288 Life ami Letters of Francis GaUou 



The paper finally discusses the uses to which composite portraiture may 

 be put. Galton refers to : 



(i) Typical pictures of different raci-.s of men (see our pp. 290, 293-4, 

 and Plat; XXXIVJ. 



(ii) Selection of some strongly marked type within a race, e.g. Criminal 

 or Phthisical subjects (see our pp. 2§6. 291-2 and Plates XX\^II, XXIX 

 and XXX IV). 



(iii) Composite portrait of the same individual to obtiiin more than a 

 single momentjiry expression. Galton considered that such a composite would 

 have 'varied sugge-stiveness.' 



(iv) Composites from independent porti-aits of historical personages. It 

 may be from coins, medals or busts. Thus Galton later did Alexander the 

 Great, Napoleon, Cleopatra, etc. (see our p, 295 and Plates XXXVI — XLIV). 



(v) Composite portraits of ancestry and collaterals, each individual being 

 given his or her relative ' weight' in terms of exposure. Galton thus hoped 

 to produce 'family types,' and to forecast the physical appearance of the off- 

 spnng of proposed marriages (see our Plates XXXI and XXXII). 



(vi) In the same manner as (v) composite portraits might be produced 

 to aid breeders of pedigree stock to judge the result of any proposed union 

 better than they are able to do at present (see our Plate XXX). CJalton 

 took the opportunity of appealing for family portraits taken in the same 

 attitude, ^ inch or say 10 mm. between the interpupillary line and the line 

 that separates the lips, in rigid profile, full face, and three-<juarters always 

 showing the left side, "in this the outer edge of the right eyelid will be only 

 just in sight." I repeat these suggestions of Galton in cji.se any of my readers 

 wish to make experiments in this somewhat difficult art for tliemselves. 



At the York meeting of the British Association, Trans. B. A. 1881, p. 3, 

 Galton read a paper "On the Application of Composite Portraiture to 

 Anthropological purposes." He exhibited tlie first cranial composite, the 

 profile of the Andamanese skull based on eight components (see our Plate 

 XXXIII). The large original composite is still in the (Tdltoniaiut, but 

 although it is distinctly better than much later work — which has tended 

 to discredit composite portraiture in craniology — I venture to think that from 

 the standpoint of the profile l)etter fiduciary lines might Ije selected. 



The next paper with which we have to deal is tliat of 1881, in which 

 year Galton gave an account of "Composite Portraiture" to the Photographic 

 Society'. Four years had produced great changes and improvements not 

 only in Galton's methods, but in his apparatus. He now figures and describes 

 a much more elaborate instrument not only for compounding, but at the 

 same time for reducing individual transparencies to a standard size. He 

 not only makes the interpupillary line and its vertical bisector the same 



weight the diflcrent components. He also demonstrated that the effect of an exposure for 

 n Moonds wbh sensibly the same whether it was continuous or given in p equal doses; the 

 experimental prints giving intensity of tint due to exposure for a variety of vahies of p have 

 survived to this day. 



' Journal and 'J'ransactioru of the Photographic Society o/ Oreat Britain, Vol. v. pp. 140-46, 

 June 14, 1881. 



