The Late SIR TRANCIS OALTON, f.R.S. 



Photo] 



[Elliott d- Fry. 



News of the death of Sir Francis Galton reaches us as 

 the pages of this Journal pass to the press from their 



final revision. We have not 

 therefore the opportunity of 

 presenting to our readers a full 

 account of his scientific and 

 other work which is so inti- 

 mately concerned with pro- 

 blems of Human Inheritance. 

 But the death of one who, 

 more than any other person, 

 called attention in the 

 early forties, to the import- 

 ance which heredity played 

 in the phenomena of life in general and of human 

 attributes in particular, cannot be passed over 

 without some word of appreciation, however im- 

 perfect, in a Journal which deals with problems 

 that centre around the application of Heredity to 

 human affairs. 



Sir Francis was in his own personality a very clear 

 illustration of that process of inheritance which he 

 did so much to expound. His maternal grandfather 

 was Erasmus Darwin, the poet-naturalist, and both 

 his father and paternal grandfather were men 

 of scientific ability. Erasmus Darwin married twice, 

 and Sir Francis Galton was his grandson by one wife, 

 while Charles Darwin was his grandson by the other. 

 Sir Francis and Charles Darwin were thus cousins. 

 The Galton-Darwin-Wedgwood alliance of families was 

 indeed a striking example of the influence of stock in 

 the production of eminent men. The Galton family 

 became connected through marriage with the Darwin 

 family, by the marriage of Mr. S. T. Galton, of 

 Duddeston, Warwickshire, with a Miss Darwin, 

 daughter of Erasmus Darwin. The Wedgwood family 



