Eugenics as a Creed and the Last Decade of Galton' s Life 241 



42, Rutland Gate, S.W. June G, 1900. 



Dear Prof. Kakl Pearson, On returning from a six months absence in Egypt and Greece, 

 I found your valuable Grammar of Science on my table, and am reading it straight through 

 at the rate of about an hour a day, with admiration at your thoroughness. It takes some time, 

 as I find, to pick up dropped threads, so I have as yet little leisure. 



I wonder if you have worked out the relationship between those who are cousins in a double 

 degree, I mean the issue of the marriages in which 2 brothers have married 2 sisters. Their 

 ancestry from Grandparents upwards, is identical. I should be very curious to learn what 

 value you would assign to it in your "table of collateral heredity," p. 481 of the book. 



I hope the past cruel winter in England has not hurt you. Weldon, whom I saw last week, 

 spoke favourably of your health. 



My tour has done me a world of good, besides being extremely interesting and pleasant. 



Very sincerely yours, Francis Galton. 



7, Well Road, Hampstead, N.W. Dec. 13, 1900. 



My dear Mr Galton, Your kind letter was very welcome tonight. 1 tried some year 

 ago to sound people with regard to a journal of pure and applied statistics, but found a feeling 

 pretty general that it might injure the R. S. S. Journal, although the sort of memoirs I had in 

 view would I think not find a place in that journal. On the other hand I know a good many 

 papers for which I hardly see a place and there is increasing material being gathered in Germany 

 and America which is lost among masses of purely zoological papers or published in inaccessible 

 proceedings. I think if a journal could survive its first two or three years there is a future for 

 it of great service. 



The thing came to an issue just now owing to doings at the Royal. My paper on Homotyposis 

 was sent for some reason to Bateson as referee — he chose to tell me so himself, and also to tell me 

 that he had written an unfavourable report. He came to the R.S. at the reading and said there 

 was nothing in the paper — that it was a fundamental error to suppose that number had any 

 real existence in living forms. That this criticism did not apply to this memoir only but to all 

 my work, that all variability was differentiation, etc., etc. 



Now all this may be quite fair criticism, but what is clear is that if the R.S. people send 

 my papers to Bateson, one cannot hope to get them printed. It is a practical notice to quit. 

 This notice applies not only to my work, but to most work on similar statistical lines. It seems 

 needful that there should be some organ for publication of this sort of work and talking it over 

 with Weldon, he drew up the prospectus, I gave a name, — the "K" was mine (K. P. not C. P.), 

 — and we determined to see what amount of cork was forthcoming to float such a project. 

 I don't think much can be done if we don't get 150 to 200 promises. But can we? — I fear not. 



Yours always sincerely, Karl Pearson. 



42, Rutland Gate, S.W. Jan. 2, 1901. 



My dear Prof. K. Pearson, Here is the MS. on Eye Colour, which I am delighted is of 

 use to you still. I hope not to go abroad yet awhile, but it would be safer to write on the 

 parcel when you send it back, "To await return." Tell me please, in time, whether the answers 

 you have received relating to the new magazine or journal, are encouraging enough for a prob- 

 able start. 



Bateson's adverse views cannot be finally effective, being opposed to those of many other 

 no less worthy authorities. But I presume from what you said, that they are effective as against 

 the. particular memoir on Homotyposis 1 Very sincerely yours, Francis Galton. 



42, Rutland Gate, S.W. Jan. 7, 1901. 



Dear Prof. Karl Pearson, Thank you much for the " Lecture." It fits in with much 

 that I habitually think about. — I wonder if this strikes you as reasonable : — 



Probably zeal for military usefulness will cause many men to be physically examined as to 

 fitness to serve. There are also medico-physical examinations for other services. Could any 

 sort of Degrees be given to those (a) who simply pass the required standard for the particular 

 purpose, (6) to those who pass as valid for purposes of hereditary transmission. 



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