206 Life and Letters of Francis Galton 



diHCivdit the inquiry. M. Antoino d'Aljlmdie who s<>es tlif-se nuinlier-fornis clearly, kindly 

 qucstiuned for nw several of his culloii){iu's of the Acadf'inic dew Scit-nt-eM and canu- io just the 

 aune result that I did. It was therefore with some wickfxi feeling of triumph that I collected 

 and raarch(<d off with', to the evening meeting of the Anthropological Institute, six good men 

 including jx-rsons well known to science, who were prejuired to describe their nuniLier-forms 

 and who did so very effectively. I am now Imsy on a more gencrnll)' interesting jMirt of the 

 subject of Mental Imagery. Believe mo with tlianks, and warm acknowledgement of the kind 

 interest you have so often shown in my work, Very faithfull}' yours, Francis Galton. 



I am afraid our mutual friend Mr li<-ntham hiis felt the gloom and severity of this past 

 winter, for he do<>.s not look well, and complains about himself. 

 To M. Alpikinsk i>e Candoi.le. 



42, Rutland Qatk, London. Jun« 5/82. 



Mv deak Sik, Thank you much for your interesting t>r»)chure' on Ch. Darwin, analysing 

 the causes that contributed to his success. It ha.s Ix'en a great satisfaction in all our grief at 

 his loaa, to witness the wide recognition of the value of his work. He certainly, as you say, 

 appeared at a moment when the public miud was ripe to receive his views. I cau truly say for 

 my jiart that I was groaning under the intellectual burden of the old teleology, that my 

 intellect rebelled against it, but that I saw no way out of it till Darwin's 'Origin of Species' 

 emancipated me. Let me, while fully agreeing with the views expit»s.sed in the |mmphlet in 

 all irajiortant particulars, supply a few minor criticisms which it might be well to mention. 



(1) As to the pecuniary fortune of Darwin, I think the phrases "moyenne j>our I'Anglo- 

 terre etc." — "la mai.son motleste..." [pp. 12-13] hardly convey the right idea. I should think 

 that his fortune wa.s much more considerable — say upwards of £5000 a year, before his brother's 

 death in 18^<l, and subsequt-ntly larger. The house \va.s maintaine<l in thoroughly sultstjintial 

 and costly comfort, — but when the particulars of the Will are publishe<l, which I suppose they 

 soon will be, we shall know. 



(2) "Leg descendants du po^te phys[iologriste] p. 12...ont lu certainement de bonne lieureU^ 

 ouvrages de leur aieul." I am almost certain of the contrary in every case except Ch. Darwin, 

 (and I doubt in his case whether he hatl). To myself the florid and now ridiculed poetry was 

 and is intolerable and the speculative physiology rejtellent I had often taken up the books 

 and could never get on with them. Canning's parody "the loves of the triangles" quite killed 

 poor Dr Darwin's reputation. It just hit the mood of the moment and though my mother 

 never wearitnl of talking of him, his life was to me like a fable only half believe<l in. That 

 much the same was the case with some of Charles Darwin's sons, I can, I think, atKrm. 



(3) Gj-orge Darwin "deja connu jmr de bons memoires de statistique" [p. 13]. Prol>ably 

 you may not know his present very high position as a mathematical astronomer, who liiis re- 

 vealed the past history of the planetjiry .system, in a most unexj)ected way. His works are 

 spoken of iti the presidential address of the lloyal Society etc. as mansive works. They are only 

 slowly becoming known, being exceedingly lalx>rious mathematical work of a kind that is within 

 the practice of very few men indeed, but by them cordially recognisi'd as commensurate in 

 originality and importance with that of Laplace. His calculations depend on the "viscosity" 

 of all solid bodies on the yielding of their gidigtance to a tidal action, and most unexpected 

 results came out, which bind under one scheme a large variety of astronomical phenomena. 



When I received your pamphlet, it .so happened that your name had just been on my lips 

 in respect to quite another mattt^r, in which you were at one time much interestetl and which 

 is now being tnken up here. It is a (juestion of cHmulatirf temjierature on vegetiition. I have 

 been since the beginning one of the members of the council to whom a large annual grant is 

 entrusted bj- Government to carry on the systems of Forecasts in land and ocean meteorology 

 and we are endeavouring to give weekly data that may lie of direct ust- to agi-iculturists. Ip 

 reply to questions that we circulated as to the b<«t form for that purpose, frequent mention 

 was made of the cumulative values of heat. We have acconlingly hven investigating the 

 proliability of calculating the.se values in units of 'day-degrees' viz. (1) cumulative effect of 

 heat derived from 1 Fahr. of temperature acting during 24 hours, or of (2) acting during 12 



* After giving them all a go<Ml dinner. Memories, p. 271. 



• "Darwin aioul, considC-rC" au point de vue des causes de s<m succ^8 et I'imjjortance do ses 

 travaux" tin- des Archive* (U» Sriencen de la liibliollifque f'ntrvrteHi; Tome VTl. Mni/ 1882. 



