An eccentric man who spent much of his time analyzing and postulating over seemingly pointless problems. Some of Francis Galton’s more unusual published papers include; "
Arithmetic by Smell", "
On Making the perfect Cup of Tea", and "
A Beauty Map of Pretty Girls in Great Britain".
THe science of eugenics was founded by Sir Francis Galton, who defined it as:
The youngest of seven children born into a prosperous middle-class family of Quaker faith. His father Samuel was a successful banker, and Frances, his mother, was the daughter of Erasmus Darwin, medical practitioner, natural philosopher and poet.
An English scientist he pioneered the use of statistics in genetic thought. In his first important book, Hereditary Genius (1869), Galton proposed that a system of arranged marriages between men of distinction and women of wealth would eventually produce a gifted race, but the idea never won widespread acceptance. Many people fear that a eugenics program would take away basic human rights, such as people's rights to marry whom they choose.
Born near Birmingham England and educated at King's College, London, and Trinity College , University of Cambridge He traveled to Africa in the 1840-50's and following wrote Narrative of an Explorer in Tropical South Africa (1853) and Art of Travel (1855). His interest in meteorology led him to write Meterographica (1836), the first book on modern methods of weather mapping.
A cousin of Charles Darwin Galton was one of the first to recognize how Darwin's theory of evolution was going to clash with theology. Galton became fascinated with heredity and the measurements of humans; he gathered statistics on strength, height, dimension and other characteristics of many people. Committing special attentions to fingerprinting he soon devised a way of identification by fingerprints. By calculating the correlation between pairs of attributes he displayed the basis techniques in statistical measurements. Knighted in 1909, Sir Francis Galton is known for many of his other studies; Inquiries into Human Faculty (1883), Natural Inheritance (1889), and Finger Prints, (1892).Galton's Inquiries into Human Faculty consists of some 40 articles varying in length from 2 to 30 pages, which are mostly based on scientific papers written between 1869 and 1883. The book is regarded as a summary of the author's views on the faculties of man. On all his topics, Galton has something original and interesting to say, and he says it with clarity, brevity, distinction, and modesty. Under the terms of his will, a eugenics chair was established at the University of London.
He coined the term eugenics in 1883 and continued to expound its benefits until his death on January 17, 1911.
Sources
britannica.com:
http://www.britannica.com/
Bram, Robert Philips, Norma H. Dicky, "Galton, Francis," Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia , 1988.
Genetics: A Survey of the Principles of Heredity. Ed. H. Bently Glass, June Shepard. 4th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1972.