124 Life and Letters of Francis Galton 



it too hot to run to the hill, and facing the distant stand he watched the 

 massed faces on the grand stand before the race and just as the horses ap- 

 proached the winning post. The result of his observations was communicated 

 to Nature*, and runs thus: 



The Average Flush of Excitement. 



" I witnessed a curious instance of this on a large scale, which others may look out for on 

 similar occasions. It was at Epsom, on the Derby Day last week. I had taken my position not far from 

 the starting-point, on the further side of the course, and facing the stands, which were about 

 half a mile off, and showed a broad area of white faces. In the idle moments preceding the 

 start I happened to scrutinise the general effect of this sheet of faces, both with the naked eye 

 and through the opera-glass, thinking what a capital idea it afforded of the average tint of the 

 complexion of the British upper classes. Then the start took place ; the magnificent group of 

 horses thundered past in their fresh vigour and were soon out of sight, and there was nothing 

 particular for me to see or do until they reappeared in the distance in front of the stands. So 

 I again looked at the distant sheet of faces, and to my surprise found it was changed in 

 appearance, being uniformly suffused with a strong pink tint, just as though a sun-set glow had 

 fallen upon it. The faces being closely packed together and distant, each of them formed a mere 

 point in the general effect. Consequently that effect was an averaged one, and owing to the 

 consistency of all average results, it was distributed with remarkable uniformity. It faded 

 away steadily but slowly after the race was finished. F. G." 



There is a notion still very current that gouty constitutions should avoid 

 stoneless fruits, in particular strawberries. Galton's creed was that: "General 

 Impressions are never to be trusted. Unfortunately when they are of long 

 standing they become fixed rules of life, and assume a prescriptive right not 

 to be questioned." What about gout and that noble fruit the strawberry % 

 Galton (as well as his biographer) had come across instances, wherein belief 

 dominating desire, enforced asceticism, and so deprived the believer of much 

 harmless pleasure, by dogmatically asserting harmful consequences. Judge 

 of Galton's joy while reading the biography of Linnaeus, at discovering that 

 the great naturalist, when the doctors failed to cure his gout, had got quit 

 of his disease by large doses of strawberries ! Galton wrote in 1899 a letter to 

 Nature^ on Linnaeus' strawberry cure for gout. One can see the twinkle in 

 his eye as he looked from his writing table towards Harley Street. 



"The season of strawberries is at hand, but doctors are full of fads, and for the most part 

 forbid them to the gouty. Let me put heart into those unfortunate persons to withstand 

 a cruel medical tyranny by quoting the experience of the great Linnaeus. ...Why should gouty 

 persons drink nasty waters at stuffy foreign spas, when strawberry gardens abound in 

 England?" 



A further characteristic letter appeared in Nature, December 20, 1906 

 (Vol. lxxv, p. 173) regarding the "Cutting a Round Cake on Scientific 

 Principles." The problem to be solved was clearly a personal one for 

 Sir Francis and his niece, who averaged a small cake every three days. 

 " Given a round tea-cake of some 5 inches across and two persons of moderate 

 appetite to eat it, in what way should it be cut so as to leave a minimum 

 of exposed surface to become dry?" The accompanying diagram shows 



* June 5, 1879 (Vol. xx, p. 121). 



t June 8 (Vol. lx, p. 125). See D. H. Stoever, Life of Sir Charles Linnceus, 1794 (Eng. 

 Trans.), p. 416. 



