Sir Francis Galton, FRS: The Legacy of His Ideas: Proceedings of the twenty-eighth annual symposium of the Galton Institute, London, 1991

248 Pages·1993·27.76 MB·English

by  Milo Keynes (eds.)

STUDIES IN BIOLOGY, ECONOMY AND SOCIETY
General Editor: Robert Chester, Department of Social Policy and
Professional Studies, University of Hull
The Galton Institute is concerned with the interdisciplinary study of
the biological, genetic, economic and cultural factors relating to
human reproduction, development and health in the broadest sense.
The Institute ha!> a wide range of interests which includes the
description and measurement of human qualities, human heredity,
the influence of environment and the causes of disease, genetic
counselling, the family unit, marriage guidance, birth control,
differential fertility, infecundity, artificial insemination, termination
of pregnancy, population problems and migration. As a registered
charity, the Institute does not propagate particular political views,
but it does seek to foster respect for human variety and to encourage
circumstances in which the fullest achievement of individual human
potential can be realised. More generally, the Institute seeks to
advance understanding of biosocial matters by enabling biologists,
clinicians, demographers, sociologists and other professionals to
work together in a mutually productive manner.
The Galton Institute was formed in 1989 as the successor body to
the Eugenics Society, which in turn derived from the Eugenics
Education Society founded in 1907. Membership of the Institute is
international and consists of Fellows and Members. Fellows are those
who contribute by their work and writings to the advancement of
knowledge in the biosocial sciences. Members are drawn from a wide
area of biosocial interests. Amongst its activities, the Institute
supports original research via its Stopes Research Fund, sponsors the
annual Darwin lecture in Human Biology, co-sponsors the biennial
Caradog Jones Lecture, and is associated with the Biosocial Society
in publishing the Journal of Biosocial Science. Each year the Institute
mounts a two-day symposium in which a topic of current importance
is explored from differing standpoints, and during which the Galton
Lecture is delivered by a distinguished guest. The proceedings of the
symposia since 1985 constitute the successive volumes of the series
Studies in Biology, Economy and Society. The balance between
disciplines varies with the nature of the topic, but each volume
contains authoritative contributions from diverse biological and
social sciences and an editorial introduction.
Information about the Institute, its aims, activities and publications
may be obtained from: The General Secretary, The Galton Institute,
19 Northfields Prospect, Northfields, London, SW18 1PE.
STUDIES IN BIOLOGY, ECONOMY AND SOCIETY
General Editor: Robert Chester, Department of Social Policy and
Professional Studies, University of Hull
Published titles
Milo Keynes, David A. Coleman and Nicholas H. Dimsdale (editors)
THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF HEALTH AND WELFARE
Peter Diggory, Malcolm Potts and Sue Teper (editors)
NATURAL HUMAN FERTILITY
Milo Keynes and G. Ainsworth Harrison (editors)
EVOLUTIONARY STUDIES: A Centenary Celebration of the Life
of Julian Huxley
David Robinson, Alan Maynard and Robert Chester (editors)
CONTROLLING LEGAL ADDICTIONS
D. F. Roberts and Robert Chester (editors)
MOLECULAR GENETICS IN MEDICINE: Advances, Applications
and Ethical Implications
A. H. Bittles and D. F. Roberts (editors)
MINORITY POPULATIONS: Genetics, Demography and Health
Milo Keynes (editor)
SIR FRANCIS GALTON, FRS: The Legacy of His Ideas
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Sir Francis Galton, FRS
The Legacy of His Ideas
Proceedings of the twenty-eighth annual
symposium of the Galton Institute,
London, 1991
Edited by
Milo Keynes
Galton Institute, London
pal grave
macmillan
* © The Galton Institute 1993
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1993 978-0-333-54695-6
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Contents
Notes on the Contributors vii
Introductory Note ix
1 Sir Francis Galton- A Man with a Universal
Scientific Curiosity
Milo Keynes 1
2 The Historical Galton
W. F. Bynum 33
3 Francis Galton: Travel and Geography
Dorothy Middleton 45
4 Meteorographica and Weather
Sir Crispin Tickell 54
5 Intelligence and Hereditary Genius
H. J. Eysenck 62
6 The Galton Lecture for 1991: Francis Galton-
Numeracy and Innumeracy in Genetics
J. H. Edwards, FRS 75
7 Galton, Karl Pearson and Modern Statistical Theory
A. W. F. Edwards 91
with appendix: 'Heredity and Environment' by
Leonard Darwin
8 Galton on Human Growth and Form
J. M. Tanner 108
9 Galton and the Use of Twin Studies
C. G. Nicholas Mascie-Taylor 119
10 Galton and the Study of Fingerprints
Gertrud Hauser 144
v
vi Contents
11 Galton and Evolutionary Theory
John Maynard Smith, FRS 158
12 Galton's Conception of Race in Historical Perspective
Michael Banton 170
13 Galton, the Educationist
W. H. G. Armytage 180
14 The Galton Laboratory, University College London
J. S. Jones 190
15 Three Chapters from Sir Francis Galton's Inquiries
into Human Faculty
Statistical Inquiries into the Efficacy of Prayer (1872) 195
Enthusiasm (1883) 207
Possibilities of Theocratic Intervention (1883) 210
Sir Francis Galton, FRS- Bibliography 214
List of Presidents of Eugenics Education Society 1908-1926,
Eugenics Society 1926-1989, Galton Institute 1989- 228
Notes on the Contributors
W. H. G. Armytage is Emeritus Professor of Education at the
University of Sheffield.
Michael Banton is Professor of Sociology at the University of Bristol
and Past President of the Royal Anthropological Institute.
W. F. Bynum is Head of the Academic Unit at the Wellcome Insti
tute for the History of Medicine, London and Reader in History of
Medicine, University College London.
A. W. F. Edwards is Reader in Mathematical Biology at the
University of Cambridge and Fellow of Gonville and Caius College,
Cambridge.
J. H. Edwards, FRS, is Professor of Genetics at the University of
Oxford and Consultant in Medical Genetics, Oxford Regional Health
Authority.
H. J. Eysenck is Emeritus Professor of Psychology at the University
of London and former Director of the Department of Psychology,
Institute of Psychiatry, University of London.
Gertrud Hauser is Associate Professor at the Histologisch-Embryo
lisches Institut der Universitat, Wien.
J. S. Jones is Professor of Genetics and Head of the Galton
Laboratory and Department of Genetics and Biometry, University
College London.
Milo Keynes is a member of the Galton Institute, London.
C. G. Nicholas Mascie·Taylor is Head of the Department of
Biological Anthropology at the University of Cambridge and Fellow
of Churchill College, Cambridge.
John Maynard Smith, FRS is Emeritus Professor of Biology at the
University of Sussex.
vii
viii Notes 011 the Co11tributors
Dorothy Middleton is Honorary Vice-President of the Royal Geo
graphical Society.
J, M. Tanner is Emeritus Professor of Child Health and Growth at
the University of London.
Sir Crispin Tickell is Warden of Green College, Oxford, and
President of the Royal Geographical Society.
Introductory Note
Sir Francis Galton, who lived from 1822 to 1911, was a polymath with
a 'universal scientific curiosity', though his scientific success was
achieved despite receiving no adequate scientific education and only
obtaining a pass degree in mathematics at Cambridge. He travelled in
Africa and the Middle East, and on his return used his strong
mechanical bent to improve scientific instruments employed in
geographical work. He then changed to meteorology, devising
weather maps and discovering the anticyclone.
He was a grandson of Erasmus Darwin, and the appearance of On
the Origin of Species by his cousin Charles altered his life when it
demolished 'a multitude of dogmatic barriers by a single stroke'. He
immediately saw the implications for the history of man, and began to
wrestle with the idea of evolution and its application to mankind.
From 1865 his whole effort was to try to discover laws of inheritance,
at first using rough methods for analysing them, inventing crude
ranking statistics such as percentiles. He rejected Quetelet's idea that
all variation in human physical characteristics was error about a type,
that all deviation from the average was error. He saw that variation
was the fuel for natural selection, that without it there was no
evolution, and tried to account for it. His first attempt was, like that
of Mendel, by using peas, the yield of which he classified, creating
what was probably the first bivariate distribution. From this he
constructed the first regression line, calling it 'reversion', in 1877, and
then moved on to collect data that was more refined, by opening an
anthropometrical laboratory for the study of human variation. The
discovery of the coefficient of correlation followed. He was
concerned to distinguish the effects of heredity, or nature, from those
of the environment, or nurture.
Galton was the founder of human genetics and of the science of
statistics in Britain, and the founder of eugenics, endowing a
professorship in this subject at the Galton Laboratory, University
College London. The Eugenics Education Society was founded in
1907, with Galton its honorary president from the next year until he
died in 1911. This became the Eugenics Society in 1926, and there was
a further change in name to that of the Galton Institute in 1989. This
book is the publication of the proceedings of the Institute's annual
ix