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232 galton.org
232
Appendix
trace on the composite, though it is far too faint to be visible unless reinforced by many
similar traces.
The composites now to be exhibited are made from coins or medals, and in most
instances the aim has been to obtain the best likeness attainable of historical personages,
by combining various portraits of them taken at different periods of their lives, and so to
elicit the traits that are common to each series. A few of the individual portraits are placed
in the same slide with each composite to give a better idea of the character of these
blended representatives. Those that are shown are (1) Alexander the Great, from six
components; (2) Antiochus, King of Syria, from six; (3) Demetrius Poliorcetes, from six;
(4) Cleopatra, from five. Here the composite is as usual better looking than any of the
components, none of which, however, give any indication of her reputed beauty; in fact,
her features are not only plain, but to an ordinary English taste are simply hideous. (5)
Nero, from eleven; (6) A combination of five different Greek female faces;
and (7) A
singularly beautiful combination of the faces of six different Roman ladies, forming a
charming ideal profile.
My cordial acknowledgment is due to Mr. R. Stuart Poole, the learned curator of the
coins and gems in the British Museum, for his kind selection of the most suitable medals,
and for procuring casts of them for me for the present purpose. These casts were, with one
exception, all photographed to a uniform size of four-tenths of an inch between the pupils
of the eyes and the division between the lips, which experience shows to be the most
convenient size on the whole to work with, regard being paid to many considerations not
worth while to specify in detail. When it was necessary the photograph was reversed.
These photographs were made by Mr. H. Reynolds; I then adjusted and prepared them for
taking the photographic composite.
The next series to be exhibited consists of composites taken from the portraits of
criminals convicted of murder, manslaughter, or crimes accompanied by violence. There is
much interest in the fact that two types of features are found much more frequently among
these than among the population at large. In one, the features are broad and massive, like
those of Henry VIII., but with a much smaller brain. The other, of which five composites
are exhibited, each deduced from a number of different individuals, varying four to nine, is
a face that is weak and certainly not a common English face. Three of these composites,
though taken from entirely different sets of individuals, are as alike as brothers, and it is
found on optically combining any three out of the five composites, that is on combining
almost any considerable number of the individuals, the result is closely the same. The
combination of the three composites just alluded to will
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