1 86 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



trol, that may improve or impair the racial qualities of future genera- 

 tions, either physically or mentally." 



Mr. Galton realized that nowhere is a scientific groundwork more 

 essential than in eugenics. Compared with the dilettante in eugenics 

 the quack in medicine is nothing in his power for harm. The danger 

 reef lies in its attractions to the superficial and the hasty. 



To the fundamental requisites of race improvement Francis Galton 

 contributed in a two-fold manner. He gave much of the best vigor of 

 his own long working lifetime and in his old age provided for its wider 

 growth by endowing a university laboratory where the work might be 

 continued along the lines which he began. 



In the early sixties little more than superstition reigned concern- 

 ing the influence of heredity and environment in man. Scientific data 

 were almost unknown. Galton not only backed up his arguments by 

 the best available evidence, but always dissatisfied with this and believ- 

 ing that " the basis of science is exact measurement " he gathered fresh 

 quantitative data and taught others to do the same. Eealizing that 

 statistics " are the only tools by which an opening can be cut through 

 the formidable thicket of difficulties that bars the path of those who 

 pursue the science of man " he worked out methods for the more re- 

 fined analysis of statistical data, out of which a whole modern science 

 lias grown. 



If one turns from the work which he personally did to that of his 

 laboratory it need only be said that if those laboratories to be patterned 

 after this in other universities make good as it has done under the 

 direction of his friend, Professor Pearson, a few years must show a 

 marked advance in our knowledge of many of the basal problems of 

 biology and sociology. From the Francis Galton Laboratory for Na- 

 tional Eugenics have come, to mention only major topics, researches 

 into the inheritance of the insane and tubercular diathesis, into the 

 physique and intelligence of school children, into the influence of pa- 

 rental alcoholism on the physique and intelligence of the offspring, into 

 the relative significance of constitution and infection in tuberculosis. 



When a theory or a social propaganda wins its ways to public notice 

 the historical critic seeks to trace it to its origin. Earely is the credit of 

 conception to be assigned to one man, although almost alone he may 

 have compelled the world's attention. 



The ideal of eugenics is no exception to this rule. The retro- 

 spectively inclined may look back as far as Plato. But the undeniable 

 fact remains that it is Francis Galton who has forced thinking men to 

 take these matters into consideration. The explanation is not far to 

 seek. To-day men demand more than will-o'-the-wisp ideals. The 

 dreamer who conceives and the engineer who executes are both essen- 

 tial and both to be honored, but for efficiency and progress their talents 

 must be combined. Once the idealist, the prophet, the man religiously 



