StfitiMfical Inrt'sfiz/atitniM 4 1 1 



njent« of ftbboys, etc., as tlwelling hoii8t«, to their low HituationH unci ImuI 

 (liaiiiairo, so that those who hau oxpurionce of them would l>e the more 

 ready to tu'W w\uin tlie j)ictiiieH(|Uoiic.sH and romnnce of old Itiiildin^s created 

 a fictitious market value. Although this, (inlton lulmitA, is pure speculation, 

 it may indicate that mundane rejisons and not supernatural interferences 

 really accoimt for the excess of transmissions hy purchase'. 



1 have reserved one st^tisticjil paper I)ecau8e of its special importance for 

 a last illustration of Galton's statistical iiK/enium, It appeared in Aujfust 

 IDO'J, when he was more than 80 years old'. Its title conveys no idea of its 

 value and would sugge.st that it clealt only with a minor if interesting |K)int. 

 Hut Galton's niethoa of proportioning first and second prizes demands a 

 knowledge of the avenige interval U^tween the first, the second and 

 the third place men in a competition between a numljer n of individuals. 

 Hitherto statistical freijuency had l)een looked upon as a continuous distri- 

 bution, which could be represented by the equation to a mathematicjil 

 curvi'. 1 know no one before Galton, in 11)0-', who had proposed to consider 

 a population for what it really is — a discontinuum with finite intervals 

 between its individual members when arninged in order of their intensities 

 with regard to a given character. What are the average values of these finite 

 intervals, and how do they vary? What we now term Galton's Individual 

 Difference Problem created at once a whole set of new conceptions and sug- 

 gested tjuestion.s, a few only of which have as yet been answered. But the 

 explanation of certain well-recognised phenomena flowed at once. Taking 

 only 100 individuals supposed to follow a normal distribution for any char- 

 acter the interval Ijetween the 50th and 51st is only one-tenth of the interval 

 between the 9yth and 100th, or between the Ist and 2nd. Given very 

 large populations indeed mediocrity is crowded together; the exceptional are 



' It is clearly inipossiWo to j?ivc n suniniiiry of nil Galton's many contributions to Nctliiy, 

 or of his letters to the daily press, although so many of them contain thoughts or suggestimis, 

 which it is sad should not be put on more permanent record. The curious may care to read i»i/fr 

 alia (a) a long lett«;r to the Timi-n, OctolH>r 6, 1887, entitled "The Propost-d Imperial Institute: 

 Geography and Anthi-opology," — the word "Statistics" might have l)een nddinl. We fear the 

 existing Institute, largely deprived by cheeseparing governments of its own buildings, falls far 

 short of Gallon's ideal. (A) Nature, Vol. xxxvi, pp. l.'iS-T (June IG, 1887) contains a paper 

 on " North American Pictogniphs." "rheso interested Galton from more than one side. He thought 

 the pictographic calendars of the Indians might Ik- modernised for family reconls, and for some 

 years was wont to have a small medallion drawn illustrating his own faniily occurrences in the 

 year. He considered it po.ssible to think by aid of pictographs as I.iaura Hridgeman ha<l found an 

 adecjuate basis for the exercise of a considerable amount of reasoning in the univssisted sense 

 of touch. So also ilogs may be occasionally "carrying out some real act of thought b\' aid of 

 imagined and symbolic odours." This will seem fantastic only to those who have not observeti 

 what a Pekingese dog does when introducwl for the first time to a new house with unknown 

 occupants, (c) "A New Step in Statistical Science" {Xntnn; Vol. i.i, p. 319, Jan. .11. 189,5) 

 deserves mention, as typical of Galton's splendid generosity to the younger generation when it 

 came knocking at the door. Such innate generosity appears also in {d) a paper on "Bertillon's 

 System of Identification" {Nature, Vol. Liv, pp. .'569-70, Oct. 8, 1896), wherein the "Signaletic 

 Instructions" there was a not very happy attempt to claim finger-print identification as a 

 French discovery. 



* "The Most Suitable Proportion between the Values of First and Second Prizes." Bio- 

 vietrika. Vol. i, pp. 380-90. 



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