CAUSES WHICH CREATE SCIENTIFIC MEN. 65 



ON THE CAUSES "WHICH OPERATE TO CREATE 



SCIENTIFIC MEN. 



By FRANCIS GALTON. 



ON more than one occasion I have maintained that intellectual 

 ability is transmitted by inheritance ; and, in a memoir published 

 last year in the " Proceedings of the Royal Society," I endeavored to 

 explain what ought to be understood by that word " inheritance." 

 Two points were especially urged ; the first, that each personality 

 originates in a small selection out of a large batch of wonderfully 

 varied elements, which were all latent and competing ; and, secondly, 

 that these batches, and not the persons derived from them, form the 

 principal successive stages in the line of direct descent. Hence fol- 

 lows the paradoxical conclusion that the child must not be looked 

 upon as directly descended from his own parents. His true relation 

 to them is both circuitous and complicated, but admits of being easily 

 expressed by an illustration. Suppose an independant nation, A, to 

 have been formed by colonists from two other similarly constituted 

 nations, B and C ; then the relation borne by the representative 

 government of A to that of B and of C is approximately similar to 

 what I suppose to be the relation of a child to each of his parents. 

 But the existence of a slender strain of direct descent is shown by the 

 fact of acquired habits being occasionally transmitted. We must 

 therefore amend our simile by supposing the members of the govern- 

 ments of B and C to have the privilege of making emigration easy and 

 profitable to their constituents, and also, perhaps, the governments 

 themselves to have the power of nominating a few individuals to seats 

 in the Legislative Council of A. 



It appears to me of the highest importance, in discussing heredi- 

 ty, to bear the character of this devious and imperfect connection 

 distinctly in mind. It shows what results we may and may not 

 expect. For instance, if B and C contain a large variety of social 

 elements, it would be impossible, without a very accurate knowledge 

 of them and of the conditions of selection, to predict the characters of 

 their future governments. Still less would it be possible to predict 

 that of A. But if the social elements of B and C were alike, and in 

 each case simple, such as might be found in pastoral tribes, then the 

 character of their governments and that of A could be predicted with 

 some certainty. The former supposition illustrates what must occur 

 when the breed of the parents is mongrel ; the latter, when it is pure. 

 Now, no wild or domestic animal is so mongrel as man, especially as 

 regards his mental faculties ; therefore, w r e cannot expect to find an 

 invariable resemblance between the faculties of children and those of 



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