290 Life and lA-ttcr* of Frauds Galton 



of the axial four positions of this card and found: (i) a sharply defined cross, 

 showing the accui-acy of adjustment, (ii) four very faint dots one in each 

 quadnmt, indicating that any single irregularity hardly survives, (iii) the 

 etpial tint of the four dot« showing the etpiality of the exposure, (iv) the 

 unifomuty of the resulting tint of the four ' wafers ' arising from the 

 exposure of the tinted discs. A, B, C, D, in the four orders, ADCIi,BADC, 

 CHAD, and DCJiA, demonstrating that order of exposure is not material. 



He also showed composites in one of which a portrait X'Vfos exposed | 

 and a portrait }' ^ of the total exposure, and in the other A' was exposed 

 ^ and 1^ I of the total. The individuality of A' predominated in the tirst 

 and that of Y in the second ; thus justifying ' weighting ' by length of 

 exposure. 



He further exhibited composite portraits of male and female phthisical 

 subjects, and of men and of officers of the Royal Engineers (see our pp. 291-3 

 and Plates XXIX and XXXIV), and he suggested that with 'artistic 

 touching' beautifully idealised family portraits might be produced for com- 

 mercial purposes; the irregularities of the individual disjippearing. The 

 paper as a whole marks a very considerable development both in the theory 

 and practice of composite j)ortraiture'. 



We now come to two papers of 1882 and 1885 dealing respectively with 

 com|X)site photographs of phthisical subjects and of Jews. In the Hi-st Galton 

 worked in conjunction with Dr F. A. Mahomed, in the second Mr Joseph 



' It wa«, perhaps, a misfortune for composite photography, tliat while it required really 

 extraordinary car** and patience, it was very ea.sy to compound in an inferior uinnner. It became 

 |K)pular, especially in America, and a go<Hl de^l was published which is of small scientific 

 value and in which no attempt was made at real analysis of the results. Thus Science pub- 

 lishc<i May 8, 1885, com|M>site portraits of American (n) Mathematicians, (/>) Nuturali'-t^. 

 (r) Acatlemicians and (d) Field Oeol<>f;ists, which lead us hardly furtiier than the c()uclu>i..n- 

 that all American scientist.s of those days were hairy, and that mathematicians while liiini,' 

 least so had more frown. Comixisites of Washington in three aspects (6'ctV»i(v, Dec. 1 1, l.'^s.'i) 

 are somewhat more succt-ssful : i'ciV)(C« also published (on May 7, 1 886) composites of American 

 Indians, but the components were few in numl)er. Further composite photoffraphs were made 

 of undergraduates and graduates of various American Colleges (Ja8tn;)w, 1887, did 21 John.s 

 Hopkins doctors- of philosophy for the years 188G-7: Century, March, 1887. The latter 

 also contains a fairly successful family composite of father, mother, five sons and one daughter). 

 A [Kwsibly more scientific use of composite photography was that by Persifor Frazer (Ameri<an 

 Dnlimtphical HoeiHy, Vol. XXMI, pp. 4.33-41, 1888 and Franklin I'mtilHU: Juuriuil, Feb. I8S(), 

 p. 123) U> obtain an average signature. He illustrates it by one of Oe<)rge Washington, and 

 thinks the process could he used to determine the maximum deviation compatible with a non- 

 frirginl rcHult. In our own country Arthur Thomson in 1884 {Jonnutl of Auatomi/, Vol. xix, 

 p. lo'.t) tried to apply it to obtain type Australian and Flurofx-an crania; the components txiing too 

 ft!W, and the superposition not very satisfactory, the rt>sults are not to lie taken as condemning 

 the application of the method in craniometry. The {Missibilitics of composite photography in 

 this mattt-r had been referre*! to by (ialton at the 1881 York im»eting of the Hritish AssiK-ia- 

 tion : see Trantartum*, p. (»90. Whipple adopted the process for the re<luction of meteorological 

 ohttervations (Quarterly Journal of Meteorohx/ieal Society, Vol. ix, p. 189), and it can clearly be 

 ••mploye<l in harmonic analysis. There is no doubt tliat Oalton's idea was taken up by many, 

 but it may be doubt«l whether any one but the originator appreciate<l the amount of cuw and 

 pali'^ rod to pnxluce a good composite. At the same time I cannot pass over the fm-t 



that lUmiana there exists a splendid series (not by Gidt^m) of racial com|K>sit«s, Wi-nds 



and .Sixuiui, ihey are probably of German origin. I am unawai-e if they have been published. 



