214 Life ami Letters of Francis Gallon 



this account alone it is impossible to assert that experimental psychology in 

 our universities has been in no way influenced by Galton. There are not 

 wanting signs also, that ac!\demic psychology may awake to a truei- sense of 

 what Cialton achieved in this Held and will cease, while adopting his calculus, 

 to disregjutl Iwth his apparatus and oljservational work. Four years before 

 (Jalton started his exhibition he wj\.s. howevei', collecting his information 

 and distributing his schedules, 'i'lie folltiwing letter to Professor .laincH Ward 

 written in 188(1 will indicate how Galton was then working on visualised 

 numbei-s: 



42, Rutland Gate, Feb. 9/80. 



Dear Mr Ward, What a charming, interesting and full lt'tt<!r you have sent ine. I wish 

 Pytliagonis was in reach of the penny post that I might send him a schedule. But failing that, 

 please tell me if I rightly catch your explanation. Is it that Pythagoras who (to use your 

 numerical equivalents) always visualised "a clever boy " whenever there was any question of the 

 numl)er five, — five men, five shields, five dinners eta, — came to think that the "clever l>oy" 

 was more of a reality than the men, shields or dinnersl I could lietter understand that 

 "numljcrs are the /u/x>;crti> of things" than the converse way in which it is put bj' him. Will 

 you kindly write and tell me? 



Thf as,si:»ciation l>etween nunjber and colour has, I find, to be criticised rather closely to Ix' 

 sure that it ha.s not a trivial origin. A young lady of apparently more than average ability 

 hiul astonished her F'ather by an accidental allu.sion to these things. He told me of it and 

 I questioned her. One very decided association was rod with "million"; she told me she 

 thought it due to the play of the word "vermUlion." Another correspondent (indeed 2 or 3 

 I think) speaks of much the same thing as regards letters. One wrote to me this morning 

 saying that e was always green; but he believed this due to the ee in the word. But there is 

 no doubt that blue has a calming effect and rod an irritating one, for the Italian ina(l-<loctors 

 find an advantage in putting their irritable patients in a room lighted with blue light, and 

 their apathetic ones under a retl light. 



As regards the preference for particular numbers, it would indeed be a curious inquiry. 

 I had .some experience more than once in that myself; — thus in getting census returns of age, 

 .30 is a favourite answer, there are a paucity of 29*8 and Si's and a superabundance of 30's. 

 Also in meteorological readings a tendency of that kind shows itself. The Hebrew 40, etc., 

 are similar cases. (In my own family IG was an habitual noun of indefinite magnitude, I 

 could not conceive why.) Your suggestion, however, throws much light on the usual causes 

 for preference. 



I quite understand your \ • ' etc. in the sense you mentioned, but I see that I have some- 

 what bungled in the use of it notwithstanding. It often s(>cms t*) me that there is a perverse 

 demon, who somehow makes one write or do ditlerently to what one intended U> do. I can 

 recall one grt>ss error that I once made in pure defiance of my Ijetter judgment; it seemed 

 temporarily sent to .sleep while the hand wrote. A poor excuse! 



What you say al>out your rudimentary diagram of figures is doubly interesting. It helps 

 to show continuity between total absence and full existence and it is the first clear account 

 I have received of motor sensation associatetl with numl)er. The absence of these has hitherto 

 astoni.she<l me, because my own representations are eminently motor. I can't think of 

 "gratitude" without mentally acting the part of a grateful man, etc. 



I really think there will tuni up as you suppose, some facts bearing on teaching arithmetic. 

 A girl of Fn'nch parentage (the father is a mathematician settled in Kngland) had her system 

 gent me by her Father, together with his own. It shows clearly the influence of the French 

 uamu for numerals. With man}' thanks for all you have sent. 



Yours faithfully, Francis Galton. 



