430 Life and Letters of Francis Gallon 



42, Rutland Gate, S.W. August 4, 1910. 



My dear Kabl Pearson, It is pleasant to hear that you are thriving in Yorkshire. I am 

 still in London, not going to Grayshott until August 16. We have had much of very unenjoy- 

 able weather, but the last 3 days have been pleasant. Asthma has plagued me, but I stave off 

 the worst bouts now, by smoking a cigarette of bhang (Indian hemp-hashish). It is curious to 

 perceive the spreading of the narcotic effect over the lungs and everywhere. 



Q. and his elder brother have just had tea here. He is simply a beautiful youth, of the very 

 best Jewish type — simple and very intelligent. He thinks that there is a mine of information 

 bearing on Eugenics that could easily be worked in Manchester, and said that he would like to 

 write to you about it. I encouraged him to do so. So you will understand. I heard from him 

 about his Russian and mystical Grandfather and the Kabbala (? spelling). — A good spiritualistic 

 story is told of him. 



So Marshall is at you again now, and with reinforcements about to come on the scene ! 

 Anyhow he is a worthy antagonist. 



What pleasure and health you must have given Miss Elderton. 



Ever most affectionately, Francis Galton. 

 Kindest remembrances to you all. 



The Court, Grayshott, Haslemere. August 18, 1910. 



My dear Karl Pearson, At last I am most happily settled. Your letter reached me in 

 London just before motoring here. I had to spend that afternoon and all yesterday in bed, but 

 am now up and eager, having got over a horrid asthma ! It is pleasant to hear of your excellent 

 weather and of much else. You know of course of the treatment bestowed on a big dog for 

 sheep-chasing, viz. coupling him to an old ram, but Wee Ling's life would soon be pounded 

 out of him in that way. 



It is too bad of V'ictor Horsley. Of course Crackanthorpe's letter justifies him, but I feel 

 myself to be incidentally referred to. If ever I know of any such direct reference, I will certainly 

 disavow it. 



You must be glad at feeling in sight of the end of Albinism — yet it suggests something 

 more in respect to Melanism. I wonder whether the singular blackness in the R. family has 

 been traced to a negro ancestor? I mean the present Lord R. and most of his sisters. His father 

 also was very dark. 



You will like Q., I am sure, when you know him personally. He is as modest as he is 

 capable. 



The tuberculous inquiry will not, I imagine, cause so great an outcry as the alcoholic. You 

 have accustomed people to suspect the truth of current beliefs. I wonder what Sir Donald 

 MacAlister thinks of all this 1 He is very favourably disposed towards Eugenics and is, as you 

 know, a vigorous mathematician. 



Try and excuse this bad writing. It is performed on a board, while sitting in a wheel chair, 

 and with a scratchy pen, brought to me. Very best wishes to you all. 



Ever affectionately yours, Francis Galton. 



In October of this year the attacks on the work of the Eugenics 

 Laboratory were in full progress and Galton wrote the letters to The Times 

 and the British Journal of Inebriety cited on pp. 408-9 above. He was 

 peculiarly moved by the half-hints made by certain writers to the press that 

 he was out of sympathy with the work of the Eugenics Laboratory. All my 

 letters to him directed to Haslemere in the last year of his life together with 

 most of the letters he received during the same period appear to have been 

 destroyed after his death, probably when Grayshott House was restored to 

 its owners. Thus the correspondence for this last year must appear one- 

 sided. 



