216 



Life and Letters of Francis Galton 



Note to Chapter X V. 



Finger-Prints as Reminiscences. As some collect autographs and others 

 photographs, so we may collect finger-prints as mementoes of friends or of great 

 men. Such a collection was formed by Francis Galton, and, the circumstances 

 not always being favourable for a printer's ink impression, he not infrequently 

 fell back on sealing-wax. In the Galtoniana are many sealing-wax impressions 

 of Galton's friends. Thus we have Herbert Spencer's and quite a number of 

 Sir W. R. Grove's* prints. The process of pressing the finger on hot wax was 

 not always without pain, as is indicated in the accompanying 1893 Christmas 

 greeting of Addington Symonds' daughter Katherine to Francis Galton. 



Fig. 42. A Christmas Greeting to Francis Galton "from an affectionate and admiring friend." 



Among the prints of famous men to be found in Galton's Album of Prints 

 are those of Gladstone, Zola, Wallace, Herbert Spencer, etc. ; the Darwins, 

 the Vernon Harcourts, the Garrods and many other families also appear. 

 Galton himself had a seal cut from his right ring finger print, and this is 

 still used on the name cards at the Annual Galton Laboratory Dinner. There 

 are many other relics of Galton's early finger-print collecting days, e.g. prints 

 of idiots, of farm labourers, of the Herschels at different ages, and occasionally 

 foot and hand prints, as well as some finger-prints of apes. For some years 

 Galton must have always had a finger-printing apparatus in his pocket, and 

 possibly, like all men with a dominating hobby, have been somewhat of a 

 trial to his acquaintances. 



* Of combined legal and scientific fame ! 



