298 Life and Letters of Francis Galton 



I wrote and suggested the insanity data to him, as I felt the problem was one of some import- 

 ance, and I knew I could probably get some good material. But I told him very distinctly that 

 I made the suggestion with hesitation, and he must consult you. 



My letter then pointed out that any problem which is of first class 

 importance — such as that of the relative influence of heredity and en- 

 vironment in the case of insanity — requires a long time for the collection of 

 data and as long a time for the reduction of them, and next I ventured to 

 break my own views to Francis Galton. 



Now there arises the difference between the biometric work here, and what it seems to me, 

 if I interpret your views rightly, you want done in the Eugenics Record Office. We have many 

 irons in the fire, there are about a dozen workers always engaged, and one inquiry often goes 

 on for five or six years through two or three generations of students ; but it gets done and 

 published at last. It seems to me that this " secular " progress is almost impossible without 

 continuity. If your Fellow during his term of office is to collect and reduce data, and publish 

 pretty frequently work of a striking kind — and this appears to be needful to make the subject 

 popular and keep it in view — then he cannot take up a big statistical inquiry. It is not always 

 easy to find a fairly rounded easy bit of work such as I set A. There is on the other hand always 

 plenty of the heavy continuous work. B. is not a man of striking originality, but he is a very 

 safe man ; find him a problem, give him help and advice and he will do sound work. His 

 tendency has been, however, more and more to the biometric side. I feel that this is not, 

 perhaps, what you want for Eugenics at present, and that you hold that there is room for 

 more than the biometric treatment of sociological problems. I have had great hesitation in 

 taking any initiative at all in the Eugenics Record Office work, because I did not want you 

 to think that 1 was carrying all things into the biometric vortex ! When Schuster informed 

 me that he was resigning the Fellowship, I at once asked him to reconsider his position, and 

 talk it over with you first. He then said he had fully determined to undertake more purely 

 biological work. I suggested to him that if he felt he must give up Eugenics, he might take 

 up the problem for which Dr Mott has got material, namely the convolutions of the brain in 

 the sane and the insane. But while an inquiry as to environmental and hereditary influence 

 on insanity does seem to me eugenetic, I am not clear that the relation of brain complexity to 

 mental grade is; and accordingly my suggestion was only to be definite if Schuster found 

 himself on resignation wanting a problem. Personally I should like to see him going on with 

 the fellowship, until you are able to consider what had best be done. If he wants eugenics 

 work, I think I could provide him with the data for 300 tuberculosis cases, and show him how 

 to get more. The brain convolutions form the more fascinating problem and well done might 

 produce a good deal of stir ; but this is all I can say about Schuster's resignation. You can 

 appoint a man like A. to succeed him, but will he find his problemsybr himself, and then make 

 something of them 1 I am uncertain, and a good popular problem might not be discoverable every 

 year. He would probably come to me and all I could give him would be some of the "secular" 

 work which was nearing completion ; that might be a rather dull and commonplace process 

 for him. 



Now my personal idea of the Eugenics Record Office is that it should continue steadily to 

 collect data bearing on the effect of environment, of heredity and of intercaste marriage upon 

 man; that the Fellow should go on with annual or biennial appointment, and should live in 

 London and work daily at the office ; that the results accumulated should be published, like 

 A.'s paper, at irregular intervals, when a bit of work was completed, and bo issued from the 

 Eugenics Office. I think great results could be obtained ultimately in this way, but it would 

 have to depend on my idea of " secular " accumulation. You will understand what I mean 

 when I say that our investigations on school-children took five years to collect and two to 

 reduce ; that our measurements of families took four years to collect and two to reduce : th.it 

 our present inquiry on the inheritance of disease has been more than two years in progress 

 and it may be more than another two before reduction can be begun*; our inquiry as to 



* This was written in 1906, the full reduction was only begun in 1927 and is still in 

 progress ! K. P. 



