Characterisation, especially by Letters 497 



year. The result will be to create a truly valuable series, and at present a unique one. I pre- 

 sume that R II means the right forefinger, so that R I would be the thumb, and R III 

 the right mid-finger? Kindly tell me the baby's full name for future reference. If I publish 

 anything about these, should you object to my mentioning names? If you dislike this, 

 I would idenitfy them by initials. As regards the other digits of which you have taken prints, 

 which you kindly offer to send me, I should be very grateful for them. Whatever is said about 

 the R II which I have, would apply to these also. Your zeal is deserving of the warmest 

 recognition. I can assure you that I fully appreciate and am grateful for what you have done. 

 I would be greatly obliged if you would describe the method you adopt of getting the prints 

 — how do you pacify the baby? How do you hold it? What printing materials do you use? 

 I am very ignorant of baby-ways, but my assistant, who tried hard with his baby-granddaughter, 

 found he succeeded best when it was sleepy. I could fancy drilling the child to a game of pat- 

 mid, at the judicious moment, direct two of its pats, the first upon the inked slab, the 

 second upon the paper. 



I hope to be back in England in time to receive any letter that may be written by you a 

 week after receiving this. With kind regards to yourself and your husband and with every 

 wish for the baby's health in whom I naturally shall always take interest, 



Believe me, Faithfully yours, Francis Galton. 



Note by Mrs Gardiner. When my daughter, Dorothy Gardiner, was six days old I sat up 

 in bed long enough to take the prints of her fingers. After that prints were taken every day 

 of all digits, for some time. Then every week — subsequently every month — and later on yearly 

 until she was about seven years old. The prints were sent to Mr Galton — a few of them proving 

 good enough for reference, but the majority of the early ones were not very good. I should 

 judge from the letter above that I sent a sample of one finger only, before burdening 

 Mr Galton with the great number taken. We returned to Boulder, Colorado in August 1895. 



[Post-card.] 



42, Rutland Gate, London. May 7, 1896. 



Just a line to acknowledge safe receipt of the very good finger-prints. You have (mite 

 acquired the art of taking them. In a few days I shall be free to photographically enlarge them 

 and to send them with a duplicate of those that were accidentally destroyed, and will write then 

 more at length, in the meantime let me say how grateful I should be for the prints of such 

 Other babies as you may hope to obtain repeated prints from, at an interval of not less than 

 about a year, the object being to accumulate evidence for or against persistency during early 

 childhood. 



Red Indian dabbed prints of the three first fingers (fore, mid, and ring) of right hand only 

 would be very acceptable. In that form, they would be comparable with all my other race 

 collections. Those from school-children would be every whit as good as those from adults. 



Very faithfully, Francis Galton. 



[I had offered to obtain prints from American Indians, if desired, through the services of 

 some University Students whose homes were close to an Indian School at Grand Junction, 

 Colorado. M.G.O.] 



Copied from the Original by Dorothy Gardiner. 



42, Rutland Gate, London. June 2, 1896. 



Dear Mrs Gardiner, At last I have the pleasure of sending the photos of your baby's 

 fingers. My photographer was busy about preparations for the eclipse, hence the delay. 



Those I enclose are direct from the enlarged negatives; those I send separately by book post, 

 are paper enlargements in the camera, from those negatives. 



T have not regularly studied them yet. It will take time to go into all their details in the 

 way I want, and I must defer it. You probably will like to examine them, and I think in doing 

 so, you may find help from my book Decipherment of Blurred Finger-prints which my publisher 

 will send for your acceptance. 



p G in 63 



