Galton, Sir Francis

born Feb. 16, 1822, near Sparkbrook, Birmingham, Warwickshire, Eng.

died Jan. 17, 1911, Grayshott House, Haslemere, Surrey

British explorer, anthropologist, and eugenicist.

Galton, a cousin of Charles Darwin, studied medicine at Cambridge University but never took a degree. As a young man he traveled widely in Europe and Africa, making useful contributions in zoology and geography. He was among the first to recognize the implications of Darwin's theory of evolution, eventually coining the word eugenics to denote the science of planned human betterment through selective mating. His aim was the creation not of an aristocratic elite but of a population consisting entirely of superior men and women. He also wrote important works on human intelligence, fingerprinting, applied statistics, twins, blood transfusions, criminality, meteorology, and measurement.

Sir Francis Galton, detail of an oil painting by G. Graef, 1882; in the National Portrait Gallery, ...

Courtesy of The National Portrait Gallery, London

* * *

▪ British scientist

Introduction

born Feb. 16, 1822, near Sparkbrook, Birmingham, Warwickshire, Eng.

died Jan. 17, 1911, Grayshott House, Haslemere, Surrey

 English explorer, anthropologist, and eugenicist (eugenics), known for his pioneering studies of human intelligence. He was knighted in 1909.

Early life.

      Galton's family life was happy, and he gratefully acknowledged that he owed much to his father and mother. But he had little use for the conventional classical and religious teaching he received in school and church. Indeed, he later confessed in a letter to Charles Darwin (Darwin, Charles) that the traditional biblical arguments had made him “wretched.”

      His parents had planned that he should study medicine, and a tour of medical institutions on the Continent in his teens—an unusual experience for a student of his age—was followed by training in hospitals in Birmingham and London. But at this time, in Galton's words, “a passion for travel seized me as if I had been a migratory bird.” A visit to the University of Giessen, Germany, to attend lectures on chemistry was broken off in favour of travel in southeastern Europe. From Vienna he made his way through Constanza, Constantinople, Smyrna, and Athens, and he brought back from the caves of Adelsberg (present-day Postojina, Slovenia) specimens of a blind amphibian named Proteus—the first to reach England. On his return Galton went to Trinity College, Cambridge, where, as a result of overwork, he broke down in his third year. But he recovered quickly on changing his mode of life, as he did from similar attacks later.

Travels and exploration.

      After leaving Cambridge without taking a degree, Galton continued his medical studies in London. But before they were completed, his father died, leaving him “a sufficient fortune to make me independent of the medical profession.” Galton was then free to indulge his craving for travel. Leisurely expeditions in 1845–46 up the Nile with friends and into the Holy Land alone were preliminaries to a carefully organized penetration into unexplored parts of southwestern Africa. After consulting the Royal Geographical Society, Galton decided to investigate a possible opening from the south and west to Lake Ngami, which lies north of the Kalahari desert some 550 miles east of Walvis Bay. The expedition, which included two journeys, one northward, the other eastward, from the same base, proved to be difficult and not without danger. Though the explorers did not reach Lake Ngami, they gained valuable information. As a result, at the age of only 31, Galton was in 1853 elected a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and, three years later, of the Royal Society. In 1853, too, Galton married. There were no children of the marriage. Galton wrote 9 books and some 200 papers. They deal with many diverse subjects, including the use of fingerprints for personal identification, the correlational calculus (a branch of applied statistics)—in both of which Galton was a pioneer—twins, blood transfusions, criminality, the art of travel in undeveloped countries, and meteorology. Most of Galton's publications disclose his predilection for quantifying; an early paper, for example, dealt with a statistical test of the efficacy of prayer. Moreover, over a period of 34 years, he concerned himself with improving standards of measurement.

Advocacy of eugenics.

      Although he made contributions to many fields of knowledge, eugenics remained Galton's fundamental interest, and he devoted the latter part of his life chiefly to propagating the idea of improving the physical and mental makeup of the human species by selective parenthood. Galton, a cousin of Charles Darwin, was among the first to recognize the implications for mankind of Darwin's theory of evolution. He saw that it invalidated much of contemporary theology and that it also opened possibilities for planned human betterment. Galton coined the word eugenics to denote scientific endeavours to increase the proportion of persons with better than average genetic endowment through selective mating of marriage partners. In his Hereditary Genius (1869), in which he used the word genius to denote “an ability that was exceptionally high and at the same time inborn,” his main argument was that mental and physical features are equally inherited—a proposition that was not accepted at the time. It is surprising that when Darwin first read this book, he wrote to the author: “You have made a convert of an opponent in one sense for I have always maintained that, excepting fools, men did not differ much in intellect, only in zeal and hard work.” This book doubtless helped Darwin to extend his evolution theory to man. Galton, unmentioned in Origin of Species (1859), is several times quoted in Darwin's Descent of Man (1871). Galton's conviction that mental traits are no less inherited than are physical characteristics was strong enough to shape his personal religious philosophy. “We cannot doubt,” he wrote, “the existence of a great power ready to hand and capable of being directed with vast benefit as soon as we have learned to understand and apply it.”

      Galton's Inquiries into Human Faculty (1883) consists of some 40 articles varying in length from 2 to 30 pages, which are mostly based on scientific papers written between 1869 and 1883. The book can in a sense be regarded as a summary of the author's views on the faculties of man. On all his topics, Galton has something original and interesting to say, and he says it with clarity, brevity, distinction, and modesty. Under the terms of his will, a eugenics chair was established at the University of London.

Reputation.

      In the 20th century Galton's name has been mainly associated with eugenics. Insofar as eugenics takes primary account of inborn differences between human beings, it has come under the suspicion of those who hold that cultural (social and educational) factors heavily outweigh inborn, or biological, factors in their contribution to human differences. Eugenics is accordingly often treated as an expression of class prejudice, and Galton as a reactionary. Yet to some extent this view misrepresents his thought, for his aim was not the creation of an aristocratic elite but of a population consisting entirely of superior men and women. His ideas, like those of Darwin, were limited by a lack of an adequate theory of inheritance; the rediscovery of the work of Mendel came too late to affect Galton's contribution in any significant way.

Additional Reading

The most important work on Galton is Karl Pearson, The Life, Letters, and Labours of Francis Galton, 3 vol. in 4 (1914–30). A shorter treatment is found in D.W. Forrest, Francis Galton (1974).

* * *