NA TURE 



97 



THURSDAY, MAY 31, 1883 



HUMAN FACULTY AND ITS DEVELOPMENT 

 Inquiries into Human Faculty and its Development. By 



Francis Galton, F.R.S. (London : Macmillan and Co., 



1883.) 



AMONG all his anthropological brethren Mr. Francis 

 Galton has no competitor in regard to the variety 

 and versatility of his researches. So various and versatile, 

 indeed, have these researches been, that, with the excep- 

 tion of " Hereditary Genius " and " English Men of 

 Science, their Nature and Nurture," we have become 

 accustomed to regard them as disconnected pieces of 

 work, which from time to time were thrown off like 

 sparks from the flame of an active mind. But in the 

 present volume he has collected in one series most of the 

 investigations which he has separately published during 

 the last ten years, and this collection when read in the 

 light of a considerable amount of additional matter, 

 clearly shows that the sundry investigations which were 

 separately published were not separately conceived, but 

 have throughout been united by the bond of a common 

 object. This object, as the title of the book indicates, is 

 that of inquiry into Human Faculty and its Development. 

 And it is evident, when this fundamental note is supplied, 

 that it serves to join not only the researches contained in 

 the present volume, but also those of its above-named 

 predecessors, into one harmony or design. 



But although there is one harmony pervading this 

 work, the changes of theme are so numerous that we 

 shall not be able to touch upon them all, and must there- 

 fore restrict ourselves to considering the more important. 



The book begins with an essay on " Variety of Human 

 Nature," as to features, bodily qualities, energy, sensi- 

 tivity, special senses, &c. In the course of this chapter 

 the leading results of the author's well-known investiga- 

 tions on composite portraiture are brought in, the audi- 

 bility of high notes in different individuals, as well as in 

 different species of animals, &c. Next there follows a 

 chapter on " Anthropomorphic Registers,'' which is 

 mainly directed to showing the desirability of keeping 

 family records of the anthropometry of children until they 

 are old enough to continue the records for themselves. 

 To facilita'e this process — which he deems to be one of 

 much practical importance in view of all that is now 

 known touching the potency of hereditary influences — Mr. 

 Galton urges that anthropometric laboratories should be 

 established where all the needful periodic portraiture and 

 other observations on the life-history of children should 

 be made and preserved on the payment of small fees by 

 the parents. Without such systematic observation any one 

 may pass through life without knowing that he presents 

 so strongly marked a peculiarity as that of colour-blind- 

 ness ; while the benefit to the race, a few generations 

 hence, of a large mass of statistics of such consecutive 

 anthropometry of numerous families would probably be 

 of the utmost value. Indeed this suggestion as to anthro- 

 pometric laboratories may be taken as the foundation of 

 Mr. Galton's proposed science of "eugenics," to a tracing 

 of the main principles of which his work on " Human 

 Faculty " is chiefly concerned. 



After a chapter on " Statistical Methods," we come to 

 Vol. xxviii. — No. 709 



a consideration of "Character." So far as sex is con- 

 cerned, " one notable peculiarity in the character of the 

 woman is that she is capricious and coy, and has le:>s 

 straightforwardness than the man . . . and there can be 

 little doubt as to the origin of the peculiarity. . . . The 

 willy-nilly disposition of the female in matters of love is 

 as apparent in the butterfly as in the man, and must have 

 been continuously favoured from the earliest stages of 

 animal evolution down to the present time. It is the 

 factor in the great theory of sexual selection that corre- 

 sponds to the insistence and directness of the male. 

 Coyness and caprice have in consequence become a 

 heritage of the sex, together with a cohort of allied weak- 

 nesses and petty deceits, that men have come to think 

 venial and even amiable in women, but which they would 

 not tolerate among themselves." 



The type of character which leads to criminality is next 

 discussed, and is shown by statistics to be strongly in- 

 herited. After a few pages on the allied topic of insanity, 

 Mr. Galton passes on to consider the gregarious and 

 slavish instincts, where he shows from first-hand observa- 

 tions on wild or but partly domesticated animals the 

 immense utility of these instincts. We ourselves inherit 

 from our savage ancestry instincts of the same kind, and 

 thus it is that the less intellectually developed among us 

 are so prone to submit ourselves, like sheep, to the 

 guidance of a leader, and even to the tyranny of a despot. 



Passing on to intellectual differences, a long and inter- 

 esting account is given of mental imagery, the main 

 points of which are already known to the readers of 

 Nature. It is remarkable that men of science, and of 

 hard thinking generally, are for the most part totally 

 deficient in this faculty. The discussion of mental 

 imagery naturally leads to the resemblance which Mr. 

 Galton has previously pointed out between his composite 

 photographs and general ideas ; each alike are " generic 

 images," and in many matters of detail the analogy, or, as 

 we should prefer to call it, the illustration, holds good. 



Next we come to a chapter on Psychometric Experi- 

 ments, which is devoted to an account of interesting 

 experiments on the association of ideas. The influence 

 of early association and sentiment is shown by these 

 experiments, and by considerations drawn from them, to 

 be much greater than is generally supposed. 



One of the most interesting chapters in the book is 

 that which next follows on the History of Twins. It will 

 be remembered that the main fact elicited by this inquiry 

 is that nature counts for much more than nurture ; for it 

 is shown that " instances exist of an apparently thorough 

 similarity of nature, in which such difference of external 

 circumstances as may be consistent with the ordinary 

 conditions of the same social rank and country do not 

 create dissimilarity. . . . The twins who closely resembled 

 each other in childhood and early youth, and were reared 

 under not very dissimilar conditions, either grow unlike 

 through the development of natural characteristics which 

 had Iain dormant at first, or else they continue their lives, 

 keeping time like two watches, hardly to be thrown out 

 of accord except by some physical jar. . . . The effect of 

 illness, as shown by these replies, is great, and well de- 

 serves further consideration. It appears that the consti- 

 tution of youth is not so elastic as we are apt to think ; 

 but that an attack, say of scarlet fever, leaves a permanent 



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