Eugenics as a Creed and, the Last Decade of Galton's Life 319 



tion." It had to wait till the publication of Natural Inheritance in 1889 ; 

 then Galton found the lieutenants he stood in need of: 



"The publication of that book proved to be more timely than that of the former. The methods 

 were greatly elaborated by Professor Karl Pearson, and applied by him to Biometry. Professor 

 Weldon of this University, whose untimely death is widely deplored, aided powerfully. A new 

 science was thus created primarily on behalf of Biometry, but equally applicable to Eugenics 

 because their provinces overlap [i.e. in Man]. The publication of Biometrika... began in 1901." 

 (p. 10.) 



Galton then refers to the Huxley Lectures of 1901 and 1903, and to his 

 own papers of 1904 and 1905, to the establishment in the latter year of the 

 Eugenics Record Office with its Research Fellow, and to the foundation in the 

 year of the lecture of the Laboratory for National Eugenics. It is a brief, but 

 adequate history of the small beginnings of the new science, concluding with 

 its definition, that of the University of London Committee. 



I have so far passed over the earlier portion of this section which does 

 not really belong to the History of Eugenics, but rather to that of Evolution. 

 Galton refers to that wondrous creation the Hyperion of Keats, to the 

 succession of deities ; Chaos ; Heaven and Earth ; the Titan brood ; the 

 Olympian Gods. Each ousting their parents, and forming a notable advance, 

 physically and mentally, on their predecessors. Thus Galton would have each 

 generation of men advancing by their self-constituted control of evolution 

 through heredity to higher qualities : 



"So on our heels a fresh perfection treads, 

 A power more strong in beauty, born of us, 

 And fated to excel us, as we pass 

 In glory that old Darkness." (11. 212-15.) 



Thus in his 86th year Galton showed how little he had lost of that 

 poetic imagination, which always marked his fertile mind. He could read 

 into the barbaric theogony of primitive Greece a lesson for the men of to-day. 



The second section of the lecture is entitled: Application of Theories 

 of Probability to Eugenics. It commences with the statement that Eugenics 

 demands quantitative results. It is not content with such vague words as 

 "much" or "little," but seeks to know "how much" or "how little" in 

 precise and trustworthy figures. Given, Galton says, that we know that 

 a certain class of persons, A, is afflicted with some specified degree of 

 degeneracy we wish to find out how many of their offspring, B, will also 

 be afflicted and to what extent. Further we want to find out: " What will 

 be the trustworthiness of the forecast derived from averages when it is 

 applied to individuals ? " Galton then turns for a measure of untrustworthiness 

 to the average deviation, D, from the forecast. 



" The smaller D is, the more precise the forecast and the stronger the justification for taking 

 such drastic measures against the propagation of class B as would be consonant to the feelings, 

 if the forecast were known to be infallible. On the other hand a large D signifies a corre- 

 sponding degree of uncertainty and a risk which might be faced without reproach through a 

 sentiment akin to that expressed in the maxim ' It is better that many guilty should escape 



