Stat'mtical fit rent if/atiouM 396 



rciulor familiar, also his latest instruments and tho noetl for considering the 

 correlation of cliaracters. 



Then Galton parses to objections. It had been stated that many threat 

 commanders and stratej^ists had a poor physi(jne, and that a Nelson might be 

 I'xcluded. But tlie proposal did not exclude anylxxly, that was for the pass 

 medical examination to do. Ileally able men would not be excluded by the 

 marks i'oi- physicivl efficiency, which it wjis proposed should touch otdy lw>rder- 

 line ciuses. 



Another objection was that anthropometric tests did not reach the 

 important (piality of energy, which includes pluck, strong will and endurance. 

 Galton admits lacuiuie here, as in mental testing. 



"We must bo content with what we can get. It ia not impomible that practical tentH of 

 energy in some of its fonns may yet be diacovcred. It must be awiociated with physiological 



signs that we Imve not yet liml the wit to discover." (p. '24.) 



The thin! objection Galton discusses is the supposed untrustworthiness 

 of the examination he proposes. There is, he says, no rea-sf)!! to suppo.su that 

 it would be more untrustworthy than a literary examination, and he cites for 

 variability of judgment in a literary examination Edgeworth's paper in the 

 Journal of the Stdtistical Societij of the same year'. 



Among problems which the lecturer held could be ultimately settled by 

 tests of this physical kind were the following : 



(1) Whether the proposed tests of physical efficiency contirmed the 

 results of athletic competitions. 



(2) Whether physical efficiency in youth corresponded to achievement in 

 utter life. 



(3) What type of physique was best suited to tropical climates. 



"It is cruel and costly to tempt youths to the tropics who are less constitutionally capable 

 than others of thriving there. If we could distinguish those who are fittetl for life in hot 

 countries, we should select them even though in other respects they may V>e somewhat wanting. 

 The tropical possessions of England are become so large that it is a niattt-r of national importance 

 to investigate this question thoroughly. It may yet be possible to find varieties of our race who 

 are capable of permanently establishing their families in those climates." (p. 25.) 



Thus the far-seeing Galton ; we are no nearer a settlement of these problems 

 now than we were when he urged their importance, and the reason of it lies 

 in the fact that the data still fail us. One of his reasons for establishing 

 tests of physical efficiency is the stimulus it would give to the collection of 

 trustworthy records. 



him as a favour to price myself, just as if I was a light-coloured African; for I was curious 

 to know my worth as an animal. He took evident pains, and I think wa.s fairly honest, though 

 with a bias towards flattery. Having regarrl to the then high state of the market, he estimated 

 my worth, un the spot, at a nunilx»r of piastres that was about equal to £"10." (p. 20.) 



The price of ivdult negro slaves in 1690 (Davenant) was £26. Sir William Petty after 

 elalxjrate calculations valued an Englishman at £69, which King some twenty years later 

 reduced to £6.5. The most recent valuation that I have come across is that of the average 

 American citizen at about £400 (Davenport). It must be admitted therefore that Galton, 

 aged 23, would have been a distinctly chea]> bargain at £20. 



' Vol. LUi, pp. 460-75, 644-^63, 1890, and compare Vol. Li, pp. 599-635, l.^S.S, and 

 Phil. Mag. 1890, pp. 171-88. 



