SKETCH OF FRANCIS GAL TON. 121 



variety. Those who had it, praised it ; and those who had it not, 

 concurred in regretting it. There were none who had the old-fash- 

 ioned high-and-dry education who were satisfied with it. Those who 

 came from the greater schools usually did nothing there, and have 

 abused the system heartily." 



In 1877, as Vice President of the Anthropological Department of 

 the British Association, Mr. Galton described a method of accurately 

 measuring mental processes, such as sensation, volition, the formation 

 of elementary judgments, and the estimation of numbers ; suggested 

 means, by the aid of photography, of studying the physiognomy of 

 the criminal and other special classes of men ; and discussed the sub- 

 ject of heredity in crime. In the address in which these thoughts were 

 conveyed he suggested that there were no worthier professors of the 

 branch of anthropology that relates to types, of character " than the 

 writers of the higher works of fiction, who are ever on the watch to 

 discriminate varieties of character, and who have the art of describing 

 them. It would, I think, be a valuable service to anthropology if 

 some person well versed in literature were to compile a volume of 

 extracts from novels and plays that should illustrate the prevalent 

 types of human character and temperament." Carrying out the ideas 

 of this address to a further extent, he discussed, in a paper read before 

 the Anthropological Institute in 1878, the system of taking composite 

 portraits, by combining the portraits of several individuals distin- 

 guished by possessing some common quality into a single portrait 

 which might be considered as typical of that quality personified. As 

 among the possible practical applications of this system, he suggested 

 that " it might be used to give typical pictures of different races of 

 men ; to construct a really good likeness of a living person by the 

 combination of several likenesses of the ordinary sort ; to produce, 

 from many independent portraits of an historical personage, the most 

 probable likeness of him ; and, lastly, an application of great interest 

 in inquiries into the hereditary transmission of features." 



Among the later investigations of Mr. Galton is an interesting 

 one on " Visualized Numerals," regarding a faculty which very many 

 persons have been proved to possess, of forming, when any number is 

 mentioned or thought of, vivid conceptions of the figures constituting 

 the number as projected before them or standing plainly out in the air. 



Since 1875 Mr. Galton has been engaged in active investigations, 

 with the Anthropometric Committee of the British Association, of the 

 heights, weights, etc., of human beings in the British Empire, and in 

 obtaining photographic representations of the typical races. 



Mr. Galton was General Secretary of the British Association from 

 1863 to 1868 ; was President of its Geographical Section in 1862 and 

 1872, of the Anthropological Sub-section in 1877, and of the An- 

 thropological Section in 1885 ; and he has been Vice-President of the 

 Royal Geographical and Anthropological Societies, and a member of 

 the councils of many other bodies. 



