Francis Galton

Francis Galton (born February 16, 1822, near Sparkbrook, Birmingham, Warwickshire, England—died January 17, 1911, Grayshott House, Haslemere, Surrey) was an English explorer, anthropologist, and eugenicist known for his pioneering studies of human intelligence. He was knighted in 1909.

Early life

Galton’s family life was happy, and he gratefully acknowledged that he owed much to his father and mother. But he had little use for the conventional classical and religious teaching he received in school and church. Indeed, he later confessed in a letter to his cousin English naturalist Charles Darwin that the traditional biblical arguments had made him “wretched.”

Galton’s parents had planned that he should study medicine, and a tour of medical institutions on the Continent in his teens—an unusual experience for a student of his age—was followed by training in hospitals in Birmingham and London. But at this time, in Galton’s words, “a passion for travel seized me as if I had been a migratory bird.” A visit to the University of Giessen, Germany, to attend lectures on chemistry was broken off in favour of travel in southeastern Europe. From Vienna he made his way through Constanza, Constantinople (later Istanbul), Smyrna, and Athens, and he brought back from the caves of Adelsberg (present-day Postojna, Slovenia) specimens of a blind amphibian named Proteus—the first to reach England. On his return Galton went to Trinity College, Cambridge, where, as a result of overwork, he broke down in his third year. But he recovered quickly on changing his mode of life, as he did from similar attacks later.

Discover the fascinating events that shaped the world, straight from our editors.

SIGN UP

By clicking “Sign Up”, you consent to the Britannica Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

Britannica Quiz

Exploration and Discovery

Travels and exploration

After leaving Cambridge without taking a degree, Galton continued his medical studies in London. But before they were completed, his father died, leaving him “a sufficient fortune to make me independent of the medical profession.” Galton was then free to indulge his craving for travel. Leisurely expeditions in 1845–46 up the Nile River with friends and into the Holy Land alone were preliminaries to a carefully organized penetration into unexplored parts of southwestern Africa. After consulting the Royal Geographical Society, Galton decided to investigate a possible opening from the south and west to Lake Ngami, which lies north of the Kalahari desert some 550 miles east of Walvis Bay. The expedition, which included two journeys, one northward, the other eastward, from the same base, proved to be difficult and not without danger. Though the explorers did not reach Lake Ngami, they gained valuable information. As a result, at the age of only 31, Galton was in 1853 elected a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and, three years later, of the Royal Society.

In 1853 Galton married. There were no children of the marriage. Galton wrote 9 books and some 200 papers. They dealt with many diverse subjects, including the use of fingerprints for personal identification, the correlational calculus (a branch of applied statistics)—in both of which Galton was a pioneer—twins, blood transfusions, criminality, the art of travel in undeveloped countries, and meteorology. Most of Galton’s publications disclose his predilection for quantifying; an early paper, for example, dealt with a statistical test of the efficacy of prayer. Moreover, over a period of 34 years, he concerned himself with improving standards of measurement.

Advocacy of eugenics

Although Galton made contributions to many fields of knowledge, eugenics remained his fundamental interest, and he devoted the latter part of his life chiefly to propagating the idea of improving the physical and mental makeup of the human species by selective parenthood. Galton was among the first to recognize the implications for humankind of the theory of evolution developed by Darwin. He saw that it invalidated much of contemporary theology and that it also opened possibilities for planned human betterment. Galton coined the word eugenics to denote scientific endeavours to increase the proportion of persons with better than average genetic endowment through selective mating of marriage partners. In his Hereditary Genius (1869), in which he used the word genius to denote “an ability that was exceptionally high and at the same time inborn,” his main argument was that mental and physical features are equally inherited—a proposition that was not accepted at the time. It is surprising that when Darwin first read this book, he wrote to the author: “You have made a convert of an opponent in one sense for I have always maintained that, excepting fools, men did not differ much in intellect, only in zeal and hard work.” This book doubtless helped Darwin to extend his evolution theory to humankind. Galton, unmentioned in Origin of Species (1859), is several times quoted in Darwin’s Descent of Man (1871). Galton’s conviction that mental traits are no less inherited than are physical characteristics was strong enough to shape his personal religious philosophy. “We cannot doubt,” he wrote, “the existence of a great power ready to hand and capable of being directed with vast benefit as soon as we have learned to understand and apply it.”

Galton’s Inquiries into Human Faculty (1883) 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 can in a sense be regarded as a summary of the author’s views on the faculties of humankind. 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.

Explore Britannica Premium!

The trusted destination for professionals, college students, and lifelong learners.

SUBSCRIBE

Reputation

In the 20th century Galton’s name became associated with eugenics. Insofar as eugenics takes primary account of inborn differences between humans, it came under the suspicion of those who hold that cultural (social and educational) factors heavily outweigh inborn, or biological, factors in their contribution to human differences. Eugenics is accordingly often treated as an expression of class prejudice and Galton as a reactionary. Yet to some extent this view may misrepresent his thought, for his aim was not the creation of an aristocratic elite but of a population consisting of genetically superior men and women. His ideas, like those of Darwin, were limited by a lack of an adequate theory of inheritance; the rediscovery of the work of Mendel came too late to affect Galton’s contribution in any significant way.