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542

Life and Letters of Francis Galton

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Well, she was two years at a home for the feeble-minded, and explained to me the careful loving way in which the lady nurses inform themselves of the patients' family history-and their wide-awake scientific knowledge too. She promises to send me information, and I rely much on her. If you see your way to act on the lines mentioned in my letter to Miss Kirby, it seems quite possible that you might do a really big and useful thing, that would be your cheval de bataille on which to win the approval of the London. University. You will have zealous women to work with, and the aid of women who are zealous (and wisely directed) is invaluable. Think well of this..

The refusal of the Life Medical Officers Association seems to finally extinguish our hopes in that direction. Dr Urquhart opens other fields. Don't merge your work in Dr Mott's. If he is working hard in his own province,< be chary of trespassing.

Mr Eichholz is a first-rate man. I mentioned him to you as having given by far the best evidence before the Physical Deterioration Committee. By all means cultivate his acquaintance and seek his help. The Jews are a singularly well looked' after body. I have seen a little of their organisation and know how thorough it is. Very faithfully yours, FRANCIS' GALTON.


March' 31, 1905.- On and after April 10 to May 1, we shall be• at Villa Stratta, Bordighera. ;

My DEAR WELDON*, Your photos sent to Miss Biggs are wonderful. I wish you had brighter and warmer weather. We have lots of sunshine but of course nothing of historical grandeur. You have justly convicted me of gross geographical error. Another, one is liable to make, is to suppose Dover to lie nearly south of London. "13umanum est errare" and I feel at times very human in that respect.

Your mice give an unending problem. It is grand to have five generations. I don't believe anybody would have appreciated your work more than Mendel himself had he been alive. Dear old man; my heart always warms at the thought of him, so painstaking, so unappreciated, so scientifically solitary in his monastery. And his face is so nice.-I can't give you any useful hints. I wish I could. I am just a learner, and bad at that now. During the last week or fortnight I have been busy with my "Measurement of Resemblance," and am getting it into Royal Society paperstate It comes out all right The only question with me is whether to wait or to give it only in a theoretically complete form. In the first case, I should illustrate it photographically and provide apparatus to show; but I feel I have not power now to do such things' properly, so :I shall probably content myself with the theory for the present, and give minor illus trations.-Schuster seems eager and thorough. He has had a week or so of old work on skulls to revise arithmetically, but he has done that. He has useful relations too, whom he can get to give some help. There is quite a large, vacant, and promising field of work, anent the "feebleminded." Very capable and enthusiastic ladies work up the family histories and are anxious to be of use. With a little intelligent direction they ought to be of much use. We shall see.

The sensation of the Riviera is the motor-boat competition. The boats will all arrive at Monaco to-morrow, and the show and races are to go on for more than a week. On April 10th we change our quarters, having rented Villa Stratta, Bordighera, till May 1st, and then home. Kindest remembrances to Mrs Weldon. Ever yours, FRANCIS GALTON.


VILLA STRATTA, BORDIGHERA. Easter Sunday, 1905. But post nothing here later than Thursday next, April 27.

DEAREST MLLLY, All things come to an end, Riviera residence included. We leave next Monday morning, with many regrets, but still desirous of change. All visitors feel the air less good about this time, and begin to go. We propose to return leisurely; it is difficult to fix by which way, on account of Italian railway strikes. Your May 22nd ought to be a charming time for Brittany, if not still too cold. It is a land unknown to me, which I keep as a preserve to go to, some future day. I do not realise yet where Parame is t. I happen to know a good deal

I much regret the paucity of Galton's letters to Weldon. I have all Weldon's letters to Galton, but few of his letters to Weldon have survived, and those only by being mislaid, for Weldon systematically destroyed all the letters he received. I doubt the legitimacy, or at any rate the wisdom, of such destruction, especially in the case of men as noteworthy as Galton and Huxley.

t On the coast slightly east of St Malo.


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