Putting Method First: Re-Appraising the Extreme Determinism and Hard Hereditarianism of Sir Francis Galton

Francis Galton is now most widely remembered for his work on heredity, for his contributions to statistical science, and for his championing of selective human breeding. For general accounts of his life and work see Pearson Karl , The life, letters and labours of Francis Galton (4 vols, Cambridge, 1914–30); Forrest Derek , Francis Galton: The life and work of a Victorian genius (London, 1974); and Keynes Milo (ed.), Sir Francis Galton, FRS: The legacy of his ideas. Proceedings of the twenty-eighth symposium of the Galton Institute, London, 1991 (Basingstoke, 1993).

For example, Szreter Simon , Fertility, class and gender in Britain 1860–1940 (Cambridge, 1996); Pick Daniel , Faces of degeneration: A European disorder, c. 1848-c. 1918 (Cambridge, 1989); Kevles Daniel , In the name of eugenics: Genetics and the uses of human heredity (Cambridge, Mass., 1995); Stepan Nancy , The idea of race in science: Great Britain, 1800–1960 (Hamden, 1982); and Jones Greta , “The theoretical foundations of eugenics”, in Peel R. A. (ed.), Essays in the history of eugenics (London, 1998), 1–20.

See especially Cowan Ruth Schwarz , “Nature and nurture: The interplay of biology and politics in the work of Francis Galton”, Studies in the history of biology, i (1977), 133–207; Mackenzie Donald , Statistics in Britain, 1865–1900: The social construction of scientific knowledge (Edinburgh, 1981); and Norton Bernard , “Psychologists and class”, in Webster C. (ed.), Biology, medicine and society 1840–1940 (Cambridge, 1981), 289–314.

Bowler Peter , The Mendelian Revolution: The emergence of hereditarian concepts in modern science and society (London, 1989); Olby Robert , Origins of Mendelism (Chicago, 1985); Gayon Jean , Darwinism's struggle for survival: Heredity and the hypothesis of natural selection (Cambridge, 1998); Cowan , “Nature and nurture” (ref. 3); and Mackenzie , Statistics in Britain (ref. 3).

See refs 2–4.

See, in particular, Szreter , Fertility, class and gender (ref. 2); Norton , “Psychologists and class” (ref. 3); Cowan , “Nature and nurture” (ref. 3); Jones , “Theoretical foundations” (ref. 2); and Mackenzie , Statistics in Britain (ref. 3).

Szreter , Fertility, class and gender (ref. 2), 57.

Mackenzie , Statistics in Britain (ref. 3), 509.

Fancher Raymond , “Biographical origins of Francis Galton's psychology”, Isis, lxxiv (1983), 227–33. See also Fancher Raymond , “Francis Galton's African ethnography and its role in the development of his psychology”, The British journal of the history of science, xvi (1986), 67–79, and Kevles , Name of eugenics (ref. 2), 10.

Hilts Victor , “Obeying the laws of hereditary descent: Phrenological views on inheritance and eugenics”, Journal of the history of the behavioural sciences, xviii (1982), 62–77; Jones Greta , Social Darwinism and English thought: The interaction between biological and social theory (Hassocks, Sussex, 1980); López-Beltrán Carlos , “Human heredity 1750–1870: The construction of a domain”, unpublished Ph.D. thesis, King's College London, 1992; Waller John C. , “Ideas of heredity, reproduction and eugenics in Britain, 1800–1875”, Studies in history and philosophy of biological and biomedical sciences, in press; and Waller John C. , “The social and intellectual origins of Sir Francis Galton's ideas on heredity and eugenics”, unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University College London, 2001.

One thinks immediately of later psychometricians, such as Cyril Burt and Hans Eysenck, whose hereditarian theorizing may also have been under-determined by the private social and political predilections given such prominence by historians (e.g. Gould Stephen Jay , The mismeasure of man (London, 1992)).

Kohler R. E. , Lords of the fly: Drosophila genetics and the experimental life (Chicago, 1994), espec. chap. 2.

Fujimura Joan H. , “Constructing ‘do-able’ problems in cancer research: Articulating alignment”, Social studies of science, xvii (1987), 257–93, and Mitman Gregg Fausto-Sterling Anne , “Whatever happened to Planaria? C. M. Child and the physiology of inheritance”, in Clarke A. E. Fujimura Joan H. (eds), The right tools for the job: At work in twentieth-century life sciences (Princeton, 1992), 172–97.

Galton archives (UCL), Folder 152/7.

See Robertson W. , The history of America (London, 1834); Combe George , The constitution of man considered in relation to external objects (Edinburgh, 1841), and Esquirol E. , Aliénation mentale: Des illusions chez les aliénés. Question medico-légale sur l'isolement des aliénés (Paris, 1832).

Fancher , “Biographical origins” (ref. 9), and Waller “The social and intellectual origins” (ref. 10).

In a forthcoming article I will show in more detail how Galton's professional aspirations guided his decision to study the inheritance of intellectual ability. A preliminary account of this thesis is contained in Waller , “The social and intellectual origins” (ref. 10), chaps. 3 and 5.

Forrest , “Victorian genius” (ref. 1), espec. chap. 6.

See Galton Francis , Meteorographica, or Methods of mapping the weather (London and Cambridge, 1863), 1.

See Galton Francis , “First steps towards the domestication of animals”, British Association report, 1864, 93–94.

See letter and notes, Emma Darwin to Hooker Joseph D. , 7 December 1863, in Burkhardt F. Smith S. (eds), The correspondence of Charles Darwin (Cambridge, 2000), 445.

Wallace Alfred Russel , [review of Hereditary genius], Nature, i (1869–70), 501–3, and Charles Darwin to Francis Galton, 23 December 1869, Galton archives (UCL), folder 39E.

See Waller , “The social and intellectual origins” (ref. 10).

Galton Francis , Hereditary genius (London, 1914 reprint), p. vi.

See Galton Francis , Memories of my life (London, 1908), 45.

For Galton's experience at Cambridge see Warwick Andrew , “Exercising the student body: Mathematics and athleticism in Victorian Cambridge”, in Lawrence Christopher Shapin Steven (eds.), Science incarnate: Historical embodiments of natural knowledge (Chicago, 1998), 288–325.

See Galton Francis , The narrative of an explorer in tropical South Africa (London, 1853), 102. Galton's devotion to numerals and his demonstrable difficulties in social situations are broadly compatible with a diagnosis of mild autism, or Asperger's syndrome.

For the history of modern statistics and the statistical approach to collecting and defining ‘facts’ see Poovey Mary , A history of the modern fact: Problems of knowledge in the sciences of wealth and society (Chicago, 1998); Porter Theodore M. , Trust in numbers: The pursuit of objectivity in science and public life (Princeton, 1996); Hacking Ian , The taming of chance (Cambridge, 1990); Porter Theodore M. , The rise of statistical thinking, 1820–1900 (Princeton, 1986); and Hilts Victor , “Statist and statistician: Three studies in the history of nineteenth-century English statistical thought”, unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Harvard University, 1967.

Porter , The rise of statistical thinking (ref. 28), 273.

Anon., “Mr. Galton on nuts and men”, Spectator, 16 May 1874, 623–4, p. 624.

See Galton , Narrative of an explorer (ref. 27), 45, where he refers explicitly to Camper's methods.

See, for example, Carson John , “Minding matter/mattering mind: Knowledge and the subject in nineteenth-century psychology”, Studies in the history and philosophy of biology and the biomedical sciences, xxx (1999), 345–76. For a general account of the rise of physical anthropology see Stocking George , Victorian anthropology (London, 1987).

See, for example, Broca Paul , Hybridity in the Genus Homo, transl. by Blake C. Carter (London, 1864); Knox R. , The races of men: A philosophical enquiry into the influence of race over the destinies of nations (London, 1862).

See Galton archives (UCL), folder 152/7.

Lewes George H. , The physiology of common life, ii (Edinburgh, 1860).

Ibid., 336.

Lewes George H. , “Hereditary influence, animal and human” (reprinted from Westminster review), Journal of psychological medicine, 1 April 1857, 384–402, p. 384.

Buckle Henry T. , History of civilization in England (London, 1857–61), i, 177.

Lewes , The physiology of common life (ref. 35), ii, 315.

Darwin Charles , The origin of species by means of natural selection (Oxford, 1996 reprint), 12–13.

Galton Francis , “Hereditary talent and character”, Macmillan's magazine, xii (1865), 157–66, p. 159.

Ibid., 165.

Porter , The rise of statistical thinking (ref. 28), 142.

Anon., “Hereditary genius”, The Scotsman, 28 December 1869, 7.

Merivale H. , “Galton on hereditary genius”, Edinburgh review, cxxxii (1870), 52–64, p. 64, and Gökyigit E. , “The reception of Francis Galton's Hereditary genius in the Victorian periodical press”, Journal of the history of biology, xxvii (1993), 215–40.

Mill John Stuart , “Reply to Mr. Carlyle”, Fraser's magazine, xli (1850), 25–31, p. 29.

See Knights B. , The idea of the clerisy in the nineteenth century (Cambridge, 1978) and West Shearer (ed.), The Victorians and race (Brookfield, 1996).

Anon., “Hereditary genius”, The Times, 7 January 1870, 10.

Anon., op. cit. (ref. 44), 7.

Anon., op. cit. (ref. 44), 9.

Of course, IQ studies are still dogged by debates as to how accurately they measure inborn ability versus the effects of neonatal and postnatal environments. See Gould , Mismeasure of man (ref. 11).

Galton archives (UCL), red notebook in folder 120/1.

Galton , Hereditary genius (ref. 24), 88 and 23.

See Gökyigit , “Reception of Francis Galton's Hereditary genius” (ref. 45).

Anon., [Review of Hereditary genius], Daily news, 16 December 1869, 7.

See ref. 4.

Galton archives (UCL), red notebook in folder 120/1, and Galton Francis , “The history of twins”, Journal of the Anthropological Institute, v (1875), 391–406, p. 391.

Galton archives (UCL), black notebook in folder 152/7, and Galton , Hereditary genius (ref. 24), p. v.

Galton archives (UCL), 152/7. This is a strategy with many echoes in the ethnological discussions to which Galton had been privy since the early 1860s (see Waller , “The social and intellectual origins” (ref. 10)).

Galton archives (UCL), 152/7.

Galton Francis , “Hereditary talent and character”, Macmillan's magazine, xii (1865), 318–27, p. 325.

Galton archives (UCL), in folder 134/1.

Galton archives (UCL), red notebook in folder 120/1, 44.

Galton , “Hereditary talent and character” (ref. 61), 320.

Galton , “Hereditary talent and character” (ref. 61), 321.

Galton , “Hereditary talent and character” (ref. 61), 322.

Darwin Charles , The variation of animals and plants under domestication, i (Baltimore, 1998 reprint), 451; Darwin Charles , The descent of man and selection in relation to sex (London, 1871).

Galton , Hereditary genius (ref. 24), 1.

Galton archives (UCL), red notebook in folder 120/1.

In addition, Galton claimed, schooling might also impart knowledge of the “art of learning and of reasoning”, Galton archives (UCL), 120/1.

Anon., The morning post, 16 April 1870, 5–6.

Galton Francis , “Hereditary genius: The judges of England between 1660 and 1865”, Macmillan's magazine, xvi (1865), 424–31.

Galton , Hereditary genius (ref. 24), 2.

Lyell Charles , The geological evidences of the antiquity of man, with remarks on theories of the origin of species by variation (London, 1863), 504.

Anon., op. cit. (ref. 44), 6.

Galton archives (UCL), red notebook in folder 120/1.

Galton , “Hereditary talent and character” (ref. 41), 160.

Galton , Hereditary genius (ref. 24), 35.

Galton , Hereditary genius (ref. 24), 78.

Galton archives (UCL), red notebook in folder 120/1, 46.

Galton , Hereditary genius (ref. 24), 12.

Galton Francis , English men of science: Their nature and nurture (London, 1874), 23.

Merivale , “Galton on hereditary genius” (ref. 45), 59.

Romanes George J. , An examination of Weismannism (London, 1893), 59.

Galton , “Hereditary talent and character” (ref. 61), 322.

Galton Francis , “On blood-relationship”, Proceedings of the Royal Society, cxxxvi (1872), 394–402; Galton Francis , “A theory of heredity”, Contemporary review, xxvii (1875), 80–95; and Bulmer Michael , “The development of Francis Galton's ideas on the mechanism of heredity”, Journal of the history of biology, xxxii (1999), 264–92.

Weismann August , The germ-plasm: A theory of heredity, transl. by Parker W. Newton Ronnfeldt Harriet (London, 1893), 9.

Merivale , “Galton on hereditary genius” (ref. 45), 6.

Bulmer , “The development of Francis Galton's ideas” (ref. 86), 266.

See, for example, Hodge M. J. S. , “Generation and the origin of species (1837–1937): A historiographic suggestion”, The British journal of the history of science, xxii (1989), 257–65; López-Beltrán , “Human heredity” (ref. 10); and Rosenberg Charles , “The bitter fruit: Heredity, disease, and social thought in nineteenth-century America”, in Fleming D. Bailyn B. (ed.) Perspectives in American history, iii (Cambridge, Mass., 1974), 189–235.

Galton's assumption of germ-line superabundance and his insistence upon particulate inheritance also inhered in his attempts to render the data for hereditary transmission compatible with a statistical explication (see Waller , “The social and intellectual origins” (ref. 10)).

See ref. 13.

Hereditary genius had also been heavily criticized by Alphonse de Candolle. His critique of Galton's hereditarianism formed the basis of his Histoire des sciences et des savants depuis deux siècles: Suivie d'autres études sur des sujets scientifiques en particulier sur la sélection dans l'espèce humaine (Geneva, 1872). Galton clearly felt the need to make some concessions to de Candolle's largely unfavourable evaluation.

Galton , English men of science (ref. 82), 24.

See Waller , “The social and intellectual origins” (ref. 10), espec. chap. 2.

Quoted in Boakes R. A. , From Darwin to behaviourism: Psychology and the minds of animals (Cambridge, 1984), 47.