258 Life and Letters of Francis Gallon 



is the magnitude of disturbance caused by the finger nail. When the disturbance is great 

 compound patterns tend to appear as the " kernelled loop " 

 (right ring-finger). [Gal ton gives sketch : see our Plate XI, 

 Fig. 19.] 



In the Arches the disturbance does not occur at any one place, 

 but is distributed. [Sketch : see our Plate XXIII (1-6).] 

 When I come back I must begin to collect data : viz. triplicates, 

 rolled impressions of two forefingers, using a separate half-sheet 

 of note paper for each person. I now understand quite what I 

 want, and can use a clerk, working with comparatively slight 

 supervision after he is well trained and started. The outlining 

 is very distinct when done with the very black ink used by 

 artists who draw for " process- work." I have contrived a 

 wonderfully neat pocket-apparatus for printing, only the size of 

 a small lucifer match box and value under l' 1 . Very sincerely « ^ p rm t 3 f t wo f ore fingers 

 yours, Francis Galton. in triplicate. 



Galton, when he returned to England, circularised many folk, issuing small 

 finger-printing apparatus, and asking for the prints of the two forefingers 

 of as many relatives to be taken as possible. To aid him in the reduction of 

 these and other data Galton desired to find an assistant. On the advice of 

 Dr Alice Lee, he selected Miss Ethel M. Elderton — a most happy choice. 

 She received her first training from Francis Galton, then became successively 

 Secretary to the Eugenics Record Office, Galton Research Scholar in the 

 Eugenics Laboratory, then Galton Fellow, and is now Assistant-Professor in 

 that Laboratory. Perhaps this was the best result that flowed from the 

 forefingers-print collection ! 



(7) Work and Correspondence of 1904. Two events of this year had 

 importance in relation to Eugenics, the one dealing with scientific research 

 and the other with popularisation. The first was Galton's gift of £1500 to the 

 University of London for the furtherance during three years of the scientific 

 study of Eugenics. I have already referred to the Galton Research Fellowship 

 when discussing the definition of Eugenics. Our correspondence for the latter 

 end of the year chiefly dealt with the various candidates for the Fellowship 

 with some of whom I was acquainted as well as with their work. The selec- 

 tion committee ultimately recommended Mr Edgar Schuster, an Oxford 

 student of Weldon's, who had already done good biometric work, and Miss 

 E. M. Elderton was appointed as his assistant. University College provided 

 rooms at 50, Gower Street, which at Galton's request were entitled the 

 " Eugenics Record Office." In the same house were lodged for working 

 purposes two or three post-graduates, an overflow from the Biometric 

 Laboratory, but there was no other link between that Laboratory and the 

 Office. Galton himself was in control, and the main scheme in hand was to 

 form a register of "Able Families," of which only the portion dealing with 

 Fellows of the Royal Society reached completion*. Schuster during his 

 tenure of the Fellowship also wrote two memoirs, one on " The Inheritance 

 of Ability " in conjunction with Miss Elderton and a second entitled " The 

 Promise of Youth and the Performance of Manhood." These two memoirs 



* See the present volume, pp. 113-121. 



