Obituary Notices of Fellows deceased. 



equal importance with the cyclones for an adequate apprehension of the 

 causes of the variability of weather. He thus completed the basis of the 

 system of weather forecasting which is now in operation over the civilised 

 world. At a later date he also did much to formulate succinct methods of 

 recording the multifarious results of meteorological observation. 



This meteorological discovery doubtless explains how it came about that 

 Galton was intimately associated with FitzBoy's early attempts to organise 

 at the Board of Trade a meteorological service in this country, and it led 

 to his membership from 1868 until 1900 of the Meteorological Committee 

 (and of the subsequent Council), the governing body of the Meteorological 

 Office. His position in meteorology had previously led to his association 

 with the work of Kew Observatory, an institution initiated by General 

 Sir Edward Sabine for magnetic and meteorological observation, and for 

 the testing of instruments of precision. He was a member of the governing 

 Committee from soon after its foundation, and Chairman from 1889 to 

 1901, in which year the Observatory became the nucleus of the National 

 Bhysical Laboratory subsequently moved to Bushey. In this connection it 

 may be mentioned that he did much to promote the efficiency of the institu- 

 tion, but we must refrain from going into details on this head. 



But meteorology did not nearly suffice to occupy Galton's active mind, 

 for already in 1865 he was occupied with those researches with which his 

 name will always be associated. His investigations into the laws of 

 heredity, to which we shall refer more in detail hereafter, led him to 

 perceive the lamentable deficiency of tabulated data concerning human 

 attributes. He therefore initiated an anthropometric laboratory at the 

 International Health Exhibition of 1884. In this laboratory, statistics 

 were collected as to the acuteness of the senses, the strength, weight, and 

 dimensions of a large number of people. It might be tedious to recount all 

 his work in devising instruments of measurement, in organisation, and in 

 inducing others to work for him, and it may suffice to say that the outcome 

 has been the collection of a mass of facts previously unattainable. 



The impulse given through the collection of these anthropometric data, and 

 afterwards by the publication in 1889 of his work ' Natural Inheritance,' 

 gave the force which moved Weldon and Karl Bearson to undertake their 

 far-reaching investigations. Thus the anthropometric laboratory at the 

 Health Exhibition may be considered as the forerunner of the Biometric 

 Laboratory subsequently founded at University College, London. 



Amongst the data collected by Galton were impressions, made with 

 printer's ink, of the fingers of a very large number of persons. It occurred 

 then to Galton that such impressions might serve as a means of identifi- 

 cation. Sir William Herschel had wished to use them for the identification 

 of criminals in India, and Dr. Faulds had made a similar suggestion in this 

 country, but there remained much laborious work for Galton to do. Broofs 

 more decisive than any previously furnished had to be obtained that the 

 finger-prints are permanent from youth to old age, that no two are exactly 



