Francis Galton

Francis Galton (1822-1911), British scientist, best known for his work in anthropology and heredity and considered the founder of the science of eugenics.

Galton was born near Birmingham and educated at King's College, University of London, and Trinity College, University of Cambridge. He travelled in Africa in 1844 and 1850 and subsequently wrote Narrative of an Explorer in Tropical South Africa (1853) and Art of Travel (1855). His study of meteorology led him to write Meteorographica (1863), the first book on modern methods of mapping weather.

Galton, a cousin of Charles Darwin, became interested in heredity and the measurement of human beings; he collected statistics on height, dimensions, strength, and other characteristics of large numbers of people. He devoted special attention to fingerprints and devised a method of identification by fingerprinting. He also demonstrated fundamental techniques in statistical measurement, notably in the calculation of the correlation between pairs of attributes. Galton was knighted in 1909. Among his other works are Hereditary Genius (1869), Inquiries into Human Faculty (1883), Natural Inheritance (1889), and Finger Prints (1892).