Galton's plan for creatiiig an Anthropometric Laboratory
is fairly well exhibited in his papei-s. We have first the idea of very simple
statistics being collected in schools, then the plan of a somewhat more ex-
tended school lalxjratory and in 1882 a paper in the Fortnightly Review',
"The Anthropometric Laboratory." The points of present day importance in
this paper are the following:

(a) Galton propounds the need of an institute where a man may from
time to time get his family and himself measured physically and mentally
and photographed according to a standardised method.

(o) He reasserts his conclusion that circumstances and education have
very little to do with an individual's capacities. These are provided by his
heredity, they form his stock-in-tmde, the amount of which atlmits of defini-
tion, and by means of which he has to earn his living and play his part as a
citizen. Just as far as we succeed in measuring them, so far we shall be able
to forecast what a man is fit for, and what he may undertake with the least
risk of disapjx>intment. In other words we have the first foreshadowing of
industrial or occupational anthropometry.

(c) He then proceeds to speak very briefly of the old type of anthro-
pometric records (chiefly statical), height, weight, vital capacity, grip', pigmen-
tation, etc.

He next turns to Energy and Endui-ance. He considers that the true
tests would be physiological and very delicate, measuring excess of waste over
repair. Just as a clothdealer tests a piece of cloth by mo<ierate tension
without tearing it, so the balance of the living system might be artificially
disturbed by a definite small force and its stability under the influence ol'
greater forces be thereby inferred. He admits that at present tests of a
person's endurance under sustained bodily or mental work have not been
adequately developed. But he recognises that dynamic tests — the functioning
of tne body — are far more important than static tests. He would havf
agility tested by gynmjisium or atliletic sports tests. Co-ordination of muscles
and eye by measured skill in well-known games from racquets to billiards'.

' N.8. Vol. XXXI, pp. 332-8,

' VitAl capiicity and Huslainol grip bt'loiig ralhnr to tlie (lyiiaiiiic clmmcters.

' Siiic« lH»t luilHiK'ing (a slender culumu on a flat Iwanl niist'd from hip to shoulder), inozf

ANTHROPOMETRIC

LABORATORY

For the measurement in various
ways of Human Form and Faculty.

Enteredfrom the Science Collection of the S. Kensington Museum.

This laboratory is established by Mr. Francis Galton for
the following purposes:—

1. For the use of those who desire to be accurate-
ly measured in many ways, either to obtain timely
warning of remediable faults in development, or to
learn their powers.

2. For keeping a methodical register of the prin-
cipal measurements of each person,- of which he
may at any future time obtain a copy under reason-
able restrictions. His initials and date of birth will
be entered in the register, but not his name. The
names are indexed in a separate book.

3. For supplying information on the methods,
practice, and uses of human measurement.

4. For anthropometric experiment and research,
and for obtaining data for statistical discussion.

Charges for making the principal measurements:
THREEPENCE each. to those who arc already on the Register.
F"OURPENCE each, to those who are not:— one page of the
Register will thenceforward be assigned to them, and a few extra
measurements will be made, chiefly for future identification.

The Superintendent is cliargcd witli the control of the laboratory
and with determining in each case, which, if any, of the extra measure-
ments may be made, and under what conditions.

H * W. Brown, PhnUr«, 20 Fulhun ttoad, a.W

Sfad'sfiraf /iirrMtii/atiotut 359

((/) Keenness anil discrimination of the senses are next eniphaflisfvl an
indispensable tests.

(e) Ueaction times and judgment times follow ; memory of form and
memory of number. Th(«e points are sufficient to indicate that Galton from
the earliest time laid as inticb stress on the j)sychical as on the physiad tests
of an anthropometric laboratory. Nay, he went further; he asserted that:

(/') There is need for a medico-metric section in an anthropometric
laboratory. This section would make Jis exact and complete a report of the
physiological and medicid status of an individual as is feasible in the present
state of science by the help of the microscope, chemiail tests and physiological
apparatus.

Such a "medico-metric" laboratory Galton holds would l)e useful to the
general practitioner who could send his patients to be examined in the same
manner as physicists send their delicate instruments to Kew Observatory to
have their errors ascertained. Great stress is laid on the physician writing
ai.se notes of the succe.ssive illnesses of private patients even as he takes
clinical notes at the bedsides of his hospital patients. These notes should be
preserved by the patient and accunndating with the yeara would form his
medical life-history, and l>e a unit-contribution to the medical hi.story of the
family. (Jalton emphasises the value they would l)e as an heirloom to the
children of the subject and to their mediail attendants in future years by
throwing light on hereditary peculiarities. In short Galton saw in the anthro-
pometric laboratory a centre for standardised family records of biographical
mterest to all»menibers of the family, of value from the medical point of view
to each individual during his life, and to his descendants as suggesting
hereditaiy dangers and vital probabilities. Lastly and perhaps for Galton
himself the most important advantage was the material they would ultimately
provide for uuicli needed statisticjil research into human genetics.

For the race the value of such records is incontestible, but all men have
not Galton's power of calm self-introspection, and the effect of studying his
family medical hi.story in the case of a neurotic subject might well lie
disastrous for the individual.

The idea of medical family histories was further developed by (ialton in
a paper entitled "Medical Family Registers" in the Fortnijhtli/ for
August, 1883'.

In this paper Galton defines more closely what he means by medical
histoiies ami states that he hsis consulted a number of eminent medical men
(Simon, Beddoe, Duncan, Gull, Ogle, Ord, Richardson and Wilkes) who
have approved the scheme. In this article he suggests for the firet time — as
far- as 1 am aware— a system of monetaiy prizes.

"I have made arrangements to initiate the practice of compiling them [Medical Family
Regi-sters] thn)ugh the offer of substantial prizes, open to competition among all members of
the niodical profession. The prizes will lie awarded to those candidates who shall best 8uccee<i

(h pencil oirried in measured time round the convolutions of a maze without touching the sides),
neetlle (a fine knitting needle put through a series of holes of decreasing diameter without
contact) atui otiier .similar tests have been introduced replacing skill in games.
' N.S. Vol. .\xxiv, pp. 244-50.

360 Life ami Lettertt of Francis Galton

in defining rividly, c-onipletoly, and concisely the characteristics (medical and other) of the
variouB monibers of their re8|>©ctive faniiliefi, and in illustrating the presence or absence of
hereditary influences."

We have seen how Galton grew from traveller to geographer, from
geographer to ethnologist, from ethnologist to anthrojiologist, and now the
last stage appears : he is chiefly interested in anthropometry l)ecau8e of the
contributions he expects from it to heredity ; the anthropologist becomes a
geneticist. LKX)ked at superficially Calton's work seems like a comprehensive
but confusetl mosaic of many branches of science. Studied in relation to his
life we see a definite pattern, a picture of a long-continued mental develop-
ment ; each branch oi knowledge he .acquired fell into its fitting place, and
formed a stepping stone to a further advance.

His own interest in Medical Family Registers arises, he tells us, from

" all that can throw light on the physiological causes of the rise and decay of families, and
oonaequently on that of races. Some diseases are persistently hereditary, and others are not :
they are variously found in different varieties or subraces of men, and these have various otlier
attributes including various degrees of fertility. We cannot as yet foretell, but we may ho]>c
hereaft'er to do so in a general way, which are the families naturally fated to decay and which
to thrive, which are those who will die out and which will 1x3 prolific and fill the vacant space."
(p. 245.)

In this paper Galton shows that he has realised more fully the difficulty
about medical registers :

" Host men and women shrink from having their hereditary worth recorded. There may
be family diseases of which they hardly dare to speak, except on rare occaS^ons, and then in
whispered hints or olwcure phrases, as though timidity of utterance could hush tliou>;hts and
a.s though what they fondly suppose to be locked-up domestic secrets may not he bruited alwut
with exa^genitioii among the surrounding gossips. It seems to me ignol)le that a man should
t>e such a coward as to hesitate to inform himself fully of his hereditary liabilities, and uiifaii
that a jNirent should delilx'nitely refuse to register such family hereditary facts as may ser\r
to direct the future of his children, and which they may hereafter Im? very desirous of knowing.
Parents may refrain from doing so through kind motives ; but there is no raal kindness in
the end." (pp. 245-6.)

Still Galton recognised that the difficulty remains, that the majority ol'
men do fall into his category of ignoble cowards and will not record their
family secrets as to disease. Accordingly he proposed to get over the diffi-
culty by inducing medical men, under the bribe of £500 in prizes, to givf
confidential records of their own families. He hoped that the custom oi
medical family records liaving Ix^en introduced in this way, doctors would
thereafter lie not infrequently called upon to draw them up for the satis-
faction of the patients themselves, and — Galton adds naively as a lure — "at
their expenpe '! The particulars Galton pro|)osed should Ixi included in the
registers to l)e provided deal not only with medicid details, but witli race,
conditions of life, marriage, fertility, vigour, keenness of sense, artistic capa-
city, intelligence, character, etc. He was clearly working up to much of the
material he finally asked for from laymen in his "Family Ilt^cord.s." A great
part of the paper is taken up with the conditions under which the prizes he
propo8e<l would be given.

Sfafittfical luve«tif/ntioiis 361

There is an interesting paragraph as to fraud :

"An ref;iir(l.s the iiroluililn trustwurthitioMH of the iriforiiintioii rrccived, I iiiii |M'rff?<.lly aware
tliat IV iiuxlcni Dt- Ki>o or Swift niifjlit write nri irilfrcstiii>{ roiimncc, ami make a rpgintcr
apparently true to life, wholly out of liis own head; l>ut l>e K<m's an<l Swifts an- not common,
and Kucli persons would ho Hure to tind hett<«r occupation than that. Moreover they could not
Hain a prize witliout eomniittiuK u downrij{ht fraud. Able nifn are generally al)ove petty
tricks, and there will Ix; ahiindant internal evidence in every register U) show whether the
writer Ikj ahle or not. It is alino.st needless to remark, that every stAtiKtician worthy of the
name is wary and slow to accept startling conclusions without much indircH-t confirmation....
What I fear most is that the registers sent by many of the candidates will afTonl internal
evidence of Ix-ing little trustworthy, not tlirough delilu'rate intent, l)Ut owing to the incapacity
of the writers to state their cases clearly, and to supi^rt their statements with judiciously
.selecte<l <lat«." (pp. 248-9.)

Perhaps this hitter remark w.is rather severe on the profession to whom
Galton was appeuHng for aid ; it failed to give due weight to what should be
the effect of the chnical training in a hospital on a man's powers of obser-
vation, record and deduction. Yet our poor hero saw with yearning those
23,000 tjuallHed medical men and thought here at last was a source of the
material essential to his work !

"I should hope that the examination would be complete after some three months' labour
of myself and the examiners. The prizes being allotted and done with, it will remain to work

up the results The statistical meal will be a large one; I gloat over it in anticipation, and

know that it will take long to digest. I cannot doubt that new ideas will be derived from a
careful study of .so unique a collection, enough I hope to justify to myself the cost and time
sjH'nt on it. When I shall have done with this collection, its ultimate destination will probably
be lus a gift to some appropriate medical or anthropological institution. It will then be in the
form of anonymous documents lx>aring mottoes, but with no mark l)y which any one of them
could l)e distinguished.. ..Considering that prizes for essays usually attract numerous com-
petitors, although the pains taken in working for them are rather barren of result except to
the winners, I ccmclude that similar prizes leading to intpiiries beneficial in every case, and
from many points of view, ought to attract yet more numerous candidates, and to result in
proflucing shelves full of family histories of unprece<iente<l complet«>ness and concentration, and
of extreme value for a limg time to come to medical an<l anthropological investigators." (p. 2.50.)

What killed this scheme of prizes to the doctors for medical registers of
their families? I can find but one further i-eference to it (see our p. 367).
All letters for the year 1883 seem to be wanting; so that we cannot trace the
causes which led Galton to drop the emphasis on the medical register and
offer his prizes for family records to laymen as well as medical men. Three
extracts from L. G.'s Record may be given here as conveying about all the
knowledge we have of the matter:

"1882. Frank l)egan his book on I/timau Factilty e»,r\y in the year and it has gone on
through the year, and was a great ]>astime to him during our summer ramble on the Rhine,
in the Black Forest, Constance, and lastly Axenfels. Kad weather haunted us, but we were
happy anfl 1 kept well and t)egan sketching again. It was such a Ixwn not to Ihj kept by a
British Association Meeting this summer. Mr Darwin's death in May had cast a deep gloom

over us Besides what I have mentioned as to Frank's work during the year he gave a

Lecture at Eton on Anthropometric Registers and Life Histories, and wrote a paper in the
Fortnightly on the sivme, and gave a lecture to the Committee of the Medical A.ssociation'.
He was invitefl to lecture at the Lowell Institution in America, but refused. In Meteorology
he designed a clock for cumulative temperature. He is elected on to the Council of the Royal
Society and was begge«i to accept the presidency of the Anthropologicjil, but refusetl.

' Pi-obalily the Committee of the B.M.A. for Collective Investigation.
van 46

362 Life mul IxtterH of Frauci* Gallon

1883. Frank went to the Britixli Atisociation at Southport in Septeuilx-r. In the curly
part of the year ho corrccttnl proofs of his luquirits into JIunutn Facu/ly, which was published
oy Haxter. He aliio workiMl.hclpwl by Crooui-Roberttwn, at inujins of nie<i8uring the sensations.
' ''ii' August Fortnightly he wrote an article on Mo<lical Life Histories, offering Prizes up to
He spent much time on the details. His Record of Family Faculties hius just come out,
Al>.o the Life- H uitory Album, which he txlited. He was Chairumn of the AnthrojxtMjetric
Committee of the British Association, which publislied this year its fourtii and liniil Report,
and also Ciiairmun of the Ixx-al Scientific .S<H-ietie^ Ckjmmittee.

1HS4. .More and more home seems the most fitting place for me and for Frank as he is
always full of otxupatiou. This last year he has iM'en chiefly occupied in abstracting niid
collating from the Family Records for which he offere<l prizes to the amount of X500. About
150 of these Records were sent in by May 15th, and the statistics they afford will Ije food for
many a month and jtosnibly years. Then Frank took great interest in establishing an Anthro-
pometric laboratory at the International Health Exhibition, South Kensington, and gave no
end of time and money to its prosecution ; he gained, however, full recognition from Sir James

Paget and others, whose opinion he cared about In the summer my great desire to go abroad

».is stoppe<l by cholera in the south of France and after long debate Frank .settled on the
i!ii:,'lish I.Akes, and I was (juitc willing in default of my pet scheme, which I especially had
cherished, as there was no English British Association to spoil our holiday, it being held at
Montreal."

The Record tells us indeed as much as we know of the whole matter,
namely, that in some way the medical profeasion di-sajiproved of the prizes,
and that they were then ottered to laymen, who to a con.sideralilf extent
responded'.

The interval, however, Ijetween the FortnUjIitlij [)uper of IHSli and tlio
appeal to laymen for family records was well employed, and Galton having
got in touch with several leaders of medical opinion over the medical registers
obtained their aid in preparing his Life-IIistoi-y Album. It may be well to
deal with these matters before we return to the Anthropometric Laboratory.

' In the announcement of the prizes of December, 1883, this not« occui-s after the state-
ment of conditions, etc. : "The above conditions are in lieu of those provisionally sketched
out by Mr Galton in the Fortniyhtly Revxf.w of August, 188.3, for the purpose of eliciting
8Ugg(>stions, and which were subsequently sidmiitted in a more elalx)rate form to many members
of the medical profession. Their present shape is fixed in acconlancxj with tlu; balance of
opinions elicited by these preliminaries, which was in favour of throwing them oj)en to general
competition and not to merlical men only, as at first intende<l." This is obviously only a
formal explanation, and does not indicate the nature of the opinions against confining the
scheme to men who were in a much better position than the layman to rccoi-d family ailments
and the causes of death. Possibly the article in the Forljiig/itly rather inipe<led than aidwl his
plans ; possibly the medical profession of those days resente<l the intrusion of an out-sider into
what they might consider to be their own domain, even if they had not cultivated this portion
of it, and showed no haste to do so. There is also another |H)int which ha.s much weight with
me : (>alton even to the time of his death had a great l)elief in working his projects thn>ugh
commilU'es. 1 think it aros<! by rea.son of an innate mo«lesty which was always seeking advice
fr<jm others and accepting their opinions as worth more than his own. Thesi- committees often
became unwieldy, were composed of incongruous and irresponsible elements, and on more than
one occasion perverted or destroyed Gallon's original scheme. It is conceivable that the Liftv
History Hul>-(k)mmitteo of the Collective Inve-stigation Committee of the British Medical
Association, of wiiieh Galton was Chairman, contained elements of this character. Anyone
who haA endc«a>'oured like the writer to pick out from Oalton's Record of Family Faculties
a definite disease like phthisis by aid of it« numerous lay synonyms or rather intentional
pwMiiInnynix will 1»». nipidly convinced that the widening of the field of candidates wius not
"' ■ 'ge. I had alreatly writttui tliis noU^ when I chance<l to turn up (ialton's

p' ' ■ rid edition of the Lifo-History Album (p. ix). He there lulmits to tlie full

Uie evil of working through a committee, but alas ! it did not cure him of the habit.

Stathti'cal Invent if /at knu ^ 363

n. TTIE RECORD OF FAMILY FACriT/ES AND THE LIFE HISTORY ALBUM

In the advertisement of the prize competition Galton suggested that
information should Ixi collected with regard to the child, its parent«, its
gniiidpiirentH and great-grandparents, Numlx'rs I to 15 of his scale of relation-
ship, an«l tus far as possible of all the collaterals of these, i.e. memiiers of the
same sil)Klii|i.s as these, or alxmt 70 to 90 individuals. Cousins Galton
omitted, although we now know that, both on Mendelian theory and by actual
oljservation, they exhibit as much of the constitution of the common stirp as
aunts, uncles or grandparents and more than great-grandparents'. The prizes
were to be given to those who filled in the blank spaces of the Jtecord of
Family Faculties most completely and perspicuously. The Record was
published l)y Macinillans in 1884 and has been long out of print. A new
and somewhat modified edition of it is certainly needed. It records, lor the
family of an individual — his stirp — what the Life- History Album of the same
year does more copiously for tne individual himself. In other words, the
Record of Family Facidties could be extracted from the separate Life- His-
tory Albums of its units, but the inverse process is not pcssible. The one
gives — except for the medical section — a brief account of the adult char.ac-
teristics of each unit of the stirp, the other traces the unit through all phases
of growth.

In the Record the following questions are a.sked: (l) Date of Birth;
(*J) Occupation, Birthplace, Residences; (3) Age at Marriage of individual,
number of sons and daughters alive and their ages, and the same for those
deceased with age at de.'ith ; (4) Age at Marriage of spouse ; (5) Mode of
life so far as afi'ecting growth or health; (6) Was early life laborious? why
and how? (7) Adult height, adult colour of hair — colour of eyes; (8) General
apjiearance; (D) Bodily strength and energy, if nuich above or below the
average ; ( 1 0) Keenness or imperfection of sight and other sen.ses ; ( 1 1 ) Mental
powers and energy, if above or below the average; (12) Character and tem-
perament; (13) Favourite pursuits and interests, artistic aptitudes. Then
comes the medical history: (14) Minor ailments to which there was special
liability (a) in youth, (/>) in middle age; (15) Graver illnesses, (a) in youth,
(6) in middle age; (16) Cause and date of death, and age at death. There
are pages for male and female relatives of whom little is known but the age
at and cause of death. There are pages for summaries of the anthropometric
and medical characteristics of the stirp, and two Appendices to be devoted
respectively to the Biological History of the Father's and of the Mother's
Family. By ' biological history' Galton undei-stood the constitutional history
and hereditary peculiarities of mind and body on either father or mother's
side. A third appendix deals with an examination of the way in which
the faculties of the father and mother are blended or otherwise combined
in the child.

' This result of theory and observation always troubled Galton, but I do not think there is
any doubt of its accuracy.

46— a

364 TJfe and Jjetter» of Francis (Uilton

Tlie whole work is prefaced with an account by Galton of how the Record
should be fillet! in. It contains many characteristic statements. A few of
these may be cited here, as the book is very scarce.

•"niw book ia designed for those who care to forecast the mental and bodily faculties of
their children, and to further the science of heredity. Tlie natural j^ifts of each individual
being inherite<l from his ancestry, it is possible to foresee much of the latent capacities of a
child in mind and body, of the probabilitita of his future health and longevity, and of his
tendenciea to special forms of disease, by a knowledge of his ancestral precetlents. When the
science <rf heredity shall have become more advanced, the accuracy of such forecasts will doubt-
less improve; in the meantime we may rest assured that fewer blunders will bo made in
rearing and educating children, under the guidance of a knowledge of their family unt<'cedent8,
Uuin without it."

In the third paragraph Galton rightly points out that it is needful to
study as many ancestral lines as possible, and that the book gives no
countenance to the vanity that prompts most family historians to trace
their pedigree to some notable ancestor and to paas over the rest in silence.
Galton remarks that

"one ancestor who lived at the time of the Norman Conquest, twenty-four generations back,
contributes (on the supposition of no intermarriage of kinsfolk) less than one part in 16,000,000
to the constitution of a man of the present day." (p. 1.)

This is rather a theoretical than an observational result. It is true a man
may have 20 to 30 generations back 16,000,000 direct line ancestors if so
many were available, but it is equally true that a distinguished man of that
day might have several million descendants, and, if any system of alternative
or factorial inheritance be true, the distinguished individuals among those
descendants may owe their nature to that distinguished ancestor. It does
mean something to trace even in one line — and there are four or five — a link
lictween Darwin or Galton and Alfred the Great. It signifies nothing to
trace the same link between a mediocrity and Alfred the Great'. Galton
suggests that we need not go back beyond our great-grandparents, and this
is absolutely true of characters which blend. But when he tells us that if
an alien element of race or disease has been introduced into a family — a touch
of Hebrew, of Huguenot (or even negroid) blood — it may be traced far further,
he seems to me to he contradicting his previous statement. Albinism for
example may remain latent through far more than three generations. But
Galton recognises fully this latency at other points.

"Brothers and sisters are alike in bhxxl, but it commonly happens that one of them
exhibits some faculty in a con.spicuouB degree, which exists only in a latent form in another,
and which the latt«r is, perhaps, equally capable of transmitting to his children. Therefore
records of the faculties of the brothers and sisters of direct ancestors are of great value in
disclosing hidden characteristics." (p. 2.)

I think it would be more just to say that the limitation to great-grand-
parents is only a (juestion of the limitation of knowledge in the case of most
families ; and without being conclusive a great deal may still be learnt, if wt-

' The illustration can be given in another form: Some 15 years ago pielmldism appeared
'iiy Htirp of dogs and soon disappeared. After 7 or 8 generations it has reappeared. The
i lid ancestor means little to tlie average dog of my stock; he means everything to tht-
ted piebald puppies of to-day.

•

Sfdfisfiral luvcHthjdliimH 365

cannot get beyond the three generations and their collaterals. We must make
|a start somewhere and if we record three generations now our great-gruntl-
chilflien will ho able to consider six. What we need is to store data for the
future.

"The advance of the Hcience of heredity ia seriouHly delayed through the want of such
data. Wo do not yet know whetlier luiy j^iven Ki^^P of different characteristicH which may
converge l)y inheritance upon the Kanie family will hiend, neutrnliHc f)r intensify one another,
nor whether they will he mctjimorphiMed and issue in some new form. Our ijjnoranw is
<w|)eciully j;reat in herwlitary maliulies, when' much alarm und<)ul)te<lly existt which inijuiry
will dis[M<l. It is jH)8sil)le that the diderent <lisease tendencies of <li(lerent ancestors may in
some cases neutralisti one another, ami on the other hand, that .some ancestral combinations

may Ix* more hurtful to the descendants than we have at present any idea of Our prcwent

ignorance of the conditions by which the level of humanity may Ik) raisetl is so gross, that
I believe if we had some dict-ator of the Spartan type, who oxercis***! absolute p<jwer over
marriages, assigning ,1 to Ikj the wife of B, and C to be the wife of D, and who act<'<l "iil. the
best intentions, he might possibly do even more harm tiian good to the race."

Which remark 1 conunend to the good Mr Chesterton who believes that
he is better able than the Foiuider of Eugenics to appreciate what Eugenists
j)ropo.se.

CJalton discu.s.ses the questionnaire of the Record showing how the answers
will l)ear on sucli vital problems as the relative influences of nature and
nurture, as the effect of overstrain in the parents on the robustness of their
ortspriiig, as the possibility of secular changes in the English race, and as to
the influence of various racial types on fertility.

Considering the senses Galton remarks:

"Keenness of sensation in tjach of its forms is a valuable natural gift; unfortunately no
means are as yet easily accessible for testing it in different persons ; there are no anthropo-
metric laboratories as yet in existence to which any one may go, and on payment of a small
fee have all his faculties measured and registered by the various ingenious appliances known
to modern science. We must therefore l)e content for the present with such definite facts
bearing on the keenness or imperfection of the various senses as may have been incidentally
observed." (p. 9.)

Galton demonstrated even in the same year as he wrote these lines what
an anthropometric laboratory could achieve in measuring the keenness of the
senses. Fitly attached to the Lalx^ratory in the University of London,
which now bears his name, is an Anthropometric Laboratory with complete
equipment for testing not only the keeimess of the senses but for measuring
many other physical, psychical and physiological characters. The difficulty
does not now lie in the absence of means of testing, but in the discovery of
suitable ways of reaching those who are desirous of being tested, or who
ought to be tested.

When Galton comes to the medical record he gives a list of "minor
ailments" to which an individual may be subject and also one of the "graver
illnes-ses." These lists may be repeated here as they are still of value in
considering hereditary transmission of disease.

"■Minor Ailments. Colds in the head or throat, sick headaches, sleeplessness, boils, quinsy,
enlarged glands in the neck, bleeding at the nose, indigestion, bilious attacks (state whether
accompanied by jaundice, vomiting or headache), constipation, skin eruptions (their nature
should be stated if known), varicose veins, etc.

366 Life and Jjetters of Franch Galtmi

Oravmr IUnet$m. Gout, rheunintigm, consumption, Hpitting of blood, struma (scrofula),
cancer (and other forms of tumour), bronchitis, a.sthnia, jxinilyNis (state whether of Ixitli legs
or of one side), epilejwy, insanity, lu^art Kliwase, dropsy of iitMloiiien, general dropsy (Hright's
diMMe), diabetes, stone, goitre, fistula, the peculiar liability to bleed seriously from slight
cttta, etc."

It will be noted that Galton omits such thintjs as the tendencies to zymotic
diseases which undoubtedly run in families, or tiiose to hereditary eye diseases
such ivs cataract, retinitis pif/»icntosa, etc. He does state that malfbrmations
which are extremely hertnlitary should l>e included.

Then follows a brief but useful list of sources from which family information
may be obtiiined and he concludes ivs follows:

"Whatever may be the value of these i-esulte, the facts incidentally obtained during the
course of the inquiry will form a .separate document much prized by the family. The scientific
importance of each investigation will, however, be soon appreciated by the author of it, for bin
reaearches will lay bare many far-reaching biological bonds that tie his family into a connected
whole, whose existence was previously little suspected. Few, if any, have seriously studietl the
(acta of heredity without being impressed with the conviction that no man stands on an
isolated basis, but that he is a prolongation of his ancestry in no metaphorical sen.se, and
I shall be surprised if the compilation of these registers docs not extend tliis conviction very
widely." (p. 13.)

We now turn to the Life- IliMorif Album. The firet edition ajipeart'd in
1884 and bears on the title-page the words: "Prepared by direction of the
Collective Investigation Committee of the British Medical Association.
Exlited by Francis Galton, F.R.S., Chairman of the Life-History Sub-
Committee."

The original proposal seems to have been the return at fixed periods of
the records in the Album to the Collective Investigation Committee. I think
this proposal was not carried out, for I know of no publication of results from
Life-History Album data ever being issued. The foreword to the owner of
the book concludes with Galton's words from the Fortnightly lieview article
of January, 1882 (see our p. 358).

"The life-histories of our relatives are, therefore, more instructive to us than those of
strangers ; they are especially able to forewarn and to encourage us, for they are prophetic
of our own futures."

The second edition of this work appeared in 1902 and there has recently
been a reissue by the Cambridge University Press for the Galton Laboratory
Publications. The second edition bears the sub-title "Tables and Charts for
recording the Development of Body and Mind from Childhood upwards with
Introductory Remarks. Rearranged by Francis Galton, D.C.L., F.R.S."

In the prefjice to the second edition Galton refers to the enthusiasm in
the production of the work of the late Dr Mahomed, who had firmly persuaded
himself that a work of the kind would be favoured and promoted by medical
men throughout the country ; and this idea led to its being produced under
the auspices of the Collective Investigation Committee of the British Medical
Association. Dr Mahomed

" made it a further condition tliat my name should appear a.s e<litor, I Ixiing known at that
time to be much occupied in such matters. To this I agreed with some reluctance, for I wished
to Uar the entire responsibility or none at all. So a small uommittoe of medical men was

Statutiral fnvcstigations

foriiuxl who mot fruqiienlly iit my house, whore tho IkwIc wag nioHtly compomHl. But the result
did not at all satiHfy mysitlf, iioitlior do I think it gatiHtiwI tho othcm. It wok Um bulky and
illarraiigod. In fact it woh omphatically a ca«o of too many cookH. Fju;h had his own views,
and r boliove that any one of uh acting alone would have produced a Imtter balanced bcK)k than
wo (lid working togothor."

Soon after tlie issue of" the fii*8t edition Dr Miiliorned died and none of*
tlie remaining medical members of the committee concerned liimself" much
further with the work. Accordinf^ly when Galton in 1902 was presst^l for a
second edition lie largely rearranged and rewrote it. Thus the second edition
and not the first really represents the book as Galton had originally planned
it nearly twenty years earlier. It alone will l)e considered here'.

While the author in his LUroductory Remarks states that the Album may
he started at any age in life and if then filled in as far as records are available
will l)o of considerable interest, he notes that the Ixiok is especially suitable
as a present in readiness for infants expected to be born, or for very young
children. It should be handed over by the parent to the child only when the
latter is old enough to appreciate its importance, to take charge of it and to
continue the record for himself

"The futurti of eacli man is mainly a direct consequence of the pa-st — of his own biological
hi8t<iry, and of those of his ancestors. It is therefore of high importance when planning for the
future to keep tho past under frequent review, all in its just proportion, and this is exactly
what this album is intended to help him to do." (p. 2.)

Much of what Galton writes about filling in the details of the individual
in the Allmm need not detain us; it is more or less a development of the
information given in the Record of Family Facultiex. Ample space is lefl for
})hotographs in the standard positions and even for pictures of the homes and
for finger-prints. The actual scale of coloured wools is omitted in this edition,
although the heap of bits of variously coloured wools is still suggested as a
test for colourblindness. An appendix gives tests for keenness of vision. Two
paragraphs to illustrate the wise inferences that our sage of eighty could
draw from his experiences may be reproduced here. The first relates to
memory :

"Memory alone is an imperfect and deceitful guide ; it preserves only a trifling part of the
events of early life, and that part far from correctly. The extreme vividness with which a few
childish incidents arc usually recalled gives a very cxaggerate<l view of the power of its grasp.
Anylxwly who attt^mpts to compile a sustained history of his early years will six>n be persuaded
of the truth of this remark, for he will surely become aware of huge gaps of time that he is
totwlly unable to give account of. Every autobiography that I have seen testifies to these
lapses of memory. Again when one happens to meet a friend not 8«>en since early life, and to
compare recollections, it is astonishing t*) find how ditferently the two memories have behaved.
Tho one man fails to recall a multitude of events that have strongly impre.s.sed the other.
Even as to those they alike remember as wholes, it will often occur that their memories disagree
in essential details. In fiu-t, the experience gained by such interviews is commonly humiliating
to both." (p. 2.)

The second (lut)tution I shall make relates to veracity in recording the
nature of disease. Galton had come up against that hesitation to be literally

' The second edition differs not only in quality but quantity, for instead of carrjring on the
record only to the seventy-fifth year, it continues it to tlie hundredth. Galton was himself
eighty when it was issued.

868 Life nml Letters of Franri^ Gallon

truthful which at once meets all of us when we attempt to deal with the
hertnlity of nathologiciil conditions. In the humbler classes of society, who
form the bulk of hospital patients, there is sometimes almost a pride in the
]x>ssession of malformations and of pathological conditions. Many of the
women are only too ready to talk about them, and to exhibit any children who
may possess them. It is possibly the great interest which they observe is
excited among medical men by pathological states, which leads them to be
pleased at being noteworthy even for a deformity'. Unfortunately the family
records and traditions in hospitjil cases are often woefully scanty. Thegreat-
grand-parents are rarely to be traced, and only too often little if anything is
known of the families of uncles or aunts. On the other hand, when we turn to
social classes where the knowledge of ancestry and collaterals is considerable,
we are too often met by an indignant refusal to give information, even if it be
needed for scientific purposes. No retreat for the insane or sanatorium for
the tubetculous designed for patients of middle or upper class status is able
to provide adecjuate material for heredity. The inquirer is solemnly informed
that the grandfather died of inflammation following a cliill, that the sister
pined away after the death of her fianc6, or that the father was at times
eccentric, the aunt had attacks of the nerves, or the cousin brain-fever due to
overwork. It does not profit to give way to discouragement, or feel sore
before rebuffs, if you want to study human heredity. The only resource is to
try and educate the so-called educated classes and produce if possible a more
reasonable attitude towards hereditary matters amongst tjiem. Galton
achieved much in this direction and if it is still difficult to make rapid
progress, it is certainly easier than it was before he started his campaign
against the folly, not to say crime, which would screen family history not only
from the future wife, but from adult children. Galton writes on this second
point in 1902 with the sagacity of old age; he has learnt that to brand such
action as "ignoble cowardice'" may be absolute truth, but it will hardly
obtain what we need from the cowards. He says:

"It is too much to expect that even the most scrupulously kept records will be written
throughout with perfect veracity. Healthy minded persons are seldom dispased to lay themselves
whollybare in written words. There will be omissions in every Album, sometimes of matters of fuel
and at other times of the real inwardness of events, that nrv, of high importance to the right
understanding of a life-history. TTie writer of the Album will mentally supply the omissions
and interpret the misleading euphemisms when he refers to its pages; other persons who rend
his reconls must Ije prepared for their existence. Thus in matters of disejisc, an unsurmouutable
prejudice exists in many sensitive p«'r8oiis against ascribing cancer and insanity to their ancestors
in direct terms. They shrink from the thought of recording here<litary possibilities that might
destroy the peace of mind of their (lescendants, and perhaps work their own fulfilment. The duty
of parento to be truthful histographers seems overborne by what they consider to lie a still more
pressing duty to their children. It is almost useless to attempt to calm hypersensitive feelings by
{KMiiting to the fact that healthful tendencies are just as heritable as morbid ones, and that every
child is sure to be endowed with both. So I will confine myself to the mention of an instructive

' The psychology of these cases is similar to that of many persons, who being connected
with some appalling criminal trial seem pleasiMl with the momentary notoriety which carricK their
portraita into the cheap illustrated daily jiapers, possibly the one chance of publicity in their
«▼••■ I am by no means certain that it is not the same human frailty, under a thin covering of
veneer, which catisea the bride of another class to send her photograph to the 'society' papers.

StntUtirnl InmsHfjatimiK ^ 3rt0

hicli wiiH (;iiitu<<l wliilu wcirking at tho fiiiiiily liiHtoricN of a iiiultituilo
of iiidividualM. Tlioy were so tnbuliitod that the iiKKlical history of any individual roiild \n- •■'>•..
C(Mi1(kI by tlic liaiid or by a sheet of ]>iipor, while thoM! of all liis imniedinU^ ain-citoiH, ii.i
parcntH, jjraiidpariints, uncles, and aunts, were (•xpo8e<l. T rxjierim(>nte<l fnw|uontly iti ijii' n-
•t the cause of death of a (l<'oeJise<l individual from the knowled^je of thoso of his aiii >•-' i \ . md
T found my jjuesHos to be on the wiiole groswly incorrect'. Hut though the Kt«te«l cause ot di'ath
eoiild not ixi predieto<I with any approach to a useful dej^ree of accuracy, the iidieritance of
minor Hilments was conspicuously manifest. Kor this i-ea-son .some stress is laid in the Album
upon recordiuK them. For my own part, I find no reason why the dis<?ases of anct'stors
should be dfiscribed otlierwistt tlian with jwirfect honesty, ps{>e<'ially as a knowledge of them niav
induce their descendants to t-ake reasonable precautions against inlM)rn tx-ndencies, instead of
taking no precautions at all and doing thoniselves irropivrable injury out of pure ignorance." (p. 3.)

The imblicatioii of the liecord of Family FuruUics iuid tlie Lifc-IIiHtory
Album biodiflit (Jiiltoii into touch with many families and individuals who
were deeply interested in heredity. TlipKe books also brought him material,
even if it was not ([uite jus adetiuate as he had ho])ed for; further, they jjjave him
an acknowledj^ed position with regard to human heredity, which enabled him to
prosecute more widely his in([uiries, and to focus a great deal of the somewhat
scattered attempts wliich were then being made in tliis Held. Nor did his works

1^^ fail to find competitnrs. Mr Jonathan Hutchinson, who had been a member
^kof the British Medical Association Committee, published in 1888 The Life
Register, which we might suppose to have derived some ideas from Galton's
work, did not the author tell us that it was in no sense a copy, "having been
in existence long l)efore the Album was puljlished." It is less elaborate than
Galton's and fails in any adequate description of how and what entries are
to be made. Quite recently much more ambitious Alhxuna have been pub-
lished in America demanding entries far more ninnerous than Galton's book.
On the whole that work takes the yHS<e7»?7/e«, and combines anthropometric
with medical details in iliir proportions. Galton was undoubtedly first in the
field with a pulilished vohune; that volume shows his chamcteristic talents,
and still remains the best Life- History Album available^ The insignificant
annual siile of the work is, however, fairly conclusive evidence of how little the
many persons who talk about eugenics and enrol themselves in societies for the
advance of eugenics do to carry out Galton's fundamental idea that every indi-
vidual should keep, in a standardised form, as perfect a register as possible of
his own and his stu'p's genetic possibilities. That is still a want for the future
to supply; and as without its fulfilment we must ourselves fail in eugenic
conduct, few of us have a right to preach eugenic morality to others.

' One may hope shortly to see this result testefl on actual tabulated material. One of tho
chief difticulties lies in the fact that the lives of relatives are not exposed to equal risk, the
enviix)nnients and occupations may be so diffei-ent; probably the risk in the case of sisters will
l)e more nearly similar and give more conclusive results. Undoubtedly there are many pedignn-s
in which it would Ix^ safe to predict from the ancestral generations that at least 20 ° „ of the
new generation will bo afrecte<l with a given deformity or pathological condition. Would it be
reasonable by pre<licting for isolated individuals to s<vy that one's pre<liction was grossly incorrect
if four individuals out of five were free of the defect? I think prediction must procee<l on an
average or probability basis, and that in Galton's test where apparently only one individual's
cause of death was eonsideri«.l the /irobitliUiti/ of death from a iHirticular form of disease was
not really incorrect l)ecause that individual failwl to die of it.

'-' It is still publislif<l by the Cambridge University Press, Fetter Tjane, E.G. 4.

r o II 47

370 Life and Letters of France Galton

The Record of Family Faculties and the offer of prizes supplied Galton
with the material upou which to work for the next five yeare, and tli<
resulting memoirs and his book Natiuxd Inheritance of 188'J will be dis
cii88e<l in a later chapter. When Galton came to distributing the priz'
money he had offered, he was in some difficulty as to measuring relative valu(
and Anally i»ssigned forty £7 and forty-five .f5 prizes, so that eighty-ti\ .
com|)etitors shared the .£505. The awards were made on June 24, 1884, and
were published in the Times, NaUire, British Medicaid ou rnal and Guanlian.
Of the returns it is of interest to note that 70 were made by men, 80 by
women ; (i) 20, or rather fewer, concerned titled persons and the landed gentry
from (ii) Army and Navy, (iii) Church (various denominations), (iv) La\\
(v) Medicine, (vi) Commerce (higher), (vii) Commerce (lower) there wei.
110 returns in all. The remaining twenty were from land agents, farmers,
artisans, literary men, schoolmasters, clerks, students, and one domestic
servant — a fairly representative collection. The original records were returnee 1
by Galton to their authors after he had made statistical abstnicts.

E. THE ANTHHOPOMETUIG LABORATORY {continued)

We have already indicated the labour Galton gave to the construction ol'
instruments for this laboratory and described some of the psychometric an<1
other measurements he took. We have further discussed the paper on tli'
"Outfit for an Anthropometric Laboratory" which he drew up in conjunction
with the late Professor Croom-Kobei-tson and privately circulated (.see om
p. 212). Other jjapers actually deal with the instruments and measurement
made at the first Anthropometric Laboratory (International Health Exhilii
tion). The first is a ])enny pamphlet of some fourteen pages, "Issued l)y
Autliority ," and intended to be sold to visitors to the Exhibition. It is entitled :
"Anthropometric Lalwnitory arranged by Francis Galton, F.ll.S., for the l)c
termination of Height, Weight, Span, Breathing Power, Strength of Pull and
Squeeze, Quickness of Blow, Hearing, Seeing, Colour Sense, and other Personal
Data. The Lalx)ratory is situated in the East Corridor Annexe, Entrance from
South Gallery. Admission to the Lalwratoiy 3(/.,for which a schedule filled
up with the above details will Ije furnished. London, William Clowes and
Sons. International Health Exhibition, 1884." The pamphlet describes tin
purpose of the Laboratory, namely to show to the public the great simplicity
of the instruments and methods by which anthropometric mejisurementa
are taken. It then states what measurements are taken and how they ar<
taken. It further indicates two uses of such meai^urements, namely (i) tin
personal use, to ascertain whether the growth u\ child or youth is j)rocee(l
mg normally, and to draw attention to defects with a view to their being
remedied; and (ii) the statistical use, to discover the efficiency of a nation
as a whole and of its seveiul parts, and the direction in which it is changing
whether for better or worse. Galton then notes the need there is for .i
more systematic r^istration of physical measurements.

PLATE L

3

e

W

s

Statixtiatl Invest ujdt ions 371

"Their value is indiHputable, tho oottt of inaking them is trifling, and tho fnoility of rtfgiatra-
tioii in liny pttniinncnt inntitution is obviou& It itoeniH strangu that they should be neglected

ttt any soliool or univorsity." (p. 4.)

Dealing with the (juestioii of hair and eye colour, Galton remarks that:

"Tlio BritiHh nation is jxirtly n hlfiiid and |>ftrtly a mosaic of very distinct types TIk" short
lilack-imirtHl ancient Hritisli race unitt's iMiptTft-ctly with tin- tall fair-hairt'd iJanish or Scandi-
navian, 'riiolr union rcHcniMi-s what druj^gisU call an i-inuision, that is a mixture of oil and
water, so well shaken together that they form an apparently homogene<jU8 HulMtance; but the
coin|>ound is not durable. Leave the emulsion alone and afti'r a longer or shorter time it will
st'parate into its couiponont elements. Types are stable, but the forms of their mongrel
offspring are not; and whenever the external features of tho olil types are found in something
of their original purity, it is reasonable to suppose that their inward cluiracteristics arc present
also." (p. f)'.)

Galton notes that Baxter has shown from an analysis of 330,000 to
340,000 reported ca.se.s of invalidi.sm in the mediaxl e.xaminations for the
American unny during the Civil War, that the light-haired men suffered
more than the dark-haired from every form of disease except chronic
rheun\atism''. It i.s to solve problems of this kind that a record of pigmenta-
tion in Individuiils and families as well its a record of disease is desirable.

The actual floor space of the Laboratory was only 6 feet wide by 36 feet
long. It was fenced off from the side of a gallery by open lattice-work,
through which the public could see what was going on without impeding
the examinees. These entered by a door at one end and left by a door at
tlve other ; and some 90 individuals were passed through in the course of a
day. Tlie pamphlet gives an account of what the visitor is expected to do
at each station and the nature of the instrument used for the test. A more
elal)orate account of the Lalxjratory was published in the Journal of the
Anthropological Institute iov 1885'. It is entitled : "On the Anthropometric
Laboratory at the late International Health Exhibition." Thememou- begins
by stating that the exhibition being over it is desirable that some account
should be given of the methods and experiences of the Anthropometric
Laboratory, and that the author wishes to invite criticism and suggestion.
He states that the Laboratory aroused considerable interest, 9337 persons
were measured, each in 17 difl'erent ways*. Duplicates of the instruments
had been ordered by executive officers in foreign countries, and much interest
had been expressed in the apparatus by many places of education. As it
was most desirable that for conijiarative purposes there should be a standard
set of instruments Galton brought his apparatus and the attendants who
had supervised the measm-ing before the Institute'. Galton remarks that
the total expenditure having been covered by a charge of 3(/. per head, he

' More recent research indicates little association between external and psychical characters
after hybridisation.

^ Baxter, J. H. Medical and Anthropological Statistics of the Provott-Afarshal-OeneroTs
Bureau, Washington, 1875.

' Vol. XIV, pp. 205-21.

* The schedules containing these measurements are now in the Galton Laboratory and work
on their complete re<luction is in progress.

' All the work was done by Serjeant Williams, Mr Gammage, an optical instrument maker,
and a <l(M)rkeeper, of course under Galton's supervision.

47—2

^72 lAfe aiul Letters of Franeis Galton

did not Bee why a similar periodic anthropometric examination should not bo
made in all the gi'eat schools of the coxintry; and he makes the excellent
suggestion of an itinemnt anthropometric laiwratory, which should circulat(
from school to 8chi>ol. The idea is a very good one, and would keep t\\v
school laboratory, where such existed, up to modern standards of methods,
tests and a]>|)aratu8.

DixcussuiiT what should be measured, Galton observes:

"One object is to ascertAin what inaj' be called the personal constants of mature life. This
I ':• i-ie must not be taken in too strict a sense, because there is nothing absolutely constant in a
■ iUij iKxly. Life is a condition of jn-rpetuul change. Men arc alxjut half an incli shorter when
they go to bed than when they rise in the morning. Their weight is affected by diet and hnbit
of life. All our so-callinJ personal constants are really variables, though a large proportion of
their actual variations may lie between narrow limits. Our tirst rule then i.s, that the trouble
of measurement is best repaid when it is directed upon the least variable faculties." (p. 207.)

He then touches on a point which still troubles the anthroporaetrician,
especially in the case of mental tests:

"There are many faculties that may be said to be potentially constant in adults though they
•re not develojjed, owing to want of exercise. After adequate pmctice, a limit of etticiency
would in each case be attained and this would be the personal constant; init it is obviously
ini|M>.ssible to guess what that consUint would be from the results of a single trial. No test
professes to do more than show the efficiency of the faculty at the time it was applied, and nian\
tests do even less than this, being so novel to the person e.xperimented on that he is maladroit,
and fails to do himself justice' ; consequently the results of earlier trials with ill-devised test-^
may differ considerably from those of later ones. The second rule then is that the action-
required by the tests should be as familiar as possible'."

Galton makes a suggestion as to practice which might be worth following

up, although great care would have to be taken in experimenting between

sessional and secular variations. The sessional variation, or variation in a

sitting (or in one closely contracted series of tests), may be largely a result of

chance, j)artly of practice, and partly of fatigue, while the secular variation

may show the marked effect of continual practice\ The suggestion runs:

"There is aoiue hope that we may in time learn to eliminate the effect of an unknown amount
of previous practice by three or more distinct sets of trials. There exists a rough relation lietween
practice and proficiency which ought to be apjMirent wherever progress is not due to acquiring
a succession of new knacks, but proceeds regularly. When no practice has previously taken
place, the progressive improvement will Ije very rapid ; then its rate will smoothly d«>crt'4ise until
it comes to an entire stop. I suspect that a curve might be drawn betwe<^n proficiency and
practice, and that the data afforded by at least three successive series of tests would roughly

' I think Galton has conceivably overlooked a point here. One test of fitness to environ-
ment is the readiness with which an individual can adapt himself to new conditions and respond
promptly to the everchanging experiences of his life. In many cases therefore a iwvd test is a
truer tost of mental agility, than one which has liecome a familiar routina

' This nde appears to lie stated too generally; when familiarity comes in, then there will be
a correlation l)etween length of practiw and efficiency, of which we do not know the intensity
When I was a boy I was taught to dovetail and learnt to do so creditably; any mediocre car-
penter would excel my work now Iwth in sjkhxI and neatness. On the other hand I should
proK. out far more clearly and rapidly than he would a page of letterpress. Any test

to <\< 11 r n-lativo powers of mentally controlling the rapidly moving hand ought, I think,

to l*j made in a manner which should be as unfamiliar to us lx)th as possible.

• The rcatler may consult a paper by E. S. Pcui-koh on the " Variations in Personal lixjuation,
etc.," fiiometrxka, Vol. XIV, pp. 23-102.

StfitiMtinil fnirnt it/at Ions 873

deterinino the pmition in the curve uf tlio |>enM>n wh(i woh being tested. They would show what
ho WII.S cuj«il)li' of at the tiniu, uiid apiinixiiiiatttly how much conscious or unconscious practice
ho hiul alrciuly gone through, and the niaxiniuui etlicioncy to which thi* faculty undt^r test
iidmittod of being educated." (p. 208.)

Oil the siune piij^e Gallon raises a proto-st aguiiist pursuing, in anthro-
pometric meuKiirt'iMfiits, tlu- strict methods appropriate to |>syclii)-|ihysi('ul
investigations.

"We do not want to analyse how much of our jxiwer of discriminating Ix-twwn two objects
is due to this, that or the other of the many elementary perceptions called iiit<> a<'tiiiii It is tin-
total result that chiefly interests U8."

Galton is content if the judgment finally made rests u|K)n a blend of many
different fixctors.

A good deal of the paper is taken up with a discussion of the means of
passing people rapidly through a long series of tests with a minimum of
supervision. This was on account of the finite period for which the laboratory
vviis open and the cost of attendants, a necessity in Galton's case, but it is, I
think, open to a certain amount of reasonable criticism. Our own plan in
the Galton Laboratory is to have as far as possible one supervisor for each
test or at leiust kindred group of tests. He is able to explain what is needed,
assist the examinee when in doubt and save delicate instruments from rough
handling. If such supervision is feasible I feel certain that examinees pass
through at the maxiinuni speed, and there is greater accuracy in therecoids.
■ In Galton's first laboratory no head measurements were made, and he
discusses the omission on p. 210. They were purposely omitted under the
peculiar circimistances of a mixed crowd.

"I feared it would be troublesome to perform on most women on account of their bonnets,
and the bulk of their hair, and that it would lead to objections and difficulties'."

However, Galton actually designed a spanner to take the height of the
head from the auricular psissages, and it came into use in Cambridge in 1885.
In the case of this instrument he measures the maximum height

"above the plane that passes through the upp>er edges of the orbits and the orifices of the ears."
(p. 210.)

Presumably he means the central line of the orifices and the upper
border of the orbits. It is clear that Galton's standard plane differs on both
counts from the Frankfurt horizontal plane'.

The reader will find on pp. 211 and 217 descriptions of Galton's firat in-
strument for measuring the swiftness of a blow (see our p. 220) and of what

' It may be worth noting that we feared the same trouble in our Hnthi-o[x)metric laboratory
at University College, but it has proved an idle fear. It is true bonnets no longer exist and hair is
often 'bobbed.' Even if bulky it lies now-a-days low on the head and the head length is generally
taken without disturbing it. Occasionally the tape measurements are a difficulty, but if help
is iwsked for, I have found it most i-eadily given as in passing the tape under the hair knot, or
i-elea.siiig the knot if nei-essary. T have been told occasionally that the hair will be let down
if retiiiired, but there is usually a little justitiable pride about this offi-r, and a practised operator
cjvii tiike all the usual moasureiuents fairly accurately without accepting it!

-' The change to the lower bonier of the orbits was made at Cambridge later, but I do not
know when.

374

Life and Letters of Francis Galton

appears to lie an ingenious instrument for measuring delicacy of touch on the
principle of the lloberval bjilance on p. 212. "The action of the instrument
seems perfect, but it exist* as yet only as a working model." I do not know
whether any further account was published of it, nor liow it exactly functioned
physiologically.

There are two Appendices to the paper; the tirst contains chiefly extracts
from the Exhibition pamphlet already discussed. The second indicates the
methods Galton was using for the reduction of his material, and gives a
certain immber of his results'. In this Appendix he siiys that he is prepared
to admit that the persons who applied to be measured were not possibly a
random sample of tnose who attended the Exhibition, nor the crowd who
visited the Exhibition a random sample of the British population, but
he considers that such a criticism nmst not be pushed unreasonably far.
Probably the data afford materials for testing the relations between various
bodily faculties, and the influence of occupation and birthplace. Although
in this paper he is dealing chiefly with statical anthropometric characters —
Le. those of least interest)— such treatment was a necessary preliminary to
further discussion and served to exemplify Galton's method of the statistical
scale, i.e. the use of percentiles. He considered — and at that time he was
justified in considering — that he was

"presenting in a coin[)act and methodical form a great deal more concerning the distribution of
the measurements of man than has hitherto been attempted in a numerical form." (p. 275.)

Galton deals only with adult males and adult females, of whom there were
4726 of the former and 1G57 of the latter.

His first table gives the maximum or highest records among these adult
cases for seven characters.

Character

Highest Becord

4736 Adult Malea

1667 Adult Femal«e

Stature without shoes ...

Weight

Vital C'apjicity ...

Strength of Pull

Strength of Sijuceze
Swiftni'iui of Hlow
KeennesH of .Sight, diHtancel
of reading diauioad type

6 ft. 7-.'» in.
22 8t. 0 lbs.

354 in.'
• 148 lbs.
112 lbs.
29 ft. per sec.

39 in.

5 ft. 10-3 in.
15 St. 8 lbs.

270 in.'

89 lbs.

86 lbs.
20 ft. per sec.

40 in.

In all characters but sight'the male had a higher record, and if we deal
with the median values even there the male is higher than the female. Galton
concludes that

"the female differs from the male more conspicuously in strength than in any other particular,
and therefore that the commonly used epithet of 'the weaker sex' is appropriate." (p. 278.)

The lady, however, who could give a squeeze of 86 lbs.* is not to be despised,

• See "Some Rettulta of the Anthropometric I.*il}oratory," J. A. I. Vol. xiv, pp. 275-87.
' Thia is slightly in excess of the squeeze of the median adult male. Galton remarks that

Slatixtical Inve4stujutiuiut 375

and the idea of her tickled the fancy of Mr Punch, who in the issue that
followed the publication of Galton's paper thus ajKwtrojihises her:

The Squeeaa of »&.
Maidfii of tlif ini),'lity ihuhoIoh, HuhImdcIh in' it sadly Hlut<-il,

Tliert' ix'oordi'd, you would be Havu Ix^oii known thrir wivi« to whack,

Fniiious in nil niimly tusHles, You, unless you're ovpr-nit^-d.

And its very clt-nr to n>e, Could give such endearments back.

That if in tli(< dim hereafter Yours the task to try correction,

Any husband should play tricks, Till your husband and your "chicks,"

You would with derisive laughter, Had a lively recollection

Give a "S«iueeze of 8(5." Of your "Squeeze of 86."

Puneh, April 16, 1884.

(Jalton's second table exhibits the full advantages of his method of per-
centiles, but presents also its disitdvuntages, as it does not allow us to deduce
the usual t'reijuency constants with any reasonable accuracy. At the same
time it is easily understood by the non-statistical, who can readily determine
from it their rank for any character. Tims suppose a man 'oetween 23 and
26 years of age to have a vital or breathing capacity of 190 cubic inches, he
I sees at once from the table that he is surpassed by 70 "/, of men (199) and
himself surpiusses 20°/, (187). A simple rule of three sum then indicates
to him that he lies ^ or \ of the way from 80 to 7^ or at 77*5. In other
words he would rank between the 77th and 78th men in a population of 100
young adults similar to those who visited the anthropometric laboratory.

The ages and numbers in the table' on the following page possibly require
some justification. All Galton says is that he had

"groups of appropriate cases cxtractwl from the duplicate records by Mr J. Henry Young of
the General Registry Office. I did not care to have the records exhausted, but requested him
to take as many as seemed in each case to be sufficient to give a trustworthy result for these
and certain other purposes to which I desired to apply them. The precise number was deter-
mined by accidentfil matters of detail that in no way implied selection of the measurements."
(p. 278.)

Now-a-days we should consider it needful to keep the probable errors in
view, which are occasionally somewhat large for small series treated by the
method of percentiles. Galton deduced his percentiles from the fretjuency
distributions by summing, plotting, drawing a curved line through the plotted
points and then interpolating for the actual percentiles by graphiail inter-
polation^

"the (Mipulation of England hardly contains enough material to form even a few regiments of
efficient Amazons."

' This table with the description of its method of preparation was also published in Nature,
January 8, 188;) (Vol. .xxxi, pp. 223-5), a month or two before its appearance in the Journal
of the A iithroix^oyical Iiistitule.

' The method with more detail was discussed by Galton under the title "The Application
of a Graphic Methotl to Fallible Measures" in a f>aper communicated to the Jubilee Congress
of the Royal Statistical Society and published in the JubUee Voltiine of the Slatuticnl iSocieti/,
1885, pp. 262-5. The method consists in dmwing an ogive curve from the data and interpo-
lating for the ptMventiles. The siimo end could l>e reached by integrating the frequency
histogram and dividing its final onlinatc into equal parts corresponding to the percentiles. This
may, of course, be rapidly done by the integraph.

376

Life and Letters of Francis fialton
A nthroponu'tric PercvntUcs \

To/mm SnrpoMtd and VoImm Unreached, hy variant percenlagns of the persona meatured
at the AiUhropomelric Laboratory at the late International Healtli Exhibition.

Vftlnea larpaassd by peroento. below

Chanteler maamnd

Ag.

UnUof
maasura-

EDOnt

Sex

Mo.

of

Pwr-

M°/o

90°/. 80°/, TOo/o 60''/j507j40°/„ W>U SO"/.
Values unreaohcd by peroents. below

10°/.

r*

■oni

«7o

10"/.

ao'/o SO"/,

40°/o

«>°/o

60°/„

70=/,

80°/.

90°/.

fi.-.

Height standing
without shoes

23—
51

Inches

M.

P.

811
770

63-2 64-5
58-9.69-9

1

65-8 66-5 G7-3
61-3 621 62-7

67-9

fi«-5
(539

69-2
64-6

700 71-3
65-3 66-4

Height Kitting from
seat of chair

23—
51

Inches

•1

M.

F.

1013
776

33-6
31-8

34-2
32-3

34-9
32-9

35-3
333

35-4
33-6

30 0
33-9

36-3
34-2

36-7
34-6

371
34 9

37-7 !:;
35-6 ;:

1

Span of Arms

23—
51

Inches
»

M.
F.

811
770

650

58-6

661
59 5

67-2
60-7

68-2
61-7

690
G2-4

f)9-9
(i30

70 G
G3-7

714
G4-5

723
65-4

73-6 7
66-7 t;

Weight in ordinary
indoor clothes

23—
26

Pounds

M.
F.

520
276

121
102

125
105

131
110

135
114

139
118

143
122

147
129

150
132

156
136

165
142

172

int

Vital or Breathing
Capacity

23—
26

Cubic
Inches

M.

F.

212
277

161
92

177
102

187
115

199
124

211
131

219
138

226
144

236
151

248
164

277
177

1

Strength of Pull as
archer with bow

23—
26

Pounds

M.
F.

519

276

56
30

60
32

64
34

68
36

71
38

74
40

77
42

80
44

82
47

89
51

Strength of Squeeze
with strongest hand

23—
26

Pounds

M.
F.

519
276

67
36

71
39

76
43

79
47

82
49

85
52

88
55

91

58

95
62

100
67

Swiftness of Blow

23-
26

Feet per
second

M.
P.

516
271

13-2
9-2

141
10-1

15-2
11-3

16-2
12-1

17-3
12-8

18-1
13-4

191
14-0

200
14-5

20-9
151

22-3 •-'
16-3 1

Keennessof Sight by
distance of reiading
diamond type

23—
26

Inches

»

M.
F.

398
433

13
10

17
12

20
16

22
19

23
22

25
24

26
26

28
27

30

29

32
31

1

Taking the table, it can l)e shown by plotting in reverse directions thai
the male and female ogive curves, for squeeze of hand say, intersect at 7 7.
or if we had to select the 100 strongest individuals out of 100 men and 10(
women taken at random, we should select 93 men and seven women. Oi
this Galton makes the comment:

"Very powerful women exist, but happily perhaps for the repose of the other sex, sue
gifted women are rare." (p. 278.)

It is probable that if Galton had taken the fisherfolk of Aberdeen, th4
peasantry of the Tyrol, or any primitive people, he would have found a conJ
sideniblv greater percentage of women in his 100 strongest individuals. Hfl
wjis largely dealing with a town population. Our ex])erience in the GaltoE
Lal)oratory shows that there are quite a few characters in which the absolute
values reached by the women ecjual or excel those of the men, notably ii
Memory of Form, iJiscrimination of Coloui-. Stoadiness of Hand, and Speed^
Accunicy of Hand.

' The value that is unreached by n*/, of any large group of measurements and sur
by (100- n) 7. u called the nth peroentile.

Sfdfitttiral /nncgtif/afiotiH 377

At this point in liis paper Gallon draws attention to a "Common Error
in Statistics'," which he says has not hitherto attracted attention. It occurs
ill a classification, such as "G5 — " for stature, vvhicli is assumed to mean
65 inches ami less thnii GO inches. Ho points out that the centre of this
group is usually taken as 65"5 inches, but that this is most often erroneous,
and that the true centre of the group (if we arrange the gro'T uniformly
over its range) may differ very considerably from this. The true centre
depends on the fineness of our readings. If, for example, we read stature to
the nearest half-inch only, then all measurements in excess of 64'5 would be
included in G5, and all measurements in excess of 65'5 in G6. The former
would all appear in "65 — " and the latter would not. Thus the centre of
"65 — " would be actually the centre of the range 645 to 65*5 or 65 and not
65 •5. In other words, there would be half an inch error in the resulting
mean. Most tyros in statistics are now aware of this point, i.e. that the
centre of a subrange depends upon the fineness or coarseness of the readings.
It is, therefore, startling to think that Galton was the first to point out this
pittall even as late as 18841

I The next paragraphs are of some historical interest. Galton is seeking
to find a relation between various characteristics, and considering the old
idea of the ratios of anatomical measurements as constants. He notes that in
certain cases these ratios are not constant (p. 281). Galton also gives rough
gi'owth curves for vital capacity, but has missed the point of contraflexure
in the neighbourhood of puberty, which his own data treated more in detail
exhibit. These are cases of what we should now term skew regression. Galton,
we notice, had not yet reached in 1884 the full conception of correlation. He
gives (p. 285) what we should now term a coiTelation table between vital
capacity and strength of squeeze for 522 males of ages 23, 24 and 25. He says
that he was surj>rised to find no close relation between these two characters.

"The iinport-ance of a large breathing capacity to a man who expends force rapidly, aa to a
runner or mountain climber, is undoubted, but for a strain of short duration it seems com-
paratively non-essential." (p. 284.)

He reaches his conclusion by comparing the means for strength of squeeze
corresponding to vital capacities of 150 and 300 cubic inches. He says there
is a difference of 17 lbs. But without a measure of the variabilities we could
not deduce any measure of the association of the two characters. Now-a-
days we should say that the coefficient of correlation was certainly not
negligible : it is '40 ± 02 from his table; but we are able to express the in-
tensity of the association in this simple manner, only because Galton later
taught us how to do it'.

Some data are given for the leliitlonship of right and left sides. Thus
Galton found the left hand to he about G /^ weaker than the right. The
right and left eyes on the average had equal keenness of sight. Galton

' See p. 280 of the present paper. Galton also contributed a paper on the same point to
the Jubilee Ydwm of the Statistical Society, June 22-24, 1885, p. 261.

^ Gallon's wording is rather vague, but I think there is more correlation than his phrase
would suggest.

p o II 48

378 Life and Letters of Franch Galtou

investigated whether there was any relation between superior strength oi
the right or left hand and superior reading power of the right or left eye.
Presumably he made a correlation table ; he tells us that he found no asso-
ciation, but he considers that an association would be less improbable iiad hv
l)een able to compare the difference in skill of right and left hands with the
difference in vision of the right and left eyes.

The paper concludes with the data on highest audible note referred to
on our p. 221.

A study of this paper suggests at once the road along which Galtuii \\ as
being airrietl towards the conception of correlation ; we shall see soon how he
recognised that the numerical association between two anthropometric variates
and the (piantitative measure of the intensity of the hereditary factor were
one and the stune inatliematical problem.

While Galton began immediately to use his data for the problem of
correlation he did not hesitate to place portions of it before other investi-
gatoi-s that they might if tliey liked reduce it by otiier methcxls. Thus in
1889 he published' data for 400 of the 518 individuals, extracted by Mr J. H.
Young (see our j). .376). These data are for adults aged 23, 24 and 25, and
for other individuals than those he himself used in his 1888 Royal Society
memoir on CoiTclation. They give Age, Status (married or smgle), Eye
Colour, Birthplace, Occupation, Residence, Vital Capacity, Squeeze of both
hands, Span, Sitting Height, Stature and Weight in ordinary indoor clothing.
As far Jis I know they nave never been reduced, and would prove ratiier
inadefjuate in number if allowance were made for birthplace and occupation.
For a really full discuasion of these matters, it woidd be needful to return to
the much fuller material in the far more numerous original records.

Two further papers remain to be touched on, although of a much later
period than the first Anthropometric Lalx)ratory. It will, I think, be wiser
to take the later of these first, because it gives us more of the liistory of his
laboratories. It is entitled : " Retrospect of Work done at my Anthropometric
Laboratory at South Kensington," and was published in 1891^

Gralton's Anthropometric Laboratory on the closing of the Health Exhi-
bition in 1885 had been transferred to a piece of vacant ground, which later
was taken over by the Imperial Institute. Here the laboratory, under
Serjeant Randal as Superintendent, continued its work for five years, and an
additional 3678 persons were measured. New measurements and observa-
tions were made, including the wonderful collection of finger-prints now in
the (ialtoniana. But Galton after six years' experience had begun to realise
that an Anthropometric Laboratory cannot remain stationary either in its
methofls or in.struments. It must always be starting new inquiries, and needs
for tliis purptse a scientific research staJf. He had himself used his liiljoratory
for various special researches, such as the Finger-Print inquiry, the question

• Journal o/lhf Authropolotjical Iimtilulf, Vol. xvni, pp. 120 .30.

• Jhid. Vol. XXI, pp. 32-5. The Ijiboratoi-y wa.s disinaiitlwl in February 1891, and
n"open«l Au^uHt .3, 1891. Qalton Htates in his Retrnitpext that the South Konsingtf)n MuNtmni
autlioritieii had ofTcrwl to place a larger and bettor lighted space at his di8i>o8al under their
own roof.

PLATE LI

jl

Francis Giiltoii's SccoikI Antliropometric Liibonitory, South Kensiiigtnii Museum, 1691 'J5.

I

I

Statistical /nvfutitjatiaim 379

of luiukH fiir nliysical tests, and the problem of the symmetry of the two
sides of the lK>uy. Such iiKiuirieH icMjuiiecl an ever avaihible scientific director,
and ( Julton luniself was far t(M) husy with tlio multitude of chiims on his energy
and executive skill to undertake such duties. He writes:

"Fn briof, what littln Ims Ikwii ncconipliHhwl at lh«> la))oratory (luring the Uiree yearn of ita
t'xistt'iict" justifies to my own mind tlio trouble and oxpense I have Invn put to in building,
0(|uip|>ing and niaint-iiining it. Hut it never reaelie<l to my ideal. Besides the obje<'tM alreiuly
luinied, I wa.s almost o<|ualiy desirous of cstaldisliinK a place where the keenness of the wnses
and other faculties in any individual who applied, might lie niea.surtxJ with all the accuracy and
))ainstakiiig that is achieved l)y the few biologists who occupy themselves seriously in such
pursuits. To etlect this it would be neces-sary to Hecure the occasiotial services of a skilled
experimenter and to ensure at the same time that a sufficiency of persons should come to be
measured. The time did not .seem to have arrived for such an enlargement of the existing methods,
though T hoped and still hoj)e that it may not be far distant, as the utility of the lalwratory
IxHJomes nwtv widely appreciat<'d. The measurements thus far employe<l are of a comjiaratively
rude, but not ineffective, character. It would give me pleasure at any time to receive sugges-
tions as to new and useful special inquiries, such as might be carried out and brought to con-
clusion without a too serious exp»!nditure of time and etFort."

But although Galton was very modest about what his laboratory could
jtchieve in the future without a scientific staff, it really had accomplished a
great deal.

"Persons of all ranks went to it', a knowledge of its existence was extending, and it was
becoming increasingly frequented up to the day of its closure. Many correspondents in the
Unite<l Kingdom, in America, and elsewhei-c, have moro or less adopted its methods, and it was,
I may add, a givat consolation to me to receive, on the very day that I l)egan to dismantle it,
the proof sheets of the register, and other forms in many respects like my own, that are to be
u.sed in the lalwratory at Dublin, which has been set on foot through the efforts, and will be
carrietl on under the superintendence, of Professors Cunningham and Haddon." (p. 32.)

Immediately following' Galton's Itetrospect is a paper by Cunningham
and Haddon entitled "The Anthropometric Laboratory of Ireland." They
say that Mr Galton, who has given them every encouragement in their work,
proposed that they should give some account of the steps they were taking
to introduce anthropometric work into Ireland and their aims in doing so.

"We need hardlyexplain in the Institute where the important and interesting results obtained
by Mr Galton in this field of inquiry have been so largely made known, that it was these that
stimulated us to endeavour to do likewise in Ireland." (p. 35.)

Directly or indirectly Galton's Laboratory was the parent of Anthro-

t)ometric laboratories at Eton, Dublin and Cambridge ; indeed of the much
ater work also of Schuster at Oxford. Just as Galton generally transferred
his laboratory to the varying loci of the British Association, so Cuiuiingham
and Haddon proposed peregrinations for their laboratory during the Long

' Among whom we may note Mr W. E. Gladstone, whose head measurements afterwards
were as serviceable to Mr Brock, as those of the Biometric I^aboratory on the head of Professor
Weldon were to Mr Hope Pinker — both being used for jiosthumous portraiture. Gladstone was
amusingly insistent on the size of his head, saying that hattt>rs often told him that he had an
Aberdonian head — a fivct which he did not forget to tell his Scottish constituents. It was not,
however, of very great circumference and rather low (like Sir Thomas Browne's and Bentham's).
It was less than Spottiswoode's, ISharpey's and Galton's own. " Have you ever seen as large a
head as minel" Gladstone said to Galton, on which the latter observed: "Mr Gladstone, you
are very unobservant!"

■ Journal of the Anthropological Institute, Vol. xxi, pp. 35-9.

48— a

380 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

Vacations to special "ethuical islands" in Ireland in the hope of unravelling
"the tangled skein of the so-called ' Irish Ilace.' " The peripatetic princijile
of Galton was again adopted by Gray and Tocher in their Scottish surveys.
If the people wul not come to you, you must go to the people, and stand
beside the itinerant dentist and the cheapjacK in the market-|)lace and
measure their crowds.

Looking back on those yeam dining which the Antliropometric Laboratory
existed we ask what definitely was achieved? Well, (i) An immense amount
of material wjis collected, which only forty years later is being ade<juately
reduced, (ii) From small portions of it Gralton deduced the foundations of
the correlational calculus. Here Galton evolved an entirely new princi])le
described in his paper of 1889, yet to be placed before the rejuler. This was
in itself a very big achievement, much bigger in the light of what has
followed than it might have appeared to casual observers of that day. It
reduced

"all furms of correlation, including herwlitary qimlitica, to one simple law, namely that of the
relation between two variables partly dependent on a common set of influences."

(iii) It led to laws of growth and development whose study had hitherto
been impossible, and it enabled investigators to take account of social status
and of occupations, (iv) The limitations of such systems of pereonal identi-
Hcation as that of Bertillon became apparent and this prepared the way for
Galton's finger-print system combining indexing with identification, (v) It
provided material by which many interesting problems could be solved, such
as diunial changes in measurement, fallibility of the measurer, and the limits
of change after adult age in various anthropometric " constants."

Lastly the Laboratory gave a most vigorous push to anthropology; it
indicated what might be achieved by anthropometry taken seriously and
the impetus is yet far from exhausted. There are still anthropologists who
believe that great racial problems can be solved by juggling with a few
cephalic indices. They do not recognise that a human being is a vast con-
geries of faculties, and that only certain of these are highly correlated. Others
are practically independent and are largely modified by intermixture in each
new generation. It is wholly impossible to define an individual, still less a
race or associated group of individuals, on the basis of a single character. It
requires a great many measurements to describe with moderate accuracy an
individual, and quite as many to characterise, or provide the type of, a local
group of men. Anthropometry whether physical, psychical or medical has
this end in view : the definition of Type — in particular racial type — by the
measurement of a fairly representative system of characters. Anthropologists
learnt from Galton's Anthropometric Laooratories not only the importance of
their task, but how to set about it. They learnt for the first time to what
extent characters are correlated and how to measure the degree of their asso-
ciation. That could only result, when the investigator learnt to deal with the
whole system of variations and did not occupy himself simply with the averages
of characters. The last quarter of the nineteenth century revolutionised
anthropology, and Galton was the main mover in those momentous changes.

SfafiMfical fnrfsfu/utiomt 38t

We now turn to the second niuinoir, |)ubliulie<l In 1890, entitled: Anthro-
pometric Lttbonitonj, Noten and Menwirs, No. T. This seems to have Ijeen
printed at (Julton's expense and was prohaldy sold (price 3</.) at the s<>cond
Anthro|)onietric Lalwratory in the Science Museum, South Kensington. The
pamphlet, now unpurchasahle, consists of four chapters, thirty-two paijea in
all. The first chapter l)ear8 for title: "Why do we mejisure manknid'?"
Galton first answers the supposed reader, who may say, "I do not care for
science, why then should I mt and be measured?" For this "very cynical
hut not quite imaginary sjKjaker" Galton writes as follows:

"Tlio cost of boinjj nieiisurwl hiis Xteon provwl to amount to soiiietliiii^' iHJtwtH-n 3(/. unci I».,
and the real quoHtion is wliuther it is worth your wliilt^ to pnvii shillini; iit ii niiixiimiin to liave
yourself or your boys and girls measured."

Galton indicates first the atlvantage to non-adults; given age, sex and
social position, we are able to tell them how they rank among their contem-
poraries.

The value of testing sight is specially emphasised and it is pointed out
how a knowledge of mischief may lead to the removal of its source. Then
Galton notes how often colour-blindness has been discovered late in life and
after possibly a failure has been made in a profession where it is an al)6olute
bar. He cites the ca.se of a widow bringing a son of 18 years to the lalx>ra-
tory and getting (luite angry with him for his supposed stupidity in blundering
between reds and greens, quite unconscious that there was such a natural
incapacity as colour-blindness!

It is then pointed out how important to an adult is a knowledge of his
strength and his vital capacity, and how valuable a warning may be, not only
in the selection of an occupation, but in the case of an incapacity arising from
uiu'ecognised causes.

"A regi.ster of measurements resembles a well-kept account-book. It shows from time to time
the exact statt> of a mini's powers, as the account-book sliows that of his fortune. Whatever
may be whispered by the inner voices of vanity or of envy, no sane and experienced person can
doubt the enormous difference between the natural gifts of different men, whether in moral
power, in tiwte, in intellect, or in physical endowments. Those who have frequently pitted
thenisolves fairly against others, doing their very best to succeed, must have often known what
it is to be utterly beaten by their natural superiors. It is only those who have kept al(K>f
from contest who can pos.sibly flatter themselves with the belief that their failures are wholly
duo to circumstance and in no degree to natural inca|)ttcity. Such persons will quickly be
awakened from their self-couceit by submitting themselves to measurement and thereby ascer-
taining their exact rank in each several respect. They will be sure to receive a good moral lesson
from the results." (p. 8.)

This passage explains to a considerable extent why Galton preferred the
method of grades to the use of frequency curves. He liked a system in which
the uninitiated could put his finger on a single niunber and say : "I am worse
than so many per cent, of men and better than so many per cent. " That is
what the method of Anthropometric Percentiles achieves and the fundamental
diagram reproduced on our p. 390 appeai-s on p. 23 of this reprint.

' It also appears in Lippincotfg Magazine for February, 1890.

/

382 Life and fjetteri* of Francis Oalton

The next advantage of anthropometry Gal ton finds ii
natter which some of our moderns believe they ha^

in its indtistrial value,
a matter which some of our moderns believe they have discovered for the
first time.

" Employers of labour might often find it helpful to require a list of l)ilHiniU)ry iiicji.surcin«'iit>
when selecting l)etween many candidates wlio otherwise might lie equal in merit. Certainly n
man who was then^hy shown t«i be meajiurahly much more highly endowe^l than the generalitx
of his class with physical efficiency, would have a corresponding high chance of being selected for
any post in which physical efficiency of the kind tested was of advantage. I have great hope of
seeing a system of mo<lerate marks for physical efficiency introduced into the competitivi
examinations of candidates for the Army, Navy and Indian Civil Services." (p. 8.)

We have here a point to which we must shortly return — the que.stion oi'
marks for physical proficiency, which Gallon strongly advocated. 1 might be
inclined to go somewhat further and suggest that when there is doubt — and
there often is — between the intellectual merits of two candidates the mental
tests of a well-organised anthropometric laboratory would effectively discrimi-
nate. The County Council educational authorities are annually in difficulty in
the award of their secondary scholarships, not about the boys or girls at the top,
but those at the bottom of the selected list, where there are numbers on a
nearly dead level, with no adequate examinational differences to guide the
judgment. It would be a valuable and justifiable procedure to further sepa-
rate out the better of these ciindidates by well-chosen anthropometric tests,
which would be certain to appeal to faculties whose difierentiation could not
be achieved by a written examination.

Another advantage Galton finds in anthropometry is the i-egistration of
individuals for identification. Honest men may need identification as well ius
rogues, and the measurements, especially if finger-prints are included, would
si^ce to identify any one between the ages of 20 and 60.

Apart from the — shilling's worth of— advantage to the individual, Galton
emphasises the scientific ends which can be attained by anthropometric
laboratories. He refers to problems such as whether the promises of youth art'
fulfilled in adult life; if a boy is of liigh rank among his compeers is it an
indication of sujierior future efficiency in the man? Another problem is tliat
of the infiuence of education or practice upon both mental and physical
characters. Again the influence of environment could be tested as soon as
we have precise measures of faculties. Galton notes that even if there be a
rapid rise in the efficiency of any factor due to training or environment, it
soon reaches a condition in which the daily improvement lessens and at last
stands still ; the limit of perfectibility has been reached.

"Experiences of this kind on a large enough scale to give trustworthy results would have a
direct bearing on the science of education." (p. 10.)

Lastly Galton deals with the educational value that a habit of measure-
ment has in promoting accuracy in ideas and language :

"The present vague way in which men mostly estimate and describe the performances of
themaelTea or others, testifies to much muddlcheadedness and to a sad lack of expression....
Tliere is a world of interest hidden from the minds of the great majority of cfiucatod men, to
whom the conceptions and laws of the higher statistics are unknown. A familiarity with these
cfmceptions would soon Ije gained by the habit of dealing with human measurements, as by the

PLATE LI I

Tktlle 1-.
Vo«U

Eaverv <*
0,-

9

3

3.

a

;x

B
c

I ^Long' .

^'

lJir»'

Plodf. _

MiWiua g.
Auric" g. .
Coudfe g.

it

N'Jocl..

Iaui"

Pit"

r»rt"

Ag^ dt

ni Ic

t

dep" _

llnclin*
^ 'Haul' .

/HfyifiK (r(i^ilj) ., ,

./Borrl 0 !.._

_. ID.

yi>« . lUi*

' H«uc SuUie. Larg'

'/A.trg i p.

— r

P«rl"

■;/Pli. f. ». _

<^(part

h.

_d.
_d..

B.-.rhe .

Chov^ux .

Cur

4(plg".„
, C'»ingV.

Culm.

Aulret iratlt ceracUriittquei
Slg" drewu* par M. _

Francis Galton, agocl 71, photographwl as a criminal on his visit to Bertillon's
Criminal Identification L^iboratory in Paris, 1893.

Statistical /nveatif/atiouM 383

aAsigmneiit r>{ i-ank in a class, or by making other deductiono that I have not apace to refer to
her«>, Huch a« the nuniurictil valuns by which the nearncHs of different degree* of kinnhip may
b«' t>xpr««8ed, or t\w cloNfiioss of corruliition iM'twtH-ii different parts of th« Ividy. There in no
intrinsic dirticulty in );ni.sping the conceptions of whicli I RjM'ak, but <■ ■■> to prettont

UHago and limk .strange at first sight. They are conmnjuenlly very dill. brietlyand

intelligibly to thotiu to whom they are wholly new."

It will be se(Mi that Jis early a« 1889 Galton \va« fully ajSfiuixKl that the
ideas of a correlational calculus opened a new world of thought, not only to
the trained scientist, but to every man of education who could maater his
natural inertia and endeavour t<> grasp the new conceptions.

Chapter II of the pamphlet is entitled " Human Variety." This waa Galton's
final address to the Anthropological I nstitute at the end of the four years during
wliich he had held the office of president'. The paper opens with a paragraph
on finger-prints which shows that Galton w.'is working at the subject, and
already fully recognised its importance for identification. He especially refers
to Sir William Flerschel's use of the method m India, and suggests its use in
North Borneo for identifying the coolies, and in other cases wliere there may
be fraud from impersonation of pensioners and annuitants. Galton then turns
to correlation,

"a very wide subject indcwi. It c.\ist.s wherever the variiilioiis of two objects iire in piirt due
to coniinon causes; but on tliis occasion I must only speak of such correlations as have an
anthropological interest."

He tells us that the particular problem he first had in view was to ascertain
the pmctical limitations of the nigenious method of anthropometric identifi-
cation due to M. Alphonse Bertillon, which was then in habitual use in the
criminal administration of France. Correlation between the various measure-
ments would obviously l)e a serious defect of the Bertillon .system, and
Galton suspected strongly the existence of this source of error'. An element
of history is now revealed :

"The (irst results of the inquiry, which is not yet completed, have been to myself a grateful
surprise. Not only did it turn out that the measure of correlation between any two variabli-s is
exceedingly simple and definite, but it became evident almost from the first that I hml uncon-
sciously explored the very same ground before. No sooner did I Iwgin to tabulate the data than
I saw that they ran in Just the same form a.s those that referre<l to family likeness in stature,

' Delivered Jan. 22,1889. SoeJoiirnalo/theAnthropoioffiealIngtitHte,Vr>\.xvm,ppAOl-\9.

'' The first complete analysis of these correlations was given by the late Dr W. U. Macdonell
and ho indicated how an index could be constnicted of artificial functions of the Bertillon
measurements in which this difliculty of correlation would be satisfactorily surmounted. Bio-
meh-iAn, Vol. i, 1902, pp. 177-227, "On Criminal Anthropometry and the Identification of
Criminals." He shows that the correlations of the Bertillon measurements are high, far too
high for indexing purpo.scii. Galton first expressed his doubt,s on this point after Bertillon's
discourse on his system before the .\ntliropological Institute. "There may be room for reasonable
doubt among anthropologists whether the precision with which the living body can be measured
is quite as great, and whether its dimensions are quite as permanent, as they are considered to
be by M. Bertillon; and again there may be some hasitation in believing that a very large
collection of measures would admit of lieing so surely catalogued on the Bertillon system as to
be ransacked with a promptitude at all corresponding to that with which a won! may be found
in a huge dictionary" (Journal of the Anihropoloyical InMitule, Vol. XX, p. 198). This was one
of the early clashes in the contest l)etween the Bertillon and Galton systems, which was to end
ultimately with the victory of the latter.

3H4 Life and Letters of Froiich ftolton

luid which were submitted to you two years ago. A very little reflection made it clear that
family likenew was nothing more than a particular case of the wide mihji'ct of correlation, ami
that the whole of the reasoning already bestowed upon the special case of family likeni^ss wn
equally applicable to correlation in its most general aspect." (p. 14.)

This passage justifi&s the assertion that Galton came firet to correlation
from the study of heredity; that, when testing Bertillon's system of indexing'
anthro|X)metric measurements, he discovered correhvtion afresh and then
sjiw that lx>th associations were capable of identical treatment, and onl\
special cases of a far wider conception.

But there was another point Galton now recognised, in dealing with
heredity he had compared the same characters; he now saw that in comparing
different characters we must take each in its own unit of variation, .ind that
when this is done the relations become strictly reciprocal'. In this paper
Galton states, probably for the first time, that measured in units of variation.
there is always 'regression,' i.e. that in these units the proportion that one
average deviation of one character is of a given deviation of a second is
always a proper fraction, (p. 15.)

The next section of this chapter is headed "Variety," and Galton laments
that, while an immense amount of trouble is taken over measurements, an-
tliropologists devote their inquiries solely to the means of groups, passing
over the variety of the individuals in those groups with "contented neglect.
The whole section is so thoroughly characteristic of Galton 's attitude to
anthropology and of his genial sagacity that I cannot refrain from reproducing
it almost entirely; there is much still to be learnt from its perusal even forty
years after it was written.

"It seems to be a great loss of opportunity when, after observations have Ix-en lalK)riousl\
collected, and been subsequently discussed in order to obtain mean values from them, that tin
small amount of e.xtra trouble is not taken, which would determine other values whereb}' tn
express the variety of all the individuals in thoRe groups. Much experience some years back,
and much new experience during the past year, prove<l to me the ease with which variety
may be adequately expressed, and the high im|)ortance of taking it into account. There arc
numerous problems of special interest to anthropologists that deal solely with variety.

There can be little doubt that most persons fail to have adequate conceptions of the order
liness of variability, and think it is useless to pay scientific attention to variety, as being, in
their view, a subject wholly beyond the powers of definition. They forget that what is confessedly
undefined in the individual may l)e definite in the group, and that uncertainty as regards tlir
one is in no way incompatible with statistical assurance as reganls the other. Almost every IkxIs
is familiar now-a-days with the constancy of the average in difTerent samples of the same lari."
group, but they do not often re^alise the complettMie-HS with which a similar stjitistical constain \
permeat<'s the whole of the group. The mean or the average is practically nothing more thai
the middleniuHt value in a marshalled series. A constancy analogous to that of the mean charm
teriseti the values that occupy any other fractional position that we please to name such as tli'
10th per cent, or the '20th per cent.; it is not peculiar to the SOth per cent., or middleinoM
Htill lesB do they realise the fact that all Variety has a strong family likeness, by approximatini
mora or leas olooely to the normal type, which is that which mathematicians prove must be tir'
oonaeqaence of Variety being due to the aggr^^te efToct of a very large number of small ami
independent inlluences.

Greater interest is attached to individuals who occupy positions towards either of the end
of a marshalled stories tliati to thost; who stand alx)Ut its middle. An average man is morall;

' In modem language Oalton recognised that with standard deviations as units, tlj'
' regresnion ' is equal to the correlation coefficient.

Statistical Invent iyntioiut 3H5

and intolktctually an uiiinturoxting )M)ing, The clans to wliich ho belongn ut bulky aiid no duuhl
survtw to help lh« courHeuf Hocial life in action. It aliH> afli>nl8, liy itH inertia, a regulator that,
lik« the Hy-wli<-el t<> the dtouuiengine, riwiHU Hudden and irn<guliir changeH. Hut the average
man is of no dinvt help towanlH evolution, which app<MirH to our dim viHion to lie the goal of
all living existence. Evolution is an unrenting progrewiion ; the nature of the average individual
in OHsontially unprogressive. Consider the int«nwt attairlu^d to the Hebrew race, wliose average
value iH little worthy of note, but which is of special impijrtHnce on account of itft variety. Its
variability in ancient and modern times Hoems to have Ixvn extnionlinarily great. It has been
able to supply men, time after time, who have towered high alwve their fellows, and left enduring
marks on th(> history of the world.

Some thoroughgoing denux^rats may look with complacency on a mob of m<<diocritie^ but
to most other jH-r.sons the)- are the reverse of attractive. The al)8cnce of heroic gifts among
them would be a luwivy set off against the frmnlom from a corres|)onding numln-r of very degraded
forms. The general standard of thought and morals in a mob of iii(><li(x:rities must necessarily
1)0 mediocre, and, what is worse, cont<!ntedly so. The lack of living men to afTonl lofty examples,
and to educate the virtue of reverence, leaves an irremotliable blank. All men would lind them-
selves at nearly the same dojid average level, each btiing as mcAnly endowed as his neighbour.
These remarks apply with obvious moditioation to variety in the physical faculties. Peculiar
gifts, moreover, alibrd an especial justitication for division of labour, each man doing what ho
can do best." (pp. 15-16.)

Coultl any man but Galton have written a sermon like the above to bring
out the essential meaning to liumanity of — let us say — the standard deviation
or the quartile? Could any man have written thus but Galton without laying
himself" o{)en to the charge of self-conceit? He did not regard himself as one
whose faculties gave him rank in the extreme tail of a frefjuency distribu-
tion. He would have recognised such a position for half his friends, before
he thought of it for himself He pictured life statistically, and with the naive-
ness of a child spoke the truth, forgetting that he wjis talking to a crowd
the bulk of whom must have been sufficiently introspective to doubt whether
they were not themselves mediocrities. Perhaps there is little to wonder
at, if Galton's words fell on barren ground, and his brother anthropologists
have continued for more than thirty years to neglect variation and cultivate
mediocrity by ascertaining means.

Galton in his next section, "The Measurement of Variety," proceeds to
describe his method of reaching the median M and the quartile Q from any
two sets of observations, i.e. from any two percentiles, thus generalising his
previous results, for directly finding M and Q. He suggests that a traveller
among savage peoples might test them by finding wnat percentages could
stretch two (or better three) bows, the bows having oeen previously tested by
the numl)ers of pounds' weight which were required to stretch them to the
full'. Similar tests might be easily applied to the delicacy of hearing and eye-
sight, to swiftness in running, accuracy of aim, with spear, arrow, sling, etc.

' Let X, and x^ be the unknown distances from the median ni, of the two known test value^t
t^ and /,. Then x^ = x-^ja = (m - <,)/{r and x,' = Xj/o- = {t.t — m)ja, where <r is the standard deviation,
can be found at once from the tables of the probability integral, taking as standard case, one
percentage above and one below the median (60 °/,). Solving for m and <r we have :

m = (x,' t^ + X,' ^)/(x,' + X,') and <t = (^ - <,)/(x,' + x,'),

which solve the problem. Galton works with the quartile instead of a; but assumes the normal
relation of the two.

F o II 40

3S«

Life ami Letters of Francis Gallon

The method is very suggestive and easy, but it assumes the normal
distribution of frequency to be the rule in the variation of anthropometric
characters. To doinonstnvte this we should have to compare our percentiles
in each citse with the theoretical distribution. There is no doubt tliat a large
number of physical measurements in man follow accurately enough for
practical work the normal distribution but the rule is far from universal.
Galton found when his deviations for all characters were reduced to their
res|)ective tpiartiles, that the average value of all the deviations at each of the
grades in the eighteen series closely corresponded to the normal series, though
individually they differed more or less from it, some in one way, some in
another. He gives the following table of deviations :

fP

10°

ao°

80° ! 40°

60°

60°

70°

80°

90°

96°

Normal Frequency
Average of observed

-2-44
-2-44

-1-90
-1-87

-1-25
-1-24

-0-78
-0-77

-0-38
-0-40

0
0

0-38
0-38

0-78
0-75

1-26
1-21

1-90
1-92

244

2-47

This, while not demonstrating the truth of the normal distribution for every
anthropometric measurement, suggests at least that on the average there is
no persistent deviation from it.

Galton concludes this chapter by stating that the properties of the law
of frequency of error are

"largely available in anthropometric inquiry. They enable us to define the trustworthiness of
our result*, and to deal with guch interesting problems as those of correlation and family resem-
blance, which cannot be solved without its help. Anthropologists seem to have little idea of
the wide fields of inquiry op>en to them sts soon as they are prepared to deal with individual
variety and cease to narrow their view to the consideration of the Average." (p. 21.)

F. MARKS FOR BODILY EFFICIENCY

Galton's Chapter III is entitled: "On the Advisability of Assigning
Marks for Bodily Efficiency in the Examination of Candidates for those
Public Services in which Bodily Efficiency is of Importance'." We reach at
this point a topic in which Galton had a great and persistent interest, namely
the desirability of giving marks in comjjetitive examinations for physical as
well as mental j)roficiency. The development of anthropometric laboratories
with more or less standardised tests rendered such a proposal fairly f'etusible,
and for a time Galton pushed it energetically. It is of course related to his
earlier proposals for the selection of eugenic youths for endowment, these
being determined by lx)th intellectual and physical examination.

Galton read his paper before the Anthropological Section of the British
Aasociation in 1889, and obtained a Report from the Council of that body in
fiivour of the proposal in the following year. He wrote at this time several
articles urging it« importance and he lectured on the subject. Galton says in
his Mcmones that he became convinced that although the proposal had strong

' Thi« is part of the British Association memoir of 1889: see Report, pp. 471-3.

Stnt'mtical FuvcutlgationH 387

(\ pinari claims to consideration, it did not merit acceptance, and therefore
he gave it up. But it is difficult to discover a really strong answer to his
papers, and it will undoul)tedly Ix) revived some day, when tne official world
18 slightly more enlightened. Prohahly marks will l)e given for a complete
series of anthropometric tests, mental as well as physical. There can be no
better remedy against cramming than examinations of this kind wherein it is
quite easy to vary the tests, and to prevent anything but general intelligence
and good phyaiiiue scoring.

In 1878 a Joint Committee of the War Office and Civil Service Com-
missioners had been appointed to inquire into the question

"whether the preHeiit literary exaiuinations for the ariuy should be supplemented by physical
coinp<;tition."

The reconunendations of this Joint Committee deal principally with marks
to be assigned for athletic performance, and very reasonable objection was
taken to the proposals. In a report of 1889 the Civil Service Conunissioners
stated that the War Office were satisfied with the physique of the young men
selected by their examinations, but the Commissioners remark tnat sliould
any department of the public service be desirous of testing the physical
qualifications of its officers more severely than at present, they anticipated
no more difficulty in determining the relative capacities of the individual
candidates in this respect than is experienced in the literary examination.

"Moreover encouragement would be given generally to candidates to maintain a good state
of healtli while prewiring for the literary examinations, and any tendency to overpressure
would thereby Ix) diminisht^l." (p. 24; B.A.K. p. 472.)

This is the point from which Galton starts, and he remarks that to define bodily
efficiency and to measure it both in individuals and races is the special task
of the anthropologists, who concern themselves with the practice of human
measurements, and devise tests that give warning whether growth and de-
velopment are or are not proceeding normally. Galton at once states that
what he has in view has no relation whatever to the paas-examination now
made by medical men to eliminate candidates who are absolutely unfit. These
pass-examinations are obviously a necessity. The reform asked for consists
m giving additional marks to those youths who are not only fit for service,
but exceptionally well fit as far as bodily efficiency is concerned.

"The curious and hardly accountjible disregard of bodily efficiency in those examinations
through which youths are selected to fill posts in wliich exceptional Iwdily gifts happen to be
peculiarly desirable, must strike the attention of anthropologistw with special force, and they
of all people are best able to appreciate how much is sacrificed by its neglect." (p. 24; B. A. R.
p. 472.)

Galton next cites the reduction by Dr Venn' of the data from the
Cambridge Anthropometric Laboratory to show there is no significant asso-

' Journal of the Anthropolo(/ktU Itmtitute, Vol. xvill, pp. 140-54. Galton provided the instru-
ments for the Cambridge Anthropometric Liilx)ratory and when over a thousand students liad
been meiisured Venn reduced the data with tlio above-mentioneti result. Galton supplemented
Venn's paper with some discussion of the a.s,sociation of intelligence with sir^e of head (pp. 155—
56), and considered that it was possible to show that there was increased intelligence with
increasetl heiui size. This matter is of such importance that a number of years ago I got

49—8

388 Life ami Letters of Francin Gallon

ciation between physique and intellect, and we cannot therefore argue from
examinational success to any physical fitness. The high honours men, the
low honours men and the poll men were alike in their average bodily efficiency,
except for slightly worse vision in the high chiss honours men.

"The intelleotiud diflferenoM are usually small between the candidate-s who are placed,
aooording to the present literary exaniinatioiis, near to the dividing line betwe(*n Huccess and
failure. But their ph^'sical difference* are as great as among an equal number of other candidates
taken at random. It snems then to be most reasonable whenever two candidates are almost on
a par intellectually, though one is far superior physically, that the latter should be preferred.
This is practically all I propose. I advocate no more at present than the introduction of new
marks on a very moderate scale sufficient to save from failure a few very vigorous candidate^
for the Army, Navy, Indian Civil Service, and certain other Government ap^xMntments in which
hi^h bodily powers are of service. I would give the places to them that would be occupied under
the present system by men who are far their inferiors physically, and very little their superiors
intellectually. I am sure that every succeii.sful employer of men would assign as much weight
as this to bodily efficiency, even aniong the highest class of those whom he employs, and that
Government api>ointments would be still better adjudged than they now are if considerations ut
high bodily efficiency were taken into some account." (p. 2&; B. A. R. p. 473.)

Gralton considers that the desirable tests should involve measures of
strength, vital capacity, agility or promptness, keenness of eyesight and of
hearing. We could now add a number of tests, such as have been applied
recently to candidates for the Air Force. The chapter concludes with the
remark :

"It would certainly be grateful to many parents who now lament the exclusively bookish
character of the examinations, and are wont to protest against a system that gives no better
chance to their own vigorous children of entering professions where bodily vigour is of high
importance than if they had lieen physically j'u«< not unfit to receive an appointment." (p. 26 ;
li. A. R. p. 473.)

Chapter IV is entitled: "On the Principle and Methods of Assigning
Marks for Bodily Efficiency'." CJalton starts by saying that we may either
give marks for ranks or for achievements, and apparently proposes in each

permission to have copies taken of some of the schedules and worked out the actual correlations
for over 1000 cases with the following results:

Length of Head and Intelligence + -111 + 020,
Breadth of Head and Intelligence + 097 + -021.

Schoolboys and schoolgirls at age twelve gave similar results. (See "Relation.ship of Intclli
gence to Shape and Size of Head," Biometrika, Vol. v, p. 120.) Thus Ualton \ins formally correct
in saying there was association, but the correlation is so low as to be absolutely idle for any
individual prognosis.

Galton's interest in the Cambridge Anthropometric Laboratory was very great and in asso-
ciation with Mr (now Sir) Horace Darwin not only new anthropometric instruments were
devised, but the old ones improved or modified. The Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company
produced "A Descriptive List of Anthropometric Apparatus, consisting of Instruments for
Measuring and Testing the Chief Physical Characteristics of the Human Body. D&signed under
the Direction of Mr Francis (Jalton." Of this, the fourth issue (May, 1890) lies before me; it
is rather a reasoned account of the meaning of an anthropometric laboratory, of the measure-
ments which may be taken and of the methods of taking them, than the price list of a manu-
facturing firm.

' This was also contributed as a memoir to the British Association, see Rfport, 1889,
pp. 474-8. The diagrams of the pamphlet fail in this B.A. memoir. They were, however, given
in a paper in AWure, OcUjber 31, 1889, Vol. xi., pp. 650-51. On the other hand the B.A. Report
has the pap<-r by A- A. Somerville discussing Eton experiments on the relative reliability of
phjraical t<«t« and of literary examinations. A system of marking having Ixjen devistid for physical
1 and for iiKtIicnl flim-ss in certain directions two medical men examined indepcndrntly 32

StdtislH'al finu'Htif/atiauM

389

case to mark from the mean or median. It Ih not (juito clear in this case why
there should not be negative marks for those who fell short of mediocrity.
Oalton then provides marks for each rank alwve 50°/^ or again for the deviate.
In the latter case the full nuniljer of murks is supposed to be reached by
a grade 99"99. Next he draws up a table in which the total marks for
physical efticiency are assumed to be 10 and are supposed to be assigned in
dimsreiit proportions to rank and to aljsolute achievement, Le. to aeviate
from mediocrity. His table {B. A. R. p. 476) is as follows:

i

PeroenUKe of marlcH Miigned to

lUnk

Bank

Dwrtate

W

w

75-

950

W"

»^...»

7.

V.

100

0

0

1-0

5 0

90

9-8

100

.-iO

50

0

0-7

3-5

6-9

8-4

100

;J3:^

66-6

0

0-6

.TO

6-2

8-0

10-0

25

75

0

0-5

2-7

5-8

7-7

10-0

0

100

0

0-4

20

4-8

7-0

10-0

It is clear that Galton is compounding what every schoolmaster has to
consider, namely: "place in class" with "marks in examination," or indeed
"place" and "marks in examination." If the distribution were normal the
marks would be readily deducible from "place" in examination. Considering
what wide dift'erences occur between the top individuals — for example in the
old Cambridge Mathematical Tripos system — and what slight diflferences
between mediocre individuals, one is inclined to doubt the legitunacy of mark-
ing by rank. This point was recognised, I think, by Galton later when he
endeavoured to estimate the average differences between individuals arranged
according to rank. However the teble is suggestive and we leave it to the
consideration of the educationalist.

Galton supposes the chief physical measurements to have been reducetl
for the class under examination to percentile scales, such as in the table on our
p. 376. He gives a rather clear diagram of the absolute values for males and
females at each rank for seven characters on p. 29'. In some of the chai-acters
it would be desirable for rapid and safe interpolation to insert a few more
values of the deviate.

boys. Their average tlifference in jutlginent was 8-75 °/^ of the maximum marks. Ninete<>n of
tlie boys were sul)scquently examiiietl in English Kssay, and the essays submitted to two inde-
pendent examiners. The average difference was now 16-7°/^ of the maximum mark.s. The
experiments seem to have been imdertaken at Galton's suggestion and are used by him as an
argument that physical teat marks can !» as accumtely determined as marks for literary work.
Some years ago the present writer reported on the marking statistics of the London Matricula-
tion Examination, ile was startled to find that the relative personal equation of examiners in
history, languages and literature was very greatly larger than the relative personal equation of
examiners in brunches of science ; and that no systematic method of correcting for this personal
equation had been adoptetl. Thus a candidate's chance of passing depended largely on the
examiner to whom his paper wa.s allotte<l! It would appear therefore that the choice of an
English e».say for comparison of marking differences was rather unfortunate.
' See Nature, Vol. XL, pp. 650 and 051.

390

L\fe and Letters of Francis Galtoit

At this |)oint Galton recognises two important matters, namely : (i)
theee physicail chamcters are in certain cases highly correlated, and

that
that

GRADES or RANK. 0 to 100
0° Kf 20° 30' 40° 50 60f 70° 80° 90° 100'

STATURE. WITHOUT SHOES.

MALCS 63 6« 68
FEMALES S9 60

-I r - t 1

66 167 60

HEIGHT SITTING. ABOVE SEAT OF CHAIR.

MALCS 33 34
FEMALES sSrt

SPAN OF ARMS BETWEEN OPPOSITE FINGBR-TIPS

MALES 646S66

FEMALES se&^

!&-- t ■ X—^ —

64 T ^ 66 by 66

WCIGHT IN USUAL INDOOR CLOTHING

MALES I

ft:- 1

FEMALES 100 ' |{

-I— i 1- -- 1 ■■'• t

BREATHING CAPACI

FEMALES 90 100 IK)

n » I- r
260

160 T iro ieb '

KEENNESS OF EYESIGHT. oistAUCt or RtAOiNC DIAMOWD type

MALCS 10 IS

FEMALES

STRENGTH OF (ipAS

MALES 65

TEMALESiobs 40 45

« wfotos' S

65 70 75

icr 2or 30°

50" 60 70 80 90 100

Diagram of Absolute Values at each Ilank.

accordingly it is scarcely accurate to mark them Independently, and (ii) that
from the fitness pf)int of view a vital capacity, for example, for a small man may
l>e amply a<le«juate, while the same vital capacity woulcl he insufficient for a big
*■ " we judged independently hy rank for vital capacity and stature, say

man

Statistirnl fHrentiffntionit

:«»!

the big man might be more heavily marker] than the small man, although
his combined Bysteni was far lens efficient. To throw light on these matters
Galton coiiHtructs "mixed" correlation tables in which he ijives the rank of
one variate and the deviate of the other and draws contour lines for the first.
Thus for each value of stature — i.e. for every two inches — he constructs a
scale of deviate of vit.ii capacity to each graoo. Ho then combines these to
give a single dijignini and joins the points of wjual vital capacity. He thus
obtains wnat he terms isograms at every 20 cubic inches of vital capacity.
He gives a similar system of isograms for strength of stjueeze and weight.
We rejiroduco one of these diaixranis.

Isograms of Stature and Vital Capacitj-.

Galton remarks that these and similar methods indicate how marks may
be determined for physical mejisiirements. It is, perhaps, needless to say
that they would apply also to mental measurements, and even to examina-
tional results. The ordinary process of marking by adding up the marks
acquired by the same boys in a variety of subjects is really a fallacious one,
as there is usually a high correlation between success in different subjects, and
the true difierence between two individuals cjinnot be measured by adding
up a series of differences, highly correlated. We might as well repeat papers
in one subject until the first of two boys had nuiltiplied his excess marks a
hundred times, but this deviate difference woiUd certainly not be the measure
of their relative intelligence. Their true ranking would have to be obtained
from the multiple correlation surface, allowing correlation between subjects.
The theory of examination marking sadly needs scientific treatment'. Galton
himself concludes as follows his discussion of marking:

' Ranking in multiple marking can be thrown back, through multiple correlation, on the
r and X of the 'Goodness of Fit' tables.

S»2

Life and Tjetters of Francis Galton

"It ia now the pArt of thoco who have to fix the Rcales of marks to determine the weight
to be given nwpectively to relative rank and to absolute performance in examinations of each
different kind of service." (p. 32; B. A. R. p. 477.)

A point may be noted here before we consider Galton's further contri-
butions to the marking problem. In the paper just discussed Galton illustratt-s
by isogmms his method of exhibiting graphically the correlation of the rank
for one character with the deviate for a second associated character. He
undertook, however, the construction of a diagram of isograms for the case
in which rank of one character was correlated with rank of a second. For all
three cases — rank with rank, rank with variate, and variate with variate —
Galton constructed isograms or contour lines. There is little doubt that rank
with rank was the first way in which he approached correlation. In 1 875 (sec
our p. 1 87) Galton was dealing with the inheritance of size in sweet-pea seeds,
but before he obtained his data for sweet-peas, he appears to have tried what
he could do with much smaller seed, apparently that of cress. The correlation
of the seed of mother and daughter plants was dealt with by the metho<l of
his memoir of 1875, and that is, I think, the probable date of his first crud(
correlation table, which he obtained from five groupings of each size of seed ;
the isograms are represented by ink lines on the sheet of glass covering
the little compartments which contain the ranked seeds of the daughter-
plants. These isograms have been smudged and almost obliterated by tin
wear and tear of fifty years, but can still be traced. The facts (a) that he

k.i *iJ br (C»:V.

% \

iv^,V.^^; ^'^

..^'■11

s^tM, s

OfjK

W

v^c

42

+/"

Jiiillii

M

Oalton's first illustration of Correlation, circa 1875. From the GalUmiana.

uses the word averfuje when he later used median, (b) that he divides not
into the f>ercentile8 of his later work, but into quartile and double-quartile'

' Oalton himwlf says one lto«lfth from the end of the range, but if the reader looks at
Oalton'ii table on p. 42 of his paper on "HtatiHtics by Intercoinparison" (see our p. 338), he will
find 82 in 1000 given for two quartile units, which Oalton takes app^oxim^tely as jij.

Sta/istirnl lnra<tiii(iti<nia 3fl3

groups suffice to indicate that the model must have been made about the
time of his piiner of 1 875. It is, I think, sufficient evidence that fialton denlt
with tlu! corrt'lution of ranks Ix-fore h«M'vpn rniched til' ' ' '" ' '^.

iind the cluini that it is a contrihution of tho psyci i

forty years later to the conception of correlation does not seem to me vahd.
(ijilton, we may with high prohalnlity suggest, had satisfied himst-lf t' *'
correlation of ranks was more c»nnlx^rsom»> than the correlation of
because in the simplest case, that of the normal distribution, it fails to provide
linear regression, but gives a non-integrable curve, which can only be plotted
by aid of the prol)al)i]ity integral table.

Galton undoubtedly tirst attacked the problem of correlation from the
standpoint of ranks, and it natin'ally did not lead him in any simple expres-^iun
for the relation U'tween relatives. In his .]fetnories (p. ;J00) ho tells us iiow :

"As these lines are l>eing written, the ciroutnstancttH under which I first clearly grasped the
importAnt gencralisntion that the laws of herodity were solely concerned with (levin* ' ■
expressed in statistical units [for Galton the quartile values] arc vividly recalled to my nui
It was in the grounds of Naworth Cjustle', where an invitation had l)een j;iven to ranihle i
A ten)]>orary shower drove nie to seek i-ufugo in a retldish recess in tho rock hy the side •
pathway. There the idea ilashml across mo, and I forgot everything else for a moment in uiy
great deliglit."

That 'recess' deserves a commemomtive tablet as the birthplace of the true
conception of correlation!

CJalton continued his campaign in favour of marks for physical efficiency.
He published a paper in the Nineteenth Century, Feb. 1889 (pp. 303-8),
entith'd, "The Sacrifice of Education." The title does not seem well chosen,
and 1 expect it was an editorial choice; Galton himself has written "Testa
of Physical Capacity" above the paper and so indexed it. The object of the
pa]>er is to show the ea-se with which certain anthropometric measurements
can l)e made, and the cost of making them. With most of the fiicts .stilted in
the paper the reader will be already fiuniliar. The tests are described, the time
taken in making them, and the cost of running an anthropometric lalniratory.

"The problem is to give marks for physical qualifications just a-s they are now given for
intellectual ones, in order to pas-s those candidates who being a little under par intellectually
are far above par botlily ; conversely to weetl out those other candidates who, not being [larticu-
larly tit in respect to their brains, are at the same time of decidedly inferior physi(jue. The
relative weight to be lussigned for intellectual and bodily excellences is a question of detail, most
important no doubt, but one that need not be discussed here."

Galton states the various criticisms of the proposal that have been made,
but points out that they apply not only to marks for physical capacity, but
to all exaiuinatioits what.soever. We can never test all the faculties even of
the mind, and again we can only test the examinee on the special occasion on
which he presents himself It is admitted that the examination of any facidty,
physical or mental, is a difficult art, and one not to be ])erfected ofi'hand.

' Naworth Castle is in Cunilwrland, north-east of Carlisle. The Oaltons went north on
Aug. 12 and lodged at Wetheral in the neighlx>urhoo<l of Naworth; later, on Sept. 10, they
travelled to Newciustle and .stayed with the J^pence Watsons at Bensham Grove during the
B.A. meeting at which Francis (lalton read his pajier on marks for physical etfioiency. "Frank
has l)eeu busy all the year on problems connected with correlation but has publislu>d nothing yet
about them." (L. G's Jiecord under 1889.)

V ci n 60

394 Life antJ Letters of Frnneis Cioltoii

The next eflfort of Galton was a lecture before the SocieUj of Arts on
Noveniljer '26, 1890', entitled: "Physical Tests in Examinations." This
lecture tells us a little more of the history of the movement. Galton's pro-
positi to give marks for physical efficiency was sent by the Anthropological
section to the Council of the British Association, and the latter drew up
a report on the subject which was distinctly favoural)le, although cautious! >•
expressed; finally the recommendations reached were submitted to varioi:

g)vernment departments. Not improbably the original draft was due i
alton. The recommendations ran :

(1) That an inquiry should l)e held as to the best system of assigning
marks for physical (jualifications, on the doul)le basis of inspection and
anthro|)ometry, with a view to its early establishment as a temporary and
tentative system.

(2) That the marks to be given under this temporary system should 1
small, so as to affect the success of those candidates only, who woidd In
ranked by the present examinations very near to the dividing line between
success and failure, and whose intellectual performances would consetjuentl \
l)e nearly on a par, though they would differ widely in their pnysical
qualifications.

(3^ That a determination should be expressed to reconsider the entii
(]uestion afler the experience of a few yeai-s.

The replies received from the government departments were more or le.ss
of the usual type.

"The Civil Service Commissioners, moved thereto by the India Office, are now engaged in
considering the practicability of the proposals."

They probably would wait to see what force of public o])inion was l)ehind them.
Galton states that — subject to such reservations as that training for
physical efficiency must not distract the candidate from his books, that it
should not exhaust his energy, and that it should not displace any of the
usual examination subjects or the medical pass-examination — it was a truism
to say that physical efficiency ought to be taken into account in selectin
men to fill pcjsts where high physical powers are advantjigeous. Our lectur( i
next dealt with the means of testing physical efficiency. Athletic competitions
he discarded as in no way suitable; he wanted to test natural capacities and iw
these capacities after a severe course of training. He then turned to inspection
and suggested that medical examiners might not only pass men, but mai k
them. Galton appeared to lay some stress on judgment of physical efficiencv
by inspection and cited the manner in which horse dealers and slave dealer
rapidly reach on inspection fairly accurate estimates'. Galton next turns t
physical tests and mentions those with which this book has rendered tli

' Journal of the SociHy o/ Arts, VoL xxxix, pp. 19-27.

' Qalton illu8trnte<l this from an experience of his own when traveliiiif; in IMG in tli
Soodan. "An KKyptian, who possesHcd little besideK a sword, had iittachiKl himself t<i tl:
caravan with which I was traveliiiij^. He was on his way to join a slave-raiding t'xjHtlitidii on
the Jwnlem of Abyssinia, and he had, I found out, considerable experience in slave markets.
I aaked him many questions, from time to time, about the valuing of slaves, and at last l^>gg<

Stat'mtical fit rent if/atiouM 396

rciulor familiar, also his latest instruments and tho noetl for considering the
correlation of cliaracters.

Then Galton parses to objections. It had been stated that many threat
commanders and stratej^ists had a poor physi(jne, and that a Nelson might be
I'xcluded. But tlie proposal did not exclude anylxxly, that was for the pass
medical examination to do. Ileally able men would not be excluded by the
marks i'oi- physicivl efficiency, which it wjis proposed should touch otdy lw>rder-
line ciuses.

Another objection was that anthropometric tests did not reach the
important (piality of energy, which includes pluck, strong will and endurance.
Galton admits lacuiuie here, as in mental testing.

"We must bo content with what we can get. It ia not impomible that practical tentH of
energy in some of its fonns may yet be diacovcred. It must be awiociated with physiological

signs that we Imve not yet liml the wit to discover." (p. '24.)

The thin! objection Galton discusses is the supposed untrustworthiness
of the examination he proposes. There is, he says, no rea-sf)!! to suppo.su that
it would be more untrustworthy than a literary examination, and he cites for
variability of judgment in a literary examination Edgeworth's paper in the
Journal of the Stdtistical Societij of the same year'.

Among problems which the lecturer held could be ultimately settled by
tests of this physical kind were the following :

(1) Whether the proposed tests of physical efficiency contirmed the
results of athletic competitions.

(2) Whether physical efficiency in youth corresponded to achievement in
utter life.

(3) What type of physique was best suited to tropical climates.

"It is cruel and costly to tempt youths to the tropics who are less constitutionally capable
than others of thriving there. If we could distinguish those who are fittetl for life in hot
countries, we should select them even though in other respects they may V>e somewhat wanting.
The tropical possessions of England are become so large that it is a niattt-r of national importance
to investigate this question thoroughly. It may yet be possible to find varieties of our race who
are capable of permanently establishing their families in those climates." (p. 25.)

Thus the far-seeing Galton ; we are no nearer a settlement of these problems
now than we were when he urged their importance, and the reason of it lies
in the fact that the data still fail us. One of his reasons for establishing
tests of physical efficiency is the stimulus it would give to the collection of
trustworthy records.

him as a favour to price myself, just as if I was a light-coloured African; for I was curious
to know my worth as an animal. He took evident pains, and I think wa.s fairly honest, though
with a bias towards flattery. Having regarrl to the then high state of the market, he estimated
my worth, un the spot, at a nunilx»r of piastres that was about equal to £"10." (p. 20.)

The price of ivdult negro slaves in 1690 (Davenant) was £26. Sir William Petty after
elalxjrate calculations valued an Englishman at £69, which King some twenty years later
reduced to £6.5. The most recent valuation that I have come across is that of the average
American citizen at about £400 (Davenport). It must be admitted therefore that Galton,
aged 23, would have been a distinctly chea]> bargain at £20.

' Vol. LUi, pp. 460-75, 644-^63, 1890, and compare Vol. Li, pp. 599-635, l.^S.S, and
Phil. Mag. 1890, pp. 171-88.

:i9(J Life and Letters of Franch (hillon

The discussion which followed the lecture was of the usual character and
not very profitable. The lecture, however, shows that Galton himself had
not weakene<l in his faith in the advantages of his proposiil. That the
matter wiw drop|)e*l in 1890. without any j)ui)lished criticism of a damaging
kind, will make it more difficult for success to he achieved when the matter
comers up for discussion again, as it evidently must ; we shall be told that
the proiKtser liimself abamlonexl the scheme in 18'.)0, and why should it lie
resurrected? The only answer can be that we really do not know wliy
(Jalton gjive up the fight. His reasons given twenty years after the cam-
paign are not conclusive'. Who was the high authority of the War Office
who wrote a careful minute, and what evidence is there that he possessed
the re<iuisite anthro{X)logical and physiological knowledge? Galton, as we
have said before, was very apt to assume that other men's judgments, what-
ever their real intelligence, must certainly be better than his own, and the
present was probably a case in point.

G. PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES TO THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL

INSTITUTE

l)uring the four years 1886-1889 Galton was President of the Anthro-
pologictil Institute, and gave not only four presidential addresses, but took
a considerable part in its proceedings, and worked for its welfare*. The first
of his presidential addresses (188G) was on the inheritance of stature, and
will be dealt with in our next chapter. The second presidential addi'ess
(1887) is of a mixed chai-acter : it describes the then recent progress of
anthropology, and it gives some suggi^stions and thoughts arising therefrom'.
It is followed by an obituary notice of Dr George Busk, which I happen to
know was written by Galton himself*. Among other matters he refers to
the anthropological collections recently established in London and Oxford,
to the projected Imperial Institute and to the foundation of the International

' ifetiiories, p. 214. Some experiments undertaken at Marlborough and reported by Mey-
rick and Eve {Marlboroiujh College Natural Ilistory Society, 1889) seem to mo very wide
of the point. The actual anthropometric measurements were place<l liefore eleven master^
who wvre a8ke<l to mark thorn according to their own arbitrary opinion liaving regard to tin
Imivk' ages. Probably none of those masters ha<l any idea of the variations of and the correla-
tions between the measurements; it is hardly likely that they had the physiological or medical
knowledge adequate for aj)preciating the relative values of the tests, nor any idea of how tin'
individual b<jys would rank in a population of a like class. The conclusion that "there is pro-
bably greater vagueness in this examination than in most school examinations" was probably
perfectly correct as applied to an examination for physical fitness conducU^ in such a manner.

' The fieport of the Council for 1888 contains the words : "Mr Francis Galton's second term
of office, as President, has now expired, and the Council desires to put on record its sense of
the valuable services which he has rendered to the Institute and to the cause of Anthroi>ological
Science in general, during the past four years. The many ways in which Mr Galton has promoted
the interents of the Institute demand, in an exceptional manner, the grateful acknowledgment
of the memlxsrs." Jouriuil of the AnthropologiaU Institute, Vol. xvui, p. 400.

* Journal of lltf. Ant/iropoloijical Inntilute, Vol. xvi, pp. .'J87-402.

* (iaiton wrote a consiilerable number of notices of dead friends, Spottiswoixio, Mariann'
North, Herbert Spencer and George Busk, among others. They are graceful tributes to In
friends' work.

Statinfiral Ittcentif/atiotis 397

Statisticjil Institute by Sir Il^ivvson W. Ilawson. Sp«aking about Hm- h.'vv
Aiitliropolof^'ical Society of Jupan and its memoirs, Gallon writes:

"No (loul)t Hoiiie of till' iiioro viiluiihlo |Mip«Ts in this journal will Imrcaftcr or

other of the chief Huropeivn liiiiguiif^eM. The curw of the Tower of lialM;!, in \M. - we

may employ the j)lir«.se, has long pnrssed heavily upon Hcientific men in Kurope; the cont<>nipla-
ttun of the lulilitional burdi-n on our descemlants of having |><M.sil>ly to leani JnutineHc, Rumian
and Chinese as well as the Western I'luropcan hiiii;ua>(es can hardly 1k< indulged in with
equanimity." (p. 394.)

Galton next turn.s to the white man in tiie tropics — a favourite topic
with him — and noting that it is the temjKjrature of the living rooms —
especially the bedrooms — which is the difficulty, he entei-s fairly fully into
the possibilities, mechanical and economicjil, of reirigerating apparatus for
use in tropical climates. This leads Galton to consider the possibility of an
acclimatised strain of Englishmen, and thus prompted he discusses alternate
inheritance:

"Much has recently been written on the difliculty of any rare accidental variety of animal
or plant establishing itself, when it has unrestricted opportunity of i: ■ 'ig with the

parent stock. It is urged that the peculiarity would l)e haive<l in each ■• generation,

and would very soon cerise to bo apparent in the deseendants. It seems to mo that this argument
is sometimes pressed t<x) far. It cannot be a general truth that characU'ristics blend, else to
take a conspicuous example, there would bo a growing tendency in every mixiKl population for
the eye-colour to become of a uniform hazel or brown gray tint, through the intermarriage of
persons whwe eye-coloui-s differ widely. On the contrary I have lately shown by a considerable
ixxly of statistics' that among the English, the projwrtions between the eye-colours, as sorted
under seven headings, have not changed at allduring four genei-ations. The fact is theheritagee are
only partially liable to Ik- blende<l together; partially they are mutually exclusive. No case of
inheritance probably falls under either of these oppo.sed extreme conditions, but some approxi-
mate to one, and others to the other. I an> not aware that the respective i-csults of these two
extreme conditions have yet been put forwanl (juite as forcibly as they admit of l)eing and
daserve to be. ...Suffice it to conclude that the establishment of a somewhat rare variety, as that
of white men naturally suited to thrive and multiply in tropiail climates, is not so great an
impn)bability as those anticipate, who lay exclusive stress on the tendency of rare p<<culiaritie>i
to disappear in a very few generations, through free intermarriage with the ordinary membeni
of the stock." (pp.' 400-402.)

Galton's presidential address of 1888' turns chiefly on Alphonse liertillon's
system of criminal identification. The address begins with a reference to
Galton's short course of lectures on "Heredity and Nurture"given at the South
Kensington Museum in December, 1887, under the auspices of the Institute.

"Their objtKst was to test the reality of a supposed demand for information on such subjects,
and so far as it was possible to judge from the results, there 8eenie<l to be a widely spread
interest in the matter. ...These lectures have led to at least oue tangible result. I Uwk the
opportunity to reiterate my often expressed regret that no anthropometric laboratory existed in
this country, at which children and adults of both .sexes could at small cost have their faculties
meivsured by the best methods known to science, and a recortl kept for future u.se. I explained
how ditVicult it would Ix) to maintain such a lalwratorj-, and to make it effective, except under
the shelter of some important institution tli.it « us duilv fr(M|iiiMit<'il bv Hip da.ss of ]><'i-sons lik>'lv
to make use of it." (p. 346.)

As a result of Galton's reiteration lie was given the wotxleii building
iissociated with the South Kensington Museum which formed his second

o

' We shall return to Galton's 188G paper on this subject in the following chapter.
- JomiKtl o/ the Anthropological Ittalitute, Vol. xvii, pp. 346-.'>4.

398 Life and Litters of Frmiciji Galton

anthropometric laboratory, and this arrangement lasted till 1890. He insists
largely on the value of such anthropometric records for the identification
of nulividuals, and cit«.s the claims made for them by Beitillon, Topinanl
and Uerbette. He describes further the index-system of Bcntillon:

"Whether all that was claimed for the power of M. Bertillon'H system, on purely theoretical
grounds and in his earlier publications, can Ix? sustained, may fiiirly l)e questiontHJ; but there
can be no doubt that a series nf measurements must Iw of considi^rable service us supplementary
e%"idence, either that a jx-rson is really the man he professes to be, or negatively that he is not
the man for whom he is taken. In speaking of these matters it is impossible not to allude to
the Tichbume trial, and the enonnous waste of money, effort, and anxiety which might have
been spared, had Itoger Tichborne passed thn>ugh an anthropometric laboratory before he
went abroad. It would be a reasonable precaution for every person alxiut to leave his country
for a long time, having regard to the various accidents of good or ill fortune, to l)e pro^wrly
measured, and to leave a cop}' of his measurements in the safe keeping of an anthropometric
laboratory." (p. 252.)

"Another and very important question is as to the degree in which the several bodily pro-
portions that are measured may be looked upon as independent variables. The stature is relat^xl
with the length of the ftwt, and with that of the forearm, and we should exjxsct a still clost^r
relation to exist between any two of these taken together, and the tliinl. We have yet to learn
the proportion between the number of the elements measured and their value for purposes of
identification. The supposition that they may be treated as independent variables, which lies
at the bottom of some of the earlier estimates, such as that on page 22 of the Conference at
Home ' headed ' Ktendue infinie de la Classification,' cannot be accepted as correct.

The whole subject of 'Personal Identification and Description' forms an important chaptiT
of anthropological research, and it is one on which I hope before long to be in a position to
offer some views of my own." (p. 354.)

The careful reader of this passage will note how Galton is beginning lo
realise the problems of multiple regression, and to see that witli a large
number of coi-related variables, there is a limit to the intensity of the multi[)le
correlation coefficient, which cannot be indefinitely increased by incresusing
the number. We also see liow he is studying the coiTelation of bodily
characters and gradually advancing beyond the nidexing by such characters
to a method of his own — the identifictition by finger-prints.

Galton's fourth presidential address, that of 1889, we have already dis-
cussed (see our p. 38.3), and the reader who turns back to our account
will have some appreciation of how the ideas of the 1888 address had l)een
developed in the interval. Besides working out the fundamental ideas con-
cerning correlation and heredity to which Galton was led by his "Family
Records" and the data from his Anthropometric Laboratory, he con-
tribut«<l lannerous short papers on anthropometric and statistical topics to
various journals during this period and later at intervals.

H. MISCELLANEOUS STATISTICAL PAPERS

(i^ The Horse. The horse had always been a favourite animal with him,
notwithstanding his experiences with the camel in Syria and the ox in
Damaraland, and no less than four of his papers treat of the horse under
various conditions in addition to his paper on standard photographs of horses

' I^ouis IlerbetU; and Alphonso Bertillon : " I^es Signalemcnts Anthrojxjmetriqued," Con-
/frence /aiU au f'orujrrM /'hiittnliairc Jn Rome^ Ma.ssr)n, Paris, 1S8G.

Statist leal fit vestigatiinm

:«M»

for measurement'. One of these papera deals with here<Hty and will be con-
sidered in the following chapter. The first of the remaining three belongs
to (Jalton's work on coni[)08ite photogrrtphy. It is entitle<l : "Conventional
Representation of the Horse in Motion'.' In this paper (Jalton endeavours
to construct the conventional attitude of sculptun; or of painting from com-
posites of Mtiyhridge's photographs of the "Horse in Motion." The final
result ought to represent a nude, for it is certaiidy a very hybrid structure.

"The first composite sIiowh the hind logs di.stiuctly, thn s«h;oih1 fthows the fore logs distinctly;
And if duplicates of the first and second woodcuts are each divided into two halves and the b^t
defined halves of each art< uiiitt^i (in a way that might have occurred t4) Itaron Munchiius«'n if a
second rider's iiorse had sutl'ered as his own, and there had l)een a mist^ike in piecing them) a
result is protlucinl that shows a very fair corn'sjxindence with a not unconinion representation
in scul|)t.ure."

The second paper is entitled: "The Ameriam Trotting Horse'." The
interest of this paper lies in its great value lus indicating the uitluence of long
continued selection on a character. Galton, dealing witli the statistics of the
speed of American trottere, shows that every three yeitrs from 1871 to 1880
the speed of the best horse increjised about two seconds, or in the nine years
there was an improvement Irom about a mile in 2 mins. 17 sees, to a mde in
2 mins. 1 1 sees. Perhaps the luost noteworthy point i.s, however, that not only
the speed of the fastest horee thus imiiroved, but the first hundred horses
maintained their relative speeds, or all increased by about the same two
seconds. (Jalton's final table is as follows:

Number of Seco7ids and Tenths of Seconds in Excess of Two Minutes that arc
required for Rxmniwj One Mile lyy the Horses, whose order in the Rate
of Runniny in each Year is given at the Toj) of the Column.

Year

100th

50th

aoth

10th

Year

100th

SOth

90th

10th

1874
1875
1876
1877
1878
1879

251
24-1
23-5
22-9
22-1
21-3

23-4
22-5
21-6
21-0
20-2
19-6

20-6
19-9
19-5
19-0
18-5
18-0

18-8
18-2
17-7
17-4
170
16-6

1880
1881
1882

20-8
20-4
19-9

19-3
18-8
18-4

17-6
17-2
170

16-0
15-7
16-4

Anticipated
1890

16-8

15-5

14-4

134

Mem. The first horse runs the mile ill about five or six seconds less than the tenth horse.

Clalton's anticipation for 1890 is obtiiined by noticing that the values in
the vertical columns are nearly linear and then exti-apolating.

"Supjiosing the coiulitions to he umintained, T should anticipate that in 1890 there will Im*
alM>ut If) horses that will run a mile in 2 minutes 15 seconds or less, .'inil tlint tin- fastest horse
of that year will run a mile in about 2 minutes 8 seconds'."

' See our p. .317 H seq. » Nature, Vol. xxvi, pp. 228-9, July 6, 1882.

' Xalure, Vol. xxvui, p. 29, May 10, 1883.

♦ Actual best values for 1891, 1900, 1910, and 1922 were: 2' 8"-25, 2'3"-25, 1' 58"-75
and r 56"-75 respectively, so that Gallon's prediction was exact, if we take 1891 for 1890.

400 A/'/f- an(f Lettcrx of Frimrin Gnlton

The third memoir on horses also related to American trotters, but it is
14 yeiirs later, 1897'. In tliis paper Galt^)n draws attention to the value of the
speeds of the "trotters" and "pacers" in Wallace's Year Hook of Ann'i-ican
Trotters and suggests their importance for heredity. He notes, however,
that it is very ditncult to obtain the speeds of the parents and grandparents.
No liorse can theoretically obtain admittance to the trotting register unless
it can trot a mile in under 2 mins. 30 sees. The tlata, however, seem to indi-
cate either that some grace is given to horses who trot the distance of a mile
in a little over the limit time, or else that a good many ownei-s do not care to
press their homes beyond the limit of admission. In either case Galton was
justified in discarding the 2 mins. 29 sees, to 2 mins. 30 sees, entries <as not
homogeneous with the remainder. Dealing with the remainder Galton fits
the distribution by rather rough methods" with a j^ortion of a normal curve
of deviations, and thus is able to determine not only the mean speed but the
variation in the speed of American trotters. Thus he obtains for the median
and quartile of the series of 982 i-ecords for 1893, a median speed of
2 mins. 26 sees, with a quartile of 5 sees. (2 mins. 21 sees.). The paper is of
considemble value as it was. I believe, the first occasion on which an attempt
had been miule to fit incomplete series.

(ii) The Median. There are a number of short papers by Galton which
are, perhaps, most suitably desilt with in this chapter. A good many of
them appeared in the pages of Nature, a ready means of attracting imme-
diate attention, but too often at the cost of later oblivion. Several of these
papers concern really important points, which have, since their publication,
oeen again and agiiin overlooked.

In the firet place we may turn to a group dealing with the median or the
mid-character in a series. It is well-known that the median is subject to a
larger prolmble error than the mean and this has discouraged its use in
statistical inrjuiries dealing with carefully recorded observations. But Galton
realised that while its chief value in such cases was the rapidity with which
it could Im ascertained', yet there existed certain cjises in whicii the median
may be said to be far more reliable than the mean. In a paper of 1907
entitled " One Vote, One Value*," Galton draws attention to how misleading
a use of the averoijc may be. He cites as instfinces of importance anu
fretjuent occurrence: (i) the assessment by a jury of damsiges, (ii) tlie deter-
mination by the council of a society or by a committee of a sum of money
suitable for some particular purpose. Each voter, whether of jury or council,
ought to have equal authority with each of his colleagues. How can the
rigtit conclusion be drawn from the many individual estimates? Galton

' Royal Soe. Proe. Vol. Lxn, pp. SlO-l."). See nXno Nature, Vol. Lvn, p. 333, Feb. 3, 1898.

' More exact methods have Bincv been applied to the data: xoe liiometrika. Vol. n, pp. 2-G.
In the 1H93 case a mean of 2 niinH. 28 Hecs. and a quartile of 5*96 sees, were found.

' That Oalton used median and (juartiles so frequently even on careful records must, I think,
l»e attribuUKl to his gn-at love of brief analysis. He found arithmetic in itself irksome; he
wduld prefer to int4-q>olat»' by a graph nither than by a formula, and while his rough approxima-
tiiins were as a rule justified, this was nut invariably the case.

« Jfature, VoL uxv, p. 414, Feb. 28, 1907.

Stattnticfil InveHtigaliotia 401

holds, iiiid surely he 18 rij'ht, that the muldlemoat eHtinutte, the median, is
the correct out*. Every other estimate has a majority of the voters against
it as either t<K) low or too high. The correct estimate cannot be the average
tor, as Galtori puts it, the average "j^ives a voting power to 'cranks' in
|)rofX)rtion to their crankiness." The average allows crankiness to swamp
leasonahle judgment. Vor such reasons Galton laid considenihle stress on
the nu'dian, and on various contrivances for ra{)idly determining it.

1 have already referrtid (pp. ^36, 385) to the use Galton made of two bows
or two weights to test the strength of a eroup, and how he determined his
median from the resulting percontagea This point is more fully dealt with
in a paper on "The Median Estimate" read at the Dover meeting of the
British A.ssociation in 1891)'. In this paper Galton applies the two weights
test to determine the ])roper damages by a jury or a suitable grant by a
committee. Two sums A and B, li Ix'iiig greater than A, are tixed on and
then three shows or counts of hands are taken, (i) for a sum less than A,
(ii) for a sum between .el and li, and (iii) for a simi gi-eater than B. The
individuals have thus not to determine actual amounts, but only inequalities.
Galton now assumes the "normal" distribution of judgments and proceeds
to determine the median in the manner of our footnote, p. 385'. To ex-
pedite the determination he pul)lished a table of percentiles giving the
ordinates in terms of the quartile. This table is also reprofluced in a paper
of the following year and originally appeared in his lx)ok Natural Innent-
ann- of 1889. It can still be usetl although it only gives three signiticant
tigures (two decimals), when the quartile is preferred. It has, however,
been superseded for most ptn-poses l)y the table of five significant figtn*e8
(tour decimals) provide<l by I)r W. F. Sheppard at the 8ugge.stion of (ialton,
who wrote a prefatory note to the table*. This table gives the deviate in
terms of the standai'd deviation and proceeds by permilles not percentile.s.
The prefatory note is a remarkaljle one considering that Galton was then
aged 85; he there broke a last lance for the use of the ogive curve and the
median, which he had introduced 40 years earlier. He took his present
biographer's data for the intelligence of Cambridge graduates and repre-
sented it on a percentile scale and not on the biograplier's "normal" scale;
and he made a very good defence of his method.

' British Asgociatton Report, 1899, pp. 638—40.

' If 6 and a be the fractions of the total assessors who vote "above ^"and "below A" respec-
tively, then the ordinate's of the probability curve corresponding to h and a, in terms of the
standard deviation as unit, can 1k^ found from a table of permilles (see TcM«* for Statitticiafu
and Biometrician,^, Table I). If these be a and /3 the median will be

. B-A „ .B-A
m = A+a ^ = B—p -_ .

Here we suppose a and 6 both less than 50 per cent, of the total number of ■MenaofB. This is the
Ixitter way of determining to; a slight modification is neede<l, if m be greater (or less) than both
A and B. The values of a and b should correspond U^ n\oro than 5 i>er cent, of the asses-sors
for reasonable accuracy.

' Biometrika, Vol. v, pp. 400-6. "Grades and Deviates (including a Table of Normal
Deviates corresponding to each millesimal grade in the length of an array, and a figure)."

ran 61

402 Life and Ijctters of Frnnch GoUon

He sums up its merits as follows:

"(1*) It eeUblishes a centesimal scale of precedence, into which the order of any individual,
in any army of individunlM and of any lenj^th, can be easily translated, and it gives the normal
deviate at the grade which the individual occupies.

(2*) It easily defines the limiting values of successive classes of given numbers in a normal
amr.

(8*) It classifies ohjwtfi that can be arrayed by judgment, though not by actual mojisurenient.

(4*) It gives by inspection the value of <r [the standard deviation] in a normal series, and that
of the probable error in any seriep, whether normal or not.

(5*) It exhibits processes under their reAl forms, and so is free from the danger of errors in
principle, to which those unpractised in statistics are liable.

(6') It affords an excellent criterion as to whether an observed array is or is not normal, and
of the degree of its departure from normality." {\>. 104.)

There is no doubt that Galton's method of grades and deviates will
retain a permanent position in statistics, chiefly as a means of illustrating in
a simple manner statistical results; but aa a fundamental method of tabula-
tion it cannot Ik? used. The ogive curve has no simple mathematical expres-
sion and data described in this way do not readily lend themselves to further
Quantitative discussion. This will be obvious to anyone who endeavours to
etermine the correlation coefficient from doubly-graded data, instead of
from a frequency table". Yet there was something fine about Galton's de-
fence of his first statistical method in his 85th ye-ar! It did not. perhaps,
convince the younger school, but it matlethem reconsider, and po.ssibly judge
more favourably and use more frequently, Galton's mode of representation.

Some years earlier Galton reduced his method of determinuig the median
to a very simple process'. He transformed his "ogive ciu-ve " to a straight
line by altering its horizontal or percentile scale. He was thus applying to
a special case the conception of Lalanne's anamorphic geometry. In Galton's
case the scale of percentiles is so chosen that the vertical ordinate up to an
arbitrary sloping straight line represents the deviate in terms of the quartile
or standard deviation as unit. Percentiles 5° to 95° limit the practical range of
working. Any sloping straight line on this chart will be an ogive curve, i.e.
correspond to some one or other normal distribution. If we know that p^ per
cent, of individuals have a character less than A, anAjh per cent, a character
less than B, we plot A and B upwards at the percentiles p^ and jh respec-
tively, join by a straight line the tops of these ordinates, and the point in
whicli this line meets the 50" percentile gives by its ordinate the median.
I do not know whether Galton ever prepared an accurate chart ("abac") of
his ogive transformed to a line — I have not come across it — but it would not
be hard to do with considerable accuracy on a large scale, which might
then be reduced by photography to reasonable dimensions.

Galton shows that linear interpolation on the ogive itself is very ini-
j)erfect unless p^ and p^ are equally distant from the 50" point.

' Even the criterion suggested in (6°) is one rather of appearance than actual measure of
"goodness of fit."

• "A Oeometric Determination of the Median Value of a System of Normal VariantH, from
two of iU Gentiles." Nature, Vol. Lxi, pp. 102-4, Nov. 30, 1899.

Stuthtical Invest i(/at ions

103

Some good illustrutiona of the merit and defect of the ocrlve-MifdIuii
inethotl may be found in a further paj)er published in 1907.
In "Vox populi'" Galton l)egin8 by stating that

"ill tliosfi democratic diiys any iiiv(>Htigation into the trustworthiness and peculiarities of popular
jiul^'nu'iits i.M of interest,"

and proceeds to illustrate the "Vox populi" by discussing the 787 answers
{riven in a weij^ht-judging conipotitlon at the Wast of England Annual Fat
Stock Show at I'lymouth. The judgments turned on what a selectinl fat ox
would weigh after being slaughtered and dressed. Galton considers that
the entrance fee of Cut. and the hope of a prize deterred practicid joking an<l
that the judgments would be largely those of butchers and farmere ex-
perienced ui tne matter.

"The judgments wore unbiased by passion and uninfluence<l l>y oratory and the like....
The averagu compi^titor was proljabiy as well titted for making a Just estimate of the drcMod
weight of the ox, as an average voter is to judge the merits of most political issues on which he

votes."

Galton gives the following table of results and the diagram on paje 404 :

Distribution of the cstiiiuitcs of tlie (Ireaaed ireiyht of a particular Liviny ox,

made by 787 different jH'rsoiui.

Ceutiles

Ezoets of Observed ovar Normal

Decrees of the
length ot Array

Gstimateii
iu Ibti.

Ohfterved deviates

Normal

from 1207 Ibg.

p.e.=37

rraneis Ualton

Karl Pearsoa

0

5

1074

-133

-90

+ 43

-23

10

1109

- 98

-70

+ 28

-11

16

1126

- 81

-57

-24

- 9

20

1148

- 59

-46

+ 13

+ I

9,2.5

1162

- 45

-37

+ 8

+ 6

30

1174

- 33

-29

+ 4

+ 7

35

1181

- 26

-21

+ 6

+ 7

40

1188

- 19

-14

+ 5

+ 6

45

1197

- 10

- 7

+ 3

+ 6

m50

1207

0

0

0

+ 8

55

1214

+ 7

+ 7

0

+ 7

60

1219

+ 12

+ 14

_ 2

+ 4

65

1225

+ 18

+ 21

- 3

+ 1

70

1230

+ 23

+ 29

- 6

_ 2

9,76

1236

+ 29

+ 37

- 8

- 5

80

1243

+ 36

+ 46

-10

- 8

85

1254

+ 47

+ 57

-10

- 9

90

1267

+ 52

+ 70

-18

-11

95

1293

+ 86

+ 90

- 4

- 8

9,, q,, the 6rst and third quartiles, stand at 25* and 76* reapeotively.
m, the median or middlemost value, stands at 50°.
The dressed weight proved t<» lie 1198 lbs.

' Xature, Vol. Lxxv, pp. 460-51, March 7, 1907.

51—2

404

L{fe and Letters of Franch Gulton
Diagi'am,from the tabular i"</h<'s.

0" — Hf— lV—W—Vf-z.»f^l(f— 70*— Vf- 90'— 'J*

The continuous line is the nonuul curve with p.e. - Xl .

The broken line is drawn from the observations.

The lines connecting them show the differences between the observed and the normal

According to this method of dealing with tlie matter the "Vox populi" wtis
only wrong nme jxjunds (1207 against 1 198), or 0 8 per cent. Galton considers
that the judgments were not distributed normally and that negative erroi-s
were magnified and positive errors minimised by the competitors. But what
if Galton be not fitting the best curve to his data? It is not hard to show
that the judgment of the middlemost man is not the best median — para-
doxical as it may seem! Almost any pair of symmetrical percentiles gives
a result with less probable error. For example, the median of the quartiles
i (1162 -I- 123G) is 1199, only 1 lb. out. Other medians are:

aO°and80°
1195 lbs.

80° and 70°
1202 lbs.

35° and 65°
1203 lbs.

40° and 60°
1203 lbs.

— all better than the middlemost value.

Again the 25° and 75° are far from being the best percentiles to obtain
the "probable error" from, i.e. the quartile does not give the quartile best,
strange as that may appear. If we calculate the quartile from the 15' and
85'' percentiles it is 4 (73 + 55) x l/r54 = 4r5 and this is nearly the best
position for detennining its value, on the assumption of a normal distribution'.
With median at 1199 and quartile or probable error 4r5, a much more
reasonable distribution is found, and there is far less need to assume as Galton
did that the individual judgments are abnormally distributed; it is no|
longer tnie to say that errors in defect have been exaggerated, although
errors in excess are still minimised. Whether the "fit" is a reasonable one it]
is not possible to determine when the data are thus given in percentiles.
I have dwelt on the matter, because Galton's use of the values at 25°, 50° and
75° to determine the median and quartiles is not the best, and may lead, as]

' Unfortunately the [KTcentile method of tabulation does not permit of very ready deter^ '
mination of the mean and Ntiiiidard deviation and so of getting the best normal distriimtion, !
But I find aft«'r some lalxjur : mean 1197, standard deviation 6 1 "^95, leading to a [)rol)al)le error \
or quartile value of 4 1 '75. Thes*! give a far Ixitter fit than Gallon's median and quartile values.
I have inaeried a column on tlie right of the table giving my results.

Stati»ttit',al fnventigatious 405

in this case, to an erroneous conclusion. The study of popular judgments
and their value is an iniportant matter and Galton rightly chose this
material to illustrate it. The result, he concludes, is more creditable to
the trustworthiness of a democratic judgment than might be expected,
and this is n»ore than confirmed, if the material be dealt with by the "average"
method, not the "middlemost" judgment, the result then bemg only 1 lb. in
11!)8 out.

Among other mattei*s which much interestetl (Walton wa« the verification
of theoretical laws of frequency by experimejit. He considered that dice
were peculiarly suitable for such investigations', as easily shaken up and
cast. As an instrument ibr selecting at random there was he held nothing
superior to dice'. Each die presents 24 ef|ual possibilities, for each face has
four edges, and a ditterential mark can be placed jvgainst each edge. If a
number of dice, say four, are cast, the.se can without examination be put, by
sense of touch alone, four in a row, and then the marks on the edges facing
the experimenter are the i*andom selection. Galton uses another die, if
desirable, to determine a plus or minus sign for each of the inscribed values.
On the 24 edges of this die he places the possible combinations of plus and
minus signs four at a time (1(5), and of plus and minus signs three at a
time (8). Then, when he has copitnl out in columns his data from the facing
edges of the first type of dice, he puts against their values the plus or minus
sign according to the facing edge of the sign-die, which gives either three or
four lines at a cast. The paper is somewhat difficult reading, and there are a
good many pitfalls in the way of those who wish experimentally to test
theories of frequency, especially those of .small sampling. The importjince of
distinguishing between hypergeometrical and binomial distributions, between
sampling from limited and from unlimited or very large populations, and the
question of the returning or not of each individual l)efore drawing the next,
are matters which much complicate experimental work with dice.

Galton, however, was not unconscious of the many pitfalls which beset
the unwary student of the theory of chance. There is an interesting short
paper by him on "A plau.sible Paradox in Chances," written in 1894*.
The paradox is as follows: Three coins are tossed. What is the chance that
the results ai'e all alike, i.e. all heads or all tails ?

"At leiist two of the coins must turn up alike, and as it is an oven <-liancc wluahi-r a tliini
coin is hea<ls or tiiils, therefore the chance of l>oing all alike is 1 to 2 and not 1 to 4."

If the reader can distinctly specify oflf-hand, without putting pen to
paper, wherein the fallacy lies, he has had some practice in probability or
lias a clear head for visualising permutations. We leave the solution to him

' Ordinary dice do not follow the rules usually laid down for them in treatises on prol>ahility,
because the pips are cut out ou the faces, and the lives and sixes are thus more frequent tlian
ivces or deuces. This point was demonstratetl by W. F. K. Weldon in 25,000 throws of 12 ordi-
nary dice. Galton had true culxjs of hard ebony made as accurate dice, and the.se still exist
in the Oaltoniawt.

» "Dice for SUtistical Experiments." NvUxire, Vol. xlu, pp. 13-14, 1890.

' Nature, Vol. xLix, pp. 365-6, Feb. 15, 1894.

406 Tjife and Letters of Francis Galton

remarking that Gralton confirmed the accuracy of the 1 to 4 result by an
experiment with his favourite dice. The paradox is

"» good example of the pitfalU into which j)er8on8 are apt to fall, who attempt short cuts in
the aolution of problems of chance instead of adhering to the true and narrow road."

For Galton that "true and narrow road" was the study of tlie possible per-
mutations, the road followed by the early masters of the doctrine of chances.
We have seen how the "Vox populi ' was — at any rate in the judgment
of the meat-weight of fatted oxen — not so far from the truth. Galton, in a
paper of twelve yeai-s earlier, endeavoured to test the " Vox judicum'," the
reasonablene.ss of the judgments of a presumably educated and trained chvss
of minds. Galton expected that the various terms of imprisonment awarded
by judges would fall into a continuous series. He limited his data to
sentences on males without option of a fine, and he dealt with 830 sentences
for terms of years, 10,540 for terms of months and 43,500 for terms of weeks.
All these data give what we now term J^-curves — i.e. frequency distributions
similar to those of cricket scores, of incomes or rents — the shortest sentences
in each case being the most numerous, the longest the least frequent. This
is probably the nature of criminality in the population — or as Galton would
put it of "true penal deserts." But Galton does not lay stress on this
remarkable deviation from the normal curve of distribution. He is con-
cerne<l with another phase of this distribution of criminality, namely that it is
extraordinarily irregular; there are marked preferences for certain terms of
imprisonment. Thus when sentences are reckoned in months, the maxima
occur at 3, 6. 9, 12, 15, 18 and 24 months. In 10,540 sentences in months
there are none at 17 months, hardly any at 11 or 13 months. Galton argues
that three months or a quarter of a year is a round figure that must commend
itself to a judge by its simplicity. He suggests that if our year had been
divided into 10 periods, then 2^ periods, the equivalent of 3 months, would
not have been used in its place, or the same penal deserts would have been
treated differently from what they are now. Again, in the distribution of
sentences in years, he draws attention to the emphasis on sentences of 3, 5,
7 and 10 years, showing a tendency at first to a unit of 2 years and then,
presumably guided by a habit of decimal notation, a jump from 7 to 10 years.
Galton remarks that while there were 7 sentences for 20 years and 6 for
15 years, there were absolutely none for 19, 18, 17 or 16 years. Tenns of
weeks are distributed with equal irregularity. Galton argues that the
powerful cause of disturbance which interferes with the orderly distribution
of punishment in conformity with penal deserts lies in the personal fancies
of judges for certain series of numbers.

"It would be interesting to tabulate the sentences passed by the Hcveral judge« since their
appointments, to discover their respective peculiarities and personal equations, all who exercise
extensive jurisdiction in criminal cases l)eing included under the title of judge."

There is no doubt that the idiosyncrasies of some judges in the matter
of sentences are as well recognised in the legal profession as by the habitual
criminal himself, but is there not another source of the results observed by

' "Tenns of Imprisonment." Nature, Vol. ui, pp. 174-6, June 20, 1895.

StatUtlcnl InveMtitjatinitH 407

Galton of a« grejit influence as the vagaries of the jiulicial mind ? His material
Ih heterogeneous, in that it covers a great variety of clas8<« of crime from
misdcineaiiom's to felonij^H. For many of these offt'iiccK a peritnl of iniprison-
nicnt, or iit least a inaxiintun period of iniurisonment, has been fixed by the
legislature Itself, and however much a jucige might consider an ofleruler to
deserve a longer period of iniprisoiinieiit he could not inflict it. I think the
irregularity which inidoubtetlly nianifests itself in these results is <lue as
much to the 'vox legislatorum as to the 'vox judicum.' This might be easily
ascertainefl l)y discussing the returns separated out into individual cl.'usaes of
crime. Whatever may be the exact origin of the anomalies — which are
certainly present if we hold that anti-social conduct is a continuous variate —
we may safely conclude with Cialton :

"by moralising on the Inrjre efii'cts upfin tho duninco of ii prisontT, thiit (low from such irn-levant
influences as the a-ssociations connoctwl with decimal or duiKlcciiiml hahitu and tlie iinconHcioUN
favour or disfavour felt for particular nunilxirs. These tritles have \toen now shown on fairly
trustworthy evidence to determine the choice of such widely different 8ent*<nce8 as imprisonment
for 3 or 5 years, of 5 or 7, and of 7 or 10, for crimes whaso penal deserts would otherwise be
rate<l at 4, 6 and 8 or 9 yeai's respectively."

There is a passage in this memoir which would have delighted the heart
of the " Passionate Statistician." It runs:

"We test the acquirements of youths by rt^peat*-*! examinations, but do not as yet employ
the nietho<ls of statistics to test the performances of professional men. Examiners, for example,
should themselves l)e tested in this way', and I have a fancy that a discussion of the clinical
reports at the various large hospitals might enable a cautious statistician to express with some
accuracy the curative capacities of different medical men, in numerical term.s. Before putting
oneself into the hands of any new professional adviser, it would certainly be a grateful help to
know the indices of ca]>acity of those among whom the choice lay, not such a.s might l>e inferred
from their performances in school and undergratluate days, or by their unchecked professional
repute, but as they really are in their mature and practical life." (p. 176.)

What a readjustment of values there would be if those "indices of
capacity " were fotmd one morning attaclied to the brass plates of Harley
Street or inscrilied in the more sober black and white of the pas.sages in
Lincoln's Inn!

Two further contributions of Francis Galton may be just mentioned.
On the death of I)r Samuel Haughton he wrote' pointing out that amid
Haughton's many-.sided activities he had introduced the "long drop," an the
most painless death by hanging by the neck. Haughton had experimented
on the tensile strength of the spine and mu.scles of the neck and published
a formula for the length of drop dependent on the height and weight of the
culprit. Galton lielieved Haughton to have omitted a small factor in the
increased section of the muscles of the neck in fat men. The matter, if an
unpleasant one, still needed scientific investigation as a death by l)ehetiding —
which in one case occurred — was not carrying out the sentence of the law.

' All universities ought to take periodic stock of their examiners in the manner suggested.
I have no hesitation in as.serting that in many case.s the success or failure of candidates is not
a measure of their iutelligence, but of their choice of subject and still more of the particular
examiner in that subject who has marked their script.

' Nature, Vol. Lvn, p. 79, November 25, 1897.

408 Life and Letters of Francu Calton

Those who recognise the relative mercy of the long drop may wonder why
Ciipital punishment has not been still further modified m the direction of
sciircely less painful, but more seemly, methods of dis]x>sing of the socially
abhorrent.

Galt<in further contributed a letter to the discussion on "Corporal Punish
ment " which developed in the Times in 1898. He considered that the writers
on the subject had overlooked two important points:

"The first is, the worse the criminal the less sensitive he is to pain, the correlation between
the bluntneas of the moral fwlinpH and those of the IjoHily sensations being very ninrkotl. The
Moond relates to the connection Ix'tween the force of the blow and the pain it occasions, which
do not vary at the sanu! rat<', hut approximately, according to Weber's law, four times as heavy
a blow <mly producing alxiut twice as much pain. In a Utopia the business of the .ludge woul<i
be confined t-o s<'ntcncing the criminal to so many units of pain in such and such a form, leaving
it to anthropologists skilled in that branch of their science to make preliminary experiments
and to work out tables to determine the amount of whipping or whatever it might be thai
would produce the desired results. Really these latter considerations might even now be madi'
the subject of a solid scientific paper of no small interest, but they cannot be more than hinted
kt in a short letter like this, which has to be written in non-technical language."

The unit of pain — quite apart from corporal j)unishment — .seem.s no more
incapable of measurement than a unit of intelligence. The threshold of the
sensation of pain might be determined in a number of ways, and then corre-
lated with other mental and physical characters of the individual. Like all
Galton's writings, this brief letter suggests unexhausted fields for the per-
sistent and cautious investigator.

Galton's fertility of statistical ideas may be further illustrated by two
papei-s, one belonging to 1804 when he was seventy-two years of age, and
the other written fifteen years later when he was 87. The first was contri-
buted to the Proceetfi'yu/s of the Roi/cd Society^ and deals with the import.inl
j)roblem of the fertility of marriages according to the ages of father and
mother. The fertility is measured by percentage of families which have a
child when the husband and wife are of the given ages. If a chart be formed
of which one variate is age of father, the second age of mother, and the
percental offspring be inscribed for each pair of ages, then Galton proposes to
represent the loot of equal percentages by contours, which he terms isogtms.
By a fairly simple, if somewhat rough process he constructs these isogens
for Korosi s Budapest data, and we reproduce them below.

The diagram indicates that the form of the isogens its long as the husband
is older than the wife is very closely a system of straight equidistant and
diagonal lines. As a result of this Galton concludes that the fertility of a
husband of age a„ and a wife of age a» will be closely given by

p = 9S — a„ — a^,

provided that (i) the wife is not older than the husband, and (ii) she is not
less than 23 nor (iii) more than 40 years of age.

' Vol. LV, pp. 18-23. "Results derived from the Natality Table of Korosi by employing
ihr- method of Contours or Isogens."

StatiHtinil In rcufigntions
Isoffciut or [j'mes of Kiiiud Ferlility.

r;it}ii'r'rt Ak'f

401<

::;i:;;;:a:»:»

■■■■■■■■■••a

•S

o

■JIII^Laaaairdiaaaav'^aoiBasik .•^aaaaaa

iaaaBaaaBBa»a«*raicaaBaaraaaaBaBar.<aBaa
laaBaaaaaaaaaaaaalfaCafaaniaaaaBaQBaaa

I

nitistrations of the accuracy of the Isogeris.

Wife

Haslwad

Caloalated

Aetna

23

27

«•/.

42 7.

23

37

337

307.

27

33

337.

317.

31

35

277.

26 7.

36

41

17 7.

16 7.

39

49

«7.

6-/:

Piohiihly ;i little .'Kljustmeiit would give a better fitting plane to the
portion of the surtace under consideration, but Galton's rule gives at .my
rate a first approximation of a quite serviceable kind.

Our author notes the curious chimge in the direction of the isogens svhen
the wife is older than the husband. Tliis seems to me to indicate that when
the wife is older than the husband, the age of the latter is of minor import-
ance. Galton interprets it as follows:

"When she [the wife] is from thirty to thirty -eight she certainly .seems to h*'. appreciably
more fertile with a husband of her own age or somewhat older than she is [than] with one who
is younger'. I should hesitate to ascribe this to physiological causes without corroborative

' The following results drawn from his data do not soem to confirm Galton's views :

Age of Wife

99

81

88

86

87

89

41

48

46

3
3-3

Percentage Children :
Husband of same age
Mean for husbands younger

.35
34

22
25

22
26-5

19
21-3

17
17-3

15
16-3

10
11-7

6
6-3

pan

6S

410

Life and Letters of Francis Galton

evidence derivwJ from hnxxlors of st4K-k. It is very p«>s.sihle that indiflFerence on the part of
young husbandu to aging wives may have itonicthing to do with it." (p. 22.)

An important remwk uiatle by Galton is that while his table unci the
smoothwl isogens give the mean percentile fertilities at each age of husband
and wife, they fail to mea.sure the degive of individiial variation from this
mean ; the nature of this variation, he remarks, could l>e found from the
original observations with a moderate amount of work, and it would be
of much interest to determine whether it varies in accordance with some
definite law.

The second paj)er deals with a problem which Galton had special dehght
in handling. Nothing pleased him more than to dispel a current superstition
by statistical criticism. We have alreiuly seen how he tested in this way
the objective efficacy of prayer. In the present instance', with Mr Edgar
Schuster's aid, he attacked the belief widely spread, especially among Roman
Catholics, that Church property sequestrated at the time of the Reformation
carried a curse with it; the effect of the curse was to e.vtinguish the line
of the owner by the death before inheritance of his sons, especially the eldest
son. The phrase " Church property " is a|)plied to estates which were in
whole or part ecclesiastical previous to the dissolution of the monasteries
under Henry VIII, and "Not Church property" to those that were not.

Survival of EUlest Sons.

Total nnmber of Owners

Number who were Eldest Sons

Not Church property 469
Church property ... 464

241 S2-5 7.

240 •'>l-7 7.

Length of Tenures.

Mean Length

Not Church property
Church pn)perty

27-2 years
27-4 year*

There is therefore no appreciable effect jjroduced by the cunse in either
thwarting the inheritance of eldest sons, or in shortening the tenure of the
ownership of Church property. It was found, however, that Church pro-
perties change^l hands much more frequently than non-Church properties;
transmissions by purchase were almost three times jus fretpieiit. Galton was
Inclined to ascribe this to the comparative unsuitability to modern require-

"S(vjur?(rtrat«d Church Property." Nature, Vol. lxxix, p. .308, January 14, 1909.

StfitiMfical Inrt'sfiz/atitniM 4 1 1

njent« of ftbboys, etc., as tlwelling hoii8t«, to their low HituationH unci ImuI
(liaiiiairo, so that those who hau oxpurionce of them would l>e the more
ready to tu'W w\uin tlie j)ictiiieH(|Uoiic.sH and romnnce of old Itiiildin^s created
a fictitious market value. Although this, (inlton lulmitA, is pure speculation,
it may indicate that mundane rejisons and not supernatural interferences
really accoimt for the excess of transmissions hy purchase'.

1 have reserved one st^tisticjil paper I)ecau8e of its special importance for
a last illustration of Galton's statistical iiK/enium, It appeared in Aujfust
IDO'J, when he was more than 80 years old'. Its title conveys no idea of its
value and would sugge.st that it clealt only with a minor if interesting |K)int.
Hut Galton's niethoa of proportioning first and second prizes demands a
knowledge of the avenige interval U^tween the first, the second and
the third place men in a competition between a numljer n of individuals.
Hitherto statistical freijuency had l)een looked upon as a continuous distri-
bution, which could be represented by the equation to a mathematicjil
curvi'. 1 know no one before Galton, in 11)0-', who had proposed to consider
a population for what it really is — a discontinuum with finite intervals
between its individual members when arninged in order of their intensities
with regard to a given character. What are the average values of these finite
intervals, and how do they vary? What we now term Galton's Individual
Difference Problem created at once a whole set of new conceptions and sug-
gested tjuestion.s, a few only of which have as yet been answered. But the
explanation of certain well-recognised phenomena flowed at once. Taking
only 100 individuals supposed to follow a normal distribution for any char-
acter the interval Ijetween the 50th and 51st is only one-tenth of the interval
between the 9yth and 100th, or between the Ist and 2nd. Given very
large populations indeed mediocrity is crowded together; the exceptional are

' It is clearly inipossiWo to j?ivc n suniniiiry of nil Galton's many contributions to Nctliiy,
or of his letters to the daily press, although so many of them contain thoughts or suggestimis,
which it is sad should not be put on more permanent record. The curious may care to read i»i/fr
alia (a) a long lett«;r to the Timi-n, OctolH>r 6, 1887, entitled "The Propost-d Imperial Institute:
Geography and Anthi-opology," — the word "Statistics" might have l)een nddinl. We fear the
existing Institute, largely deprived by cheeseparing governments of its own buildings, falls far
short of Gallon's ideal. (A) Nature, Vol. xxxvi, pp. l.'iS-T (June IG, 1887) contains a paper
on " North American Pictogniphs." "rheso interested Galton from more than one side. He thought
the pictographic calendars of the Indians might Ik- modernised for family reconls, and for some
years was wont to have a small medallion drawn illustrating his own faniily occurrences in the
year. He considered it po.ssible to think by aid of pictographs as I.iaura Hridgeman ha<l found an
adecjuate basis for the exercise of a considerable amount of reasoning in the univssisted sense
of touch. So also ilogs may be occasionally "carrying out some real act of thought b\' aid of
imagined and symbolic odours." This will seem fantastic only to those who have not observeti
what a Pekingese dog does when introducwl for the first time to a new house with unknown
occupants, (c) "A New Step in Statistical Science" {Xntnn; Vol. i.i, p. 319, Jan. .11. 189,5)
deserves mention, as typical of Galton's splendid generosity to the younger generation when it
came knocking at the door. Such innate generosity appears also in {d) a paper on "Bertillon's
System of Identification" {Nature, Vol. Liv, pp. .'569-70, Oct. 8, 1896), wherein the "Signaletic
Instructions" there was a not very happy attempt to claim finger-print identification as a
French discovery.

* "The Most Suitable Proportion between the Values of First and Second Prizes." Bio-
vietrika. Vol. i, pp. 380-90.

62—2

412 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

widely separated from each other. I cannot describe better toy sense of the
imjxirtiince of Galton's Difference Problem than by citing, with but slight
additions, the words I used about it more than twenty years ago':

"Now, of course, the noruial distribution in a general sort of way indicates that the
diffbrencee between modal or what thu hiologiHts term 'normal' indiviiiualsare very small. But
Mr Oalton'a Difference Problem enables us for the first time to appreciate quantitatively how
much wider the differences are between the extreme (biologists' 'abnormal' or atypical indi-
viduals) and modal ('normal' or typical) individuals. Now the range of a distribution being
■omewhat about six timas the standard deviation, we see that extreme individuals, even in a
population of only 100, may be separated by as much as ,'.th of the range, while modal indi-
viduals have only a difference of ^li^th of the range and even individuals at the (juurtile only
» difference of jgoth of the range. The relative differences become much greater in populations
of aeventl millions.

It is not possible to pass over the general bearing of such results on human relations. If
we define 'individuality' as difference in character between a man and his immediate compeers,
we see how immensely individuality is empha.sised as we pasii from the average or modal
individuals to the exceptional men. Differences in ability, in power to create, to discover, to
rule men do not go by uniform stagea We know this by experience — our Shakespeares, our
Newtons, our Napoleons have no close compeers in the populations of their own generations —
but we see a reason for the gulf which separates the genius from ourselves, the phenomenon
flows from a characteristic and familiar chance distribution. We ought not to be surprised, as
we frequently are, at the results of competitive examination.s, where the difference in marks
between the first men is so much greater than occurs between men towards the middle of the
list. In the same way the marked iiidividuality of extreme criminality, and the appalling
diffsrenoes in stupidity and iraliecility at the lower end of the moral and intellectual scales,
receive their due statistical ap])reciation.

We stand in a better position to discriminate the pathological from the merely exceptional;
mere isolation no longer leads us & priori to question the position of an outlying observation or
of an exceptional individual.

In short Galton 's Difference Problem leads us to look upon samples of populations, and even
on populations themselves, no longer as arrays of individuals with continuously varying charac-
ters, but as systems of discrete units. We see discontinuity in every sample and in every
population. We obtain a new and most valuable conception of a normal or standard population.
It is one in which each individual is separated from his immediate neighlwurs, — when the whole
is arranged according to any character, — by definite calculable intervals. These intervals are,
of course, the average intervals which would be found by taking the mean of many such samples
or populations, but they are none the less of extreme suggestivene.ss. Just as the eontinuout
representation by a frecjuency curve is only an ideal representation of the observed facts, so we
now reach an ideal representation of the actual discontinuity in the given ]>opulation. As in the
case of many physical investigations, so we find in statistical theory lx)th continuous and dis-
continuous representiitions of the phenomena equally important and e<)UHlly valid within the
legitimate limits of interpretation."

Did Galton immediately recognise all that flowed from his treatment of
the projKjr proportions of first and second prizes? Poasibly not; ho took
some yeai-8 Uj realLse all that must eventually flow from his conce|)tion of
correlation. But is not this failure to grasp immediately all that results from
a new stand])oint the essential peculiarity of the creative mind, whether it
|je that of a great scientist or of a great poet ? Galton has himself so well
descriljed the workings of the exceptional mind that I need not labour this
jK)int'. The mine discovered by Galton more than twenty years ago is far

' Biometrika, Vol. I, p. 398.

* Bee the first footnote on p. 236 of this volume. The inspiration is the product of the
sulxx>nacious mind. The man who has reached a truth knows it to be true, wrote Spinoza truly

Stafixt iral In ve«ti(jat Ions

413

from being exhausted, indeed its treasures are hardly yet touchetl; and
probably will not l)e until some lalx)riou8 German breaks by accident into its
vein of wealth'.

Admitted that Galton did not see the whole liearing of his conception, yet
as pioneer he blazed the track. His methotl of approach was simple as usual,
(I rough but iidecjuate appro.ximation for the purpose he had in hand. lie
took ius hi.s average distributii)ii of n individuals the normal curve divided
into It equal areas, and he took as the chai'acter value of his individuals that
corri'.spoiidiiig to the areal bisector of each of these e((ual areas. He might
have taken the mean.s of those equal areas. Neither is in accordance with
the more accurate method of approach which results from a fuller applica-
tion of the theory of probability, liut the ditference is not very important
unless the number of individuals be small; thus for a sjimple of 100 we find:

I

In terms of SUndard Deviatiou

Method of Median
(Ualton)

Method of Mean

Aoourate Theory

Distance between first and second
Distance l)otween second and third

•406

•210

•488
•215

•360

•20*J

The ratios of first to second prizes given by the three methods are
respectively : Median 74-6 to 25-4, Mean 766 to 23-4, Actual 73-6 to 26-5.

Thus the tluee methods do not lead to widely different results as far as the
])rize ratio is concerned ; the first prize may, as Galton observes, be adetjuately
taken as three times the second. The value for 10 competitors is 7 TO to
281 and for 1000 is 741 to 25'9. Hence the greater the number of com-
petitors the more accurate is Galton's ratio of 3 to 1. But, as he remarks, the
number in most competitions is limited by the fact that many individuals
know it would be futde to enter, so that it is reasonable to proportion the
prizes on numbere far larger than are actually entered'. Galton's inspiration
certainly divined that a better result could be obtained by using the median
rather than the mean in this case !

As far as I know no attention has been paid to Galton's ratio in settling
the monetary value of prizes in athletic competitions', agricultural shows and
scliolastic awards. Its importance is ol)scured by the tact that it is merely
an average value, and we are only to-day discovering how the system of
differences — for example, between the first and second individuals — is

hut really uudenionsti-ahly. What lie did not write was that the applications of a trutli are
rarely fully recognised hy its first discoverer. It is just because the exceptional mind does not
and cannot exhaust the utility of its own creations that lesser minds value its teachings and
recognise a niaater-liuildcr.

' A prophecy which has come unexpectedly true! See von Bortkiewicz's recent paper on
the range or distance between first and last individuals in a series.

- The tii-st and second hoi*s«\s in the Derby are not merely the best out of many horses that
actually run, but nut of the very much larger number of potential runners.

^ I am informed that the 3 : 1 ratio is in use in at least one public school, but the origin of
it is obscure.

414 Life and Letters of Francis Gait on

distributed ronml the mean ; we are not even clear as to the frequency of
brackets in coni|»etitions of different sizes. There is still much work to Ije
done on the lines of Galton's Difference Problem.

One conclusion, however, may be safely drawn, namely, that in this
contribution of the octogenarian Ualton to the theory of statistics there was
no si^n of a failure of that fertile suggestiveness which had led the sexa-
genarian Galton twenty yearn earlier to develop his far-reaching ideas on
con*elation.

Readers of this chapter will have observed that 1 have avoided almost
entirely any reference to Galton's work on correlation, which is so essential a
part of his contributions to statistical theory. This has been done purposely
because it would not only have overweighted an already lengthy chapter, but
its development l)elongs peculiarly to Galton's statistical studies of heredity.
Both topics will form the subject of chapters in the remaining volume of his
Life, Letters and fxtboins. It suffices in this chapter to see Galton deeply in-
terested in almost every branch of statistics, but especially in their bearing on
anthropometry. We have seen him pass from geography to ethnology, from
ethnology to anthropometry, and from anthro])ometry to statistical theory.
In the course of a long and crowded life, his contem])oraries recogni.sed him
as a master-builder and as a pioneer in one branch of science after another.
Space does not pennit of our citing the innumerable questions and problems
propounded to Galton by scientific corre-spondents from all quarters of the
world. Galton's replies would indeed be a repertorium of information and
suggestion, but in the majority of cases the recipients are now desul — for
Galton outlived his generation— and I found the quest for his own letters a
hopeless task. One such quest was, however, fruitful, and forms a fitting
theme with which to close this chapter and volume.

I. THE PROPOSED PROFESSORSHIP OF APPLIED STATISTICS

Florence Nightingale luus Ijeen usually estimated by that gracious phase
of her life which appealed to the emotional sympathies of a little- instructed
public. For that public she is the "Lady of the Lamp." Sympathy with
suffering is, however, of small avail — no more so than charity — unless it be
accom])anied by iidministrative insight, and this side of Florence Nightingale's
character has been too often overlooked. She was a great administrator,
and to reach excellence here is impossible without being an ardent student
of statistics. Florence Nightingale luis been rightly termed the " Pjissionate
Statistician." Her statistics were more than a study, they were indeetl her
religion. For her, Quet-elet was the hero as scientist, and the presentation
coj)y of his Phytfiipie Sociale. is annotated by her on every page'. Florence
Nightingale believed — and in all the actions of her life acted upon that
belief — that the administrator could only be successful if he were guided by

' Prewnted to the Galton I^aborotory by Miss Nightingale's niece, Mrs Vaughan Nash, and
now placed becido Darwin's gift of the Oriyin o/ Species to Ualton and Tyndal's gift of lii.s
liplfut Addrrw to HerbeK Spencvr.

PLATE Llil

■^

"*S

V - . I

m^Ar. -

v«%?

,_m

rfg^ jfg^

■ 1

; '

..n-^^^H

^^^H^?

1

^^^^^H

.^^^■H

^^^^^^^^V

- taf

i

1

E^IJ

M

^r'^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^M

L^^k

^11

^

J^mk

^1 i

m.

3^ -^*^ [

,■<

*jakm

tL£^ 1

y*^' ^ii

1

1

^^^^ / \ ^J^^B

11

*

r

1

^1

■

f

^BB^^W^

«c .t;

S «

— 3

*■ -r

— e«

u

= o

'J S

' -o

= c

0; 3

-«J "ZI

-; _0

• — 'on

t ^

-*-* M

o

0 O,

o

~ £

^ -4-^

_c

5 u

£

li

o

s

*^ .n

01

T^ "*^

s

^i

s

•= ^^

CB

ri

C

Jl

C3

0, ^

cc

> -3

1

d

-" tn

&«
b.

ca S
-5 Q

cr. ^

- *

C 3

.2 "

'•*-■ w

a 2

= .=

1}

33:

- a

I

StfUiMtical Iiii'entigation* 416

statistical knowledge. The legiHlator — to say nuthing of the politician — too
ofU'H failed for want of this knowledj^e. Nay, slu* went furtluT : hIic held timt
the iiiiivorae — including human conununitieH — was evolving in accordance
with a divine plan; that it was man's husiness to endeavour to understand
this plan and guide his actions in synipathy with it. But to uiul' !

(Jod's thoughts, she held we must study statistics, for these are the n. j

of his purpose. Thus the study of statistics was for her a religious duty.

Those who have drawn from the earlier chapters of this vohune some
idea of Galton's religion, will realise how close nmst have heen the sympathy
of ideas. For Galton the world was developing; at present under stern
lorces a mentally and physically superior human type wjih IxMng evolved,
and it wtus the religious duty of man to jus.sist these changes, but for eflective
action we nmst study the laws of evolution, we must know and slatistiraUy
know before the pace could be hastened.

"When the desircnl fulliiP8.so{ inforiimtion shall Imvc Ihh-ii ac<|uir<tl, then hikI not till then,
will Iw tlic fit munuMit to proclaini a ' Johml,' or Holy War, against custonm and prpjudico.s that
inijiHir the phyHical and moral qualities of our race'."

And again:

"The ideas have long held my fancy tliat \v(! men may Ijc the chief, and [)erlta{xs the only
executives on earth. That we are detached on active service with it may lie only illusory powers
of free-will. Also that wo are in some way accountiihle for our success or failure to further
certain okscure end.s to bt! guosseil as best we can. That though our iiLstructions are obscure
they are sutliciently dear to justify our interference with the pitiless coui-se of Nature, whenever
it seems fH)S.sible to attain the goal towards which it moves, by gentler and kindlier ways'."

Thus it came about that for Galton, and for Florence Nightingale, the end
and the means were the same: men must study the obscure purpose of
an unknown power, — the tendency behind the univei-se; and the manner of
our study must be statistical. 'I herein, according to Francis Galton, lay
the way to that luisolved riddle of "the infinite ocean of iK'ing"; therein,
according to Florence Nightingale, lay the cipher by which we may read
"the thoughts of Gotl." Men of the twentieth century may fail to appreciate
the doctrine of either great Victorian, but of one thing they may he sure,
the belief in both of them amounted to a religion. And what wjis a religion
to both became at once in both a motive for action. Galton was not content
with the office of teacher, he devoted a large portion of his fortune to the
foundation of a school of eugenics on the Ixisis of probjvbility, that is of the
modern theory of statistics. Stiitistics were to be applied in gleaning in-
t'ormation as to Nature's immediate purpo.se, which tuuloulitedly lies in the
evolution of man's mind, lK>dy, and character towards increfistHl energy, and
more efficient co-adaptation. Florence Nightingale strove — possibly with
less scientific insight, but with a wider administrative experience and with no
less religious earnestness — towards the like end. She sought, before Galton,
but with smaller economic resources, to establish a university chair of
"Applied Statistics." I have often wondered how far the final form of

I'rolmbUity the Foundation of Etigenics: Herbert Spencer Lecture. Oxfonl, 1907. p. 30.
Ibid. p. 9.

416 Life ami Letters of Franeu Galton

Gallon's foundiitioii was influencetl by his correspomlence with Florence
Nightiiif^ale concerning this chair of applied statistics. When I souglit a
name in I'Jll ("or tlie new ilejiartment which should conihino tiie Hioint'tric
and Gallon Eugenics Lalwratories, no fitter and more historically worthy
name occurn*<l to me than that of" "Applied Statistics." Were 1 a man of
wealth I would see that Florence Nightingale wius commemorated, not oidy
by the activities syndxilised by the " Lady of the Lamp," but by the activi-
ties of the "Passionate Statistician." 1 woidd found a Nightingale Chair
of Ai)plie<l Statistics to airry out the ideal expressed in the letters below.

The first reference of Florence Nightingale to Francis Galton occurs in a
very characteristic letter of hers to Captain (later Sir) Douglas Galton. It
is tiatetl August 7, 18G7. In this letter she refens to a Standing Committee
which was being appointed to consider contrivances for dealing with the
wounded afler a battle. The keynote to her letter is that appliances kill :
Do away with all huts and marquees, give the wounded plenty of air and
tend them on the battlefield. For every man that dies of liis wound five or
six die of the doctors and the removing; as to medicines, make the doctors
swallow them all, all that is wanted is a little brandy and a grejit deal of
water. But if the wounded are to be tended in extemporised shelters on
the battlefield somebody must be on the committee who understands rough
shelters.

"The only person who has written anything worth having on travelling apparatus is Mr
Francis Galton, a cousin of yours I believe; I should put him on the Standing Committee, if
possible."

It is not till twenty-four years later that Florence Nightingale again
seeks the advice of Francis Galton ; he was then 69 and she over 70. She was
reviving one of the great dreams of her younger days and he, with no sign
yet of age, wjis then actively contributing not a little towards its realisjiiion.

10 SoDTH Street, Park Lane, W. Feb. 7, '91.
Scheme of Social Physics Teaching.

Dkar Sir, Sir Douglas Galton ha.s given me your most kind message; saying that if I will
explain in writing to you what I think needs doing, you will be so good as to give it the
experienced attention without which it would be worthless. By your kind leave, it is this :

A scheme from someone of high authority as to what should be the work and subjects in
teaching Social Physics and their practical application in the event of our Ix^ng able to obtain
a Statistical Professorship or lU'adersbip at the University of Oxford.

I am not thinking so much of Hygiene and Sanitary work, W-ause these and their statistics
have lieen more closely Ktuilied in England than probably any other branch of statistics, though
much remains to be desiriHl : as e.g. the n-sult of the food aiul cooking of the iKK>r as seen in the
children of thf Infant Schooln and th<».se of somewhat higher ages. Hut I would — subject always
to your criticism and only for the sake of illustration— mention a few of the other branches in
which we appear hardly to know anything, e.g.

A. The results of Forster's Act, now 20 years old. We sweep annually into our Elementary
Schmls hundre<lH of thousands of children, s|>ending millions of money. Do we know:

(i) \N hat proportion of children forget their whole education after leaving school; whether
all they have Ijeen taught is uxulrl The almost accidental statistics of Ouanls' recruits would
point to a lai^ proportion.

Statistical Investigations 417

(ii) What are the ruoulUi u(>on the lives and conduct of children in after life who don't
forget all they have he<>n taught 1

(iii) What are the raethudx and what are the results, for example in Night Hchoolit and
Secondary Schools, in preventing primary' education from b(<irig a wcule^

If we know tiot what are the effi-cU) ujx>n our ntitional life of Forster"* Act ia not thia a
Rtrangp gap in rea.s<inal)le Kngliind'H knowledge!

A(l). The resuitu of legal puniHhiiientN -i.e. the deterrent or encouraging effects upon
crime of Ix-ing in gaol. Some exctillent and hartlworking reformem tell u«; Whatever you do
keep a Iwy out of gaol — work the First Offenders' Act — once in gaol, always in gaol — gaol is
the cradle of crime. Other t><|ually zealous and active reformers say a Ixiy must lie in gaol once
at least to learn it« hardships l>efore he can bo rt-scued. la it again not strange in practical
Kngland that we know no more alxjut thisi

// (2). Is the career of a criminal from his first committal — and for what action — to his last,
whether («) t«j the gallows, or (A) to rehabilitation, recortled ? It is stattMil by trustworthy [jersons
that no such stjitistics exist, and that we can only learn the criminal's can<er from himself in
friendly confidence — what it has Ix-en from Ijeing in gaol, say for sU'^ling a turnip for a lx)ys'
feast^ or for breaking his schoolroom window in a temper because he has been turned out of
school for making a noise — to munler or to morality.

In how many ca.se8 must all our legislation bo experiment, not experience! Any exi>erience
must be thrown away.

H (3). What effect has education on crime?

(a) Some [HH>plean.swer unhesitatingly : As education increases crime decrease*. (6) Others
as unlit>sitntingly : K<lucation only teaches to escape convictitm, or to steal l)etter when released.
(c) Others again : Kducation has nothing to do with it either way.

C. We spend millions in rates in putting people into Workhouses, and millions in charity
in taking them out. What is the proportion of names which from generation to generation
appear the same in Workhouse records? What is the proportion of children de pauperi.sed or
pauperiseil by the Workhouse? Does the large Union S<;hool, or the small, or 'boarding out'
return moiv pjiuper children to honest in(le|)endent life? On girls what is the result of the
training of the large Union Schools in fitting them for honest little domestic places — and « ' r
proportion of them falling int*) vice have to return to the Workhouse? Upon all such sulj
how should the use of statistics l)e taught?

D. India with its 250 millions — 200 millions being our fellow-subjects, I suppose — enters
.so little into practical English public life that many scarcely know where this small country is.
It forms scarcely an element in our calculations, though we have piles of Indian statistics. [.\s
to India th(> problems are :]

(i) Whether the (leoples there are growing richer or jKxirer, better or worse fed and clothed ?

(ii) Whether their physical {xjwers are deteriorating or not?

(iii) Whether fever not only kills less or more, but whether it incapacitates from labour for
fewer or more months in the year?

(iv) What are the native manufactures and productions, needed by the greatest customer
in the world, the Government of India, which could l)e had as good and cheap in India, as those
to be had from England I

(v) Whether the native trades and handicrafts are being ruined or being encouraged under
our rule?

(vi) What is the result of Sir C. Wood's (1853) Education Act in India?

These are only a very few of the Indian things which — I will not .say are hotly contesto<l,
for few care either in the House of Commons or out, but — liave their opposites as-serted with
equal positivenoss.

I have no time to make my letter any shorter, although these ai-e but a very few instances.
What is wanted is that so high an authority lis Mr Francis Gallon should jot down other great
branches upon which he would wish for statistics, and for gome teachiiig func to luie thftnf statintict
in order to legislate /or and to ailminister our national life with moi"e precision and experience.

One authority was consult«d and he answere<l : "That we have statistics and that (tovern-
ment nmst do it." Surely the answering question is : The Gi vernment do«.'s not use the statistics
which it has in administering and legislating — ^except indeini to "deal damnation" across the
floor of the H. of C. at the Opposition and vice verad. Why I Because though the great majority

ran 63

418 Life and Letters of Fmncix Gallon

of Ckbinei MiniBtore, of the Army, of the Executive, of both Houson of Parliament have receive*!
a university education, what has that university education taught them (if tlie priicticwl a|>plica-
tion of HtatiNticHt Many of the Government Olhce.s have Nplen<iid statistics. Wliut use do they
make of thenit One of tlie liust words Dr Farr of the General llegister Office sjiid to me was:
"Yes, you must get an Oxford Professorship; don't let it drop."

M. Quetelet gave me his I'hi/»iquf Socia/e and his Anthro/wmftris. He aaid almost like
Sir Isaac Newton: "These are only a few pebbles picked up on the vast seashore of the ocean
to be explored. Let the explorations be carried out"

You know how Quetelet rt-iluced the most appan'ntly accidental carelessness to ever recurring
fkcis, so that as long as the same conditions exist, the same "accidents" will recur with abso-
lutely unfailing regularity'.

You n-member what Quetelet wrote — and Sir J. Herschel enforced the advice — "Put down

what you expect from such and such legislation; after yeai-s, see where it has given you

what you expected, and where it has failed. But you change your laws and your administering
of them so fast, and without inquiry after results past or present, that it is all experiment,
aee-saw, doctrinaire, a shuttlecock In-tween two battlcdore.s."

Might I a-sk from your kindne.ss^ — if not deterred by this long scrawl — for your answer in
writing as to hea<is of subjects for the scheme? Then to give mo some little time, and that you
would then make an appointment some afternoon, as you kindly proposed, to tidk it over, to
tea«h, and to advise mel Pi-ay believe me, Yours most faithfully, Flobence Niohtingale.

I confess — but then I am a prejudiced person, for the prophetess was
proclaiming my own creed — that this letter appears to me one of the finest
that Florence Nightingale ever wi-ote. What is more it is almost as true
to-day as it was thirty years ago. We are only just beginning to study
social problems — medical, educational, commercial — by adequate statistical
methoas, and that study has at present done very little to influence legislation.
What is more the re^juisite statistical teaching on which real knowledge
must be based luis hardly yet spread throughout our universities. The time
has yet to come, when the want of a chair of statistical theory and practice
iu any great tiniversity will be considered jik much an anomaly as the absence
of a chair of mathematics. The logic of the former is as fundamental in all
branches of scientific inquiry as the symbolic analysis of the latter.

To many it may seem as if we had here a proposal which Galton would
welcome at once, none would doubt that he would give the closest con-
sideration to it. But to those who knew Galton well three points of hesitation
would suggest themselves : (i) He had no faith in a man simply because he
was a [irofessor; the men who in his day had made the most important
contributions to science — Darwin, Wallace, Lubbock — and such personal
friends as Spencer and Groves — were not professors (ii) He did not till long
after this lose his faith in working by connnittees, or in some form of co-
operative work '. (iii) He Ijelieved that small monetary prizes would pnxluce
excellent research work by able young men, and overlooked the fact that a
stifi" preliminary training is needful (then wholly lacking in statistics) if

' Footnote. I prettumo that no one now but understands, however vaguely, that if we
change the conditions for the l»etter, the evils will diminish accordingly.

' He had experienced the great value of the Meteorological Council and the Kew Observa-
tory Committee, but thew were largely homogeneous groups of highly traine<l men. Rome of
Galton 's later committees, H«>lecte«l with the most catholic spirit, were such heterogeneous teams
that he might as well have harnea-sed a thoroughbred, a mule, an ass and a camel to his wain,
mad have hoped for reasonable progress!

Statintical ImuxtufafionH 419

even tlie highest ability is to be prcxluctive of really scientific research.
Witiiout rciilisiiig these characteristic eli'ments of" (ialtoiiH mi
of which I saw cluaely in alter yeaiu — fhf if.idt'r cunnot up]
trend of the present corresjjorKlence.

Clalton at once thouglit inowt carefully over Llio niatUT. I havt- \x'
nie the rough n<»te8 hf dratled before he replied. A few evfimts fVuin ii
notes emphasising my points may be made.

J'riifrtiiionihij) iij .><>riii/ .•^rurmticM.

N(H><I of It {)ri)fett.Hor of tho theory of utAtiatical niethodH and the application of them to
(letinito .social prohlenis.

Higher laws of Htatistics, a niatheniiitical hoad required... Professor will never get a clavi.
(Juery hh to Oxford at all? and i|Ui'ry a.s to a profes.sor? Ho will draw a hig salary for certain
but that is all you can Ix' Hure of

Oreiit dirticulty of interrogating Nature etc. aright. One wants a committee for dtHcuftsion.
Great lo.s.s of time liy false lines of quest,... A man like Moltke to plan campaign; not neces-

.sary that he hiins<'lf should work out re.su Its... that might lie done hy special grants The

hardest task is to frame questions. To ohtain men who shall l)e niasteni not slaves of stati.stics

and whose hearts shall U" set on the solution of social problem.s Each problem is a separate

and severe problem to lie attacked in its own way by such facts as are available. .

This is all true, but it is not the whole truth. I take it that the kernel
of Florence Nightingale's propo.sal was the foiuidation of a school of higher
statistics, and the production by it of minds keen on applying novel methotls
to social problems. It was not till much later that Galton fully realised this,
giving up his faith in committees and in work to be done by small grants for
essays. The chief factor in that change was, 1 believe, his friendship with a
professor of the best type, W. F. R. Weldon, whose energy, idealism and
enthusiasm, showed Galton how much could be achieved by the right
academic spirit.

Witli these precursory remarks I give Galton's reply.

42 Rutland Gate. Feb. 10, '91.

Dear Miss .N Kinri.Mi.M.K, I think most prvgress may lie made if I send the general ideii-s
that your letter suggested to me, rather than by delaying to make a list of subjects suitable for
inquiry; the rea-son why will be seen directly.

In the first place your object of obtaining a supply of men well versed in the appropriate
methods of statistics, who shall apply them to the social problems of the day, seems to me a
tiiost worthy one, and well deserving a great effort.

In addition to the problems you specify, such may Iw mentioneil a-s :

(I) Number of hours' work, and corre.sjwnding amount and value of output in different
occu|)ations, whether purely mi-chanical, partly mental or aesthetic.

(■J) The efiect of town life on the offspring, on their numl>er and on their health.

(3) What are the contributions of the several cla.sses — as to social (losition and as to resi-
dence— to the population of the next generation? Who in short are the proletariat?

In pursuance of what I have said above I will not multiply instances.

The real dirticulty in tiwiting thesi> and similar subjects is to specify exactly what is iiime<l
at in a way free from all ambiguity, and again in a way to which the statistics that are avail-
able will give an answer also free fi-oni ainbiguity. The dithculty of the physicist is to interrogate
Nature by fniming searching questions to her, and it is by this method, the applications of which
seem so .simple, aft<'r some philosopher has had the ingenuity to think of them, that all physical
science is forwaixletl. But there are very few men ca]>able of interrogating Nature aright; those

4*20 Life ami Letters of Francis GaUon

who are become the great men of science. Now theilitUculty in social Httttistic« is of exactly the
•ante kind, but greater. Therefore by no stniightforwuixl and expeditious method can the problems
in which you — and I may be permitteil to luld myself — are so much int<Test<><l, l)e solved. Each
ia a seiMkrate and difficult undertaking requiring a vast deal of thought and planning, just like
pUnning a campaign, (juetelet's own history is an example of this. His promises and hope^j
and hia achievements in 1835-6 remained tu gMu quo up to the last edition of his work
lPky$%qvs SociaU) in 1869. He achieved nothing Imrdly of real value in all tho.se 33 years'.
So again Buckle, who starttnl with a flourish of trumi)ct,s in the first chiipter of his lUnUiry of
Civilitatioti, did next to nothing Ijeyond o few flashy applications that have nircly sUxkI aft^-r-
ontMSim.

The way in which your object might best be attained requires, I think:

(1) A man (or men) conversant with the methods, and especially the higher method*, of
■tatuUcs.

(2) Conversant with the existing statistical data.

(3) With his heart directed towards the solution, one by one, of such parts of such of your
problems as he can, after much thought, see his way to attack successfully.

(4) Proportioning his lalwur so as to stop short when he has reached a fairly near approxi-
mative result, and not to waste himself in tigure.s in order t<} procure a slightly closer approxi-
mation. In short he must be the master and not the slave of his statistics. The waste of efibrt
by statisticians seems appalling. (I know it is so in meteorological statistics.)

How to get all this? I gather that you have in view the establishment of a Profcs.soi"shi|i
or Readership at Oxford. Before youjuc your mind in that direction or in that of Cambridge,
I should like to tell you by way of warning the experience our Geographical Society has hiuJ
in doing the same for Geography in the two Universities. I happen to have l)een closely con-
nected with the movement and am indeed going down to Cambridge next week to see if the
dismal want of success of our Reader there can be obviated. The result of very much inquiry
has been, that unless the subject on which a Professor lectures has a place in the examinations
he will get no class at all. His position will be that of a salaried sinecurist, which is proverbially
not conducive to activity. Still, he would have leisure and personally would have interest in
his work, and if only a Reader, is removable after 5 years. A professor is permanent. He would
live in much isolation at Oxford as far as his own subject is concerned, for all the main interests
of the place are scholastic, and many of them are rather petty. It occurs to me that perhaps as
good a way as any might be to found a profes-sorship at the Koyal Institution in London, and
to require a yearly course of lectures. The Royal Institution audienct^ is just the sort to stimu-
late on the one hand and to curb the vagaries of the inquirer on the other. It is a mixture of
some of the ablest philosophers, of many persons of wide social interests and of the general public.
The existing professors are all men of the highest ability in their .several lines : Lord Uaylcigh
in Physics, Dewar in Chemistry, Victor Horsley in Biology. If a Professorship in Social
Statistics could be established there on the same basis as those mentioned, it would have to be
nominally renewed each year up to five years' (I think) tenure. Then the re-election is for
another (practically) .5 years. The cost is, / think, alwut £300 to jCiOO a year, not more.
I'ray excuse my impertinence if you think it such, in venturing to suggest, but my only object
is to show what s«'ems to me to be the best direction of action. I think Ijondon would lie by
far the best residence for an inquirer into social statistics. Believe me, Very faithfully yours,
Francis Galtom.

Looking back after tliiity years one is comjielled to think that Florence
Nightingale's scheme, if it could have been carried out, was essentially better
than F'rancis Galton's. How could a school of trained applied statisticians have
been crejited by six lectures a year at the Royal Institution ; that institute has
a most valuable platform for announcing in a jwpular way the results of recent
research, but it is not an academic centre for training enthusiastic young

' I venture to think that this is far too sweeping, it overlooks not only what Quetelct
achieved in organising otiicial statistics in Belgium, but his great work in unifying international
statistics.

rnrmficni tnrettnffan&nit

minds to a new departure in science. The very names mentioned by Gulton
are those of men who hud Iniconu' famoiis for raseurch in tlieir own lines
heforc thi'y Ix'ciime "profeRsors" at the Iloyal Institution, of men, whose
means of support did not depend on timt mstitution. Looking round the
possihh^ field of candidatew in 18'J1 what man was there who would have
I'uHilled the same conditions in statistical science as these men in their
respective branches? There was only one man — Galton himself — and it is
fpiitc certain that he had not that man in view. And also that, if the endow-
ment had Ikh^u made, and othei-s ha<l suggested him, he would have refused
the post. It could have contributed nothing to his influence or research
activity, and would have curtailed his freedom in a way wholly distasttiful
to him. There is small doubt that Florence Nightingale's plan of a pro-
fessorship round which a school of young enthusitists might be develoj)ed
w{is the wiser, if li«s showy j)olicy '. Hetween fJalton's letters of February 10
and March 15, a brief note written by him on February 19 —

"it would givo me pleasure to call and talk over the scheme when you feel disposed. The mora
I think of it the more important it strikes me to be" —

indicates that the discussion had lieon continued l)y iiiiir\it'u. i>iiriiig this
or a later meeting Florence Nightingale must have emphiisise<l the imi)ortance
of a "school of youngish men." But Galton did not surrender his Royal
In.stitution lectureship, or his advisory committee, or his essayists. Writuig
on March 15, 18!»1, he says:

With reference to your scheme, I have not been idle but have made some few inquiries; of
course withholding your name. I think the net result is this:

(a) Lectureship or Professorship at the Royal Institution with the duty of giving at least
six lectures a your iind writing a paper.

(A) A studentship, prize or schohirship at Oxford or Cambridge.

(c) A regular Professorship somewhere. Query in I^ndon.

(d) Endowment of a Course of Annual Lectures — like the Hibbert Lectures — at some great
centre. Query in Ix>ndon.

The selection between these would depend much on the funds disposable eventually.

There is no doubt that a small body of youngish men inspired with a conmion enthusiasm
would do incomparably more than any endowment can ensure. One is often in despair at the
thought of how little money can secure in the way of original work. The enthusiasm I mean
is not that which is fed by public notice or high patronage, but by the intelligent kindly interest
and prompt appreciation of a very few capable and honoureil people like yourself of whatever
really gcKvi work may lx> done. In short one wants a school of inquirers, having a nucleus of
a few able and single-minded persons, not distracted by too many other interests, to originate
and maintain the enthusiasm of their fellows and co-adjutors.

Then again some journal suitable for receiving such memoirs, long or short as the case may
be, is a desideratum, as well as means of discussing them. This raises the question whether
the .Statistical Society might not appropriately be the Ixxly, in whose hands the endowment
might Ixj placed, in order to forward your object under the best attainable safeguards. Most
statisticians Ixjlong to it, and a suitiible committee of them might be trusted.

I will t»ike Ihe chance of finding you at home about !) to-morrow (Monday) unless I receive
a card to the contrary. Very faithfully yours, Francis Galton.

' An energetic professor would very soon have conipelled even Oxfonl or Cambridge to
grunt degrt>es on the l>asis of ".schcK)ls" or triposes in statistics, and I do not des{^iair of such a
future after the full admis.siou of women to Oxford, and the extreme difficulty, even for a
Cambridge ilon, to detect any feminist push in a proposal to graduate in statistics!

6a— 3

422 Life and Letters of Francis Gait on

It is stmn^e that Galton did not gi"afl)» that of his four alternatives (c),
Florence Nightingale's own suggestion, wiia the sole one that could lead to a
sc1kk)1 of "enthusiastic youngish men," and that even such young men could
not do their work in t^e spare moments of other employments ; it \va« not
oidy that they would need a lejuler, but they would need a livelihood. How
strangely ditferent the development of modern statistics might have been,
had Galton confined himself solely to Florence Nightingale's projxtsal of a
professorship and the creation of a school of social statistics or as she later
headed mnnc of her letters "Applied Statistics"! Boldly to have said we
need X50,000 or £60,000 to carry out a real scheme would have been the
wisest policy. Can we between us and with the aid of others who realise
our standpoint induce the public to see the importjince of the wlu)le matter,
and aid in such an endowment? Instead of appealing to the enthusiasm
that a big scheme might have raised, Galton drew up a memorandum to l)e
sent round to a number of prominent sUitisticians iusking their advice a.s to
the disposal of a sum of £4000 available to further the scientific study of
social problems from a statistical point of view. He stated that a plan had
provisionally commended itself for the distribution of throe hundred pounds
m honoraria of £50 each to a few selected writers, who should severally draw
up a list of what seemed to them to be the most feasible problems in the
branch of inquiry with which they were familiar.

"It would be their part to think out and to draw up reasonable plans of campaign, specifying
the available data now in existence, and such other data as would be required, and which at
dw same time might be procured without serious ditiiculty."

The simultaneous direction of these six highly competent pereons to
different branches of the same scheme would, Galton thought, greatly assist
in its inauguration and drawing public attention to its importance.

The fundamental suggestion then made for the remainder of the endow-
ment was that of the lloyal Institution lectureship. There is no evidence
that this memorandum was ever issued, or received Florence Nightingale's
approval. Indeed some of the sentences in later letters seem to suggest that
it did not. She writes in a letter of April 19 (1891) with regard to the
subjects of the essays :

"I would only suggest that the statistics on business which the Statistical Society so often
and K) wisely publishes are not quite the sort of thing, nor are Hygiene and Sanitation
proper, for which also there is already much large machinery, official and unofticial. And I
woald ask : Would 'the matters that affect a large part of the community' include such subjects
aa ao prem on my mind, and to which you have so generously given a home?"

and then she reiterates the headings of the suggested topics of her fii-st
communication. Again, in a letter of a few days earlier evidently referring
to the leaders of the Statistical Society whom Galton proposed to consult :

"Mr Oiffen, I suppone, is a bright pai-ticular star, but not in my line of business — that of
iDoral sanitation. Nor Sir J. Farrer. Also they are not your 'youngish men' whom you so
wiiely and so well prf)pf)se to collect and educate."

It is not of importance for us now to know how far Galton's proposals
failed to satisfy Florence Nightingale, or how far further examination of
••(•orMitiiif [)<iH>*iliiIiti(«8 on her own side cooled her ardour.

HV ^ Sltithtical III ifenlu/adom ^ 423

r III IH'.n a Demogitipliic CongreHs was to meet in London and Galton
sujr^cHtt'd tliat 11 memoir sliotild bt' read l)efor(! the Congress, if ;

uiidiT Miss Nightingale's name, urging tlie more Hystematic collt'ci: i

utiHsation of demographic statistics, with a view to applying them to the
solution of social problems. It is not clear from the remaining letters
whether Florence Nightingale, while approving of this scheme, was un-
willing that her name should be associated with it; still she wax very
desirous that her three or four problems should be especially mentioned, and
remained willing to sulwcribe towanls honoraria for tlie proposed essjiys. On
April 21 Galton sent another letter, enclosing a memorandum, which wiis
to be circulated to "half a dozen or so eminent authorities" tisking about
precise subjects and persons. This memorandum runs :

Tt is desired to pronioto Statifttical Inquiry into the efficiency of legislative acta, intended
to promote the welM>t>ing of liir^v cliiases.

With tliis object in view it is proposed during the prestint yt-ar to offer X50 to £7t> in
roiiiuncration for eai'h of two or three essays, stwenilly referring to 8elect<xl branches of any
of the following subjects: (i) Efeiird School P^lucation, (ii) Treatment of the Criminal Classes,
espx;ially of iKjy-offenders, (iii) Kffect of Poor-Law and Workhouses, whether depauperising
or not.

A statement or discussion is desired in each essay of the nature and value of the statistical
information now accessible, and of such other information as exists in an unpublished form, and
again of such as has not yet been collecte<i but which might apparently tx; procured without
serious difficulty. It is then expecte<l that the writer would discuss the ways in which these
data should be treated so as to lead to sound and practically important conclusions with the
minimum of difficulty.

Should the n'sults of this first attempt be encouraging, it is proposed to follow it up by
further action in future yeai-s, perhaps of a wider character.

Galton's letter appears to have remained a month unanswered. The
original proposal' had shrunk to comparative insignificance, and it is little
wonder that there wa.s no enthusiasm for it in its final form. On May 23,
1891, Florence Nightingale wrote apologising for her delay — "I can only
sum up my apologies in: how good you have been and how bad I." She
returned Galton's memorandum initialed and asked him to send it to the
eminent authorities he might select. F'ive days later Galton replied that to
his sorrow he must say that the season was too far advanced for him to
attempt to carry through the preliminaries with hope of success :

"You would neces-sjirily and naturally have to be consulted at each important stage, tinancial
arrangements would have to be made and there is not now time for doing all this Ixifore the
vacation l)egins and people, especially those of the Universities, scatter. I therefore ani'obliged
to desist for the present at least — The more I think of it the more convinced I am that the
assurance in some form of a continuation of these awards or other form of endowment would
bo an importnnt element of suoces.s."

' As drawn up by Francis Galton and corrected by Florence Nightingale evidently at their
first interview this ran :

is desirous of founding a profes.sorahip of statistics, to be called by the name of

the Professorship of Statistics, for promoting by means of lectures or otherwise the

cultivation and improvement of statistical science, and especially its practical application to
social problems.

424 Life and Letters of Fraud)* G'a/fon

A last brief letter closes the correspondence:

10 South Strkkt, Park Lakk, W. June 13, '91.

StiUislical Inquiry Entat/s.

Mv Drak Sim, 1 Miiniwfully ncknowlwlge your just award thiit tlio season is now Urn far
•dvanoed for you to altt-nipt to carry out the pn-liiniiiarit's. I am only liopfl that whi-n the
Tmoations an* over 1 may still a|i}M>Hl tu your wiMloin. You liavc U't'ii more than kind. And
no one could do for the matter wliat you would. I trust your Dfmogra|)hy is making favourable
I am ever yours jfratcfully, Flokenck Niohtinoalk.

One Clin hut rej^ret tliis coiichision to wliat niif^Iit have been a p;reat
success, the reahsjition of an ideal common to two of the most remarkable
minds of the nineteenth century. They were both "passionate statisticians,"
lK)th saw a {jreat need — a need which still largely e.xists — and l>oth had
shown themselves capable of carrying great enterprises to successful con-
clusions. Yet somehow Francis Galton seemed to overlook the very kernel
of Florence Nightingale's schenie, and the whole vanished in a trivial essay
project. Yet the correspondence was, I believe, not without influence on
Galton himself, and probably contributed not a little to guide him con-
sciously or unconsciously when he came to make his own foundation in linking
it up with a school of statistical training. An additional twenty years demon-
strated to him not only the futility of advisory committees, but how little
in the way of research could be achieved by the offer of small monetary prizes.

Something would certainly have failed in this chapter, if we had Ijeen
unable to show even this slender link between the master builder of the
modern theory of statistics and the "Passionate Statistician" whose mind
had been so deeply stirred by his greatest forerunner, Quetelet:

"I might have doue it for you. So it seems:
Perhaps not. All is as God over-rules.
Besides, incentives come from the soul's self,
The rest avail not."

PLATE UV

SIK KKAXCIS GALTON

1910

From a sketch by his niece, Mrs. Ellis

425

I

Note illustrating Francis Galton'a Viewn on lieligion.

I found the following remarks in Francis Galton's handwriting among
material collected for a new edition of Imiuiriex into Human Faculty. It«
bearing on what has l)een said on pj*. 257, *J82,and in the footnote, p. 102 will
be obvious. The date of the manuscript must Ix* alxiut IH'J'J.

Probably every one lia« at some time ha<l the feeling that if a dearly loved parent were taken
fmiii liiiii, the jjrirf and lonuliness after the l<xs.s would Im- iiisujipurtable; yet parents die, and
their children, after a burst of poignant grief, recover tlieiiiselves and survive, and numt jRTSons
of middle age an? orphanit, leading happy lives full of int*rre«t«, and niellowetl rather than
sadileiu^l by recollections of the past. The early loves of men and women are intense ; they are
wholly bound up in one tmother and the word.s 'for ever' and the like are the stock expressions
of their phra.seology, but how transient in many cases are these di.spositions. The mind is not
wholly depentlent on it^ anchorage to any one given sentiment; if it l)e cut adrift, at leaat in
early life, after a short while new interests will arise, to which it will nxwr itself as securely as
before. 'I'he sense of necessary dep-ndence on any given sentiment iniiy be very strong, but its
reality is belied by the experience of what daily occurs around us. Thus if a suspicion were
lodged in the mind of a fervent Roman Catholic that the Virgin Mary exercised no protective
power over him, the dreiul lest that suspicion should grow into a conviction woidd l)e a far worse
terror to him than the anticipation of any earthly orphanage ; yet Protestants holding that view
lead lives as calm as those of the Catholics. Similarly, the thought to the Christian of being
orphaned of Christ is no less horrible; but Jews and Unitarian.s some of high position in s<K'iety,
and others, philosophers and men of letters, having no Intlief in the incarnation and interce^isory
[lowers of Christ, live and die as contentedly as Christians. So again, the thought of Ijeing
orphaned of the paternal guidaiico of a being having the peculiar attributes of the Jewish
Jehovah, would give a terrible shock to many, yet it is notorious that the majority of thoughtful
Germans and numerous English Agnostics, whose views on other subjects are treatiti with
general respect and who lead well balanced and contented lives, do not entertain that l>elief.
It is astonishing how devoid of sympathetic intelligence most men are. They are afraid to face
the fact that ginxl and able men disjigree fundamentally on the elements of religious doctrine,
and that therefori! no certainty can be claimwl for a?iy one of these doctrines. At the best they
are only persuasions.

CAMBBinOE: PRINTKD BT

W. t£WtR

AT THE CNIVBRBITT PRS8S

.^rf^E ONTA ,1^ n43TITUT:£
FOR STUnir-S J >J SU^CATION

ll"

T TORONTO. CA'^MpA

111' f.<i

.fN

The R.V^B. Jackson

Ubrarv
OISE

£ r\ • ri~ •

■/

.^^'■L

2614.

Pearson.

The Life. Letters*. I^^^ours Of