422 Life and Letters of Francis Gait on 



It is stmn^e that Galton did not gi"afl)» that of his four alternatives (c), 

 Florence Nightingale's own suggestion, wiia the sole one that could lead to a 

 sc1kk)1 of "enthusiastic youngish men," and that even such young men could 

 not do their work in t^e spare moments of other employments ; it \va« not 

 oidy that they would need a lejuler, but they would need a livelihood. How 

 strangely ditferent the development of modern statistics might have been, 

 had Galton confined himself solely to Florence Nightingale's projxtsal of a 

 professorship and the creation of a school of social statistics or as she later 

 headed mnnc of her letters "Applied Statistics"! Boldly to have said we 

 need X50,000 or £60,000 to carry out a real scheme would have been the 

 wisest policy. Can we between us and with the aid of others who realise 

 our standpoint induce the public to see the importjince of the wlu)le matter, 

 and aid in such an endowment? Instead of appealing to the enthusiasm 

 that a big scheme might have raised, Galton drew up a memorandum to l)e 

 sent round to a number of prominent sUitisticians iusking their advice a.s to 

 the disposal of a sum of £4000 available to further the scientific study of 

 social problems from a statistical point of view. He stated that a plan had 

 provisionally commended itself for the distribution of throe hundred pounds 

 m honoraria of £50 each to a few selected writers, who should severally draw 

 up a list of what seemed to them to be the most feasible problems in the 

 branch of inquiry with which they were familiar. 



"It would be their part to think out and to draw up reasonable plans of campaign, specifying 

 the available data now in existence, and such other data as would be required, and which at 

 dw same time might be procured without serious ditiiculty." 



The simultaneous direction of these six highly competent pereons to 

 different branches of the same scheme would, Galton thought, greatly assist 

 in its inauguration and drawing public attention to its importance. 



The fundamental suggestion then made for the remainder of the endow- 

 ment was that of the lloyal Institution lectureship. There is no evidence 

 that this memorandum was ever issued, or received Florence Nightingale's 

 approval. Indeed some of the sentences in later letters seem to suggest that 

 it did not. She writes in a letter of April 19 (1891) with regard to the 

 subjects of the essays : 



"I would only suggest that the statistics on business which the Statistical Society so often 

 and K) wisely publishes are not quite the sort of thing, nor are Hygiene and Sanitation 

 proper, for which also there is already much large machinery, official and unofticial. And I 

 woald ask : Would 'the matters that affect a large part of the community' include such subjects 

 aa ao prem on my mind, and to which you have so generously given a home?" 



and then she reiterates the headings of the suggested topics of her fii-st 

 communication. Again, in a letter of a few days earlier evidently referring 

 to the leaders of the Statistical Society whom Galton proposed to consult : 



"Mr Oiffen, I suppone, is a bright pai-ticular star, but not in my line of business — that of 

 iDoral sanitation. Nor Sir J. Farrer. Also they are not your 'youngish men' whom you so 

 wiiely and so well prf)pf)se to collect and educate." 



It is not of importance for us now to know how far Galton's proposals 

 failed to satisfy Florence Nightingale, or how far further examination of 

 ••(•orMitiiif [)<iH>*iliiIiti(«8 on her own side cooled her ardour. 



