l62 



NA TURE 



[Dec. 31, 1874 



distance of the kinship increases. The influence of the 

 paternal and maternal lines is found to be approximately 

 equal. Thus, 100 scientific men have 34 distinguished re- 

 latives on the paternal side, and 37 on the maternal side. 

 The greater pnrt of Mr. Gallon's present work consists 

 of a discussion concerning the mental characteristics and 

 education of scientific men and their parents, and it is 

 full of interesting particulars. We have many returns 

 showing that the energy, both bodily and mental, of these 

 men, is above the average in their own opinion. Not a 

 few correspondents describe with evident pleasure their 

 feats of strength : — 



"Travelling almost continually from 1846 up to the 

 present time. Restless. All life accustomed to ex- 

 tremely rough travel : often months vi^ithout house or tent." 

 '• Strong when young — walked many a time fifty miles a 

 day without fatigue, and kept up five miles an hour for 

 three or four hours." "At the age of twentv-si.\, during 

 fourteen days, was only three hours per night in bed, and 

 on two of the nights was up all night." " I seem to 

 possess the same unweariedness as my father, and find 

 myself trotting in the streets as my father used to do." 

 " At the age of sixty made a tour, chiefly pedestrian, of 



four weeks in the AIjs Ei. 67, grouse shooting and 



deer stalking." 



Such are a few of the very abundant statements showing 

 that great power of work is a general characteristic of 

 successful scientific men. Forty-two instances are ad- 

 duced of energy above the medium, and only two men 

 complain of the want of energy. It mevy perhaps be 

 objected that such results hardly tell us more than we 

 might have expected to hold true of any group of remark- 

 able men. As a general rule men do not become eminent 

 in the eyes of their contemporaries until they have lived 

 a good long life, and done a considerable amount of 

 work. 1 do not find that Mr. Galton gives us the average 

 age of his correspondents, but half of them are stated to 

 be belwetn fifty and sixty-five years old, and many who 

 speak of their great energy -are very old men. If we 

 inquired into the energy and power of work of all the 

 Lord Chancellors or Attorney-Generals, we should doubt- 

 less find it very high, simply because a man cannot be a 

 successful Iaw)er unless he can stand much work. We 

 get from such inquiries, so far as I can see, no estimate of 

 the comparative influence of quality and quantity of work. 

 Cirtah paribus, the great worker has the odds in his 

 favour if he can live and work long enough. Where, 

 how ever, is the account of those who fall out and perish 

 on the way? Where, too, is the account of the encrj;etic 

 men who, finding their first efforts in science less 

 esteemed than they expected, devote their energies to 

 some other career.' When Mr.Galton proceeds, as I 

 am glad to infer that he is doing, to investigate the ante- 

 cedents of other classes of distinguished men, he will 

 doubtless find that successful physicians are also men of 

 great energy ; but where is the estimate of that subdc 

 tendency which leads the energy into scientific study 

 rather than practical life ? 



Perhaps ihe most in'.eresting and immediately impor- 

 tant part of the book is that in which Mr. Galton dis- 

 cusses the education of his selected men, and their own 

 remarks as to its excellence or defects. We find that 

 thirty-two men complain of a narrow education. Several 



of them make very strong remarks on the loss of time in 

 classical studies : — " Enormous time devoted to Latin and 

 Greek, with which languages I am not conversant." 

 " Omission of almost everything useful and good, except 

 being taught to read. Latin ! Latin ! Latin ! " " Latin 

 through Latin — nonsense verses." "In an otherwise 

 well balanced education, three years . . . were spent on 

 Latin and Greek — a blank waste of time." Many com- 

 plain of the want of mathematical training, and others 

 deplore the' omission of natural science. Two or three, 

 on the other hand, think that a too exclusively mathe- 

 matical training at Cambridge was injurious to them. 

 There is, in fact, a very strong concurrence of opinion 

 in favour of a varied education. Out of eighty-seven 

 answers, ten distinctly praise the width, and thirty-two 

 deplore the narrowness of their training, while others of 

 the answers more or less imply a similar view. 



This result seerns to me of great importance as regards 

 the ve.\ed cjuestion of the London University Matricula- 

 tion Examination. It is commonly objected that the 

 University expects candidates to get up an impossible, or 

 at least injurious, number of subjects — dead and living 

 languages, history, mathematics, physical science, applied 

 mathe.Tiatics. The whole circle of the sciences and arts 

 has to be studied in one style or another by the luckless 

 candidate of sixteen years of age, before the Lfniversity 

 will admit him to have a place in its books. But if our 

 object is to produce conspicuously useful men, Mr. 

 Gallon's book supplies strong evidence that this wide 

 range of study is approved by those who look back upon 

 their early education. We must remember, too, that even 

 those who condemn the devotion of time to Latin or 

 Greek form no fair specimen of people in general. Con- 

 spicuous ability in one direction is not um'rcquently con- 

 joined with inaptitude for other studies. If Mr. Galton 

 interrogates eminent scholars, he is hardly likely to find 

 the same severe condemnation of grammar. Moreover, 

 mrich depends upon the way in which languages are 

 taught. The mere grammar-school method of drilling 

 grammar into the mind by rote may repel those who 

 would be deeply interested by a more scientific method of 

 teaching. 



Language is rapidly becoming one of the most exten- 

 sive and instructive fields for strictly scientific investi- 

 gation. We can never too strongly and frequently 

 protest against the evident tendency to inter;-/ret scicnci: 

 as meaning pliysical science, whereas in the immediate 

 future, if not in the present day, there are wider and 

 more important fi.lds for the application of scientific 

 method in human ihan in external nature. 



Some of those who are so strongly advocating, the 

 efficacy of physical science would do well to take note 

 of the fact that few of Mr. Gallon's picked- men advocate 

 study of physical sciences at all in a conspicuous way. 

 Judicious mathematical training and a rational mode of 

 teaching modern languages are advocated almost equally 

 with the sciences of observation. 



" Omission of mathematics, German, and drawing." 

 " Want of education cf faculties of observation ; want 

 of nrathemalics and of modern languages." "Neglect 

 of many subjects for the attainment of one or two." 

 " Want of the modern languages and of chemistry." 

 " Want of logical and mathematical training." In these 



