606 Life and Letters of Francis Gallon 



London (Hartog) called here to explain many matters. The authorities there are most friendly 

 to the Laboratory, and, as funds permit, will increase its scope. Hartog is an excellent official, 

 very able and of a very able Jewish family. One of his brothers was Senior Wrangler of his 

 year at Cambridge and another is a distinguished professor in Ireland. 



Ever affectionately, Francis Galton. 

 [In Evelyne Biggs' handwriting.] 

 Please thank Dim for her charming letter this morning and for copying out the Rosary so 

 beautifully, it is sweet of her. Thank you also for your nice letter. Eva. 



42, Rutland Gate, S.W. July 2, 1910. 



My dear Milly, The artistic touch of Mrs St Maur will indeed be grateful to you, and leave 

 abiding results in the garden. Beak's wife is steadily mending. The Doctor made a " culture " 

 of microbes from the contents of the swelling, and injected it as an anti-toxin. She leaves 

 hospital to-day and Beak is absent on the errand of escorting her home. I have had two rather 

 bad days and the Doctor on each, but am now in a fair way of getting well. Thanks for the 

 Morning Post. These journalists cannot write a column without blunder. It is so in this case, 

 but I won't go into details. The novel* has had a long set-back, having found the plot not to 

 be as useful a one as was wanted. I have at last re-cast it in a better form, but written nothing 

 yet. Some of what was written will still serve. I will keep you au courant. I expect Miss 

 Elderton every moment for the week-end and have asked a few friends for a Eugenics tea 

 to-morrow. Ploetz, the German author of the paper you kindly looked at for me, and who is 

 in London now about a Race Congress, will come. It is long since I last ventured out of doors, 

 but a convenient alteration has been made in my balcony fittings, which will make going in 

 and out of it still easier. What an extraordinary cavern seems to have been discovered in 

 Crooks' Peak, at Loxton. 300 feet long (as asserted) and wide in proportion. But measurement 

 may greatly reduce the figures. Fancy in digging a deep well, suddenly breaking through the 

 roof of a big cavern and tumbling through!! Eva is quite well again and sends her love. 



Ever affectionately yours, Francis Galton. 



42, Rutland Gate, S.W. July 11, 1910. 



My dear Milly, Best congratulations on your motor. May it serve you well and safely 

 to others! A dear old dog of Arthur Butler's has just been knocked down by one, much hurt, 

 but they hope not mortally. You do not say who drives you in Guy's absence. Mrs Beak 

 seems to go on well. I told him of your inquiries. She has to go weekly to the Hospital to he 

 injected and seen to. Ploetz proved to be a pleasant acquaintance and full of " go." A fair- 

 haired South German. My novel gets on but is quite re-written. I now get up an hour before 

 breakfast and lie down for a bit after. The plan seems to suit well. A particularly good article 

 in the Westminster Review on " The Scope of Eugenics," signed by H. J. Laski, was sent me 

 among other Press cuttings. The name was unknown to me, so I wrote to him " Care of the 

 Editor," and hear from Laski this morning in a very nice, modest letter that he is a school-boy 

 at Manchester, aged 17!! It is long since I have been so much astonished. The lad has 

 probably a great future before him and he will make a mark if he sticks to Eugenics, which 

 he says has been his passion for two years. I as yet know nothing more about him, but hope 

 to learn. Gertrude Butler has been staying for a few days with us. She and Eva get on very 

 well indeed together. 



You on the West Coast have sunnier weather than we have. I have not been able to get 

 out for a full fortnight, more than once, and that only for half-an-hour, on the balcony. How 

 good strawberries are this year! Best loves to you all. 



Ever affectionately, Francis Galton. 



* This is the first mention in a letter to Mrs Lethbridge of Galton's Utopia, Kanlsaywhere. 

 It had clearly been a topic of conversation between Sir Francis and his niece during her visit 

 to Rutland Gate in May and June of this year. The first idea of the " Eugenic State " appears 

 to have come to Galton in 1901, for I find in a note-book of that year, taken to the Riviera, the 

 draft of the family characteristics and a description of the home of the " Donoghues of Dunno 

 Weir" (" Don't-know-who's of Don't-know-where "). Galton had obviously been planning his 

 Utopia for nine years. It was thus not a mere hasty product of his last days. 





