Eugenics as a Creed and the Last Decade of Galton's Life 365 



This common error, which might be termed statistically— giving a new 

 sense to the Latin phrase — the ex uno disce omnes fallacy, seems peculiarly 

 characteristic of ageing statesmen. I can hardly attribute it to mental 

 deterioration with age, but rather to their ever waxing appreciation of the 

 calibre of the minds to which they chiefly appeal*. 



In order to break a lance for the segregation of the mentally defective 

 Galton wrote a brief essay entitled " Segregation " which was published in 

 a small book : The Problem of the Feeble-Minded. An Abstract of the Report 

 of the Royal Commission on the Care and Control of the Feeble-Minded^. 

 It was planned by the Cambridge Eugenists and had besides Galton's essay 

 an introduction by Sir Edward Fry. 



Galton considers that the Royal Commission attacked a eugenic problem 

 of the first order of magnitude with thoroughness and remarkable success, 

 and that the evidence before them emphasised the view that the annual 

 output of mentally defective children admits of being largely diminished in 

 future generations at a slight cost by the policy of segregation. He esti- 

 mates that slightly under one per cent, of the population belongs to the class 

 which includes the mad, the idiotic and the feeble-minded. On this estimate 

 300,000 persons might roughly be supposed to fall into the category in 

 England and Wales. Galton says that they fall " little short of a million " ; 

 I do not understand how he has reached this result. I believe, however, that 

 if we could form a census of all those who have at any time in the course of 

 their life been certified we should reach a higher percentage than Galton's 

 1 in 118. In addition to those who have once been certified, there are many 

 in the wealthier classes of the community, who are tended without certifica- 

 tion in their own homes, as any medical man of large practice can bear 

 witness to. The problem of the insane is not a matter personal only to their 

 relatives, it is a question of the highest national importance. The Com- 

 missioners in Lunacy ought to be instructed to keep a General Register oj 

 the Insane, open to any inquirers under due restrictions, the first of which 

 should be evidence that they belonged to or sought to be connected with 

 the stock inquired about. If A and B are tending to pass from friendship 

 to a closer relationship, it ought to be possible for them to ascertain — what 

 in many cases is screened from them by their elders — whether one or both 

 come of insane stock. No one can fully appreciate the urgency of a General 

 Register of the Insane, who has not seen close at hand the terrible affliction 

 of a wife, when her husband develops a hitherto screened familial insanity 

 and when she realises that her children may, one or more, be stricken 

 down with it in later years. Until such a register is organised and has 



* I may be permitted perhaps to cite another illustration of this ex uno disce omnes fallacy. 

 In a lecture dealing with mental growth I had cited data to show that on the average the prime 

 of quickness of mind, as judged by mental reactions, occurred about 28 years in males and then 

 slowly but steadily declined. My statement, of course in a distorted form, was duly reported 

 in the press. At a public dinner a few days later, a well-known statesman, ageing but at present 

 active, denied the truth of my statement on the grounds that his own — an exceedingly spry and 

 inventive — mentality had grown brisker with the years ! 



f Messrs P. S. King &, Son, 123 pp. This little book is now unfortunately out of print. 



