Eugenics as a Creed and the Last Decade of Galton's Life 359 



Meadow Cottage, Brockiiam Green, Betchwortii, Surrey. December 15, 1908. 



My dear Karl Pearson, All you say in favour of Miss Elderton I am fully prepared to 

 believe from my much less but still not inadequate knowledge of her. She most certainly ought 

 to be retained if possible, as the far future working of the Laboratory will be much more hopeful 

 if she continues in it. 



My feelings about the Laboratory remain the same that they were two years ago when we 

 had so much correspondence and I drew up a Codicil to my will to provide amply for its per- 

 manent establishment after my death and to pay for a professorship. I can't undertake to die 

 soon in order to hurry on the endowment, but I have not the slightest desire to do otherwise 

 than continue the present £500 a year so long as I live. I would increase it, by say £50, rather 

 than reduce it, if it were clearly ad visable to do so. It is worth considering whether Miss Elderton 's 

 position in the Laboratory might be altered, by hereafter calling her Secretary, and on the next 

 occasion abolishing the Research Scholarship altogether. It would not do to promote her over 

 Heron, but hereafter when his term terminates it might easily be done. Possibly you may think 

 that the two duties of Secretary and Research Fellow might be worked simultaneously, but 

 if so, it must be clear which of the two is the responsible head, and I do not see my way here. 

 Anyhow on the next vacancy the promotion could easily be made. I am most sorry about the 

 cruel lumbago. Affectionately yours, Francis Galton. 



7, Well Road, Hampstead, N.W. December 15, 1908. 



My dear Francis Galton, Your letter gave me great pleasure this morning. We do not 

 need more money, and above all things we want you to live to see the work you have set going 

 reach more general acknowledgment. But what, I think, the younger workers, who really have 

 worked hard and toiled forward against a good deal of outside (and even inside *) discouragement 

 need is the knowledge that you really care for their work, and I think your letter really helps in 

 that. You hardly realise how much they think of almost anything you do or say! Among the 

 fourteen workers in the Biometric and Eugenics Laboratories at present we have five women and 

 their work is equal at the very least to that of the men. I have to treat them as in every way 

 the equals of the men. They are women who in many cases have taken higher academic honours 

 than the men and who are intellectually their peers. They were a little tried therefore when your 

 name appeared on the Committee of the Anti-suffrage Society! I refer to this merely to show 

 that what you think and do dues produce effect in the Laboratory, and therefore the knowledge 

 that you really care for their work helps us all round. I think that your approval accordingly 

 counts for a great deal more than you realise. I know Miss Elderton is very keen on the work 

 and wants to devote all her energies to it, but I am sure the feeling that you think she is doing 

 good work weighs as much as or more than any opinion of mine. I ventured to tell her that she 

 was indispensable and that there was no immediate fear for the life of the Laboratory. I can 

 trust you to bear this in mind if anything should happen to me. 



I have not forgotten your problem, but I wanted to have another talk with Heron over it, 

 before I returned the sheet. Could you not write a note on it for Biometrikal It would be 

 quite easy to get a table calculated for you. Bulloch came in to-day with 30 pedigrees of 

 hermaphrodite families. One noteworthy point has come out in collecting this material — a 

 disproportionate number of hermaphrodites, perhaps 25 p.c, are twins. This is a very noteworthy 

 point indeed and deserves special investigation. I have heard of hermaphrodites in sheep; were 

 these twins 1 Always affectionately, K. P. 



Please excuse this handwriting, I am writing on my back. 



* P.S. Only last week a lecturer in the College read a paper "On the influence of Heredity 

 on Conduct," which consisted chiefly of abuse of the Eugenics Laboratory work and workers. 



Meadow Cottage, Brockiiam Green, Betciiworth. December 22, 1908. 



My dear Karl Pearson, This is little more than a sincere Xmas greeting to you and yours. 

 May that cruel lumbago keep its fangs off you. It is sometimes consoling to think of greater 

 suffering than one's own, so imagine the feelings of the Chinaman who, humbly visiting his great 

 superior on whom all his hope of advancement lay, when about to make his kow-tow was suddenly 

 smitten with lumbago! 



