'MS Ijife and Letterif of Francis Galton 



y>y aach ex*ct prooowM of reiwoning to their results, that all minds are obliged to accept the 

 latter as true. It is not to lie expect^xl that tin-so strinpent conditions Hhould he rigorously 

 obaerrod in ever}* memoir 8ul)i)iitt«<l to u scientific meeting, but they must nut Im.' too largely 

 violatMl ; and we have to consider whether the subjei-ts actually discussed in Section F do 

 not depart so widely from the scientitic ideal its to make them unsuitiible to the British 

 Aaaociation." 



Gallon's test of what constitutes science is clear^ — it is that of a niathe- 

 niatical physicist— and rigidly applied it would exclude large regions of 

 liiology, including possihly the doctrine of evolution. 



But it emphasises exactly Galton's feeling with regard to much of what 

 pa8se<l for statistics in 1877, that old type of statistics which liud no theo- 

 retical basis, while Galton was working for a new type; he would willingly 

 have transferred Section F to the Social Science Congress. But what could 

 be said against Section F applied e«jually to and remained true till at least 

 the end of the nineteenth century of the Royal Statistical Society itself. 

 The opposite j)oint of view Wiis taken by Dr W. P'arr ; he cited a long list 

 of inut/ainatical statisticians from Halley to Poisson, wlio were undoubtedly 

 men of science. But this was no retil reply to Galton, for these men woukl 

 have frequented Section A, and the atmosphere of Section F, or indeed of 

 the Sttitisticnl Society, would have been a.s distasteful to them as to Galton. 

 Probably the right procedure would have been to permeate Section F with 

 the newer type of stati.sticians. This process has been more or less successful 

 in the course of the last twenty years in the case of the Statistical Society. 

 There is still opportunity for the modern school of statisticians to adopt a 

 similar course with regard to Section F. 



B. STATISTICS BY SCHEDULE-ISSUES. 



We have seen that Galton had great hopes from the schoolmaster as a 

 collector of statistical data, but he by no means confined himself to this source 

 of information. We have also noted how he appealed to English men of 

 science, and to his many personal friends and others. In' issuing schedules in 

 preparing his books. The ^'a/fomaJia contain numerous instances in which he 

 issued intjuiry schedules, and in some cases we possess considerable numbers 

 of these filled in. As a rule, however, I cannot find that he published 

 anything Ijearing on the subject of the proposed inquiry. ICither he never 

 iasued the schedule after printing it, or having issued it he was discontented 

 with the (piantity or the quality of the returns, and so made no use of them. 

 Yet several of these schedides are so suggestive of the workings of Galton's 

 mind, that they deserve a brief notice here. 



Before 1876 Galton was much interested not only in the inheritance of 

 longevity, but also in the influence of the age of parents on the vigour of 

 their offspring. The schedule he issued is entitled " Iiicpiiry into the Ilelation 

 between Vigour in the Offspiing and Age in the Parents. ' and it is jjrt'fiiced 

 by the remark : 



"TnatanccH are sought of old persons of Ixjth sexes, who have retained their bcxlily vigour 

 and activity in vcrj- advanced life. It is desired to know the ages of their fathers and mothers 

 at the time of their birth." 



