Walter Frank Raphael Weldon. XXX 
dimorphic in Naples. He does not refer to this fact in his memoir. As for 
shrimps the correlations again came out closely alike for the Plymouth and 
Naples races. Weldon was not dogmatic on the point; he considered the 
constancy as at least an “ empirical working rule.” 
To the biometrician, perhaps, the most interesting committee with which 
Weldon was associated in his later years was that which came to be called 
the Royal Society Evolution (Animals and Plants) Committee. His papers 
ou variation and correlation in shrimps and crabs had brought him closely 
into touch with Francis Galton, and both were keenly interested in the 
discovery of further dimorphic forms such as had been suggested by the 
frontal breadths of the Naples crabs. Weldon was full also of other ideas 
ripe for investigation. He had started his great attempt at the measurement 
of a selective death-rate in the crabs of Plymouth Sound; experiments on 
repeated selection of infusoria were going on in his laboratory; he was 
gathering an ardent band of workers about him, and much seemed possible 
with proper assistance and that friendly sympathy which was ever essential 
to him. As a result of an informal conference held at the Savile Club 
towards the end of 1893, it was decided to ask the Royal Society to establish 
a Committee “for the purpose of Conducting Statistical Enquiry into the 
Variability of Organisms,” and such a Committee was early in 1894 
constituted by the Council, with Francis Galton as Chairman, and Weldon as 
Secretary, the Committee being entitled; “Committee for conducting 
Statistical Inquiries into the Measurable Characteristics of Plants and 
Animals.” The use of the words statistical and measurable, somewhat 
narrowly, but accurately, defined the proposed researches of the Committee. 
It went on until 1897, with the same members, the same title and scope. 
Looking back on the matter now, one realises how much Weldon’s work was 
hampered by the Committee. It is generally best that a man’s work should 
be published on his own responsibility, and when he is a man of well-known 
ability and established reputation, grants in aid can always be procured. In 
this case Weldon had a sympathetic committee, but the members were 
naturally anxious on the one hand for the prestige of the Society with whose 
name they were associated, and secondly, they were desirous of showing 
that they were achieving something. Both conditions were incompatible 
with tentative researches such as Biometry then demanded. Trial and 
experiment were peculiarly needful in 1893; the statistical calculus itself 
was not then even partially completed ; biometric computations were not 
reduced to routine methods, and the mere work of collecting, observing, 
experimenting, and measuring was more than enough for one man. Weldon 
with his “volume of life” was eager to do all these things, and run 
a laboratory with perhaps sixty students as well. 
The “ Attempt to Measure the Death-rate due to the Selective Destruction 
of Carcinus menas, with respect to a Particular Dimension,” formed the first 
report of the Committee, and was presented to the Royal Society in November, 
1894. Weldon’s general project in this case was novel at the time, it 
