Chapter I: Preface: To the Second Edition

After some years had passed subsequent to the publication of this book in 1883, its publishers, Messrs. Macmillan, informed me that the demand for it just, but only just warranted a revised issue. I shrank from the great trouble of bringing it up to date because it, or rather many of my memoirs out of which it was built up, had become starting-points for elaborate investigations both in England and in America, to which it would be difficult and very laborious to do justice in a brief compass. So the question of a Second Edition was then entirely dropped. Since that time the book has by no means ceased to live, for it continues to be quoted from and sought for, but is obtainable only with difficulty, and at much more than its original cost, at sales of second-hand books. Moreover, it became the starting point of that recent movement in favour of National Eugenics (see note p. 24 in first edition) which is recognised by the University of London, and has its home in University College.

Having received a proposal to republish the book in its present convenient and inexpensive form, I gladly accepted it, having first sought and received an obliging assurance from Messrs. Macmillan that they would waive all their claims to the contrary in my favour.

The following small changes are made in this edition. The illustrations are for the most part reduced in size to suit the smaller form of the volume, the lettering of the composites is rearranged, and the coloured illustration is reproduced as closely as circumstances permit. Two chapters are omitted, on "Theocratic Intervention" and on the "Objective Efficacy of Prayer." The earlier part of the latter was too much abbreviated from the original memoir in the _Fortnightly Review_, 1872, and gives, as I now perceive, a somewhat inexact impression of its object, which was to investigate certain views then thought orthodox, but which are growing obsolete. I could not reinsert these omissions now with advantage, unless considerable additions were made to the references, thus giving more appearance of personal controversy to the memoirs than is desirable. After all, the omission of these two chapters, in which I find nothing to recant, improves, as I am told, the general balance of the book. FRANCIS GALTON.

LIST OF WORKS.

The Teletype: a printing Electric Telegraph, 1850; The Narrative of an Explorer in Tropical South Africa, 1853, in "Minerva Library of Famous Books," 1889; Notes on Modern Geography (Cambridge Essays, 1855, etc.); Arts of Campaigning: an Inaugural Lecture delivered at Aldershot, 1855; The Art of Travel, or Shifts and Contrivances available in Wild Countries, 1855, 1856, 1860 (1859); fourth edition, recast and enlarged, 1867, 1872; Vacation Tourists and Notes on Travel, 1861, 1862, 1864; Meteorographica, or Methods of Mapping the Weather, 1863; Hereditary Genius: an Enquiry into its Laws and Consequences, 1869; English Men of Science: their Nature and Nurture, 1874; Address to the Anthropological Departments of the British Association (Plymouth, 1877); Generic Images: with Autotype Illustrations (from the Proceedings of the Royal Institution), 1879; Inquiries into Human Faculty and its Development, 1883; Record of Family Faculties, 1884; Natural Inheritance, 1889; Finger-Prints, 1892; Decipherments of Blurred Finger-Prints (supplementary chapters to former work), 1893; Finger-Print Directories, 1895; Introduction to Life of W. Cotton Oswell, 1900; Index to Achievements of Near Kinsfolk of some of the Fellows of the Royal Society, 1904; Eugenics: its Definition, Scope, and Aims (Sociological Society Papers, vols. I. and II.), 1905; Noteworthy Families (Modern Science); And many papers in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, Journals of the Geographical Society and the Anthropological Institute, the Reports of the British Association, the Philosophical Magazine, and Nature.

Galton also edited:
Hints to Travellers, 1878;
Life-History Album (British Medical Association), 1884,
second edition, 1902;
Biometrika (edited in consultation with F.G. and W.F.R. Weldon), 1901,
etc.;
and under his direction was designed a
Descriptive List of Anthropometric Apparatus, etc., 1887.

LIST OF MEMOIRS.

The following Memoirs by the author have been freely made use of in the following pages:--

1863: The First Steps towards the Domestication of Animals (_Journal of Ethnological Society_); 1871: Gregariousness in Cattle and in Men (_Macmillan's Magazine_); 1872: Statistical Inquiries into the Efficacy of Prayer (_Fortnightly Review_); 1873: Relative Supplies from Town and Country Families to the Population of Future Generations (_Journal of Statistical Society_); Hereditary Improvement (_Fraser's Magazine_); Africa for the Chinese (_Times_, June 6); 1875: Statistics by Intercomparison (_Philosophical Magazine_); Twins, as a Criterion of the Relative Power of Nature and Nurture (_Fraser's Magazine_, and _Journal of Anthropological Institute_); 1876: Whistles for Determining the Upper Limits of Audible Sound (_S. Kensington Conferences_, in connection with the Loan Exhibition of Scientific Instruments, p. 61); 1877: Presidential Address to the Anthropological Department of the British Association at Plymouth (_Report of British Association_); 1878: Composite Portraits (_Nature_, May 23, and _Journal of Anthropological Institute_); 1879: Psychometric Experiments (_Nineteenth Century_, and _Brain_, part vi.); Generic Images (_Nineteenth Century; Proceedings of Royal Institution_, with plates); Geometric Mean in Vital and Social Statistics (_Proceedings of Royal Society_); 1880: Visualised Numerals (_Nature_, Jan. 15 and March 25, and _Journal of Anthropological Institute_); Mental Imagery (_Fortnightly Review; Mind_); 1881: Visions of Sane Persons (_Fortnightly Review_, and _Proceedings of Royal Institution_); Composite Portraiture (_Journal of Photographical Society of Great Britain_, June 24); 1882: Physiognomy of Phthisis (_Guy's Hospital Reports_, vol. xxv.); Photographic Chronicles from Childhood to Age (_Fortnightly Review_); The Anthropometric Laboratory (_Fortnightly Review_); 1883: Some Apparatus for Testing the Delicacy of the Muscular and other Senses (_Journal of Anthropological Institute_, 1883, etc.).

_Memoirs in Eugenics_.

1901: Huxley Lecture, Anthropological Institute (_Nature,_ Nov. 1901); Smithsonian Report for 1901 (_Washington_, p. 523); 1904: Eugenics, its Definition, Scope and Aims (Sociological Paper, vol. i., _Sociological Institute_); 1905: Restrictions in Marriage, Studies in National Eugenics, Eugenics as a Factor in Religion (Sociological Papers, vol. ii.); 1907: Herbert Spencer Lecture, University of Oxford, on Probability the Foundation of Eugenics.

The following books by the author have been referred or alluded to in the following pages:--

1853: Narrative of an Explorer in Tropical South-Western Africa
(_Murray)_;
1854: Art of Travel (several subsequent editions,
the last in 1872, _Murray_);
1869: Hereditary Genius, its Laws and Consequences
(_Macmillan_);
1874: English Men of Science, their Nature and their Nurture
(_Macmillan_).

CONTENTS