Lehrjahre ami Wamlerjahre 173 



;i.s might be at the orthodox letter writing time, namely about 7 a.m. I find myself quite 

 unable to do anything in reading for by really deep attention to Maths. I can bring on 

 my usual dizziness etc. almost immediately though generally I feel much better than I 

 used to do. Palpitations of the heart have lately come on when I read more than I ought 

 to do which I am rather glad of than otherwise, as it saves my head. What annoys me 

 most is that my powers of reading vary so much on consecutive days, at one time being 

 able to read some hours, at another not half one, and the dizziness etc. when it does come 

 oil, comes on so rapidly that I have no fore-warning symptom to tell me when to stop, 

 except occasionally the palpitations. I have been rather diffuse a la Leamington about 

 my health so by way of change do thank Miner particularly for the cake and tell her that 

 if the quickness of its disappearance be any sign of excellence that it decidedly must rank 

 among the very best that culinary science has produced. It was capital and at least 20 

 individuals concurred in that remark 



The breakdown in Galton's health must have been so complete 

 that he determined to give up reading for mathematical honours 

 (not to degrade) and to enter for a poll degree only. He now spent 

 much of his time in literary and social pursuits, and towards the end of 

 his stay at Cambridge resumed there his medical studies. That he 

 was a popular man at Cambridge appears from the societies he founded 

 or assisted to found ; he was also active in various undergraduate 

 movements as the following letters will indicate. 



Sunday [17 Feb. 1843]. 

 MY DKAR FATHER, 



Thank you very much for all three of your letters, which were certainly very 

 amusing. All my time has lately been taken up by canvassing and afterwards by a most 

 unfortunate collision between two of my friends with one of whom I was much interested 



and in some degree involved. P and C are the two men. The first you have 



heard me mention before. The last is a son I believe of Sir Thos C and was a fellow 



commoner. P is a man whose whole object was to make a very extended acquaint- 

 ance, in which he certainly succeeded, but at the same time was very unpopular from 

 being a pushing sort of man and often mixed in quarrels, and a very noisy arguer at the 

 Union. He was a great friend of Theodore's at one time, who afterwards was rather 

 offended at him. To proceed, on Monday night the candidates for the Union Officers 

 were proposed. P proposed one and C seconded 1 . In some private business 



1 Galton, Mr Harold Wright informs me, was elected a member of the Library 

 Committee by 152 votes. Mr Wright has most kindly extracted from the minute-books 

 for me the references to Francis Galton ; they show that he was a frequent speaker thus 

 on March 15, 1842, he opened a debate on the negative side of the question: "Would the 

 method of voting by Ballot in returning members to Parliament be an improvement upon 

 the present system?" The negative was carried by 26 to 4. He was less fortunate on 

 April 12th when he opened a debate against Sir Robert Peel's financial proposals and the 

 voting in favour of them was 32 to 9. When on Dec. 7 of the previous year he had spoken 

 in favour of a repeal of the Corn Laws, however, only 7 voted for repeal with 23 against. 



