120 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



gifts are as strictly matters of inheritance as any purely physical quali- 



ties." 



In 1874 Mr. Galton published his " English Men of Science ; their 

 Nature and Nurture." It was a summary of the results which he had 

 obtained from inquiries addressed to the most eminent scientific men 

 of England, respecting the hereditary and other circumstances which 

 mio-ht have been influential in directing them toward the careers in 

 which they shone, and promoting their success in them. His criterion, 

 in selecting men as typical for his purpose, was somewhat like that 

 which M. de Candolle adopted. He took persons who had been 

 elected to the Royal Society, and of them those who had been other- 

 wise distinguished by receiving medals, or by holding official positions 

 in scientific bodies or professorships in some important college or uni- 

 versity. One hundred and eighty men were questioned for facts con- 

 cerning their parentage and descent, the religious opinions, occupa- 

 tions, political party, health, stature, complexion, temperament, size of 

 head, and a great many other particular facts concerning their parents 

 and themselves ; regarding their brothers and sisters, and their salient 

 characteristics ; the numbers and principal achievements of more dis- 

 tant relatives, grandparents, uncles and aunts, cousins, nephews and 

 nieces ; and the mode and duration of the education of the questioned 

 scientific man himself, with an analysis of the causes of success of 

 which he was conscious. 



From the replies to these inquiries it appeared that the chief quali- 

 ties in the order of their prevalence among scientific men were, en- 

 ergy, both of body and mind ; good health ; great independence of 

 character ; tenacity of purpose ; practical business habits ; and strong 

 innate tastes for science generally, or for some branch of it. 



The replies respecting the special experience in education of the 

 men addressed exhibited a striking unanimity, notwithstanding the 

 diversity of branches of science which they severally pursued. They 

 commonly expressed a hatred of grammar and the classics, and an 

 utter distaste for the old-fashioned system of education. " The fol- 

 lowing seems the programme they themselves would have most liked : 

 1. Mathematics, rigorously taught up to their capacity, and copiously 

 illustrated and applied, so as to throw as much interest into its pur- 

 suit as possible ; 2. Logic ; 3. Some branch of science (observation, 

 theory, and experiment), some boys taking one branch and some an- 

 other, to insure variety of interests under the same roof ; 4. Accurate 

 drawing of objects connected with that branch of science ; 5. Mechan- 

 ical handiwork. All these to be rigorously taught. The following 

 not to be taught rigorously : reading good books (not trashy ones) 

 in literature, history, and art ; a moderate knowledge of the more 

 useful languages, taught in the easiest way, probably by going abroad 

 in vacations. It is abundantly evident that the leading men of sci- 

 ence have not. been made by much or regular teaching. They craved 



