Eugenics as a Creed and the Last Decade of Galton's Life 221 



I quite understand now (I think) your point, and to a great extent agree with it. But 

 what are we humans to do, if any "eugenic " progress is attempted 1 We can't mate men and 

 women as we please, like cocks and hens, but we could I think gradually evolve some plan by 

 which there would be a steady though slow amelioration of the human breed ; the aim being 

 to increase the contributions of the more valuable classes of the population and to diminish 

 the converse. We now want better criteria than we have of which is which. 



Do what we can (within reasonable limits as regards mankind), fraternal variability will 

 never be much lessened; but I do think that the fraternal means might on the whole be raised. 



That is the problem, as it seems to me, to be held in view ; also that an exact knowledge 

 of the true principles of heredity would hardly help us in its practical solution. 



I do indeed fervently hope that exact knowledge may be gradually attained and established 

 beyond question, and I wish you and your collaborators all success in your attempts to obtain it. 



Very faithfully yours, Francis Galton. 

 Do you want your cobs of maize back 1 



This letter is of great importance ; it indicates that Galton had in view 

 only a " steady though slow amelioration of the human breed"; but it further 

 shows that in his opinion the exact mechanism of heredity, even if we could 

 find it out, was not of the highest importance. As an evolutionist he saw 

 mass-changes taking place, and he recognised that the statistical solution is 

 the one that has most importance for the eugenist. His statement that 

 fraternal variability — by which he certainly meant heritable variability — will 

 never be much lessened, is one with which I should personally agree, but the 

 reader must remember that it cuts at the root of the " pure line " hypothesis*, 

 and must not pass over its significance for Galton's own views. His remark 

 also that the fraternal means might on the whole be raised suggests that the 

 work of the biometricians had convinced him before 1904 that there was not 

 a continuous regression of a selected group to the population mean ; and that 

 sports were not essential to progress. 



(3) Definition of Eugenics. We have already seen that the term 

 " Eugenics" was introduced by Galton in 1883 into his Inquiry into Human 

 Faculty. See our Vol. II, pp. 249 ftn., 251, 252. Romanes in a review in 

 Nature^ of Galton's Record of Family Faculties and Life History Album in 

 the following year (1884) uses the term "Eugenics" thrice and in one case 

 speaks of the " science of Eugenics." " Mr Galton," he also tells vis, " is inde- 

 fatigable in his zeal to promote the cause of Eugenics." Thus born in 1883, 

 the term had come into an accepted use in 1884. 



Before we turn to Galton's propagandist lectures it is well to consider the 

 definition of Eugenics. In 1883 Galton had defined Eugenics as the science 

 of improving stock, not only by judicious mating, but by all the influences 

 which give the more suitable strains a better chance. In 1904 Galton 

 determined to take a step forward in his purpose by founding a research 

 fellowship in National Eugenics, and addressed the following letter to the 

 Principal of the University of London, Sir Arthur Rucker. This letter 



* The reader may consult "A New Theory of Progressive Evolution" by the present biographer 

 in the recently issued Vol. iv, Part i, of the Annals of Eugenics, published by the Galton 

 Laboratory ; it contains a discussion of the present position of the " pure line " hypothesis. 



t Vol. xxix, p. 257, January 17, 1884. 



