152 Life and Letters of Francis Gallon 



fever had broken out. He died at 12. He was one of the most kind-hearted fellows 

 I ever met with ; he had just taken his degree and was going into orders and had begun 

 hospital attendance that he might be of use in his parish. He thus caught the scarlet 

 fever and is dead. He was a very great friend of Hughes'. 



It is curious that I have as yet lost only 7 schoolfellows or fellow-collegiates that 

 I really care for and every one of these have died of scarlet fever or typhus, and all 

 except one within three days warning. How fearfully death intrudes in the midst of 

 enjoyment like the skeleton at the Egyptian's feast. It is remarked by D'Israeli 

 (I think) that the shock from the sudden loss of a friend is the only feeling which the 

 mind cannot become callous to. The frequent sight of deatli seems in no way to 

 diminish it. Patients in a hospital one looks upon as doomed men and their death 

 takes place as in the natural order of things. A friend appears part of oneself, and 

 when he dies, one contemplates the grave where he is laid in as ready to receive oneself ; 

 we then know that we are mortal. However this kind of language is out of place to 

 you at home in the midst of marriage festivities, etc. I received no cake with your 



letter ! 



Good bye, Yours truly, 



FRAS. GALTON. 



During the Easter vacation, Francis Galton consulted both with 

 Hodgson and Booth in Birmingham, who appear to have given 

 diametrically opposite advice, but the nature of their proposals is not 

 clear. They most probably concerned Francis's prolonged study of 

 mathematics and his neglect for the time being of medicine. He writes 

 to his father, April 8th, 1841 : 



"I have on reconsidering, reconsulting, etc., etc., determined to abide the Trinity 

 Examination, as I should be sure not to get the Cains prize as they have two very 

 superior men there, and as they take up slightly different subjects but to do my best 

 for a Trinity first class and to migrate afterwards " 



It is impossible now to say, but probable that the " Caius prize " 

 referred to may have been a Tancred studentship. There is a good 

 deal of discussion later about the position in the May examination, but 

 no further reference to this migration proposal, it probably arose from 

 Galton's Birmingham medical sponsors urging concentration on medical 

 studies. 



Later in the same month, with the Darwin omission of exact 

 dating, comes a characteristic letter : 



TRIN. COLL. April, 1841. 

 MY DEAK FATHER, 



No letter of yours, whether received at school, announcing that I might 

 come home a week before my time, or whether containing a cheque on Barclay, Bevan, 

 Tritton and Co., ever came more gratefully than the one I have just received to say that 



