1 = o-uj : >* CO "oo X = = co •"^ 1-; o- oc- ;i ^ EVERYMAN'S LIBRARY EDITED BY ERNEST RHYS SCIENCE INQUIRIES INTO HUMAN FACULTY AND ITS DEVELOPMENT THE PUBLISHERS OF SFeiir.M^O^'S LJB'J{,J1{} WILL BE PLEASED TO SEND FREELY TO ALL APPLICANTS A LIST OF THE PUBLISHED AND PROJECTED VOLUMES TO BE COMPRISED UNDER THE FOLLOWING TWELVE HEADINGS: TRAVEL ^ SCIENCE ^ FICTION THEOLOGY & PHILOSOPHY HISTORY ^ CLASSICAL FOR YOUNG PEOPLE ESSAYS 1^ ORATORY POETRY & DRAMA BIOGRAPHY ROMANCE IN TWO STYLES OF BINDING. CLO IH, FLAT BACK, COLOURED TOP, AND LEATHER, ROUND CORNERS, GILT TOP. London : J. M. DENT & CO. New York : E. P. BUTTON & CO. INQUIRIES into HUMAN FACULTY AND ITS % ® DEVELOPMENT ^Francis GALTON I F-RS LONDONrPUBLISHED byJ'MDENT- <^'CO AND IN NEW YORK BYEPDUTTON &CO Lc LJ ft^ Richard Clay & Sons, Limited bread street hill, e.c., and bungay, suffolk. PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION After some years had passed subsequent to the publication of this book in 1883, its publishers, Messrs. Macmillan, informed me that the demand for it just, but only just warranted a revised issue. I shrank from the great trouble it to of of bringing up date because it, or rather many my memoirs out of which it was built up, had become starting- points for elaborate investigations both in England and in America, to which it would be difficult and very laborious to do justice in a brief compass. So the question of a Second Edition was then entirely dropped. Since that time the book has by no means ceased to live, for it continues to be quoted from and sought for, but is obtainable only with difficulty, and at much more than its original cost, at sales of second-hand books. Moreover, it became the starting- point of that recent movement in favour of National Eugenics (see note p. 24 in first edition) which is recognised by the University of London, and has its home in University College. Having received a proposal to republish the book in its present convenient and inexpensive form, I gladly accepted it, having first sought and received an obliging assurance from Messrs. Macmillan that they would waive all their claims to the contrary in my favour. The following small changes are made in this edition. The illustrations are for the most part reduced in size to suit the smaller form of the volume, the lettering of the composites is rearranged, and the coloured illustration is reproduced as closely as circumstances permit. Two " " chapters are omitted, on Theocratic Intervention and on " the Objective Efficacy of Prayer." The earlier part of the latter was too much abbreviated from the original memoir in the Fortnightly Review, 1872, and gives, as I now perceive, a somewhat inexact impression of its object, which was to investigate certain views then thought orthodox, but which are growing obsolete. I could not reinsert these omissions vii viil Bibliography now with advantage, unless considerable additions were made to the references, thus giving more appearance of personal controversy to the memoirs than is desirable. After all, the omission of these two chapters, in which I find nothing to recant, improves, as I am told, the general balance of the book. Francis Galton. List of Works. a Electric The Narrative of The Teletype: Telegraph, 1850 ; printing " an Explorer in Tropical South Africa, 1853, in Minerva Library of Famous Notes on Books," 1889 ; Modern Geography (Cambridge Essays, 1855, etc.); Arts of Campaigning: an Inaugural Lecture at Art of or Shifts and C(m- delivered Aldershot, 1855 ; The Travel, trivances fourih available in Wild Countries, 1855, 1856, i860 (1859) ; recast Vacation Tourists and Notes edition, and enlarged, 1867, 1872 ; on Travel, 1861, 1862, 1864; Meteorographica, or Methods of Mapping the : an into its and Weather, 1863 ; Hereditary Genius Enquiry Laws Consequences, 1869; English Men of Science : their Nature and Nurture, 1874; Address to the Anthropological Departments of the British Association : with Illus- (Plymouth, 1877) ; Generic Images Autotype trations (from the Proceedings of the Royal Institution), 1879; Inciuines into Human Faculty and its Development, 1883; Record of Family Faculties, 1884; Natural Inheritance, 1889; Finger-Prints, 1892; Decipherments of Blurred Finger-Prints (supplementary chapters to former Introduction to work), 1893 ; Finger-Print Directories, 1895 ; Life of to of Near Kins- W. Cotton Oswell, 190c ; Index Achievements folk of of : its some the Fellows of the Royal Society, 1904 ; Eugenics Definition, Scope, and Aims (Sociological Society Papers, vols. I. and Families And II.), 1905 ; Noteworthy (Modern Science) ; many papers in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, Journals of the Geographical Society and the Anthropological Institute, the Reports of the British Association, the Philosophical Magazine, and Nature. Galton also edited Hints to Traveller-;, 1878 ; Life-History Album Biometrika (British Medical Association), 1884, second edition, 1902 ; (edited in consultation with F. G. and W. F. R. Weldon), 1901, etc. ; and under his direction was designed a Descriptive List of Anthropometric Apparatus, etc., 1887. List of Memoirs. author made use of in The following Memoirs— by the have been freely the following pages : 1863 : The First Steps towards the Domestication of Animals : in Cattle {Journal of Ethnological Society) ; 1871 Gregariousness Statistical and in Men (Mactnillati''s Mai;aziiic) ; 1872: Inquiries 1 : Relative into the Efficacy of Prayer {Fortnightly Kcvicii') ; 873 Supplies from Town and Country Families to the Population of List of Memoirs ix Future Generations Statistical {Journal of Society) ; Hereditary Improvement {Frascrs Magazine); Africa for the Chinese {Times, June 6); 1875: Statistics by Intercomparison {Philosophical Magazine); Twins, as a Criterion of the Relative Power of Nature and Nurture and {Frasers Magazine, Journal of Anthropological Institute) ; 1876: Whistles for Determining the Upper Limits of Audible Sound {S, Kensington Confere7ices, in connection with the Loan Exhibition of Scientific Instruments, p. 61); 1877: Presidential Address to the Anthropological Department of the British Association at Plymouth British : Portraits {Report of Association) ; 1878 Composite {Nature, TiVi^ May 23, Journal of Anthropological Institute) ; 1879: Psychometric and vi. ) Experiments {Nineteenth Century, Brain, part ; Generic Images {Nineteenth Century ; Proceedings of Royal Institution, with in Vital and Social Statistics plates) ; Geometric Mean {Proceedings of Royal Society); 1880 : Visualised Numerals (A^a/«r£, Jan. 15 and ^larch and Mental 25, Journal of Anthropological Institute) ; Imagery Review 1881 : Visions of Sane Persons {Fortnightly ; Mind) ; {Fort- and nightly Review, Proceedings of Royal Institution) ; Composite Portraiture {Journal of Photographical Society of Great Britain, June 24); 1882: Vhysiognovay oiYh\.h\s\s{Guys Hospital Reports, vo\. xxv.); Chronicles from Childhood to Photographic Age {Fortnightly Review) ; The Anthropometric Laboratory {Fortnightly Review) ; 1883 : Some Apparatus for Testing the Delicacy of the Muscular and other Senses {Journal of Anthropological Institute, 1883, etc.). Memoirs in Eugenics. 1901: Huxley Lecture, Anthropological Institute {Natu7-e, Nov. 1901); Smithsonian Report for 1901 {Washington, p. 523); 1904: Eugenics, its Definition, Scope and Aims (Sociological Paper, vol. i., Sociological : Restrictions in Institute) ; 1905 Marriage, Studies in National Eugenics, Eugenics as a Factor in Religion (Sociological Papers, vol. : ii.) ; 1907 Herbert Spencer Lecture, University of Oxford, on Probability the Foundation of Eugenics. The following books by the author have been referred or alluded to in — the following pages : 1853 : Narrative of an Explorer in Tropical South- Western Africa : Art of Travel {Murray) ; 1854 (several subsequent editions, the last in 1872, Murray); 1869: Hereditary Genius, its Laws and Conse- quences {Macmillan); 1S74 : English Men of Science, their Nature and their Nurture {MacDiillan). CONTENTS PAGE Preface to the Second Edition vii Introduction ........ i Origin and object of book. Variety of Human Nature 2 of its kind Many varieties may each be good ; advantage harmful. of variety ; some peculiarities are, however, Features 3 in the human of Large number of elements expression ; touches in a of the portrait ; difficulty measuring separate features or of individuals ; the ; selecting typical typical face its at different historical English ; change periods ; caricatures. colour of hair of modern English ; 6 Composite Portraiture . ... (See Appendix for three Memoirs describing successive — of the stages of the method). Object and principle process ; — of medals of description of the plate composites ; family and of various ; of portraits ; of the two sexes ages Royal the latter a clue to one direction in which Engineers ; gives of of the the English race might be improved ; criminals; of the consumptive ; ethnological application process. Bodily Qualities 13 statistical anomalies in stature Anthropometric Committee ; as on town and rural ; athletic dependent age ; population feats increase of stature of middle classes ; now and formerly ; of weak- large number of weakly persons ; some appearances ness be fallacious a barrel and a wheel definition may" ; ; of word eugenic." Energy 17 It is attribute of races useful stimuli to ; the high ; activity etc. the of the as exercises for fleas, ; preservation weakly that for pity ; of foxes sport. Sensitivity . -19 and and of sensation ; Sensation pain ;