TranHituni Stiitlini 18 



1 have interpolated thiH punigmph into our liiHtory of the man himMeli*. 

 U'ciuise while those travels, that social life and that scientific executive 

 work' went on continuously, I shall only refer to them ajjain very ii 

 ullv, they serve nu-n^lv as a hack -ground to the intellectual life of t 

 with which wo shall in this second volume \w principally concerned. 



The reader will perha|)S have ohserved that the year 1855 does not i>ccur 

 on our p. 1 1 as one in which Cialton visited Switzerland. It was the year 

 of tlie Crimean War, a year of gnive de[)re88ion for all those who had the 

 national welfare at heart. The crass ijrnorance which rules in hi^h places, 

 the criminal want of preparation characteristic of nearly all British executive 

 l)0(Hes showed themselves in the general breakdown of 1855, as intensely a« 

 they did in 11)14, or in the Bt)er War of 1900. The shame of 1855 is almost 

 forifotten now in the light of more recent impreasions. But it led tlie patriot, 

 man or woman, of those days to cry: "How can I aid this helpless, f(K>lish 

 country of mine ? Wliat can 1 contribute that it lacks? How is this brainless 

 executive to l)e pushed on to firmer ground?" And men and wonien steppetl out 

 of their seclusion and their studies in 1855 in their tens, as they did in the 

 liust war in their hundreds, and demon.strated that the nation's real strength 

 lay in its reserve of brain-power, and not in its political leadera and the paid 

 servants of the government. The world nnig with the glorious work — the 

 almost Joan d'Arc task of Florence Nightingale ; the inner circle might know 

 that her greatest services to the nation were not those which caught the public 

 Imagination; but the public were right in identifying its ideal with a definite 

 personality, above all with such a marked one as that of the ' Lady of the Lamp.' 

 But at the time of the Crimean War as in recent years there were others 

 also who asked themselves what is my tiy'tier and how can I supply in one 

 way or another what the nation lacks? Among these self-questioners was 

 Francis Galton. 



He heard of the terrible sufferings of our soldiers in the trenches, due in 

 the first place to the ignorance of their officers, men who in the majority of 

 cases hatl had no experience of bivouac and camp. Galton realised the need of 

 our armies in one way as Florence Nightingale did in another. His own 

 words best express the situation : 



"The outbreak of the Ciiiiienii War showed tl\c helplessness of our soldiers in the iiio«t 

 elementary matters of camp-life. Believinjf that something could be done by myself towards 



' Council of the Royal Geographical Society 1854-93, Secretary 1857-63 ; General SecreUij 

 to the British Association (at first with W. Hopkins and then with T. Archer Hirst) 1863 67, 

 President of the fleogmphical Section 1862 and 1872, President of the Anthropological S«>ction 

 1877 and 1885; he was twice invited to b<' President of the Association, 1890 and lOO.'i, but 

 declined on the ground of health and stren;,'th. ["Tliey wante<l to nominate me as President of the 

 British Association for 181)3, but I have iletinitely declined, as I did for 1891 [(18901, being out 

 of my element in dining out day afU-r day, and making sj^eches, which I detest. B««ide8 I am too 

 deaf to do the ordinary presidential dut'ies well." letter to Sinli-r lifMie, Feb. 13, 1892. ) Ho w»« 

 Chairman of the B. A. Anthropometric and of the Local Societies Committ«H» in 1S,>- 

 Fellow of the Royal Society 18C0; Member of Council 1805-6, 1870-2, 1876-7, 1^- 

 VicePresident in the last three series, Meml)erof the Kew Ol)8ervatory Committ 

 man on the death of De la Rue 1 889 until 1 90 1 . Meteorological Committee 1 855. > 

 Council 1901. President of the Royal Anthropological Institute 1886-88; Chairman ot the 

 Royal Society Connnittee on Evolution 1896, etc. etc. 



