Sir Francis Galton, FRS (; 16 February 1822
– 17 January 1911) was an English Victorian
era statistician, progressive, polymath, sociologist,
psychologist, anthropologist, eugenicist,
tropical explorer, geographer, inventor, meteorologist,
proto-geneticist, and psychometrician. He
was knighted in 1909.
Galton produced over 340 papers and books.
He also created the statistical concept of
correlation and widely promoted regression
toward the mean. He was the first to apply
statistical methods to the study of human
differences and inheritance of intelligence,
and introduced the use of questionnaires and
surveys for collecting data on human communities,
which he needed for genealogical and biographical
works and for his anthropometric studies.
He was a pioneer in eugenics, coining the
term itself and the phrase "nature versus
nurture". His book Hereditary Genius (1869)
was the first social scientific attempt to
study genius and greatness.As an investigator
of the human mind, he founded psychometrics
(the science of measuring mental faculties)
and differential psychology and the lexical
hypothesis of personality. He devised a method
for classifying fingerprints that proved useful
in forensic science. He also conducted research
on the power of prayer, concluding it had
none by its null effects on the longevity
of those prayed for. His quest for the scientific
principles of diverse phenomena extended even
to the optimal method for making tea.As the
initiator of scientific meteorology, he devised
the first weather map, proposed a theory of
anticyclones, and was the first to establish
a complete record of short-term climatic phenomena
on a European scale. He also invented the
Galton Whistle for testing differential hearing
ability. He was Charles Darwin's half-cousin.
== Early life ==
Galton was born at "The Larches", a large
house in the Sparkbrook area of Birmingham,
England, built on the site of "Fair Hill",
the former home of Joseph Priestley, which
the botanist William Withering had renamed.
He was Charles Darwin's half-cousin, sharing
the common grandparent Erasmus Darwin. His
father was Samuel Tertius Galton, son of Samuel
"John" Galton. The Galtons were Quaker gun-manufacturers
and bankers, while the Darwins were involved
in medicine and science.
He was cousin of Douglas Strutt Galton and
half-cousin of Charles Darwin. Both families
had Fellows of the Royal Society and members
who loved to invent in their spare time. Both
Erasmus Darwin and Samuel Galton were founding
members of the Lunar Society of Birmingham,
which included Boulton, Watt, Wedgwood, Priestley,
Edgeworth. Both families were known for their
literary talent. Erasmus Darwin composed lengthy
technical treatises in verse. Galton's aunt
Mary Anne Galton wrote on aesthetics and religion,
and her autobiography detailed the environment
of her childhood populated by Lunar Society
members.
Galton was a child prodigy – he was reading
by the age of two; at age five he knew some
Greek, Latin and long division, and by the
age of six he had moved on to adult books,
including Shakespeare for pleasure, and poetry,
which he quoted at length. Later in life,
Galton proposed a connection between genius
and insanity based on his own experience:Men
who leave their mark on the world are very
often those who, being gifted and full of
nervous power, are at the same time haunted
and driven by a dominant idea, and are therefore
within a measurable distance of insanity.Galton
attended King Edward's School, Birmingham,
but chafed at the narrow classical curriculum
and left at 16. His parents pressed him to
enter the medical profession, and he studied
for two years at Birmingham General Hospital
and King's College London Medical School.
He followed this up with mathematical studies
at Trinity College, University of Cambridge,
from 1840 to early 1844.According to the records
of the United Grand Lodge of England, it was
in February 1844 that Galton became a freemason
at the Scientific lodge, held at the Red Lion
Inn in Cambridge, progressing through the
three masonic degrees: Apprentice, 5 February
1844; Fellow Craft, 11 March 1844; Master
Mason, 13 May 1844. A note in the record states:
"Francis Galton Trinity College student, gained
his certificate 13 March 1845". One of Galton's
masonic certificates from Scientific lodge
can be found among his papers at University
College, London.A nervous breakdown prevented
Galton's intent to try for honours. He elected
instead to take a "poll" (pass) B.A. degree,
like his half-cousin Charles Darwin. (Following
the Cambridge custom, he was awarded an M.A.
without further study, in 1847.) He briefly
resumed his medical studies but the death
of his father in 1844 left him emotionally
destitute, though financially independent,
and he terminated his medical studies entirely,
turning to foreign travel, sport and technical
invention.
In his early years Galton was an enthusiastic
traveller, and made a notable solo trip through
Eastern Europe to Constantinople, before going
up to Cambridge. In 1845 and 1846, he went
to Egypt and travelled up the Nile to Khartoum
in the Sudan, and from there to Beirut, Damascus
and down the Jordan.
In 1850 he joined the Royal Geographical Society,
and over the next two years mounted a long
and difficult expedition into then little-known
South West Africa (now Namibia). He wrote
a book on his experience, "Narrative of an
Explorer in Tropical South Africa". He was
awarded the Royal Geographical Society's Founder's
Gold Medal in 1853 and the Silver Medal of
the French Geographical Society for his pioneering
cartographic survey of the region. This established
his reputation as a geographer and explorer.
He proceeded to write the best-selling The
Art of Travel, a handbook of practical advice
for the Victorian on the move, which went
through many editions and is still in print.
In January 1853, Galton met Louisa Jane Butler
(1822–1897) at his neighbour's home and
they were married on 1 August 1853. The union
of 43 years proved childless.
== Middle years ==
Galton was a polymath who made important contributions
in many fields of science, including meteorology
(the anti-cyclone and the first popular weather
maps), statistics (regression and correlation),
psychology (synaesthesia), biology (the nature
and mechanism of heredity), and criminology
(fingerprints). Much of this was influenced
by his penchant for counting or measuring.
Galton prepared the first weather map published
in The Times (1 April 1875, showing the weather
from the previous day, 31 March), now a standard
feature in newspapers worldwide.He became
very active in the British Association for
the Advancement of Science, presenting many
papers on a wide variety of topics at its
meetings from 1858 to 1899. He was the general
secretary from 1863 to 1867, president of
the Geographical section in 1867 and 1872,
and president of the Anthropological Section
in 1877 and 1885. He was active on the council
of the Royal Geographical Society for over
forty years, in various committees of the
Royal Society, and on the Meteorological Council.
James McKeen Cattell, a student of Wilhelm
Wundt who had been reading Galton's articles,
decided he wanted to study under him. He eventually
built a professional relationship with Galton,
measuring subjects and working together on
research.In 1888, Galton established a lab
in the science galleries of the South Kensington
Museum. In Galton's lab, participants could
be measured to gain knowledge of their strengths
and weaknesses. Galton also used these data
for his own research. He would typically charge
people a small fee for his services.In 1873,
Galton wrote a controversial letter to the
Times titled 'Africa for the Chinese', where
he argued that the Chinese, as a race capable
of high civilisation and only temporarily
stunted by the recent failures of Chinese
dynasties, should be encouraged to immigrate
to Africa and displace the supposedly inferior
aboriginal blacks.
== Heredity and eugenics ==
The publication by his cousin Charles Darwin
of The Origin of Species in 1859 was an event
that changed Galton's life (Forrest 1974,
p. 84). He came to be gripped by the work,
especially the first chapter on "Variation
under Domestication", concerning animal breeding.
Galton devoted much of the rest of his life
to exploring variation in human populations
and its implications, at which Darwin had
only hinted. In doing so, he established a
research program which embraced multiple aspects
of human variation, from mental characteristics
to height; from facial images to fingerprint
patterns. This required inventing novel measures
of traits, devising large-scale collection
of data using those measures, and in the end,
the discovery of new statistical techniques
for describing and understanding the data.
Galton was interested at first in the question
of whether human ability was hereditary, and
proposed to count the number of the relatives
of various degrees of eminent men. If the
qualities were hereditary, he reasoned, there
should be more eminent men among the relatives
than among the general population. To test
this, he invented the methods of historiometry.
Galton obtained extensive data from a broad
range of biographical sources which he tabulated
and compared in various ways. This pioneering
work was described in detail in his book Hereditary
Genius in 1869. Here he showed, among other
things, that the numbers of eminent relatives
dropped off when going from the first degree
to the second degree relatives, and from the
second degree to the third. He took this as
evidence of the inheritance of abilities.
Galton recognised the limitations of his methods
in these two works, and believed the question
could be better studied by comparisons of
twins. His method envisaged testing to see
if twins who were similar at birth diverged
in dissimilar environments, and whether twins
dissimilar at birth converged when reared
in similar environments. He again used the
method of questionnaires to gather various
sorts of data, which were tabulated and described
in a paper The history of twins in 1875. In
so doing he anticipated the modern field of
behaviour genetics, which relies heavily on
twin studies. He concluded that the evidence
favoured nature rather than nurture. He also
proposed adoption studies, including trans-racial
adoption studies, to separate the effects
of heredity and environment.
Galton recognised that cultural circumstances
influenced the capability of a civilisation's
citizens, and their reproductive success.
In Hereditary Genius, he envisaged a situation
conducive to resilient and enduring civilisation
as follows:
The best form of civilization in respect to
the improvement of the race, would be one
in which society was not costly; where incomes
were chiefly 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 life, by the liberal help of
the exhibitions and scholarships which he
had gained in his early youth; where marriage
was held in as high honour as in ancient Jewish
times; where the pride of race was encouraged
(of course I do not refer to the nonsensical
sentiment of the present day, that goes under
that name); where the weak could find a welcome
and a refuge in celibate monasteries or sisterhoods,
and lastly, where the better sort of emigrants
and refugees from other lands were invited
and welcomed, and their descendants naturalised.
(p. 362)
Galton invented the term eugenics in 1883
and set down many of his observations and
conclusions in a book, Inquiries into Human
Faculty and Its Development. He believed that
a scheme of 'marks' for family merit should
be defined, and early marriage between families
of high rank be encouraged by provision of
monetary incentives. He pointed out some of
the tendencies in British society, such as
the late marriages of eminent people, and
the paucity of their children, which he thought
were dysgenic. He advocated encouraging eugenic
marriages by supplying able couples with incentives
to have children. On 29 October 1901, Galton
chose to address eugenic issues when he delivered
the second Huxley lecture at the Royal Anthropological
Institute.The Eugenics Review, the journal
of the Eugenics Education Society, commenced
publication in 1909. Galton, the Honorary
President of the society, wrote the foreword
for the first volume. The First International
Congress of Eugenics was held in July 1912.
Winston Churchill and Carls Elliot were among
the attendees.
== Model for population stability ==
Galton's formulation of regression and its
link to the bivariate normal distribution
can be traced to his attempts at developing
a mathematical model for population stability.
Although Galton's first attempt to study Darwinian
questions, Hereditary Genius, generated little
enthusiasm at the time, the text led to his
further studies in the 1870s concerning the
inheritance of physical traits. This text
contains some crude notions of the concept
of regression, described in a qualitative
matter. For example, he wrote of dogs: "If
a man breeds from strong, well-shaped dogs,
but of mixed pedigree, the puppies will be
sometimes, but rarely, the equals of their
parents. they will commonly be of a mongrel,
nondescript type, because ancestral peculiarities
are apt to crop out in the offspring." This
notion created a problem for Galton, as he
could not reconcile the tendency of a population
to maintain a normal distribution of traits
from generation to generation with the notion
of inheritance. It seemed that a large number
of factors operated independently on offspring,
leading to the normal distribution of a trait
in each generation. However, this provided
no explanation as to how a parent can have
a significant impact on his offspring, which
was the basis of inheritance.Galton's solution
to this problem was presented in his Presidential
Address at the September 1885 meeting of the
British Association for the Advancement of
Science, as he was serving at the time as
President of Section H: Anthropology. The
address was published in Nature, and Galton
further developed the theory in "Regression
toward mediocrity in hereditary stature" and
"Hereditary Stature." An elaboration of this
theory was published in 1889 in Natural Inheritance.
There were three key developments that helped
Galton develop this theory: the development
of the law of error in 1874-1875, the formulation
of an empirical law of reversion in 1877,
and the development of a mathematical framework
encompassing regression using human population
data during 1885.Galton's development of the
law of regression to the mean, or reversion,
was due to insights from the quincunx and
his studies of sweet peas. While Galton had
previously invented the quincunx prior to
February 1874, the 1877 version of the quincunx
had a new feature that helped Galton demonstrate
that a normal mixture of normal distributions
is also normal. Galton demonstrated this using
a new version of quincunx, adding chutes to
the apparatus to represent reversion. When
the pellets passed through the curved chutes
(representing reversion) and then the pins
(representing family variability), the result
was a stable population. On Friday 19 February
1877 Galton gave a lecture entitled "Typical
Laws of Heredity" at the Royal Institution
in London. In this lecture, he posed that
there must a counteracting force to maintain
population stability. However, this model
required a much larger degree of intergenerational
natural selection than was plausible.In 1875,
Galton started growing sweet peas and addressed
the Royal Institution on his findings on 9
February 1877. He found that each group of
progeny seeds followed a normal curve, and
the curves were equally disperse. Each group
was not centered about the parent's weight,
but rather at a weight closer to the population
average. Galton called this reversion, as
every progeny group was distributed at a value
that was closer to the population average
than the parent. The deviation from the population
average was in the same direction, but the
magnitude of the deviation was only one-third
as large. In doing so, Galton demonstrated
that there was variability among each of the
families, yet the families combined to produce
a stable, normally distributed population.
When Galton addressed the British association
for the advancement of science in 1885, he
said of his investigation of sweet peas, "I
was then blind to what I now perceive to be
the simple explanation of the phenomenon."Galton
was able to further his notion of regression
by collecting and analyzing data on human
stature. Galton asked for help of mathematician
J. Hamilton Dickson in investigating the geometric
relationship of the data. He determined that
the regression coefficient did not ensure
population stability by chance, but rather
that the regression coefficient, conditional
variance, and population were interdependent
quantities related by a simple equation. Thus
Galton identified that the linearity of regression
was not coincidental but rather was a necessary
consequence of population stability.
The model for population stability resulted
in Galton's formulation of the Law of Ancestral
Heredity. This law, which was published in
Natural Inheritance, states that the two parents
of an offspring jointly contribute one half
of an offspring's heritage, while the other,
more-removed ancestors constitute a smaller
proportion of the offspring's heritage. Galton
viewed reversion as a spring, that when stretched,
would return the distribution of traits back
to the normal distribution. He concluded that
evolution would have to occur via discontinuous
steps, as reversion would neutralize any incremental
steps. When Mendel's principles were rediscovered
in 1900, this resulted in a fierce battle
between the followers of Galton's Law of Ancestral
Heredity, the biometricians, and those who
advocated Mendel's principles.
== Empirical test of pangenesis and Lamarckism
==
Galton conducted wide-ranging inquiries into
heredity which led him to challenge Charles
Darwin's hypothesis of pangenesis. Darwin
had proposed as part of this model that certain
particles, which he called "gemmules" moved
throughout the body and were also responsible
for the inheritance of acquired characteristics.
Galton, in consultation with Darwin, set out
to see if they were transported in the blood.
In a long series of experiments in 1869 to
1871, he transfused the blood between dissimilar
breeds of rabbits, and examined the features
of their offspring. He found no evidence of
characters transmitted in the transfused blood.Darwin
challenged the validity of Galton's experiment,
giving his reasons in an article published
in Nature where he wrote:
Now, in the chapter on Pangenesis in my Variation
of Animals and Plants under Domestication
I have not said one word about the blood,
or about any fluid proper to any circulating
system. It is, indeed, obvious that the presence
of gemmules in the blood can form no necessary
part of my hypothesis; 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,
reproduction, inheritance, &c., are so closely
similar throughout the whole organic kingdom,
that the means by which the gemmules (assuming
for the moment their existence) are diffused
through the body, would probably be the same
in all beings; therefore the means can hardly
be diffusion through the blood. Nevertheless,
when I first heard of Mr. Galton's experiments,
I did not sufficiently reflect on the subject,
and saw not the difficulty of believing in
the presence of gemmules in the blood.
Galton explicitly rejected the idea of the
inheritance of acquired characteristics (Lamarckism),
and was an early proponent of "hard heredity"
through selection alone. He came close to
rediscovering Mendel's particulate theory
of inheritance, but was prevented from making
the final breakthrough in this regard because
of his focus on continuous, rather than discrete,
traits (now known as polygenic traits). He
went on to found the biometric approach to
the study of heredity, distinguished by its
use of statistical techniques to study continuous
traits and population-scale aspects of heredity.
This approach was later taken up enthusiastically
by Karl Pearson and W.F.R. Weldon; together,
they founded the highly influential journal
Biometrika in 1901. (R.A. Fisher would later
show how the biometrical approach could be
reconciled with the Mendelian approach.) The
statistical techniques that Galton invented
(correlation, regression—see below) and
phenomena he established (regression to the
mean) formed the basis of the biometric approach
and are now essential tools in all the social
sciences.
== Anthropometric Laboratory at the 1884 International
Health Exhibition ==
In 1884, London hosted the International Health
Exhibition. This exhibition placed much emphasis
on highlighting Victorian developments in
sanitation and public health, and allowed
the nation to display its advanced public
health outreach, compared to other countries
at the time. Francis Galton took advantage
of this opportunity to set up his anthropometric
laboratory. He stated that the purpose of
this laboratory was to “show the public
the simplicity of the instruments and methods
by which the chief physical characteristics
of man may be measured and recorded.” The
laboratory was an interactive walk-through
in which physical characteristics such as
height, weight, and eyesight, would be measured
for each subject after payment of an admission
fee. Upon entering the laboratory, a subject
would visit the following stations in order.
First, they would fill out a form with personal
and family history (age, birthplace, marital
status, residence, and occupation), then visit
stations that recorded hair and eye color,
followed by the keenness, color-sense, and
depth perception of sight. Next, they would
examine the keenness, or relative acuteness,
of hearing and highest audible note of their
hearing followed by an examination of their
sense of touch. However, because the surrounding
area was noisy, the apparatus intended to
measure hearing was rendered ineffective by
the noise and echoes in the building. Their
breathing capacity would also be measured,
as well as their ability to throw a punch.
The next stations would examine strength of
both pulling and squeezing with both hands.
Lastly, subjects' heights in various positions
(sitting, standing, etc.) as well as arm span
and weight would be measured. One excluded
characteristic of interest was the size of
the head. Galton notes in his analysis that
this omission was mostly for practical reasons.
For instance, it would not be very accurate
and additionally it would require much time
for women to disassemble and reassemble their
hair and bonnets. The patrons would then be
given a souvenir containing all their biological
data, while Galton would also keep a copy
for future statistical research.
Although the laboratory did not employ any
revolutionary measurement techniques, it was
unique because of the simple logistics of
constructing such a demonstration within a
limited space and have it quickly and efficiently
be able to gather all the necessary data.
The laboratory itself was a see-through (lattice-walled)
fenced off gallery measuring 36 feet long
by 6 feet long. To collect data efficiently,
Galton had to make the process as simple as
possible for people to understand. As a result,
subjects were taken through the laboratory
in pairs so that explanations could be given
to two at a time, also in the hope that one
of the two would confidently take the initiative
to go through all the tests first, encouraging
the other. With this design, the total time
spent in the exhibit was fourteen minutes
for each pair.Galton states that the measurements
of human characteristics are useful for two
reasons. First, he states that measuring physical
characteristics is useful in order to ensure,
on a more domestic level, that children are
developing properly. A useful example he gives
for the practicality of these domestic measurements
is regularly checking a child's eyesight,
in order to correct any deficiencies early
on. The second use for the data from his anthropometric
laboratory is for statistical studies. He
comments on the usefulness of the collected
data to compare attributes across occupations,
residences, races, etc. The exhibit at the
health exhibition allowed Galton to collect
a large amount of raw data from which to conduct
further comparative studies. He had 9,337
respondents, each measured in 17 categories,
creating a rather comprehensive statistical
database.After the conclusion of the International
Health Exhibition, Galton used these data
to confirm in humans his theory of linear
regression, posed after studying sweet peas.
The accumulation of this human data allowed
him to observe the correlation between forearm
length and height, head width and head breadth,
and head length and height. With these observations
he was able to write “Co-relations and their
Measurements, chiefly from Anthropometric
Data". In this publication, Galton defined
what co-relation as a phenomenon that occurs
when "the variation of the one [variable]
is accompanied on the average by more or less
variation of the other, and in the same direction."
== 
Innovations in statistics and psychological
theory ==
=== Historiometry ===
The method used in Hereditary Genius has been
described as the first example of historiometry.
To bolster these results, and to attempt to
make a distinction between 'nature' and 'nurture'
(he was the first to apply this phrase to
the topic), he devised a questionnaire that
he sent out to 190 Fellows of the Royal Society.
He tabulated characteristics of their families,
such as birth order and the occupation and
race of their parents. He attempted to discover
whether their interest in science was 'innate'
or due to the encouragements of others. The
studies were published as a book, English
men of science: their nature and nurture,
in 1874. In the end, it promoted the nature
versus nurture question, though it did not
settle it, and provided some fascinating data
on the sociology of scientists of the time.
=== The lexical hypothesis ===
Sir Francis was the first scientist to recognise
what is now known as the lexical hypothesis.
This is the idea that the most salient and
socially relevant personality differences
in people's lives will eventually become encoded
into language. The hypothesis further suggests
that by sampling language, it is possible
to derive a comprehensive taxonomy of human
personality traits.
=== The questionnaire ===
Galton's inquiries into the mind involved
detailed recording of people's subjective
accounts of whether and how their minds dealt
with phenomena such as mental imagery. To
better elicit this information, he pioneered
the use of the questionnaire. In one study,
he asked his fellow members of the Royal Society
of London to describe mental images that they
experienced. In another, he collected in-depth
surveys from eminent scientists for a work
examining the effects of nature and nurture
on the propensity toward scientific thinking.
=== Variance and standard deviation ===
Core to any statistical analysis is the concept
that measurements vary: they have both a central
tendency, or mean, and a spread around this
central value, or variance. In the late 1860s,
Galton conceived of a measure to quantify
normal variation: the standard deviation.Galton
was a keen observer. In 1906, visiting a livestock
fair, he stumbled upon an intriguing contest.
An ox was on display, and the villagers were
invited to guess the animal's weight after
it was slaughtered and dressed. Nearly 800
participated, and Galton was able to study
their individual entries after the event.
Galton stated that "the middlemost estimate
expresses the vox populi, every other estimate
being condemned as too low or too high by
a majority of the voters", and reported this
value (the median, in terminology he himself
had introduced, but chose not to use on this
occasion) as 1,207 pounds. To his surprise,
this was within 0.8% of the weight measured
by the judges. Soon afterwards, in response
to an enquiry, he reported the mean of the
guesses as 1,197 pounds, but did not comment
on its improved accuracy. Recent archival
research has found some slips in transmitting
Galton's calculations to the original article
in Nature: the median was actually 1,208 pounds,
and the dressed weight of the ox 1,197 pounds,
so the mean estimate had zero error. James
Surowiecki uses this weight-judging competition
as his opening example: had he known the true
result, his conclusion on the wisdom of the
crowd would no doubt have been more strongly
expressed.
The same year, Galton suggested in a letter
to the journal Nature a better method of cutting
a round cake by avoiding making radial incisions.
=== Experimental derivation of the normal
distribution ===
Studying variation, Galton invented the quincunx,
a pachinko-like device also known as the bean
machine, as a tool for demonstrating the law
of error and the normal distribution.
=== Bivariate normal distribution ===
He also discovered the properties of the bivariate
normal distribution and its relationship to
regression analysis.
=== Correlation and regression ===
In 1846, the French physicist Auguste Bravais
(1811–1863) first developed what would become
the correlation coefficient. After examining
forearm and height measurements, Galton independently
rediscovered the concept of correlation in
1888 and demonstrated its application in the
study of heredity, anthropology, and psychology.
Galton's later statistical study of the probability
of extinction of surnames led to the concept
of Galton–Watson stochastic processes. This
is now a core of modern statistics and regression.
Galton invented the use of the regression
line and for the choice of r (for reversion
or regression) to represent the correlation
coefficient.In the 1870s and 1880s he was
a pioneer in the use of normal theory to fit
histograms and ogives to actual tabulated
data, much of which he collected himself:
for instance large samples of sibling and
parental height. Consideration of the results
from these empirical studies led to his further
insights into evolution, natural selection,
and regression to the mean.
=== Regression to mediocrity ===
Galton was the first to describe and explain
the common phenomenon of regression toward
the mean, which he first observed in his experiments
on the size of the seeds of successive generations
of sweet peas.
The conditions under which regression toward
the mean occurs depend on the way the term
is mathematically defined. Galton first observed
the phenomenon in the context of simple linear
regression of data points. Galton developed
the following model: pellets fall through
a quincunx or "bean machine" forming a normal
distribution centered directly under their
entrance point. These pellets could then be
released down into a second gallery (corresponding
to a second measurement occasion. Galton then
asked the reverse question "from where did
these pellets come?"
The answer was not "on average directly above".
Rather it was "on average, more towards the
middle", for the simple reason that there
were more pellets above it towards the middle
that could wander left than there were in
the left extreme that could wander to the
right, inwards (p. 477)
=== Theories of perception ===
Galton went beyond measurement and summary
to attempt to explain the phenomena he observed.
Among such developments, he proposed an early
theory of ranges of sound and hearing, and
collected large quantities of anthropometric
data from the public through his popular and
long-running Anthropometric Laboratory, which
he established in 1884, and where he studied
over 9,000 people. It was not until 1985 that
these data were analysed in their entirety.
=== Differential psychology ===
Galton's study of human abilities ultimately
led to the foundation of differential psychology
and the formulation of the first mental tests.
He was interested in measuring humans in every
way possible. This included measuring their
ability to make sensory discrimination which
he assumed was linked to intellectual prowess.
Galton suggested that individual differences
in general ability are reﬂected in performance
on relatively simple sensory capacities and
in speed of reaction to a stimulus, variables
that could be objectively measured by tests
of sensory discrimination and reaction
time. He also measured how quickly people
reacted which he later linked to internal
wiring which ultimately limited intelligence
ability. Throughout his research Galton assumed
that people who reacted faster were more intelligent
than others.
=== Composite photography ===
Galton also devised a technique called "composite
portraiture" (produced by superimposing multiple
photographic portraits of individuals' faces
registered on their eyes) to create an average
face (see averageness). In the 1990s, a hundred
years after his discovery, much psychological
research has examined the attractiveness of
these faces, an aspect that Galton had remarked
on in his original lecture. Others, including
Sigmund Freud in his work on dreams, picked
up Galton's suggestion that these composites
might represent a useful metaphor for an Ideal
type or a concept of a "natural kind" (see
Eleanor Rosch)—such as Jewish men, criminals,
patients with tuberculosis, etc.—onto the
same photographic plate, thereby yielding
a blended whole, or "composite", that he hoped
could generalise the facial appearance of
his subject into an "average" or "central
type". (See also entry Modern physiognomy
under Physiognomy).
This work began in the 1880s while the Jewish
scholar Joseph Jacobs studied anthropology
and statistics with Francis Galton. Jacobs
asked Galton to create a composite photograph
of a Jewish type. One of Jacobs' first publications
that used Galton's composite imagery was "The
Jewish Type, and Galton's Composite Photographs,"
Photographic News, 29, (24 April 1885): 268–269.
Galton hoped his technique would aid medical
diagnosis, and even criminology through the
identification of typical criminal faces.
However, his technique did not prove useful
and fell into disuse, although after much
work on it including by photographers Lewis
Hine and John L. Lovell and Arthur Batut.
== Fingerprints ==
In a Royal Institution paper in 1888 and three
books (Finger Prints, 1892; Decipherment of
Blurred Finger Prints, 1893; and Fingerprint
Directories, 1895), Galton estimated the probability
of two persons having the same fingerprint
and studied the heritability and racial differences
in fingerprints. He wrote about the technique
(inadvertently sparking a controversy between
Herschel and Faulds that was to last until
1917), identifying common pattern in fingerprints
and devising a classification system that
survives to this day.
The method of identifying criminals by their
fingerprints had been introduced in the 1860s
by Sir William James Herschel in India, and
their potential use in forensic work was first
proposed by Dr Henry Faulds in 1880, but Galton
was the first to place the study on a scientific
footing, which assisted its acceptance by
the courts. Galton pointed out that there
were specific types of fingerprint patterns.
He described and classified them into eight
broad categories: 1: plain arch, 2: tented
arch, 3: simple loop, 4: central pocket loop,
5: double loop, 6: lateral pocket loop, 7:
plain whorl, and 8: accidental.
== Final years ==
In an effort to reach a wider audience, Galton
worked on a novel entitled Kantsaywhere from
May until December 1910. The novel described
a utopia organised by a eugenic religion,
designed to breed fitter and smarter humans.
His unpublished notebooks show that this was
an expansion of material he had been composing
since at least 1901. He offered it to Methuen
for publication, but they showed little enthusiasm.
Galton wrote to his niece that it should be
either "smothered or superseded". His niece
appears to have burnt most of the novel, offended
by the love scenes, but large fragments survived,
and it was published online by University
College, London.Galton is buried in the family
tomb in the churchyard of St Michael and All
Angels, in the village of Claverdon, Warwickshire.
== Awards and influence ==
Over the course of his career Galton received
many awards, including the Copley Medal of
the Royal Society (1910). He received in 1853
the Founder's Medal, the highest award of
the Royal Geographical Society, for his explorations
and map-making of southwest Africa. He was
elected a member of the Athenaeum Club in
1855 and made a Fellow of the Royal Society
in 1860. His autobiography also lists:
Silver Medal, French Geographical Society
(1854)
Gold Medal of the Royal Society (1886)
Officier de l'Instruction Publique, France
(1891)
D.C.L. Oxford (1894)
Sc.D. (Honorary), Cambridge (1895)
Huxley Medal, Anthropological Institute (1901)
Elected Hon. Fellow Trinity College, Cambridge
(1902)
Darwin Medal, Royal Society (1902)
Linnean Society of London's Darwin–Wallace
Medal (1908)Galton was knighted in 1909. His
statistical heir Karl Pearson, first holder
of the Galton Chair of Eugenics at University
College, London (now Galton Chair of Genetics),
wrote a three-volume biography of Galton,
in four parts, after his death (Pearson & 1914,
1924, 1930). In the early days of IQ testing,
Lewis Terman estimated that Galton's childhood
IQ was about 200, based on the fact that he
consistently performed mentally at roughly
twice his chronological age (Forrest 1974).
(This follows the original definition of IQ
as mental age divided by chronological age,
rather than the modern definition based on
the standard distribution and standard deviation.)
The flowering plant genus Galtonia was named
after Galton.
== Major works ==
Galton, Francis (1853). Narrative of an Explorer
in Tropical South Africa. London.
Galton, F. (1869). Hereditary Genius. London:
Macmillan.
Galton, F (1883). Inquiries into Human Faculty
and Its Development. London: J.M. Dent & Company
Galton, F (1889). Natural Inheritance. London:
Macmillan.
== See also ==
A Large Attendance in the Antechamber, a play
about Galton
Darwin–Wedgwood family
Efficacy of prayer
Eugenics in the United States
Historiometry
Racial hygiene
