The Non-Correlation of Biometrics and Eugenics: Rival Forms of Laboratory Work in Karl Pearson's Career at University College London,Part 1

Pearson Karl , Letter to Galton Francis , 25 October 1906, in Pearson Karl , The life, letters and labours of Francis Galton, iiia (Cambridge, 1930), 298.

Pearson Karl , “Report to the Court of the Worshipful Drapers on the present position and past history of the laboratories to which their annual grant has been made”, March 1918 (Papers and correspondence of Karl Pearson, University College London (hereafter: KP:UCL), 233), 3.

Pearson was Third Wrangler in the Mathematical Tripos at Cambridge in 1879. He studied law and philosophy in Germany, read law at the Inner Temple and was called to the Bar in 1881. He was a polymath whose interests ranged from astronomy, mechanics, meteorology and physics to the biological sciences (including anthropology, eugenics, evolutionary biology, heredity and medicine). For further biographical material on Pearson see Magnello M. Eileen , “Karl Pearson”, in Armitage Peter Colton Theodore (eds), Encyclopedia of biostatistics (New York, 1998), 3308–14.

Norton Bernard , “Biology and philosophy: The methodological foundation of biometry”, Journal of the history of biology, viii (1975), 85–93, p. 92.

Mackenzie Donald , Statistics in Britain 1856–1930: The social construction of scientific knowledge (Edinburgh, 1981), 180.

Farrall Lyndsay , “The origins and growth of the English eugenics movement, 1865–1926”, Ph.D. thesis, Indiana University, 1970, 101.

My own academic background includes formal grounding in statistics and my training in the history of science reflects the historiographical concerns of the 1990s; hence, I do not share the reductionistic approach used by Mackenzie in the 1970s for whom fixed social interests were the basis of historical explanation. See Magnello M. Eileen . “Karl Pearson: Evolutionary biology and the emergence of a modern theory of statistics”, D.Phil. thesis, Oxford, 1993. My longer term aim is to produce a biography of Pearson where individuals are less than coherent beings and where social and physical spaces, which are contingent and create opportunities to pursue scientific work, matter, but do not strictly determine this work.

Magnello M. Eileen , “Karl Pearson's Gresham lectures: W. F. R. Weldon, speciation and the origins of Pearsonian statistics”, The British journal for the history of science, xxix (1996) 43–63; idem, “Karl Pearson's mathematization of inheritance: From Galton's law of ancestral heredity to Mendelian genetics (1895–1909)”, Annals of science, lv (1998), 35–94; and idem, “Karl Pearson, elastician to biometrician: A mathematician changes contexts” (in preparation).

Daniel Todes has examined the scientific-managerial style of the physiology laboratory of Ivan Pavlov, set up in 1891 in St Petersburg. He has likened Pavlov's laboratory to a factory and discussed Pavlov's “scientific and managerial visions [which] suffused all aspects of the production process, shaping… the construction of the laboratory's physical site, the development of and use of its technologies; the choice, training and deployment of its workforce; and the processing, form and marketing of its final product”. See Todes Daniel P. , “Pavlov's physiology factory”, Isis, lxxxviii (1997), 205–46, p. 207. See also Pelis Kim , “Prophet for profit in French North Africa: Charles Nicolle and the Pasteur Institute of Tunis, 1903–1936”, Bulletin of the history of medicine, lxxi (1997), 583–622. Pelis looked at the laboratory of Charles Nicolle and, in particular, his bacteriological work on typhus and vaccines at the Pasteur Institute of Tunis. She has shown how Nicolle brought a closer alliance of his laboratory research with industrial and medical interests and attempted to shift a non-profit oriented pastorian bacteriological administration towards more ‘modern’ profitable allowances.

Gigerenzer Gerd Swijtink Zeno Porter Theodore Datson Lorraine Beatty John Krüger Lorenz , The empire of chance (Cambridge, 1989), 79.

Pearson Karl , Grammar of science (London, 1892; 2nd edn, London, 1900; 3rd edn, London, 1911).

University of London, University College, “Draft report on the Department of Applied Mathematics and Mechanics”, 11 September 1911 (KP:UCL, 11/10).

Pearson , op. cit. (ref. 2).

Pearson , op. cit. (ref. 2), 17.

Pearson , op. cit. (ref. 2).

Blacker C. P. , Eugenics: Galton and after (London, 1952), 105. Blacker was General Secretary of the Eugenics Society from 1931 to 1952 and was Honorary Secretary from 1952 to 1961.

Pearson Karl , “Foreword”, Annals of eugenics, i (1928), 1; see Pearson's Robert Boyle Lecture delivered before the Oxford University Junior Science Club on 17 May 1907: The scope and importance to the state of science of national eugenics (London, 1909), 15.

Hilts Victor , Statist and statistician (New York, 1981; reprint of his Ph.D. thesis, Harvard, 1967), 00506 [sic]. I have shown that Pearson's earliest and most seminal statistical innovations arose from matters of animal speciation. See Magnello , op. cit. (ref. 8, 1998).

Hilts , op. cit. (ref. 18), 00585.

Farrall , op. cit. (ref. 6), 136.

Ibid., 111.

Pearson , op. cit. (ref. 2), 3.

Norton Bernard , “Karl Pearson and statistics: The social origin of scientific innovations”, Social studies of science, viii (1978), 3–34, p. 5.

Mackenzie Donald , “Statistical interests and social interests: A case study”, Social studies of science, viii (1978), 35–83, p. 64.

Mackenzie , op. cit. (ref. 5), 105.

Ibid.

Kevles Daniel , In the name of eugenics (New York, 1985), 39.

Porter Theodore , The rise of statistical thinking (Princeton, 1986), 305.

Love Rosaleen , “Feminism and eugenics: Alice Lee and Ethel Elderton”, Annals of science, xxxvi (1979), 145–58, p. 147; Walkowitz Judith R. , “Science, feminism and romance: The Men's and Women's Club”, History workshop, xxi (1986), 37–59, p. 48.

Gigerenzer , op. cit. (ref. 10), 148.

Soloway Richard , Demography and degeneration (Chapel Hill, 1990), 117–18.

Farrall , op. cit. (ref. 6), 132–41; Mackenzie , op. cit. (ref. 5), 107. In 1903 Pearson set up a university bank account for the Drapers' Biometric Laboratory, and in November 1912, “a separate University banking account [was] opened and kept called the University of London, Galton Laboratory Account”. See Pearson Karl , “Report of the Galton Laboratory Committee: 4 December 1912” (KP:UCL, 242).

Pearson Karl , “Report to the Court of the Worshipful Drapers on the Galton and Biometric Laboratories especially with regard to their expenditures”, March 1925 (KP:UCL, 233), 1. Also see Williams Mari E. W. , “Astronomical observatories as practical space: The case of Pulkowa”, in James Frank A. J. L. (ed.), The development of the laboratory: Essays on the place of experiment in industrial civilisation (London, 1989), 118–36.

Pearson Karl , Foreword to the first volume of Annals of eugenics (1928).

Pooley E. H. , letter to Karl Pearson, 14 December 1904, Archives of the Drapers' Worshipful Company, A2/18.

Pearson Karl , “Report on the work done owing to the Grant made by the Worshipful Company of Drapers to the Department of Applied Mathematics, University of London, University College” (1903–9) (KP:UCL, 233), 7.

Pearson , op. cit. (ref. 1), 258. Galton had requested that it should be titled the Eugenics Record Office.

Schuster, who had investigated the variation of snails in Naples, had been recommended by Weldon. Weldon W. F. R. , letter to Karl Pearson, 25 June 1900 (KP:UCL, 891).

Pearson , Life, iiia (ref. 1), 258.

Ibid., 297.

Ibid.

Pearson , op. cit. (ref. 2), 3.

Pearson , op. cit. (ref. 2).

For a discussion of the significance of teaching in laboratories see Gooday Graeme , “Precision measurement and the genesis of physics teaching laboratories in Victorian Britain”, The British journal for the history of science, xxiii (1990), 25–51.

Pearson , op. cit. (ref. 2). For background information on Ebenezer Cunningham see Warwick Andrew , “Cambridge mathematics and Cavendish physics: Cunningham, Campbell and Einstein's relativity 1905–1911. Part 1: The uses of theory”, Studies in the history and philosophy of science, xxiii (1992), 625–56. Warwick has argued that Cunningham's work represented a direct contribution to Cambridge electrodynamics rather than to the development of Einstein's relativity theory.

Pearson Karl , [Application] “To the Electors to the Chair of Natural Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh, May 28, 1901” (KP:UCL, 11/9).

Pearson Karl , [Application] “To the Electors to the Savilian Professorship, Oxford” (10 June 1897) (KP:UCL, 11/9). Yule was a student in Pearson's Engineering course from 1887 to 1890; he then attended Pearson's Gresham lectures from 1890 to 1893 and became a Demonstrator in 1894. He was made Assistant Professor to Pearson in 1896 by the Council of UCL. See Pearson's testimonial in the “Application of G. Udny Yule for post of Principal of West Ham Technical College, January 1898” (KP:UCL, 905).

Pearson , op. cit. (ref. 46).

Pearson Karl , letter to G. Carey Foster, 26 November 1904 (KP:UCL, 233).

Pearson Karl , Foreword to Drapers' Company research memoirs: Biometric series, i (1904).

I am grateful to Andrew Warwick for bringing this to my attention. For an examination of the development of the first mathematical laboratory in Scotland, which E. T. Whittaker founded in 1913 at Edinburgh University, see Warwick Andrew , “The Laboratory of Theory or What's exact about the exact sciences?”, in Wise M. Norton (ed.), The values of precision (Princeton, 1995), 311–51. UCL was in fact the site of several laboratories including G. Carey Foster's physics lab. in 1866 and Alexander B. W. Kennedy's engineering lab. in 1878. See Gooday , op. cit. (ref. 44).

Pearson , op. cit. (ref. 49).

Ibid. For an account of the variety and types of microscopes used by biologists, physiologists and non-professional devotees in late-Victorian England, see Gooday Graeme , “Instrumentation and interpretation: Managing and representing the working environments of Victorian experimental science”, in Lightman B. (ed.), Victorian science in context (Chicago, 1997), 409–37. On the role of microscopes in mid-Victorian England see Gooday Graeme , “‘Nature’ in the laboratory: Domestication and discipline in Victorian life science”, The British journal for the history of science, xxiv (1991), 307–41.

Wright Alexandra Lee Alice Pearson Karl , “A cooperative study of queens, drones and workers in ‘Vespa vulgaris’”, Biometrika, v (1907), 407–22.

Thomson E. Y. Bell Julia Pearson Karl , “A second cooperative study of Vespa vulgaris: Comparison of queens of a single nest and queens of a general population”, Biometrika, vii (1909), 48–64. For an analysis of the important role that women played in the culture of Cambridge University physics see Gould Paula , “Women and the culture of university physics in late nineteenth century Cambridge”, The British journal for the history of science, xxx (1997), 127–49.

Edgeworth F. Y. , “Statistical observations on wasps and bees”, Biometrika, vi (1908–9), 365–86.

For an account of the development of mathematical tables for problems relating to mathematical physics, see Warwick , op. cit. (ref. 51).

In addition to various human calculators and computers, the biometricians who assisted in the planning of these tables for Biometrika include the following: Sheppard W. F. (1902), Latter O. H. (1906), Fisher R. A. (1915), Bell Julia David Florence N. Soper H. E. Merrington Maxine Pearson Egon Elderton William Palin Geary R. C. Brownlee John (1923), Tippett L. H. C. (1925), Wishart John (1927), Pearson Egon with Neyman Jerzey (1931).

Pearson Karl (ed.), Tables of the incomplete Γ-function computed by the staff of the Department of Applied Statistics, University of London, University College (Cambridge, 1922); idem, Tables of the incomplete beta-functions (Cambridge, 1934); and idem, Tables of the complete and incomplete elliptic integrals (Cambridge, 1934).

[ Pearson Karl ], “Cooperative investigations on plants. I. On the inheritance of the Shirley poppy”, Biometrika, ii (1902–3), 56–100. They published their second paper four years later on the “Cooperative investigations on Plants. II. On the inheritance of the Shirley poppy”, Biometrika, iv (1905–6), 394–426. For a detailed account of the biometricians work on homotyposis for plants see Magnello , op. cit. (ref. 8, 1998).

Some of the biometricians who worked on this project include the following: Fawcett Cicely Lee Alice Fry Agnes Moor Leslie Bramley Yule G. Udny . Pearson's wife, Marie, and one of his friends from King's College, Cambridge, Robert Parker, also gave their assistance.

Pearson Karl , “Walter Frank Raphael Weldon, 1860–1906”, Biometrika, v (1906–7), 46.

The memoir was presented to the Royal Society on 6 October 1900 and published a year later in Pearson Karl with Lee Alice Warren Ernest , Cicely D. Fawcett and others: “Mathematical contributions to the Theory of Evolution. IX. On the principle of homotyposis and its relation to heredity, to the variability of the individual, and to that of the Race. Part I, Homotyposis in the Vegetable Kingdom”, Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society, ser. A, cxcvii (1901), 285–379. This was followed up by Pearson Karl , “Mathematical contributions to the Theory of Evolution: On the homotyposis in homologous but differentiated organs”, Proceedings of the Royal Society, lxxi (1903), 288–313.

Weldon W. F. R. , “A first study of natural selection in Clausilia laminata (Montagu)”, Biometrika, i (1901–2), 110–23. One of Weldon's students followed up this work when he began to look for empirical evidence of natural selection in the spiral of the snails. See Cesnola A. P. , “Preliminary note on the protective value of colour in Mantis Religiosa”, Biometrika, iii (1904), 28–60, and idem, “A first study of natural selection in ‘Helix Arbustorum’ (Helicogene)”, Biometrika, v (1906–7), 387–99.

See Bowler Peter , The eclipse of Darwinism (Baltimore, 1983), 39 and Maynard-Smith John , The theory of evolution (Harmondsworth, 1958), 156.

Weldon , op. cit. (ref. 64), 122.

All of these methods of correlation have been examined in detail in Magnello , op. cit. (ref. 8, 1998).

Pearson , op. cit. (ref. 2), and op. cit. (ref. 34).

Pearson , op. cit. (ref. 34), “History of the Biometric and Galton Laboratories”, Appendix 1. See also Pearson Pearson Pearson , op. cit. (ref. 13), 1.

Pearson , op. cit. (ref. 34).

Pearson discusses the integrators, analysers and curve plotters in Pearson, op. cit. (ref. 34), 3. The other instruments appear in various articles in Biometrika from 1907 to 1936.

Geoffrey Morant and Otto Samson used their distributions from measurements of stature and fitted this to the normal curve by using the χ² goodness of fit test. See Morant Samson , “An examination of investigations by Dr. Maurice Fishberg and Prof. Frank Boas dealing with measurements of Jews in New York”, Biometrika, xxviii (1936), 1–31, p. 9.

See, for example, Elderton William Palin , “Adjustments to the moments of J-shaped curves”. Biometrika, xxv (1933), 179–80; idem, “Tables for testing the goodness of fit of theory to observation”, Biometrika, i (1901–2), 155–63; Geary R. C. , “A special expression of the moments of certain symmetrical functions”, Biometrika, xxv (1933), 184–6; Romanovsky V. , “Note on the method-of-moments”, Biometrika, xxviii (1936), 188–90; Shanawany M. R. E. , “An illustration of the accuracy of the chi-square approximation”, Biometrika, xxviii (1936), 179–81.

Davies O. L. , “On asymptotic formulae for the hypergeometric series”, Biometrika, xxvi (1934), 59–107; Hansmann G. H. , “On certain non-normal symmetrical frequency distributions”, Biometrika, xxvi (1934), 129–95; Martin E. J. , “On corrections for the moment coefficients of frequency distributions when the start of the frequency is one of the characteristics to be measured”, Biometrika, xxvi (1934), 12–58.

Pearson set out his scheme of measurement for discrete variables including the sub-classifications of nominal, ordinal and dichotomous variables in his paper with Alice Lee on the “Mathematical contribution to the theory of evolution. VIII. On the inheritance of characters not capable of exact quantitative measurement. Part I. Introductory. Part II. On the inheritance of coat-colour in horses. Part III. On the inheritance of eye-colour in man”, Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society, ser. A, cxcv (1900), 79–150.

Some of the other methods of correlation include Equaprobable tetrachoric correlation, Mean contingency coefficient (φ²), Mean square contingency coefficient, Marginal centroids, Triserial correlation, Eta (η), Three row η, the correlation of grades, and the polychoric correlation which he devised with his son Egon. See Pearson Karl with Pearson Egon , “On the polychoric coefficients of correlation”, Biometrika, xiv (1922), 127–56.

Pearson first used the C.R.L. in his paper with Davin Adelaide G. , “On the sesamoids of the knee-joint, Part I. Man. Part II. Evolution of the sesamoids”, Biometrika, xiii (1921), 133–75, 350–400. The C.R.L. was defined in his paper “On the coefficient of racial likeness”, Biometrika, xviii (1926), 105–17.

Pearson Karl , “Mathematical contributions to the theory of evolution. III. Heredity, panmixia and regression”, Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society, ser. A, clxxxvii (1896), 253–318.

Pearson Karl , “Variation in man and woman”, Chances of death (London, 1897), 256–378, p. 281.

Pearson , op. cit. (ref. 78), 279.

Pearson , op. cit. (ref. 78). Like his father and his younger brother, Arthur read law at the Inner Temple and he was called to the bar in 1877. Arthur acquired his double-barrelled surname by Royal Licence in 1885. Thomas Gee, who had no children, was a friend of the family. After his wife died, he gave a portion of the estate to the elder Pearson son, Arthur, on the condition that he would adopt Gee as part of his surname. William Gee, letter to William Pearson (1874) (KP:UCL, 9/3).

Pearson Karl Fawcett Cicely D. , “Mathematical contributions to the theory of evolution: On the inheritance of the cephalic index”, Proceedings of the Royal Society, lxii (1898), 413–17, p. 413.

Pearson Karl with Lee Alice , “Data for the problem of evolution in Man. VI. A first study of the correlation of the human skull”, Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society, ser. A, cxcvi (1901), 225–64. A second study was completed in the following year, in Karl Pearson and Cicely Fawcett assisted by Lee Alice , “A second study of the variation and correlation of the human skull, with special reference to the Naqada Crania”, Biometrika, i (1901–2), 408–67.

Pearson Karl Bell Julia , “A study of the long bones of the English Skeleton: Part 1. The femur”, Drapers' Company research memoirs: Biometric series, x (1919), 1–224, p. 3.

Thompson had assisted Weldon some years earlier when he had taken measurements of the frontal breadth of the carapace of the Plymouth shore crab.

Pearson , op. cit. (ref. 78), 278.

Pearson , op. cit. (ref. 78).

Pearson , op. cit. (ref. 78), 271.

Pearson Karl Bell Julia , op. cit. (ref. 84); “Part 2. The femur of man with special reference to other primate femora”, Drapers' Company research memoirs: Biometric series, xi (1919), 226–505.

Pearson Karl , “The cranial coordinatograph, the standard planes of the skull, and the value of Cartesian geometry to the craniologist, with some illustrations of the uses of the new method”, Biometrika, xxv (1933), 217–53, p. 251.

Pearson , op. cit. (ref. 90), 253.

Ibid.

Pearson Karl with McLean Ida Morant Geoffrey , “On the importance of the type of silhouettes for racial characterisation of anthropology”, Biometrika, xxB (1928), 389–400.

Tildesley Miriam L. , “The Albanians of the North and South. (1) Introductory accounts of measurements and photographs taken in 1929”, Biometrika, xxv (1933), 21–29.

Tildesley , op. cit. (ref. 94), 21.

Tildesley Miriam L. , “The Albanians of the North and South. (2) Discussions of Miss Tildesley's measurements by the staff of the Biometric Laboratory”, 29–51, p. 47.

Tildesley , op. cit. (ref. 96), 42.

Tildesley , op. cit. (ref. 96), 51.

Weldon W. F. R. , letter to Karl Pearson, 16 November 1906, (KP:UCL, 891). This debate has been discussed in Magnello, op. cit. (ref. 8, 1998).

Pearson Karl , letter to W. F. R. Weldon (written sometime after 16 November 1900) (KP:UCL, 266/9).

For more background material on Kennedy, see Gooday Graeme , “The morals of energy metering: Constructing and deconstructing the precision of the Victorian electrical engineer's ammeter and voltmeter”, in Wise Norton (ed.), The values of precision (Princeton, 1995), 239–82. Also see Gooday , op. cit. (ref. 44).