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OCR Rendition - approximate
Eugenics as a Creed and the Last Decade of Galton's Life 375 received Miss Barrington's (and your) paper when I left. It will be read as soon as pressing arrears are worked off. The Western Morning News of Friday has just reached me. What an unusually sensible and forcible article ! It shows that Eugenics is being taken seriously at last. You may recollect that I told you of a clever Punch cartoon of the Lord and the Bull, which I failed to find again. Miss Burnand, half-sister of the caricaturist, has made it out for me, at last. It was by Du Maurier, and is in Punch, March 20, 1880. When you are in easy reach of a collection of Punch's volumes do look at it. It ought really to be utilised somehow, possibly by the Eugenics Education Society. I will suggest it to them. About the bust you suggest-is not a bust rather a "White Elephant "? Eva Biggs and I will talk it over. A small thing that could stand on a chimney piece with other things, seems better. Thank you for your kind words about my brother, whose cremation took place on Friday, very quietly by his express wish and no mourning to be adopted by his relatives. So I do not write on black-edged paper. It is strange that a living human being should so quickly be reduced to four handfuls of ash, and that scattered over the soil of a garden. The whole thing has rather upset me, as is but natural. Affectionately yours, FRANCIS GALTON. 7, WELL ROAD, HAMPSTEAD. March 7, 1909. MY DEAR FRANCIS GALTON, I am so glad that at any rate you will consider the possibility of a bust. It has, from my small experience, seemed so sad that this sort of thing should be badly done after a man is dead, when it can be effectively done only when he is alive. Besides this, we have the (to me) all important point that a bust is capable of good reproduction at a moderate cost, if the initial cost be great indeed. Punch, March 20, 1880, is within 10 feet of me, but we can't open the cupboard because the wall has settled and jammed the doors, and Punch from 1850 onwards is at present inaccessible, until a carpenter is forthcoming. I brought it from my Father's, but the weight was too much for the wall, and the result is as above ! We will put up a copy in the Laboratory. Now I want to ask you if you remember closely any more Darwins. Horace Darwin has a wen near the right ala of his nose. I had often noticed it and thought nothing of it. Yesterday on my bust of Darwin I noticed that there was a projection in the same position and see it is a wen ! Then I find it also on the 1881 portrait of Darwin. Do you know if it occurs in George, Frank or Leonard, or any of the older generation? It is extraordinary how blind one is at times. I knew Horace's wen quite well and never realised it as a marked inheritance, until my eye caught it on the Montford bust, and I had verified it on Charles Darwin's portraits As to cremation, both my parents were by their special desire cremated. It seemed to me so far less repulsive than the ordinary earth burial, but the preliminary ordeal was very galling. The law assumes that you have probably poisoned your relative and proceeds to a system of crossquestioning attendants and nurses which may be most painful in the hands of an unsympathetic local officer or magistrate. Affectionately, K. P. CROWN HOTEL, LYNDHURST. March 8, 1909. MY DEAR KARL PEARSON, The chill caught motoring sent me fairly to bed, starvation, and doctor (a good one), but I am now in the drawing room again and convalescent. Otherwise I should have written to say how gratified I had been at the account sent me by Heron of the success of your last lecture. That 10°/° of the population are producers of half the next generation shows the possibility of promoting the well-being of the nation by concentrating attention on a comparatively few families. I rejoiced too at the slashing conclusions of the memoir on Hereditary Vision. About the bust, it seems that the sculptor brother of Charles Furse lives within easy railway distance of here. Eva Biggs is making various inquiries before fixing anything. Methuen has sent me a substantial cheque (£66) on account of my Memories up to the end of December, and the sale has proceeded since then and is proceeding-which will go towards paying for the bust. There are other funds also, similarly available. I have not been out of the house since I arrived here 9 days ago, but am convalescent now and look forward to seeing soon something of the pretty neighbourhood. Heron wrote that you looked very fit at the time of your lecture. The overpowering weight of Punch is amusing. Ever affectionately, FRANCIS GALTON.
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