Characterisation, especially by Letters 499 



42, Rutland Gate, London. May 30, 1903. 



Dear Mrs Gardiner, Your letter of Feb. 23 reached my house while I was away for the 

 winter. Now that I have returned, let me thank you very much for the enclosure of Winifred 

 Palmer's, act. 6 years, prints. They will do very well, hut perhaps as the years go by you will 

 kindly let me have another set when she is older and becomes more submissive to the printer. 

 I should also be very glad of future prints of the other children so far as you can easily get 

 them. There are sure to be some useful points of comparison, which can be utilised. Now to 

 show my "gratitude" (in the cynical sense given to that word, of a "lively hope of future favours"), 

 let me tell you my present needs. I am taking up finger-prints again, from a new and hopeful 

 point of view and send printed papers by this post to explain. You will see that I want two 

 things, of which the second includes the first: 



( 1 ) Prints of the two forefingers of many adults in quadruplicate and rolled. 



(2) Prints as above of batches of relatives of all ages. 



The circular speaks of a small outfit that would be willingly sent to those desirous of 

 helping, but I hardly know how to send this to America at a reasonable cost. However I will 

 make a trial, believing them to fall under the head of "Printed paper" (etc. or, 1) "Samples." 



The tin box is this size. [Here follows a sketch of the box in plan and section, showing red 

 india-rubber inker and tube of ink. Enclosed with the letter was a circular of instructions and 

 explanations concerning a "Proposed Collection of Finger-Prints. By Francis Galton."] 



It can be passed in England as a liter, in a "safe-transit" envelope, together with forms, 

 ami a printed envelope to return it, all for two-pence, in fact they only just exceed the 1 .',</. 



ap. So I can send them readily in this country, if not abroad also. But you have the 

 printing outfit, so would not want one for your own use, even if what I now send miscarries. 

 I sin mid indeed be greatly obliged for help in making the necessary collection. The problems, 

 which it ought to assist in solving, are of high importance and the attempts I have recently 

 made, with such limited material as I possess, give much hope. 



Very faithfully yours, Francis Galton. 



The envelope enclosed in the packet — for return — is not stamped because I possess no 

 American postage stamps. 



[Pursuant to request contained in this letter I obtained prints of a considerable number of 

 relatives — parents, uncles, aunts, cousins, double-cousins, etc. in both branches of my own 

 family, and sent them to Mr Galton in the books with which he provided his contributors. 

 M.G.O.] 



42, Rutland Gate, S.W. July 16, 1907. 



My dear Mrs Gardiner, Tt is grievous to me that I shall miss seeing you and your 

 daughter. I leave London on Aug. 1 for the country, my precise address there being Yaffles, 

 Bindhead, I (aslemere, Surrey, a house which I have rented for six weeks (the extraordinary word 

 "Yaffle" means in the Surrey patois a "green woodpecker"). 



I have laid finger-printing aside now, as it thrives and flourishes in Scotland Yard, our 

 centre of prison administration, but for all that I think something more might be done in 

 classification. 



The series of finger-prints of your daughter will remain a classic in the history of the science. 

 It stands quite alone in its completeness from the first week of life — even from the day* of 

 birth — to girlhood. 



I may have occasion to run up to town for a day and if so will certainly endeavour to see 

 you if you will send me your London address. Very sincerely yours, Francis Galton. 



Don't call me "Dr" please — I hate the epithet, except on formal occasions. 



[In my daughter's 13th year we visited for a few weeks her father's relatives in Scotland 

 and England, spending a short time in London before we sailed for home. I hoped to be able to 

 call upon Dr Galton, whom I had never seen, and wrote to him shortly before we went up to 

 London, but because of his absence from town failed to meet him. M. G. O.] 



* This is not quite accurate — I sat up and took the first prints of my daughter on the 

 'i, day after her birth. M. G. O. 



63—2 



