i8 2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



Realizing " the pressing necessity of obtaining a multitude of exact 

 measurements relating to every measurable faculty of body or mind, for 

 two generations at least, on which to theorize " he set about in many 

 different ways to achieve this object. In 1882, he published a plea be- 

 ginning " When shall we have anthropometric laboratories, where a 

 man may from time to time get himself and his children weighed, 

 measured and rightly photographed, and have each of their bodily 

 faculties tested, by the best methods known to modern science?" 



This plan was realized in 1884 when Mr. Galton established an 

 anthropometric laboratory at the International Health Exhibition, 

 London. Subsequently the laboratory was maintained in the Science 

 Galleries of the South Kensington Museum for about six years. 



It is impossible to summarize fitly the consequences of the estab- 

 lishment of these laboratories. Certainly they are not to be gauged by 

 the tangible data which they yielded. The measurement of the various 

 faculties required special apparatus, and our psychological laboratories 

 and college gymnasia are greatly indebted to these pioneer institutions. 

 From anthropometry in particular is a natural step to biometry in 

 general. 



With Francis Galton anthropometry was largely a means to an end 

 — heredity. The titles of his major works on inheritance have already 

 been given. Heredity in its turn was merely the scientific prerequisite 

 for a humanitarian movement — eugenics. To this end it was with the 

 few exceptions mentioned above concentrated upon man. 



Among biologists one often hears misgivings expressed concerning 

 studies of heredity based on man. " Obviously enough the laws of in- 

 heritance are the same for man as for other animals, or as for plants, 

 but the material is not suitable for investigation," is the substance of 

 frequent comments. In a degree this criticism is quite justified. Hu- 

 man pedigrees are collected with great difficulty, as compared with 

 those of peas or fowls or mice. Even where the greatest caution is 

 exercised, the opportunities for deception and concealment are very 

 great, and individual pedigrees must be looked upon with the greatest 

 caution. 



These objections can not detract in the slightest degree from the 

 credit due to Francis Galton. The work of an individual to be justly 

 appraised must be judged in relation to the intellectual environment 

 of his time, just as social or religious movements to be intelligible must 

 be studied in their historical setting. In " Hereditary Genius " Mr. 

 Galton records the results of an exploration of an entirely new field. 

 In it he entered a terra incognita just as truly as when he turned his 

 back upon the missionary outposts and his face towards the land of the 

 Ovampo. Up to Galton's time men discussed heredity. He set about 

 to measure its intensity. Even after much of his epoch-making work 

 was published, prominent and otherwise well-informed men denied the 



