StntUtirnl InmsHfjatimiK ^ 3rt0 



hicli wiiH (;iiitu<<l wliilu wcirking at tho fiiiiiily liiHtoricN of a iiiultituilo 

 of iiidividualM. Tlioy were so tnbuliitod that the iiKKlical history of any individual roiild \n- •■'>•.. 

 C(Mi1(kI by tlic liaiid or by a sheet of ]>iipor, while thoM! of all liis imniedinU^ ain-citoiH, ii.i 

 parcntH, jjraiidpariints, uncles, and aunts, were (•xpo8e<l. T rxjierim(>nte<l fnw|uontly iti ijii' n- 

 •t the cause of death of a (l<'oeJise<l individual from the knowled^je of thoso of his aiii >•-' i \ . md 

 T found my jjuesHos to be on the wiiole groswly incorrect'. Hut though the Kt«te«l cause ot di'ath 

 eoiild not ixi predieto<I with any approach to a useful dej^ree of accuracy, the iidieritance of 

 minor Hilments was conspicuously manifest. Kor this i-ea-son .some stress is laid in the Album 

 upon recordiuK them. For my own part, I find no reason why the dis<?ases of anct'stors 

 should be dfiscribed otlierwistt tlian with jwirfect honesty, ps{>e<'ially as a knowledge of them niav 

 induce their descendants to t-ake reasonable precautions against inlM)rn tx-ndencies, instead of 

 taking no precautions at all and doing thoniselves irropivrable injury out of pure ignorance." (p. 3.) 



The imblicatioii of the liecord of Family FuruUics iuid tlie Lifc-IIiHtory 

 Album biodiflit (Jiiltoii into touch with many families and individuals who 

 were deeply interested in heredity. TlipKe books also brought him material, 

 even if it was not ([uite jus adetiuate as he had ho])ed for; further, they jjjave him 

 an acknowledj^ed position with regard to human heredity, which enabled him to 

 prosecute more widely his in([uiries, and to focus a great deal of the somewhat 

 scattered attempts wliich were then being made in tliis Held. Nor did his works 



1^^ fail to find competitnrs. Mr Jonathan Hutchinson, who had been a member 

 ^kof the British Medical Association Committee, published in 1888 The Life 

 Register, which we might suppose to have derived some ideas from Galton's 

 work, did not the author tell us that it was in no sense a copy, "having been 

 in existence long l)efore the Album was puljlished." It is less elaborate than 

 Galton's and fails in any adequate description of how and what entries are 

 to be made. Quite recently much more ambitious Alhxuna have been pub- 

 lished in America demanding entries far more ninnerous than Galton's book. 

 On the whole that work takes the yHS<e7»?7/e«, and combines anthropometric 

 with medical details in iliir proportions. Galton was undoubtedly first in the 

 field with a pulilished vohune; that volume shows his chamcteristic talents, 

 and still remains the best Life- History Album available^ The insignificant 

 annual siile of the work is, however, fairly conclusive evidence of how little the 

 many persons who talk about eugenics and enrol themselves in societies for the 

 advance of eugenics do to carry out Galton's fundamental idea that every indi- 

 vidual should keep, in a standardised form, as perfect a register as possible of 

 his own and his stu'p's genetic possibilities. That is still a want for the future 

 to supply; and as without its fulfilment we must ourselves fail in eugenic 

 conduct, few of us have a right to preach eugenic morality to others. 



' One may hope shortly to see this result testefl on actual tabulated material. One of tho 

 chief difticulties lies in the fact that the lives of relatives are not exposed to equal risk, the 

 enviix)nnients and occupations may be so diffei-ent; probably the risk in the case of sisters will 

 l)e more nearly similar and give more conclusive results. Undoubtedly there are many pedignn-s 

 in which it would Ix^ safe to predict from the ancestral generations that at least 20 ° „ of the 

 new generation will bo afrecte<l with a given deformity or pathological condition. Would it be 

 reasonable by pre<licting for isolated individuals to s<vy that one's pre<liction was grossly incorrect 

 if four individuals out of five were free of the defect? I think prediction must procee<l on an 

 average or probability basis, and that in Galton's test where apparently only one individual's 

 cause of death was eonsideri«.l the /irobitliUiti/ of death from a iHirticular form of disease was 

 not really incorrect l)ecause that individual failwl to die of it. 



'-' It is still publislif<l by the Cambridge University Press, Fetter Tjane, E.G. 4. 



r o II 47 



