CHAPTER IX 



EARLY ANTHROPOLOGICAL RESEARCHES 



A. THE PASSAGE FROM GEOGRAPHY TO ANTHROPOLOGY 

 AND RACE-IMPROVEMENT 



"Alwut the time of the appearance of Darwin's Origin of Species I had begun to interest 

 myself in the Human side of Geograpl)}-, and was in a way prepai-ed to appreciate his view. 

 I am sure I assimilated it with far more re^iness than most people, absorl)ing it almost at 

 once, and my afterthoughts were permanently tinged by it. Some ideas I had alx>ut Human 

 Heredity were si't fermenting and I wrote Hereditary Genius. In working this out I forced 

 myself to liecome faiiiiliiir witli the higher branches of Statistics, and, conscious of the power 

 they gave in dealing with populations as a whole, I availed myself of them largely." 



Manuscript Note of Francis Galton in the hand- 

 writing of Mrs Galton found among his papers. 



I HAVE indicated in the preceding chapter how Galton's interests were 

 turning from man's environment to man himself — not only to his physical but 

 to his psychical characters. One of the most conspicuously interesting facts 

 in Galton's development is that in 1865 he had readied, we might almost say 

 had planned out, the main conception of his work on Man. It is not possible 

 to say from the dates of issue which of Galton's anthropological papers of 

 this year, namely "The first steps towards the Domestication of Animals"' 

 or "Hereditary Talent and Character"', was the earlier, because the date 

 of publication is not necessarily that of writing the paper. Mrs Galton's 

 'Record,' however, show^s that both papers antedate 1865 : 



1863. Retume<l by the Riviera road [from Switzerland] and home in November. Frank 

 appointed Secretary to the British Association. Wrote paper on Domestication. Visited the. 

 Norths, etc. 



1864. Very cold beginning of year. Went to Leamington at Easter [to visit Galton's 

 mother]. ... Emma and Milly to us in May. Went abroad in July to Switzerland, Peiden, 

 Grindelwald, St Luc. Returned for British Association at Bath. I at Julian Hill meanwhile 

 [Mrs Galton's mother's house]. Visited Hadzor [home of the Howai-d Gallons] and Leamington. 

 ...Went to the Norths in December. Frank writing Heretlitary Talent.... Frank busy editing 

 Murray's Handbook. Christmas at home and alone." 



The " Domestication " paper is chiefly of value as showing the transition 

 of Galton's thoughts. Examining the accounts travellers give of savage 

 races and his own experiences, Galton propounds the view that wild animals 

 were tamed as pets or even kept for religious purposes' before they were 



' Transactions of the Ethnological Society of London, Vol. Ml, pp. 122-38, 1865. I have no 

 record of when it waa read. 



' Macmillan's Magazine, Ist Paper, June 1865, 2nd Paper, August 1865, Vol. .xii, 

 pp. 157-66, 318-27. 



• Several of the ca8<!8 ciU-d by Galton, e.g. that of the kites from Shark's Bay, Australia, 

 and the serpenU at Whydah in Africa, suggest that totemisui even might be the ultimate 

 source of domestication. 



