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230 galton.org
230
Appendix
visualising power in a high degree, and they are at the same time pre-eminently
distinguished by their gifts of generalisation. They are of all men the most capable of
producing forms that are not copies of any individual, but represent the characteristic
features of classes.
There is then, no doubt, from whatever side the subject of memory is approached,
whether from the material or from the mental, and, in the latter case, whether we examine
the experiences of those in whom the visualising faculty is faint or in whom it is strong,
that the brain has the capacity of blending memories together. Neither can there be any
doubt that general impressions are faint and perhaps faulty editions of blended memories.
They are subject to errors of their own, and they inherit all those to which the memories
are themselves liable.
Specimens of blended portraits will now be exhibited; these might, with more
propriety, be named, according to the happy phrase of Professor Huxley, “generic”
portraits. The word generic presupposes a genus, that is to say, a collection of individuals
who have much in common, and among whom medium characteristics are very much
more frequent than extreme ones. The same idea is sometimes expressed by the word
“typical,” which was much used by Quetelet, who was the first to give it a rigorous
interpretation, and whose idea of a type lies at the basis of his statistical views. No
statistician dreams of combining objects into the same generic group that do not cluster
towards a common centre; no more should we attempt to compose generic portraits out of
heterogeneous elements, for if we do so the result is monstrous and meaningless.
It might be expected that when many different portraits are fused into a single one, the
result would be a mere smudge. Such, however, is by no means the case, under the
conditions just laid down, of a great prevalence of the mediocre characteristics over the
extreme ones. There are then so many traits in common, to combine and to reinforce one
another, that they prevail to the exclusion of the rest. All that is common remains, all that
is individual tends to disappear.
The first of the composites exhibited on this occasion is made by conveying the images
of three separate portraits by means of three separate magic-lanterns upon the same screen.
The stands on which the lanterns are mounted have been arranged to allow of nice
adjustment. The composite about to be shown is one that strains the powers of the process
somewhat too severely, the portraits combined being those of two brothers and their sister,
who have not even been photographed in precisely the same attitudes. Nevertheless, the
result is seen to be the production of a face, neither male nor female, but more regular and
handsome than any of the component portraits, and in which
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