Transition Studies 21 



IiiU account of the instrument is given in the jjaj)er of November 28, 1859, 

 n "Sun-Sijfiials for the use of Travellers," antl ample directions for its use are 

 rovided in the instructions for (Jalton's Sun-Sjirnul in the larger size which 

 ccoinpany the instriunent as it was made by Mt'ssrs Troughton and Simms. 

 Two other researches belonging to this period (18G0-62) exist among 

 Jalton's voluminous papers. I no not think they were ever printed. In the 

 first he considers the bulk of gohl in the world — i.e. in currency, ormunenta, 

 etc. This in 1800 was estimated at £225,000,000. Galton computes the 

 volume of pure gold therein and concludes that it would (Xjcupy .'JOS.'l cul)ic 

 feet. "Hence my room without extra window space, but disregarding curve 

 at corners of cornice, would hold more gold than was extant in 1800 by 94 

 cubic feet." 



The second paper contains a suggestion of how to reach a decimal coinage 

 for England by the introduction of two new coins, the 'mite ' or 'quint,' a fifth 

 part of a penny and the ' cent ' or 'groat' of 12 quint.s. The groat would thus 

 he Y^ of a pound, and the florin =10 groats the intermediate link. The object 

 of the mite or quint was to get the existing coins in easy terms of groats 

 and (piints. Thus : 



one p«niiy thi'eepence 



= 6 iiiit«8 = 15 mites 



~\\ cents 



sixpence one Rhilling 



= 30 mites = 60 mites 



two shillings 

 = 120 mites 

 = 10 cents 



= 2J cents -- 5 cents 



Galton put his scheme before Archibald Smith whose gravest objection 

 against it seems to have been that the smallest ultimate divisions were not 

 but ought to be binary. 



B. GEOGRAPHY 



While Galton was thus turning his travel experience and his study of 

 the works of travellers to national use, he did not overlook geographical 

 reseai'ch. In 1855 he had contributed a paper of thirty pages entitletl 

 "Notes on Modern Geography" to a work issued by Messrs Parker and Son 

 entitled Cambridge Essays contmhuted by Members of the University. 

 I have not succeeded in discovering the real origin of this work, but if all 

 the essays came up to Galton's in suggestiveness, it must be a matter of 

 regret that it has passed out of recollection. Galton's aims with regard to 

 geography were of a three-fold character, namely : (a) to encourage geo- 

 graphical research by travel, and to make it easier by suggestion of methods 

 and instruments to travellers, (/>) to make geography a school and academic 

 study, and (f) to revolutionise and humanise maps. The object of the essay 

 just referred to was undoubtedly to popularise modern geography, but 

 throughout his interest in the improvement of maps is dominant. 



"Tliero is usually" he writes' "as great a difiference in geographical value between an ortl- 

 tmnce map and, it may be, a beautifully engraved, popular one, as there is in poetical merit 

 l>etwi^n a copy of Shakespeare and a gorgeously Iwund volume of the vilest trash that was ever 

 puhlislied by aid of titled interest and half-extortcd subscriptions." 



' Loc. cit. p. 91. The Cambridge Essays were issued from 1856 to 1858; their pages excluded 

 'scientific' subjects according to the preface (1 written by the publisher) so that they might 



