418 Life and Letters of Francis Galton 



"This concluded all that I had to undergo. I had spent about one hour under anthropometric 

 tests, and from half-an-hour to one hour under each of the other three, besides the hour in essay- 

 writing, or about four hours in all, exclusive of intervals. Candidates were undergoing 

 examinations in different parts of the Hall at the same time, but not necessarily in the same 

 order. The Medical Room was wholly separated from the rest. The Examination Hall was in 

 full use during 6 hours, so with duplicated examiners, more than 20 candidates could be wholly 

 and easily examined in a single day. Four such days dealt with all the 80 candidates. The 

 clerks were simultaneously employed, each in copying and in reducing entries and adding up 

 figures, which after being checked by other clerks were submitted to the chief examiners. Those 

 gentlemen had also acted as overseers and taken some part in the examinations. 



" The maximum number of positive marks that could be gained by each candidate is four 

 times 30 or 120. A star (*) might also be gained in each subject. The marks were totalled, and 

 about half of these totals usually range between + 45 and + 70. None of the candidates were given 

 negative marks, those who would otherwise have received them having been weeded out by the 

 Pass Examination. The names and marks of those who gained 70 marks and upwards are pub- 

 lished in the newspaper, together with such brief notes as each case might call for. This part 

 of the publication is official and wholly under the editorship of the Registrar. I learnt that 

 supplementary marks might be, and often were, accorded for especially good service to the 

 community subsequent to the examination. They had to be proposed by the Board of Examiners, 

 and the grounds for the proposal had to be set forth in their Annual Report. This was submitted 

 to the final approval of the General Meeting, which was almost always given as a matter of 

 course. These Supplementary Marks are supposed to attest that the natural capacity of the 

 person who receives them really exceeds that which was expressed by the number of marks 

 he had received at the original examination. 



" I do not know much in detail about the examination for girls. It is carried out by women 

 examiners who had taken medical degrees elsewhere, and is, I was assured, as thorough as that 

 which I had myself undergone, and was considered to be as trustworthy. 



" There is a bifurcation of the Examinations both for girls and boys, part of each of them 

 being intended for the more cultured class and part for the hard workers, whether on farms or 

 in town. I need not go into particulars. 



"I inquired minutely whether they were unable to devise some test for endurance or staying 

 power, which seemed to me one of the most important of those they had to consider. It seemed 

 that they had not as yet succeeded in eliminating the effect of practice. Neither were they 

 enabled to examine into character directly as a separate subject, partly because it was not fully 

 developed at the usual age of examination, and partly because of the extreme difficulty at that 

 age of estimating it justly, the teachers and the comrades of a girl or boy often making sad 

 mistakes of judgment. 



" I was assured that no doubt was felt as to the trustworthiness of the marks given by the 

 examiners, as a general rule, subject rarely to exceptions such as might be expected. The sons 

 of College Marriages were unmistakably superior in bodily and mental gifts to those of the or- 

 dinary folk of Kantsay where, and these again compare very favourably with those of neighbouring 

 colonies. Besides this, numerous results are published in which comparisons are made between 

 the children of high-diplomaed parents and of those who are less highly graded. All concur in 

 showing the general superiority of the former, just as much but not more than would be 

 expected of the offspring of various qualities of any domestic animal. A general conviction of 

 this truth forms the firm basis of th o ou o tom o a nd ideals of Kantsaywhere. 



"Chapter VI. The ( ^aJ,end m^-f>f-fiautiiayv!her^. I returned to my host's house, where I was 

 congratulated on having gone through my ordeal. I felt sure of success in the anthropometric 

 part because I was something of an athlete, having rowed in a University race. I was also good 

 in other respects, being reputed by good judges to be so prompt and sure a shot, that I have 

 been urged, in all seriousness, to go to Monte Carlo and compete there for the valuable pigeon- 

 shooting prizes. I knew I was all right medically, and thought I might do fairly in aesthetics. 

 I, however, saw clearly that I was not even yet received with perfect freedom, except by Tom; 

 the others evidently waited to learn how I should be placed, before letting themselves go, so to 

 speak. They did not as yet invite me to accompany them to the houses of their friends, so 

 I had much spare time, and thought the best way of occupying it until the lists were out, was to 

 stay indoors and to make a careful study of the Calendar of Kantsaywhere College. I saw little 



