602 Life and Letters of Francis Gallon 



The Rectorv, Haslemere. December 26, 1909. 



My dear Milly, So another Xmas has come and gone, and your peppermints have helped 

 us to enjoy it. I am so glad that news had reached you from South Africa before the 25th, other- 

 wise you must all have been worried. What you tell me of Friiulein Ronath's report of German 

 opinion about my precious self simply amazes me. I feel sure there must have been imaginative 

 exaggeration of merely civil answers to her leading questions. I doubted if twenty people in 

 Germany knew of my existence. Anyhow, it is very kind of Fraulein R., though I cannot accept 

 the over-flattering sentiments she conveys. Violet Galton is with us now. She was to have 

 Xmas'ed with her sister Amy at Keston, but the domestic establishment got suddenly all wrong, 

 I forget precisely what. Anyhow, another servant was wanted and could not be had. Eva is 

 distinctly better and has lost her thinness; fat is a great help towards keeping truant kidneys 

 at home. We look forward ever so much to January 3. With all loves. 



Ever affectionately, Francis Galton. 



The Rectory, Haslemere. January 6, 1910. 



My dear Milly, Your welcome letter arrived this morning. I am glad that your long 

 journey home ended without mishap. Thank you again, sincerely, for having come. My "one 

 snipe" that has given me occupation every day for months past, namely the "Numeralised 

 Profiles," is — to continue the metaphor — being stuffed. In plain words, it is printed and I send 

 back the proofs to-day. You shall have a copy of it as soon as published, not improbably at the 

 end of this week. In the meantime there is a placid interval, because I cannot write for material 

 to work on until it, the article, is out. 



Hesketh Pearson is here for the week-end. Pan (Josephine) Butler was to have come also, 

 but is in bed with a cold. Last night we had jugged hare for dinner. I had insisted on its being 

 jugged before otherwise cooked. It was excellent; twice, three-times, ten-times better than a 

 jugged rechauffe. I believe this is the only event worth mentioning. 



Ever affectionately, with loves to you all, Francis Galton. 



The Rectory, Haslemere. January 6, 1910. 



My dear Leonard Darwin, I am very comfortably lodged here, and am pulling through 

 the winter fairly well. It gave me much pleasure to read your proposal about honorary members 

 to the Geographical Club. The rule is adopted, as you may know, at the Royal Society Club, 

 but I think their limit of paying membership exceeds what you propose (1 20 years). 



Oh dear! how people die. Life seems to me as occurring on an endless belt. Babies are 



A( Z/Z> (ffD B 



dropped on it through a hopper at A, they grow, frisk, and age, and drop off in senile imbecility 

 at B. I don't yet feel my faculties to wane distinctly, but I tire very soon. 



An article of mine, of which I return the proofs this day to Nature, may perhaps interest 

 you. It is a literal fact that you can convey a very respectable profile likeness in four telegraphic 

 "words"; that is, in four groups of figures, five figures in each group. I give illustrations. With 

 kindest remembrances to your wife. Ever sincerely yours, Francis Galton. 



The Rectory, Haslemere. January 9, 1910. 



My dear Leonard Darwin, It was a pleasure to hear some talk of you. I am settled 

 here for the winter, very comfortably but increasingly feeble in body. The air of Haslemere 

 suits me well. 



I am very glad you continue well disposed towards Eugenics. The problems connected with it 

 are difficult and statistically most laborious. I notice that in your lecture you do not take account 

 of differential fertility, which to my mind is the most important of all factors in Eugenics. 

 H. Spencer's law about the diminished fertility of the most differentiated animals seems to be 

 an excellent guess founded on a priori data. 



