PluUoyniphlc Htftearrhes and Portraiture 321 



At the British AHSociiition in 1898 (Jalton applied for and obtained the 

 appoiiitiiietit of a committee consisting of Professor E. B. Poulton, Pn)fe8s<jr 

 VV. K. li. VVeldon and himself "to promote the systematic colU'Ction of Photo- 

 ffruphic iind other lU^cords of Pedigree Stock." This Committee made a 

 Report to the Association meeting at Dover in 1899 and it was puhHshetl in 

 the li. A. Report for that year (pp. 424-29). The report etnpliasi.ses the 

 fact that while it is po.ssihh) in tlie various Stud-lKM^ks and Herd-lKxiks to 

 tnice the ancestry of pedigree stock, these works 



" iiiriinl sfiiiil niciiiis for o))tniniiig tliat. (iJHtiiict pri'.sciitiiiont of encli of the ftearer ancewtry 

 which is iiveded for itii exact nturly of the Art of Brt!cding." (p. 424.) 



Inibrmation is ahnost entirely confined to colour, or in the case of horses to 

 height at the withers. While photographs exist it is very difficult indeed to 

 i)l)taiii those of sire, dam and produce as adult -what Galton terms a genea- 

 logical tridd — and groups including the grandparents, even in the ciise of 

 pure-bred shorthorn cattle, are pnictically unattainable'. The reason Galton 

 finds is not far to seek : 



"H<>rt'<lity is a ooinparativeiy n«>w scionco and few p«'ople are a-s yet ac<{uuiiit4'(l with the 

 character of tiie recunls most suitahie for ita study, or are sullicieiitly iinpre».sc<l with the need 

 for their exactness and [x'rsistence. The most important of these records wliich it seems feasible 

 to oht^iin are photographs, not merely pretty and well worke<l-up productions satisfactory to an 

 artistic eye, liut rather such as are analoj.;ous to the portraits made of criminals, for storafje at 

 the central police otKco, to servo as future means of identification. The desiretl photographs 

 need to bo taken under such conditions as shall ensure their being comparable under equal 

 terms and shall admit of the accurate translation of meaaurementH made upon them into 

 corresponding measurements mode on the animals themselves." (p. 424.) 



The report then describes the Standard Conditions. These are modified 

 considerably from tho.se given in the Nature paper. There is to be a .solid wall 

 or screen painted blue, a .solid pathway in front of it of G feet width of light- 

 coloured bricks to show the horse's hoofs up in the photograph. Two lines are 

 drawn on the pathway, one two feet from the wall, and the other two feet 

 from the first; the edge of the path towards the camera is to show in the 

 photograph as a sharp line. On the wall are to be small marks or studs each 

 about the size of a sixpence, arranged in three verticiil and three horizontal 

 lines each at an exact distance of 3 feet apart, the bottom row being at a 

 foot above the path level; the camera is to be 30 feet from the wall, and its 

 optical centre at a height of 5 feet. 



"The ecjuivalent fix-us of the lens should not l)e less than 9 inches, otherwise' the photograph 

 will 1hi too small for convenient measurement; the lens used in the experiment [at the Royal 

 Agricultural Hall in March 1899] was of 13 inches focus, with plates of 6^ x 4| inches, and 

 proved exactly suitable." (p. 426.) 



The verticality of the focal plane and its parallelism to the wall are ascer- 

 tained by the stjuareness of the stud-network of the wall on the focal plane 

 screen. '1 he camera once adjusted is to remain undisturlied during a whole series 

 of operations. Prominent points on the horse or on cattle may be marked by 



' What Ualtoii wrote in 1899 remains equally true a quarter of a century later, 

 p Q II 41 



