302 Life find Letters of Fronds (ialton 



character is Iwised'. In this case a static pliotoj^raph would only lead to a 

 negative, an)eit imjMjrtant conclusion'. 



From CJaltun's outlook on mankind the mentjility and physicjue of its 

 stirps were of fii-st-chvss importance to the child, and he eiuphiisised the value 

 of a flimily record matie on a standardised plan to the child as early as 1882 

 (Fortnightly lievit'w, January, 1882, pp. 2G-31), and of such a record (lalton 

 held an essential feature to be a series of photographs. 



"Obtain photographs periodically of yoursi'lves and of your children, making it a family 

 custom to do 80, becausn unless driven by sonic custom the act will Ix; postponed until the 

 opportunity is lost. I^et these periodical photographs Ix; full and side views of the face on an 

 adequate scale, and add any others you like, but do not omit these. As the portraits accumu- 

 late have collections of them autotypoil. 'lake possession of the original negatives, or have 

 them stored in safe keeping, lal)elled and easy to get at. They will not fade', and the time may 

 come when they will lie valuable for obtaining fresh prints or for enlargement. Keep the prints 

 methodically in a family register, writing by their side all such chronicles as those that used to 

 find a place on the fly-leaf of the family Bibles of past generations, and much more besides. 

 Into the full scope of that additional matter I do not propose now to enter. It is an interesting 

 and important topic that requires detailed explanation, and it is better for the moment not to 

 touch ujjon it." 



Here we see Galton's thoughts turning in the direction whence afterwards 

 arose his Record of Family Faculties and his Life-Histoi-y Album. 



"This, however, may Iwsaid, that those who care to initiate and carry on a family chronicle, 

 illustrated by abundant photographic portraiture, will produce a work that they and their 

 children and their descendants in more remote generations, will assuredly lie grateful for. The 

 family tie has a real as well as a sentimental significance. The world is beginning to perceive 

 that the life of each individual is in some reul sense a prolongation of those of his ancestry. 

 His character, his vigour and his discuses are principally theirs; sometimes his faculties are 

 blends of ancestral qualities, more frequently they are aggregates, veins of resemblance to one 

 or other of them showing now here and now there. The life-histories of our relatives ai-e, 

 therefore, more instructive to us than those of strangers; they are especially able to forewarn 

 and to encourage u.s, for they are prophetic of our own futures. If there is such a thing as a 

 natural birthright, I can conceive of none gi-eater than the right of each child to be informed, 

 at first by proxy through his guardians, and afterwards personally, of the life-history, medical 

 and other, of his ancesti-y. The child is brought into the world without his having any voice at 



' I think Charles Darwin realised this fully in 1873, and indicates it in the opening 

 sentences of his Expresaion, of the Emotions; for him " Expi-ession" itself means kinetic facial 

 changes. "Many works have been written on Kxpression, but a greater numl)er on Physi- 

 ognomy, — that is, on the recognition of character through the study of the permanent form of 

 the features. With this latter subject 1 am not here concerned.'' (p. 1.) 



' There might still be a chance for tho film. It would neetl a super-Galton to organise the 

 technique of a comi)osite film ! 



' This is alas! not the fact. Oalton had a large collection of prints and negatives of in- 

 dividuals and of composites. A very large proportion of the prints are now so faded as to be 

 useless; of many the subject is iudistinguisbable. When I turned to the negatives to replace 

 the jirinth-, I found many negatives had perished also, gone as yellow and faded as the prints, 

 and others were in jir<x;c8s of decay. Unle-ss imnie<liate steps 1k' Uiki^n to reproduce it in a per 

 nianent way, (Jalton's un])ublislic<l photographic work will have pracliailly perisliwl entirely 

 within ">0 years of its preparation. Failing some form of ink repnxiuction — and then it 

 must not Ik; on jjaper liulen with china clay — there is no real security for permanency in 

 photographic negatives and prints. The patchy preservation of Galton's negatives— some fiidtMl, 

 Mome excellent— shows that there is no security that negatives will survive fifty years, tli<' source 

 may lie in varied technique, or in varied quality of chemicals used. 



