A Life of Sir Francis Galton : From African Exploration to the Birth of Eugenics

Few scientists have made lasting contributions to as many fields as Francis Galton. He was an important African explorer, travel writer, and geographer. He was the meteorologist who discovered the anticyclone, a pioneer in using fingerprints to identify individuals, the inventor of regression and correlation analysis in statistics, and the founder of the eugenics movement. Now, Nicholas Gillham paints an engaging portrait of this Victorian polymath. The book traces Galton's ancestry (he was the grandson of Erasmus Darwin and the cousin of Charles Darwin), upbringing, training as a medical apprentice, and experience as a Cambridge undergraduate. It recounts in colorful detail Galton's adventures as leader of his own expedition in Namibia. Darwin was always a strong influence on his cousin and a turning point in Galton's life was the publication of the Origin of Species . Thereafter, Galton devoted most of his life to human heredity, using then novel methods such as pedigree analysis and twin studies to argue that talent and character were inherited and that humans could be selectively bred to enhance these qualities. To this end, he founded the eugenics movement which rapidly gained momentum early in the last century. After Galton's death, however, eugenics took a more sinister path, as in the United States, where by 1913 sixteen states had involuntary sterilization laws, and in Germany, where the goal of racial purity was pushed to its horrific limit in the "final solution." Galton himself, Gillham writes, would have been appalled by the extremes to which eugenics was carried. Here then is a vibrant biography of a remarkable scientist as well as a superb portrait of science in the Victorian era. "Few scientists have made lasting contributions to as many fields as Francis Galton. He was an important African explorer, travel writer, and geographer. He was the meteorologist who discovered the anticyclone, a pioneer in using fingerprints to identify individuals, the inventor of regression and correlation analysis in statistics, and the founder of the eugenics movement. Now, Nicholas Gilham paints an engaging portrait of this Victorian polymath." "The book traces Galton's ancestry (he was the grandson of Erasmus Darwin and the cousin of Charles Darwin), upbringing, training as a medical apprentice, and experience as a Cambridge undergraduate. It recounts in colorful detail Galton's adventures as leader of his own expedition in Namibia. Darwin was always a strong influence on his cousin and a turning point in Galton's life was the publication of The Origin of Species. Thereafter, Galton devoted most of his life to human heredity, using then novel methods such as pedigree analysis and twin studies to argue that talent and character were inherited and that humans could be selectively bred to enhance these qualities. To this end, he founded the eugenics movement, which rapidly gained momentum early in the last century. After Galton's death, however, eugenics took a more sinister path, as in the United States, where by 1913 sixteen states had involuntary sterilization laws, and in Germany, where the goal of racial purity was pushed to its horrific limit in the "final solution." Galton himself, Gillham writes, would have been appalled by the extremes to which eugenics was carried."--Jacket Contents......Page 8 Preface......Page 10 Prologue: Francis Galton in Perspective......Page 14 I. ANTECEDENTS AND BEGINNINGS......Page 24 1 An Enviable Pedigree......Page 26 2 Metamorphosis: From Birth to Medical School......Page 36 3 A Poll Degree from Cambridge......Page 50 4 Drifting......Page 60 II. GEOGRAPHY AND EXPLORATION......Page 72 5 South Africa......Page 74 6 Making Peace with Jonker Afrikaner......Page 80 7 Expedition to Ovampoland......Page 92 8 Fame and Marriage......Page 106 I. The Great Lakes of Africa......Page 120 II. Stanley Faces Off with the Geographers......Page 136 11 Weather Maps and the Anticyclone......Page 153 III. THE TRIUMPH OF THE PEDIGREE......Page 166 12 Hereditary Talent and Character......Page 168 13 Gemmules, Rabbits, Germs, and Stirps......Page 186 14 Nature and Nurture......Page 200 15 Sweet Peas and Anthropometrics......Page 208 16 Probing the Mind......Page 228 17 Fingerprints......Page 244 18 The Birth of Biometrics......Page 263 19 Galton's Disciples......Page 282 20 Evolution by Jumps......Page 299 21 The Mendelians Trump the Biometricians......Page 316 22 The Triumph of the Pedigree: Eugenics......Page 337 Epilogue: Out of Pandora's Box: The First International Congress of Eugenics......Page 358 Notes......Page 372 Bibliography......Page 403 B......Page 411 C......Page 413 D......Page 414 E......Page 415 G......Page 416 H......Page 417 K......Page 421 M......Page 422 N......Page 423 P......Page 424 R......Page 425 S......Page 426 T......Page 427 W......Page 428 Z......Page 429 A cousin of Charles Darwin, Francis Galton was an African explorer, the meteorologist who discovered the anticyclone, a pioneer in using fingerprints to identify individuals, a statistician, and the founder of the eugenics movement. This text is a portrait of this Victorian polymath