110 Life and Letters of Francis Galton 



• December (i, 1839. 

 My dear Governor, 



I hope that you won't consider uie guilty of disrespect in sending you 

 such a disreputable letter. But as I am at King's College', and have not any other by 

 me, and moreover as in these happy days of ^ ounce fourpennies anything in a decent 

 envelope will do therefore — here goes. 



I should have written before but I waited for Mr Hodgson, but as he won't come 

 I wait no longer. I have spoken to Charles Darwin about Cambridge, wlio recommends 

 next October and to read Mathematics like a house on fire; thinks I had better go as 

 soon as possible for these reasons : that I cannot take my degree of B.M. until 5 years 

 after matriculation, if not 6. A medical education takes 3 or 4 years, of which I shall 

 have had 2, and after taking an M.A. degree I shall have 2 more before I can pass as 

 Doctor. Now if I delay matriculation I shall defer the possibility of taking a physician's 

 degree for a corresponding length of time which may be an inconvenience. Again he 

 thinks it certain that wlien at Cambridge I shall forget all the theoretical part of 

 Medicine, I mean \ of Physiology, f ths of Surgery and |ths of Medicine, to say nothing 

 of Anatomy Lectures, on the two last of which I shall attend next year and will be time 

 thrown away. 



Now about reading Mathematics, he said very truly that the faculty of observation 

 rather than that of abstract reasoning tends to constitute a good Physician. The higher 

 parts of Mathematics which are exceedingly interwoven with Chemical and Medical 

 Phenomena (Electricity, Light, Heat etc., etc.) all exist and exist only on experience 

 and observation .■. don't stop half-way. Make the most of the opportunity and read 

 them. 



I quite agreed with all he said. Again, if after Cambridge I return to K. College, 

 I should necessarily feel much greater interest in chemicalizing than I do now, not being 

 able at present to comprehend one half of the fundamental principles which are 

 mathematical, Light especially. This would be a great convenience with regard to tlie 

 Laboratory, for were I to enter tliere now, I should be able to go there and tool about 

 when I do not dissect (which I am afraid will be very often as there are hardly any 

 subjects), and work regularly after Cambridge, when I could finish my medical education 

 at King's College. Bowman thinks ditto and he is a great man now, and he also says 

 that e^ery high mathematical M.D. that he knows has got on well. Dr Evans and 

 Dr Blakiston of Birmingham, and Dr Watson of King's College, etc., etc. Please write 

 and tell me what you think. Should I enter into the Laboratory, there is no time to 

 lose. We shall have a week or ten days at Christmas, though, perhaps, it will scarcely 

 be worth while to come down for so short a time. Good Bye etc. Feas. Galton. 



Dear Bessy. Thanks for your letter and missal forthcoming. But don't please [give] 

 any advice in the middle (even though it's an ancestor's) for T am sure I have had 

 enough, it's quite as eternal and does me no more good than Dr Sangrado's Warm Water. 



' O, Bessy, Bessy I have had another boil exactly by the side of the former which 



has partially i-eappeared. The new one is mountainous, but alas! not snow-capped like 

 Ben Nevis, but more like Ben Lomond covered with scarlet heather. I shall have 



' Throughout this letter and for two months previously Francis invariably spells 

 this " colledge " ! 



