Earhj AnthropnhnjivAtl Remarch 



89 



mental and moral »pti- 



d when I 



If 



I'. 



to 



could only be reached by iidniittin^ the ljere<lity 

 tudes. Such was the evDJution ot Galton's tiiwuy un 

 apply it to Ills own conteniponu'ieH at school, at collegt 

 realised the truth that ability goes by descent. 



"The tlioory uf hennlittiry Kciius, thoii;j;li ii.suully .H(M>ut«(J, has \)vmx\ advocated liy a few 

 writoni in past lus in muderii tiiiivH. Bui I may claim to bo the first to treat tho Hultjo-t in a 

 statistical manner, to arrive at numerical reHultn, and to introduce the 'law of ilevintion from 

 M\ avemge' into diHcussionB on heredity." (p. vi.) 



We have here Galton's first direct appeal to statistical method and the 

 text itself shows that Downes' translation of the Letters on Prohahilitiea by 

 Quetelet (London, 1849) was (Jalton's first introduction to the Laplace- 

 Gaussian or normal curve of deviations, which was later to play such a large 

 part in (ialton's anthropometric work. 



Galton's general plan is first to justify, in the case of men of great ability, 

 the measurement of their ability by their reputation. Men reputed as en- 

 dowed by natiue with extraordinary genius are taken in the default of 

 better evidence to be of surpassing abdity, and the correlation is probably 

 so high that little en'or in the highest gnules of intellect will be introducwl 

 by this identification. Prol)ably the identification is somewhat loo.ser in 

 Galton's second and third grades though the correlation must be something 

 considerable here. Galton runs through various methotls of appreciating 

 'eminence,' and comes to the conclusion tliat they indicate very approximately 

 the same result : 



"When I speak of an eminent man I mean one who lias achieve<l a position that is attained 

 by only 250 persons in each million of men, or by one person in each 4000. ...The ma.ss of thoae 

 with whom T dejil are far more rigidly selected — many are as one in a million, ond not a few 

 as one of many millions. I use the term 'illustrious' when speaking of the.se. They are men 

 whom the whole intelligent part of the nation mourns when they die; who have, or deserve to 

 have, a public funeral; and who rank in future ages as historical characters." (p. 11.) 



It was at this time that Galton, I think, first realised the great principle 

 that while between men of moderate ability there is scarcely any difference, 

 between 'illustrious' and even 'eminent' men there are extraordmary differ- 

 ences, (ialton (p. I !)) illustrates this on the marks of the men in two years of 

 the Mathematical Tripos at Cambridge, the total marks l)eing 17,000. 



Number of 

 Marks 



Number of \ 

 Candidates ) 



34 



74 



r- I r- 



' 



900 



Here the difference between the first and second man is upwards of 

 2000 marks, but 157 of the mediocre men fall within the .sjime range of 

 2000 marks. This difference between the extreme i>"'". "liether on the able 



12 



r u n 



