416 Life ami Letters of Franeu Galton 



Gallon's foundiitioii was influencetl by his correspomlence with Florence 

 Nightiiif^ale concerning this chair of applied statistics. When I souglit a 

 name in I'Jll ("or tlie new ilejiartment which should conihino tiie Hioint'tric 

 and Gallon Eugenics Lalwratories, no fitter and more historically worthy 

 name occurn*<l to me than that of" "Applied Statistics." Were 1 a man of 

 wealth I would see that Florence Nightingale wius commemorated, not oidy 

 by the activities syndxilised by the " Lady of the Lamp," but by the activi- 

 ties of the "Passionate Statistician." 1 woidd found a Nightingale Chair 

 of Ai)plie<l Statistics to airry out the ideal expressed in the letters below. 



The first reference of Florence Nightingale to Francis Galton occurs in a 

 very characteristic letter of hers to Captain (later Sir) Douglas Galton. It 

 is tiatetl August 7, 18G7. In this letter she refens to a Standing Committee 

 which was being appointed to consider contrivances for dealing with the 

 wounded afler a battle. The keynote to her letter is that appliances kill : 

 Do away with all huts and marquees, give the wounded plenty of air and 

 tend them on the battlefield. For every man that dies of liis wound five or 

 six die of the doctors and the removing; as to medicines, make the doctors 

 swallow them all, all that is wanted is a little brandy and a grejit deal of 

 water. But if the wounded are to be tended in extemporised shelters on 

 the battlefield somebody must be on the committee who understands rough 

 shelters. 



"The only person who has written anything worth having on travelling apparatus is Mr 

 Francis Galton, a cousin of yours I believe; I should put him on the Standing Committee, if 

 possible." 



It is not till twenty-four years later that Florence Nightingale again 

 seeks the advice of Francis Galton ; he was then 69 and she over 70. She was 

 reviving one of the great dreams of her younger days and he, with no sign 

 yet of age, wjis then actively contributing not a little towards its realisjiiion. 



10 SoDTH Street, Park Lane, W. Feb. 7, '91. 

 Scheme of Social Physics Teaching. 



Dkar Sir, Sir Douglas Galton ha.s given me your most kind message; saying that if I will 

 explain in writing to you what I think needs doing, you will be so good as to give it the 

 experienced attention without which it would be worthless. By your kind leave, it is this : 



A scheme from someone of high authority as to what should be the work and subjects in 

 teaching Social Physics and their practical application in the event of our Ix^ng able to obtain 

 a Statistical Professorship or lU'adersbip at the University of Oxford. 



I am not thinking so much of Hygiene and Sanitary work, W-ause these and their statistics 

 have lieen more closely Ktuilied in England than probably any other branch of statistics, though 

 much remains to be desiriHl : as e.g. the n-sult of the food aiul cooking of the iKK>r as seen in the 

 children of thf Infant Schooln and th<».se of somewhat higher ages. Hut I would — subject always 

 to your criticism and only for the sake of illustration— mention a few of the other branches in 

 which we appear hardly to know anything, e.g. 



A. The results of Forster's Act, now 20 years old. We sweep annually into our Elementary 

 Schmls hundre<lH of thousands of children, s|>ending millions of money. Do we know: 



(i) \N hat proportion of children forget their whole education after leaving school; whether 

 all they have Ijeen taught is uxulrl The almost accidental statistics of Ouanls' recruits would 

 point to a lai^ proportion. 



