Hereditary Stature [Extracts from Presidential Address] pp. 295-8 WITH Hereditary Stature [Letter to the Editor], p.317 in Nature 33, 1886

London: Macmillan, 1886. 1st Edition. FULL VOLUME FIRST EDITION WITH TWO WORKS BY FRANCIS GALTON.

Sir Francis Galton F.R.S. (1822-1911) was a Victorian polymath: geographer, meteorologist, tropical explorer, founder of differential psychology, inventor of fingerprint identification, pioneer of statistical correlation and regression, convinced hereditarian, eugenicist, proto-geneticist, half-cousin of Charles Darwin and best-selling author.

"To study humans, Galton founded the Anthropometric Laboratory in 1884. Data was accumulated through the physical measurement of hundreds of individuals, and results published in Natural Inheritance indicated physical characteristics indeed fit the normal law. Galton however, was not merely interested in physical characteristics, as he claimed that intelligence is inherited.

"To demonstrate this, he needed a method to show the intelligence of one generation was "co-related" to that of the previous generation, so that he might argue for the causal relationship: children acquired intelligence from their parents. Fortunately, Galton understood that the scientific value of such a method required it be developed apart from the study of human mental characteristics, which were difficult to quantify in numerical measurements. He developed the ideas of correlation and regression in the study of sweet peas and human physical characteristics" (Brutlag, The Development of Correlation and Association in Statistics). CONDITION: 4to. Ex-libris with the usual markings. Half-calf. 5 raised bands at the spine. Marbled endpapers. Clean and bright throughout.