490 Life and Letters of Francis Galton 



Letters of Galton copied from the Originals by Maud Gardiner Odell. 



" The first letter is an answer to a letter from my husband asking about 

 possible observations and measurements, yielding desirable data, to be made 

 upon infants. My daughter arrived Nov. 5 at Naples where we were spending 

 the winter, my husband being on leave of absence from his work at the 

 University of Colorado, U.S.A. Dept. of Biology." 



42, Rutland Gate, London. October 6 (?), 1894. 



Dear Sir, I cannot help you much. Preyer's books are probably within your reach at 

 Naples. I have received from time to time from the United States pamphlets on the subject. 

 There is now one on my table by a Mrs Shand (?) — California — Part III, this being on a child 

 aet. 3, the preceding parts being presumably about an earlier age. (It is in a cover like the 

 Smithsonian publications.) I have had so little to do with children in my life, that I have not 

 interested myself in the inquiries about them and am therefore too ignorant to be an adviser. 

 I should think that the observation of the increasing power of muscular co-ordination, and that 

 of muscle with will, would be as good a clue as any to direct you. I suppose the colour-sense is 

 developed quite early? 



I heartily wish you would take finger-prints of the child at the earliest possible age, with a 

 view of determining whether there is any alteration in the papillary ridges during babyhood. 

 I have next to no data for investigating this. They are by no means easy to take, partly 

 on account of the restiveness of the infant, chiefly on account of the very slight relief of the 

 papillary ridges. In effect it is very delicate printing. You ought to use the thinnest possible 

 layer of rather fluid printer's ink, spread on a polished plate, and dabbing the child's fingers on 

 it, dab them immediately after on smooth paper. Don't attempt to get any more than a lightish 

 brown impression — Black is an impossibility. It is clearness that one wants. Unquestionably 

 the most delicate impression of all, is in varnish thickly spread, that has been exposed suffi- 

 ciently long to the air to have a slight pellicle over it. Dabbing the finger on this leaves a 

 beautiful but transient impress, not so transient however as to prevent a cast being taken from 

 it, if the plaster is at hand and in readiness to use. In regard to instruments for measuring 

 the growth of the soft dimensions of a baby, I cannot tell you and doubt much if such measure- 

 ments are ever to be trusted. You would have to exercise a strictly constant pressure. 



Faithfully yours, Francis Galton. 



P.S. I am not " Sir Francis." 



To Prof. John Gardiner. 



Address to: 42, Rutland Gate, London. July 21, 1895. 



Dear Mrs Gardiner, Your letter and the most interesting series of prints of your baby's 

 R II reached me on the Continent yesterday morning and I have already gone over them 

 carefully twice, with the aid of such lenses as I have by me. 



The general result is that about eight points of reference admit of being compared at different 

 periods of growth and show in a very instructive way how the ridges become more and more 

 sharply differentiated. I must wait till I get back, to study them as thoroughly as they deserve. 

 They ought to be photographically enlarged — that is to say, the best prints and the most im- 

 portant of them. This I will do when I return home. On more than half of the days after 

 birth, from the ninth to the thirty-fifth, on which prints were taken, namely, in the first 18 sets 

 of prints, one and sometimes two prints are clear enough to study. These are always the darkest 

 of their respective sets. From the ninth week to the thirty-first inclusive, six sets were taken, 

 but unfortunately not one of these is distinct enough to be of use. I wonder what the cause 

 of failure here can be? Perhaps the materials were not so good. That taken in the thirty-sixth 

 week is quite serviceable. 



What remains to be done, to thoroughly deal with this finger, is to get some really good 

 impressions now, such as will show the delta as well as the core. For this purpose, if you cannot 

 roll the finger a little, you might take some of the prints slightly from the side of the finger, 

 the thumb side in this case. Also to very kindly let me have some prints, one set in each future 



