270 Life and Ijettera of Francis GaUon 



" Emergencies need not be waite<l for, they can bo extemporised ; traps as it wei-e can be 



laid A sudden excitement, call, touch, gesture, or incident of any kind evokes, in 



different persons, a response tliat varies in intensity, celerity and tiuality." (p. 182.) 



Giilton suf^gests that the cardiograph, the sphyginograph, and Mosso's 

 blood-pressure apparatus should be used to test the effect of various small 

 emotional shocks. To those conversjint with relatively recent attempts by 

 similar means to meiisure emotional changes, it will possibly be surprising 

 that Galton suggestcil such investigations 40 yeai-s ago. lie even wished 

 to meet the criticism that the i)resence of" the recording instrument miglit 

 make itself felt and check the expression of the emotion. He accordingly 

 experimented on himself by wearing a Maret's pneumo-cardiograph 



"during the formidable ordeal of delivering the Rede l^ecture in the Senate House at Cam- 

 bridge I had no connection establislied between my instrument and any rocoitling 



apparatus but wore it merely to see whether or no it proved in any way irksome. If I had 

 had a table in front of me, with the recoriling apparutus out of sight below, and an expert 

 assistant near at hand to turn a stopcock at appropriate moments, he could have obtained 

 samples of my heart's action without causing me any embarrassment whatever. I should have 

 forgotten all alxmt the apparatus while I was speaking." (jjp. 183-4.) 



Methods of measuring the unmeasured, or trapping unobserved the emo- 

 tional changes in men and women, delighted Galton above all things. He 

 was particularly pleased with Tenny.son's where he tells us that 



"Lancelot returning to court after a long illness through whicii he ha<l been nursed by 

 Elaine, sent to crave an audience of the jealous queen. The messenger utilises the opportunity 

 for obaerving her in the following ingenious way like a born .scientist: 



'Low drooping till he well nigh kissed her feet 

 For loyal awe, saw with a sidelong eye 

 The shadow of a piece of pointed lace 

 In the Queen's shadow, vibrate on the wall 

 And parted, laughing in his courtly heart.'" 



And again — with a suggestion of grim possibilities at a social meal in 

 Rutland Gate, which the actuality never to my knowledge fulfilled — 



"The poetical metaphors of ordinary language suggest many po.ssibilities of measurement. 

 Tlius when two persons have an 'inclination' to one another, they visibly incline or slope 

 together when sitting side by side, or at a dinner table, and they then throw the stress of 

 their weights on the near legs of their chairs. It does not require much ingenuity to arrange 

 a pressure gauge with an index and dial to indicate changes in stress, but it is dillicult to 

 devise an arrangement, that shall fulfil the threefold condition of being effective, not attracting 

 notice and being applicable to ordinar}' furniture. I made some rude experiments, but being 

 busy with other matters, have not carried them on, as I had hoped." (p. 184.) 



Other suggestions in the paper dealt with tlio nie,i.surpnu>nt of toni])er 

 and fault-finding. Galton concludes: 



"The points I have endeavoure<l to impress are chiefly these. First, that ehiiracter ougiit 

 to be measured by carefully recorded acts, representative of conduct. An ordinary generalisa- 

 tion is nothing more than a muddle of vague memories of mixed observations. It is an easy 

 vice to generalise. We want lists of facts, every one of which may be separately verified, 

 valued and revalued, and the whole accurately summed. It is the statistics of each man's 

 conduct in small every day afTairs, that will probably Ixj found to give the simplest and most 

 precise measure of his chanieter. The other chief point that I wish to imjiress i.s, that a 

 practice of deliV)erately and methodically testing the character of othei-s and of ourselves is 

 not wholly fanciful but deserves consideration and exiwriment." (p. IB.").) 



Galtou's Kede Lecture was a very graceful address; it was full of these 



