4 galton.org
4
Inquiries into Human Faculty
brush per minute. There were, therefore, twenty-four thousand separate
traits in the completed portrait, and in his opinion some, I do not say
equal, but comparably large number of units of resemblance with the
original.
The physiognomical difference between different men being so
numerous and small, it is impossible to measure and compare them each
to each, and to discover by ordinary statistical methods the true
physiognomy of a race. The usual way is to select individuals who are
judged to be representatives of the prevalent type, and to photograph
them; but this method is not trustworthy, because the judgment itself is
fallacious. It is swayed by exceptional and grotesque features more than
by ordinary ones, and the portraits supposed to be typical are likely to be
caricatures. One fine Sunday afternoon I sat with a friend by the walk in
Kensington Gardens that leads to the bridge, and which on such occasions
is thronged by promenaders. It was agreed between us that whichever first
caught sight of a typical John Bull should call the attention of the other.
We sat and watched keenly for many minutes, but neither of us found
occasion to utter a word.
The prevalent type of English face has greatly changed at different
periods, for after making large allowance for the fashion in portrait
painting of the day, there remains a great difference between the
proportion in which certain casts of features are to be met with at different
dates. I have spent some time in studying the photographs of the various
portraits of English worthies that have been exhibited at successive loan
collections, or which are now in the National Portrait Gallery, and have
traced what appear to be indisputable signs of one predominant type of
face supplanting another. For instance, the features of the men painted by
and about the time of Holbein have usually high cheekbones, long upper
lips, thin eyebrows, and lank dark hair. It would be impossible, I think, for
the majority of modern Englishmen so to dress themselves and clip and
arrange their hair, as to look like the majority of these portraits.
Englishmen are now a fair and reddish race, as may be seen from the
Diagram, taken from the Report of the Anthropometric Committee to the
British Association in 1880 and which gives the proportion in which the
