OCR Rendition - approximate

1901. ] NA N., [No. 132. ORIGINAL ARTICLES. Race Improvement. With Plate L. Galton. The Possible Improvement of the Human Breed under the existing Conditions of Law and Sentiment. By Francis Galton, D.C.L., D.Sc.,. F,R.S. Abstract 132 of the Huxley Memorial Lecture, delivered before the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland on Tuesday, October 29th, 1901. The aim of the lecture is to give a scientific basis to the problem of race improve. ment under the existing conditions, of civilisation and sentiment. It leads to many subsidiary problems, each interesting to anthropologists on its own account. Men differ as much as dogs in inborn dispositions and faculties. Some dogs are savage, others gentle ; some endure fatigue, others are soon exhausted ; some are loyal, others are self-regarding. , They differ no less widely in specialities, as in herding sheep, retrieving, pointing at game, and following, trails by scent. So it is with men in respect to the qualities that go towards forming civic worth, which it is riot necessary at this moment to define particularly, especially as it may be a blend of many alternative qualities. High civic worth includes a high level of character, intellect, energy, and physique, and this would disqualify the vast majority of persons from that distinction. We may eonceive,that a committee might be entrusted to select the worthiest of the remaining candidates, much as they select for fellowships, honours, or official posts. Distribution in a Population.-It is a fair assumption that the different grades of civic worth are distributed in accord with the familiar normal law of frequency. This means nothing more than that the causes why civic worth varies in amount in different persons are numerous and act independently,. some pulling this way, some that, the results being due to the, ordinary laws of combination. As it is found that such very, different variables conform fairly to this law; as Stature, Bullet holes around the bull'seye, Error of judgment of astronomers, and Marks gained by candidates at examinations, whether in, simple or in grouped subjects, there is much reason to believe that civic worth will do so also. ,The figures will then come out as follows : Let the average civic worth of all the male adults of the nation be determined and its value be called M, one-half of them having less and the other more than M. Let those who have more than M be similarly subdivided, the lower half will.then have M plus something that does not exceed a sharply-defined amount, which will. be called 1°, and is taken as the unit of distribution. It signifies the height of each step -or grade between the limits of the successive classes about to be described. We therefore obtain by familiar methods the result that 25 per, cent. lie between M and M -{- 1° (call it for brevity + 1'),; 16 per cent. between + 1°and + 2° ; 7 between 4- 2° and + 3°, and 2 for all beyond -/- 3°. There is no, outer limit ; the classification might proceed indefinitely, but this will do at present. Similarly for the negative grades below M. It is convenient to distinguish, the classes included between these divisions by letters, so they will be called R, S, T, U, &c., in succession upwards, and r, s, t, u, &c., in succession downwards, r being the counterpart of R ; s of,S, and so on. These normal classes were compared with those of Mr. Charles Booth in his great work, Labour and Life of the People of London. His lower classes, including the criminals and semi-criminals, correspond in numbers with " t and below " ; those higher than small shopkeepers and subordinate professional men correspond with " T and above,'and the large body of artisans who earn from 22s. to 30s. a week exactly occupy the place of mediocrity ; they include the upper four.6fths of r and the lower four fifths of R. So far as these may represent civic worth they confirm as far as they go its fairly normal distribution. The differences between the classes are exemplified by the figures relating to the stature of many thousand adult males, measured at the Health Exhibition. Their 161 ] CIibPDF - www.fastio.com