INVENTING BIOMETRY, INVENTING "MAN": BIOMETRIKA AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE HUMAN SCIENCES By JEFFREY C. BRAUTIGAM A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 1993 FOR MY PARENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS In the research and writing of this dissertation I have received valuable help of many different kinds from many different people. The chairman of my advisory committee. Professor Frederick Gregory, has been a mentor in the best sense of the word, insisting that my work meet the highest standards of scholarship, but willing to let that work take its own course. The lectures of Robert A. Hatch first drew me to the history of science. In the ensuing years he has simultaneously been mentor, colleague, and friend. Professor Betty Smocovitis gave me tremendous intellectual and moral support, as I struggled with issues in both the history and philosophy of biology. The distinctly Romantic character of the biometricians' historical narratives was first brought to my attention by Professor Eldon Turner, whose close readings of my text have been of enormous help. I received valuable help from Professor John Reiskind whose intellectual curiosity, which begins with spiders but ranges far into the intellectual history of different cultures, made his title of "external member" seem too limiting. If this work iii contains any valuable insights, they are the product of my interaction with these members of my advisory committee. Any weaknesses are doubtless the product of my failure to hear what they were saying. Sincerest thanks also go to other members of the history faculty who provided helpful criticism and advice. Professor Harry Paul read large portions of the early drafts of this work and often posed questions of the most poignant kind, asking, for example, "What is this chapter trying to be about?" The seminars and numerous reading and discussion groups led by Professor Susan Kent provided me with fresh intellectual stimulation at a time when I needed it most. I was also fortunate to receive valuable input from faculty members of other institutions. Professor Carolyn Malone of the Department of History at Georgia Southern University tolerated numerous intrusions, as I pestered her with questions about her views on issues ranging from class conflict in Victorian Britain to the problem of agency in historical writing. Professor Theodore Porter of the Department of History at the University of California, Los Angeles was kind enough to read, and offer valuable criticisms of. Chapter 6. My sincerest thanks to both of them. A most valuable and necessary form of support was provided by that special group of people whose iv . contributions blur the distinctions between the personal and the professional —my fellow graduate students. Without their constant support this work would never have come to fruition. Of the many individuals with whom I have had the pleasure of sharing the experience of graduate school, M. David Tegeder deserves special mentioning, thanks Pard' This work could not have been produced without the support of the staff members of the Department of History, particularly Allyson Butts and Betty Corwine, many thanks. Financial support for the long process that produced this work was provided by numerous teaching and research assistantships from the Department of History, a College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Humanities Fellowship, and a thoroughly enjoyable year of teaching in the Department of History at Georgia Southern University. Research work in the Karl Pearson Papers at University College London Library was funded through a generous grant from the National Science Foundation. I should like to thank University College London Library for permission to use the Pearson Papers, and the library's archivist Ms. Gillian Furlong and her assistant Ms. Susan Steadman for their kind assistance. I also wish to thank Kay Stokes for five years of love, patience, and support that made this process so much easier. And finally, I would like to acknowledge a v . debt, which can never be repaid, to my parents for the unwavering love and support that made all of this possible vi TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS iii LIST OF FIGURES ix ABSTRACT xi INTRODUCTION 1 Notes 14 CHAPTER 1. HISTORIANS TELL TALES 15 Biometry and the Journey to the Modern Synthesis 18 Biometry, Eugenics, and the Social Construction ofKnowledge 32 Notes 46 CHAPTER 2. A HISTORY OF ITS OWN? 52 The Research Institute 53 Biometrika 67 Biometricians 75 The Search for Identity 85 Notes 87 CHAPTER 3. THE IMPORTANCE OF HISTORY 93 Inheriting the Future: Pedigree, Legacy, and Context 93 Acguiring a Past Ill Contextualizing Particular Debates 123 Singing the Gospel in the Key of Progress 128 A Post-War Tune 138 A Lesser Dream Fulfilled: the End of History. 148 Notes 161 CHAPTER 4. THE BIOGRAPHICAL GESTURE: THE LIFE OF WELDON 168 vii The Problem of Evolution in Man 172 Transmutation Begun: On the Path of Science... 181 Transmutation Continued: on the Path of Biometry 184 Becoming a Biometrician: the Elimination of the Self 193 Finding the Way 205 The Equation of Objectivity 215 Notes 219 CHAPTER 5. SHIFTING SUBJECTS AND CHANGING OBJECTS: BIOMETRY IN THE HISTORY OF STATISTICAL THOUGHT 224 Probability and the Science of Society 224 Beginnings of the Biometric Approach 229 The New Science of Biometry 244 Statistics and the Production of Natural Objects 248 Notes 258 CHAPTER 6. REPRESENTING THE REAL: STATISTICS AND PHOTOGRAPHY AS SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE 266 The Potential of Photography 267 Photography and Statistics in the Name of Order 269 Authority by Association 280 Authorship and the Erasure of the Individual... 289 Shifting Expertise: the Historical Imperative.. 291 Constant Images and Changing Objects 294 Science, Knowledge, and Representation 308 Notes 311 CONCLUSIONS 315 Notes 321 BIBLIOGRAPHY 322 Manuscript Sources 322 Published Sources 322 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 334 viii " LIST OF FIGURES page Figure 1 . Frontispiece to Volume 1 of Biometrika, 1901-02 95 Figure 2. Photograph of Francis Gal ton. First frontispiece to Volume 2 of Biometrika , 1902-03 105 Figure 3. Sketch of Francis Galton. Second frontispiece to Volume 2 of Biometrika , 1902-03 106 Figure 4. Photograph and Signature of W.F.R. Weldon. Frontispiece to Volume 5 of Biometrika , 1906-07 114 Figure 5. Sketch of Karl Pearson, circa 1924. Published in Volume 28 of Biometrika, 1936 150 Figure 6. Photograph of Weldon, age 10. Published in Volume 5 of Biometrika, 1906-07 180 Figure 7. Examples from Weldon's sketch-book. Published in Volume 5 of Biometrika, 1906-07 191 Figure 8. Francis Galton 's Composite Photographs. Published in Inquiries into the Human Faculty and Its Development , 2nd edition, 1907 275 Figure 9. Photographs from "Measurements of Macedonian Men," Biometrika 21, 1929 283 Figure 10. Photographs from "Measurements of Macedonian Men," Biometrika 21, 1929 284 Figure 11. Photographs from "A Note on the Skin- Colour of the Crosses between Negro and White, Biometrika 6, 1908-09 286 ix " Figure 12. Photographs from "Anomalies of Pigmentation among Natives of Nyasaland, Biometrika 9, 1913 287 Muscular Dystrophy," Annals of Eugenics 5, 1930... 288 Figure 14. Photograph from "A Study of the Variation and Correlation of the Human Skull, with Special Reference to English Crania, Biometrika 3, 1904 302 Figure 15. Photograph published in Volume 5 Biometrika, 1906-07 306 Figure 16. Portraits of Karl Pearson, published in Biometrika, 28, 1936 319 Figure 17. Photographs from Pearson's "Two New Pedigrees of Muscular Dystrophy, Annals of Eugenics 5, 1933 320 x . Abstract of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy INVENTING BIOMETRY, INVENTING "MAN": BIOMETRIKA AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE HUMAN SCIENCES By Jeffrey C. Brautigam August 1993 Chairman: Frederick Gregory Major Department: History The dissertation is a historical investigation of the creation of the science of biometry. Its main goal is to inquire about the role of identity and narrative in the production of knowledge about human beings. Accordingly, the dissertation pays equal attention to the historical and scientific writings of the early biometricians, and examines the way that those discourses contributed to the fashioning of an identity for both the biometricians and the objects of biometric science The investigation reveals that these identities were fashioned in a central tension over the status of the individual. First, an analysis of the historical writings of the biometricians focuses on the tension xi between the unrelenting positivism of the biometric approach ( and the inherent desire to erase the individual researcher from the knowledge producing process) and the essentially Romantic character of their narratives (and the Romantic desire of the individual to make a glorious attempt to transform himself). Second, an analysis of the scientific writings of the biometricians reveals a parallel tension between the statistical imperative of the biometric approach ( and the desire to remove the unpredictable individual from the equation of knowledge) and the biometrician's insistence that statistics remain a practical science (which reflected the desire to contribute to the solution of certain social ills that would radically alter the lives of a multitude of individuals). Finally, the dissertation examines